This Date in Aviation History: November 7 - November 10

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 11/10/2015 at 12:35 • Filed to: planelopnik, planelopnik history

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Welcome to This Date in Aviation History , getting you caught up on milestones and important historical events in aviation from November 7 through November 10.

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November 9, 1946 – The first flight of the Lockheed R6V Constitution. Throughout aviation history, there have been numerous !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Most were just very large aircraft with two decks, but some were so-called “double bubble” aircraft. Since a pressurized aircraft is essentially an aluminum tube, a double bubble aircraft stacks one tube atop the other to make more cabin or cargo space. While some, like the Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter, were created by adding a second tube to an existing airframe, the Constitution was designed from the beginning as a double-bubble double-decker. Development of the R6V began in 1942 with a joint study by the US Navy, Pan Am and Lockheed to develop a large transport aircraft to supplement the Navy’s aging fleet of flying boats. Pan Am signed on in the hopes that any aircraft coming out of the partnership might also have commercial applications. Design specifications stated that the fully pressurized aircraft would be capable of carrying 17,500 pounds of payload at an altitude of 25,000 feet for 5,000 miles. And when the Constitution was finished, it was big. Though the mammoth !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! flying boat had a greater wingspan by 11 feet, the Constitution would be the largest fixed wing aircraft ever flown by the US Navy. Only two Constitutions were ever built, and on February 3, 1949, Ship No. 2 flew 74 members of the press from Moffett Field in California to Washington National Airport, setting a record for the most passengers transported on a nonstop transcontinental flight. Ultimately, the Constitution proved to be too underpowered for its size, and the Navy lost interest in the project. Both aircraft were sold for a fraction of what it cost to produce them, and the first prototype ended up as a giant billboard in Las Vegas before being scrapped by Howard Hughes. The second ended up in Florida, where developers planned to make a theme park around it. When those plans fell through, the plane was finally scrapped in 1978. (Photo by W.T Larkins via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

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November 9, 1944 – The first flight of the Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter. One of the greatest airplanes to come out of WWII was the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . And a testament to that remarkable airplane is not only that its descendants continued serving long after the war was over, but that they did so in so many different guises. After its initial use as a long-range bomber, the B-29 was pressed into service as the KB-29 aerial tanker and then developed into the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the last piston-engined bomber produced for the Air Force. But a more radical descendant of the venerable B-29 would serve for more than 30 years after WWII. The B-29 was designed with one purpose: to carry a large load of bombs. But what the Air Force really needed was an aircraft that could carry tons of cargo and passengers. So starting with the proven B-50 Superfortress, Boeing maintained the engines, wings and tail, and half the fuselage, but then added a second, larger tube on top, giving the C-97 a double-bubble structure that significantly increased its cargo carrying capabilities. Production models of the Stratofreighter were powered by 3,500 hp Pratt & Whitney Wasp Major engines, the same as those used on the B-50, and after the tenth production model, the vertical stabilizer was made taller to compensate for the larger fuselage. Clamshell doors opened under the tail for loading, and a ramp allowed vehicles or other equipment to be driven into the cargo hold. However, these doors could not be opened in flight, so the C-97 was not capable of performing parachute drops of troops. And like its KB-29 predecessor, the C-97 was developed into the KB-97 aerial tanker. One C-97 did take part in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , but a landing accident grounded it until after the crisis ended. The Stratofreighter went on to serve in the Korean War, and also as an early airborne command post for the Strategic Air Command. And, in a further testament to Boeing’s flexible design, the C-97 was further developed into the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a double-decker, pressurized airliner that could carry up to 114 passengers on its two decks. But even that wasn’t the end of the lineage that started with the B-29, as the 377 was also developed into the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! series of super-size cargo aircraft. A total of 888 C-97s were built, with the bulk of them, 811, serving in the aerial refueling role. After finishing its service with the National Guard, the C-97 was finally retired in 1978. (US Air Force photo)

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Short Take Off

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November 7, 1976 – The first flight of the Dassault Falcon 50, a super mid-size corporate jet featuring three engines and transoceanic range. The top engine is fitted in an S-duct configuration similar to the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . A development of the earlier !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! twinjet, the fuselage has been redesigned to take advantage of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and includes a more efficient wing. The 50 also serves in the maritime surveillance role as the Guardian 50. 352 aircraft were produced from 1976-2008, and the Falcon 50 has been developed into the more advanced 50EX. (Photo by André Inácio via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

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November 7, 1954 – Soviet MiG-15 fighters shoot down a USAF Boeing RB-29A Superfortress. While on a routine photo mapping mission over the northernmost Japanese island of Hokkaido, and near the disputed !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which Russia claimed as their own, a pair of Soviet !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! fighters made two attack runs on the American plane. Struck by cannon fire, the Superfortress caught fire and crashed on Hokkaido. All the crewmen parachuted into the sea, but one drowned. This was the eighth American reconnaissance aircraft to be shot down by the Russians. (US Air Force photo)

