This Date in Planelopnik History: Speed Round

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 04/10/2015 at 11:05 • Filed to: planelopnik, planelopnik history

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Here is today's Planelopnik History Speed Round , getting you caught up on milestones and important historical events in aviation from the past few days.

April 7, 2006 – The first free-flight drop test of the Boeing X-37. Also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), the X-37 is an unmanned, reusable spacecraft that is a 120% scale derivative of the Boeing X-40. Boosted into orbit by a launch vehicle, then returning to Earth as a spaceplane, the X-37 has completed 4 orbital missions for the Air Force, details of which remain classified.

April 7, 1967 – The first flight of the Aérospatiale Gazelle. Designed for light transport, scouting and light attack duties, the Gazelle was the first helicopter to employ the fenestron enclosed tail rotor configuration, which reduces tip vortex loss, protects the tail rotor, and also protects ground crews from the spinning rotor. More than 1700 Gazelles have been produced, and it remains in service today.

April 8, 1943 – The first flight of the Douglas BTD Destroyer. The Destroyer was designed in response to a 1941 US Navy request for a single aircraft to replace both the Douglas SBD Dauntless and the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver. Designed by noted Douglas engineer Ed Heinemann, the Destroyer featured a laminar flow wing and, in a first for a carrier aircraft, a tricycle landing gear. Only 28 were delivered before the war ended and production was canceled.

April 9, 1994 – The roll out of the Boeing 777. The "Triple Seven" is the world's largest twinjet, transporting as many as 451 passengers up to 9,380 miles. The first flight of the 777 took place on June 12, 1994, and it entered service with United Airlines on June 7, 1995. With 60 customers placing orders for over 1800 aircraft as of December 2014, the 777 has received more orders than any other wide-body airliner, making it one of Boeing's best-selling aircraft. (Photo: Boeing via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

April 9, 1967 – The first flight of the Boeing 737. The 737 is a smaller, narrow-body derivative of the 707 and 727, containing elements of both designs, and its three-abreast seating allowed it to carry more passengers than its direct competitor, the Douglas DC-9. The first 737 entered service with Lufthansa in 1968. Since then, the 737 has been produced continuously, and is the first commercial airliner to surpass 10,000 orders. Boeing turned out forty-two 737s a month at their Renton, Washington factory last year, and by 2018 Boeing plans to increase production to fifty-two per month, adding even more aircraft to what is already the best-selling commercial airliner in history.

April 9, 1958 – The Handley Page Victor enters service with the RAF. The Victor was conceived as a nuclear strategic bomber, the third and final of the "V Bombers" flown by the RAF (the Avro Vulcan and Vickers Valiant being the others). Fatigue cracks in the fuselage led to the end of the Victor's nuclear attack role in 1968. The Victor then took on the role of reconnaissance and refueling, seeing action in the Falklands War in 1982. It was retired in 1993.

April 9, 1899 – The birth of James Smith McDonnell, an aviation pioneer and founder of McDonnell Aircraft Corporation. McDonnell Aviation started in 1939 as a major aircraft parts producer during WWII. They also produced the unsuccessful XP-67 Bat prototype, which first flew in 1944. After the war, McDonnell Aircraft saw great success with the development of jet fighters such as the FH-1 Phantom, the F2H Banshee, the F3H Demon, the F-101 Voodoo, and the legendary F-4 Phantom II. In 1967, McDonnell Aircraft merged with Douglas Aircraft to become McDonnell Douglas. The new company produced some of the most successful military and civilian aircraft in history, including the F-15 Eagle, the AV-8B Harrier, the F/A-18 Hornet, the DC-8, the DC-9 and its derivatives, and the DC-10, plus numerous helicopters, missiles and space vehicles. James McDonnell died in 1980, and McDonnell Douglas merged with Boeing in 1997.

April 10, 1963 – The first flight of the EWR VJ 101, the world's first supersonic V/STOL aircraft. Originally intended as a replacement for the F-104G Starfighter, the five-year test program saw the completion of two aircraft, the X-1 and the X-2. The X-1 performed the first successful hover in April 1963, then the first transition to horizontal flight in September 1963. In all, a total of 40 aerodynamic flights, 24 hover flights and 14 full transitions were performed. On July 29, 1964, the X-1 reached Mach 1.04 without using an afterburner. The X-2 was fitted with afterburning engines, and while the program showed promise, it was canceled in 1968.

EL_ULY > ttyymmnn 04/10/2015 at 11:09

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Every day this week at rush hour, there have been plane demos flying around the 610 loop here. Either old planes or a variant in formation. Best so far was a old bomber, some type of modern fighter jet, and a ww2 fighter plane all in formation going round and round the city

ttyymmnn > EL_ULY 04/10/2015 at 11:23

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I saw a couple of old trainers flying in Austin the other day. No air shows in TX this weekend. I wonder if it has anything to do with Jade Helm .

MrPseudonym > ttyymmnn 04/10/2015 at 11:42

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Dear god that front-end-view...

MrPseudonym > EL_ULY 04/10/2015 at 11:45

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One time last year, I swear I saw one of the VH-60 helicopters, if not Marine One fly over my neighborhood...

ttyymmnn > MrPseudonym 04/10/2015 at 11:54

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Isn't that wild? Looks like some sort of alien insect. Crazy.

EL_ULY > MrPseudonym 04/10/2015 at 11:58

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Niiiiice!

MrPseudonym > ttyymmnn 04/10/2015 at 12:00

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Reminds me of a C-17.

And that reminds me of mmmmm.... C-17.

But those intakes! And the tailplane!

Ah, the V bombers. Gone before they really did much, eh?

ttyymmnn > MrPseudonym 04/10/2015 at 12:08

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Well, considering that they were nuclear bombers, let's be glad they didn't have much to do. Also, technology of that era was moving so fast that many planes, with the exception of the B-52, were made obsolete in pretty short order. The B-52 may have a 100 year service life.

Gonemad > MrPseudonym 04/10/2015 at 12:28

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Yeah, I noticed it was familiar for some reason...