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November 9, 1967 – The launch of Apollo 4. The first launch after the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! disaster that killed three astronauts, Apollo 4 was also the first to launch using the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! launch vehicle, the tallest, heaviest and most powerful rocket ever used operationally. Launched from the Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39, specifically built for the huge Saturn V, the unmanned Apollo 4 was the first mission to test all elements of the multi-stage rocket. The mission lasted nine hours before splashing down into the Pacific Ocean. (NASA photo)

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November 10, 1982 – The first flight of the Mil Mi-28 , a dedicated ground attack helicopter developed by the Soviet Union to combat tanks and ground targets. Unlike its predecessor, the huge !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the Mi-28 (NATO reporting name Havoc) has no provisions for carrying troops. The Mi-28 lost out to the more advanced !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! as the main Russian attack helicopter, but development continued, and the Mi-28 now serves alongside the Ka-50. Featuring a chin-mounted 30 mm cannon and small wings for external store, the Mi-28 is comparable to the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Introduced in 2009, the Mi-28 remains in production. (Photo by Artem Katranzhi via Wikimedia Commons)

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November 10, 1970 – The launch of Lunokhod 1. After the failure of Lunokhod 0 to reach orbit, its successor, Lunokhod 1, landed on the Moon on November 17, 1970 and became the first remote-controlled rover to move across the surface of an astronomical object. The rover operated for ten months and traveled just over 6.5 miles on the lunar surface, returning high resolution photographs and soil analyses. In 2010, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! of the Moon’s surface provided by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! discovered the final resting place of the defunct rover. (Photo by Armael via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

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November 10, 1949 – The first flight of the Sikorsky H-19 Chickasaw, a multi-purpose helicopter and the first dedicated transport helicopter used by the US Army and Air Force. Developed privately by Sikorsky after WWII, it was also known by its civilian designation as the S-55, and was also built under license by Westland Aircraft in England where it was known as the Westland Whirlwind. A single Pratt & Whitney radial engine in the nose drove the main rotor by means of a driveshaft that passed under and then behind the cockpit. Over 1,700 Chickasaws were built, and they served extensively in Korea and the early years of the Vietnam War. (US Army photo)

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If you enjoy these Aviation History posts, please let me know in the comments. And if you missed any of the past articles, you can find them all at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ttyymmnn 11/10/2015 at 12:41

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< offers secret double-bubble handshake >

ttyymmnn > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 11/10/2015 at 12:45

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McMike > ttyymmnn 11/10/2015 at 12:54

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Love these.

ttyymmnn > McMike 11/10/2015 at 12:55

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Thank you. I’m having a blast writing them. Thanks for reading.

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > ttyymmnn 11/10/2015 at 13:00

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What came first, this or the Stratocruiser/liner (I always mix those 2 up—one was based on the B17, but I can never remember which it was.)?

ttyymmnn > Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer 11/10/2015 at 13:11

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Not the B-17. They all have their roots in the B-29. B-29 -> B-50 -> C-97 -> B377 -> Aero Spacelines Guppy

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > ttyymmnn 11/10/2015 at 13:16

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Found it. It's the Stratoliner (Boeing Model 307) that's based on the B-17. Iirc the Stratocruiser was produced because of the airlines reluctance to buy an airliner that was designed before the war.

ttyymmnn > Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer 11/10/2015 at 13:27

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Well, pretty much anything that had been produced before the war was obsolete—or close to it—by the time it was over. And if not obsolete, then certainly too small for the burgeoning airline industry. Unless I’m forgetting something, there wasn’t anything before, or even during, the war that could seat as many passengers as the 377 (up to 114).

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > ttyymmnn 11/10/2015 at 13:35

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No, you're right on both counts. But that didn't stop Boeing trying to sell the 307—maybe they figured people would like the idea of travelling on what was basically a converted "legendary" bomber. Maybe they still thought of it as modern, as it was the first airliner with a pressurized cabin, and because airliner development had been interrupted by the war. In any case, its failure was one of the reasons for the 377 being adapted from the C-97.

Rock Bottom > ttyymmnn 11/10/2015 at 16:14

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The C-46 was also designed from the ground-up as a twin-lobe machine. One of my favorite flying machines!

facw > ttyymmnn 11/11/2015 at 00:52

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Mayne obsolete, but so pretty:

ttyymmnn > facw 11/11/2015 at 07:18

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Drop dead gorgeous.

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > ttyymmnn 11/11/2015 at 15:52

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It entertains me how many Soviet / Russian designs look like crudely enlarged versions of U.S. designs. The crude but functional aesthetic of Soviet military machinery has always intrigued me. The U.S. stuff definitely has the form follows function styling, but it is somehow always a little more polished and refined.

ttyymmnn > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much 11/11/2015 at 16:05

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Relentlessly functional. The Russians, as you say, have a history of copying (or at least mimicking) American designs, but they always alter them to fit their own needs, usually by making them significantly more rugged. Of course, there’s also the story about how the Russians reverse engineered a captured B-29 Superfortress, designating it the Tupolev Tu-4 , and copying it all the way down to the “Boeing” on the rudder pedals. I guess if Stalin says, “Copy it,” you bloody well copy it. They built over 800 of them, and three still exist.