This Date in Aviation History: Speed Round

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 07/17/2015 at 13:35 • Filed to: planelopnik, planelopnik history

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This is today’s Aviation History Speed Round , getting you caught up on milestones and important historical events in aviation from July 15 through July 17.

July 15, 1954 – The first flight of the Boeing 367-80. As the world entered the Jet Age following WWII, the British de Havilland Comet became the world’s first jet-powered airliner when it entered service in 1952. Boeing designers thought they could build their own jet airliner, drawing on experiences learned from the production of the swept-wing B-47 Stratojet. The airlines, however, were hesitant to jump into jets, since the propeller powered aircraft were doing just fine, and they were proven. So Boeing took a gamble and started developing what they called the 367-80, or simply Dash 80, hoping to sell the new aircraft to the airlines, as well as the US Air Force, who was looking for a jet-powered aerial refueling plane. Working in their Renton, WA factory, Boeing took the Dash 80 from concept to prototype in only 2 years, and the new airliner rolled out on May 15, 1954. The new aircraft proved maneuverable and robust, and ultimately quite successful. Only one Dash 80 was ever built, and the aircraft was subsequently developed into the KC-135 tanker for the Air Force, which is narrower and shorter than the 707 airliner and entered service a year before its passenger counterpart. After production began, the Dash 80 was used as a testing platform to test elements of the upcoming 727 tri-jet. After retirement, Boeing donated the Dash 80 to the Smithsonian Institution in 1972, and it sat at the aircraft bone yard at Davis Monthan AFB in Arizona for 18 years, before being restored by Boeing in 1990 and ultimately flown to the new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles International Airport in 2003.

July 16, 1969 – The launch of Apollo 11, the first manned mission to land on the surface of the moon. The Apollo Program, designed to put a man on the Moon, was the third manned space program carried out by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Apollo was initiated in the Eisenhower administration, and was a successor to the one-man Mercury program and the two-man Gemini program. Apollo 11 was the fifth manned mission of the program, with the four previous missions used to test systems for the voyage, and Apollo 10 came within 50,000 feet of the lunar surface. The Apollo vehicle consisted of a three-stage Saturn V launch rocket that carried the Command Module and Lunar Lander. Once in orbit around the Moon, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the Moon’s surface, while astronaut Michael Collins remained in the Command Module. Armstrong and Aldrin touched down on July 20, and spent about 2-and-a-half hours exploring the area around the Lander and collecting about 48 pounds of rocks and other lunar material. After about 22 hours on the Moon’s surface, Armstrong and Aldrin returned to the Command Module and the three astronauts returned to Earth, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24. There would be six more Apollo missions to the Moon, including the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission which did not land on the Moon. The program ended after Apollo 17 in 1972.

July 17, 2014 – Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 is shot down over Ukraine. To say that 2014 was a bad year for Malaysia Airlines might be somewhat of an understatement. The year got off to a terrible start when Malaysian flight 317 (MH317), a Boeing 777, disappeared after taking off from Kuala Lumpur airport and was never seen again. All 239 passengers and crew are presumed dead. That unexplained tragedy was followed by another on July 17 when Malaysia flight 17 (MH17), another B777, was allegedly shot down by an anti-aircraft missile over eastern Ukraine with the loss of 298 passengers and crew, nearly 200 of which were Dutch citizens. MH17 departed from Amsterdam’s Schipol airport on its way Kuala Lumpur, and its route took it directly over eastern Ukraine at an altitude of 33,000 feet. The airliner had departed slightly from its intended course, and when controllers called to tell them to adjust their route there was no answer. No distress calls were ever made. With so many Dutch victims, the Dutch government took over the investigation into the disaster, and their report will not be officially released until October 2015. There remains much argument and acrimony over who is responsible. The Ukrainian government blames Russian-backed separatists, while the separatists blame the Ukranian government. Both sides in the ongoing conflict have the weapons necessary to bring down an aircraft at that altitude, and the Russians are also suggesting that Ukrainian fighters could also be responsible. The mystery of how the plane was brought to earth may one day be solved, but it may be impossible to discover who is responsible.

July 17, 1997 – TWA Flight 800 explodes over the ocean off East Moriches, New York. On July 17, 1997, TWA Flight 800 took off from New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport on a regularly scheduled flight to Leonardo da Vinci International Airport in Rome, with a planned stopover in Paris. Just twelve minutes after takeoff, the Boeing 747-100 exploded in a fireball and crashed into the ocean with the loss 230 passengers and crew. At first, it was not clear what may have caused the explosion. No distress call was ever made from the flight, and cockpit conversations appeared to be normal, except that just before the explosion the captain remarked about a “crazy fuel flow indicator.” A noise thought to be an explosion followed soon afterward. Investigators from the National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB) and the FBI considered the possibilities of structural failure and decompression, a missile of some sort, a bomb inside the aircraft, or an explosion of a fuel/air mixture inside the center fuel tank in the wing. In one of the most exhaustive investigations ever carried out, as much debris as could be found was brought to the surface and reconstructed in a hangar in Calverton, NY. The entire investigation took four years to complete, and the final NTSB report pointed to the likely cause being a detonation of a fuel/air mixture in the center fuel tank that was ignited by an undetermined short circuit. Despite this explanation, conspiracy theories abound to this day, and one of the most prevalent is that the airliner was shot down by missiles, either from the US Navy or terrorists in a boat or on shore. However, any evidence for these theories remains circumstantial.

July 17, 1989 – The first flight of the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit. In the 1970s, the US Air Force started looking for a new strategic bomber to replace the venerable Boeing B-52 Stratofortress. The XB-70 Valkyrie had already been canceled, and President Carter canceled the B-1 Lancer in 1977, leaving the B-52 to soldier on. About this time, though, new stealth technologies were being developed that would make aircraft practically invisible to radar, developments that would lead to the Have Blue program and eventually the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk, which first flew in 1981. In 1979, the Air Force began the Advanced Technology Bomber Program (ATB), and competing stealthy designs were proposed by a team of designers from Northrop/Boeing and a team from Lockheed Rockwell. Both proposals were for a flying wing design, and Northrop, who already had experience with flying wings in the YB-35 and YB-49 aircraft, were given the nod. By 1989, it is estimated that the US spent $23 billion developing the new bomber, one that could be armed with both conventional and nuclear weapons. Despite its original mission as a bomber that could penetrate into the Soviet Union, hidden from radar while delivering a nuclear weapon, the B-2 saw its first action in 1999 during the war in Kosovo, becoming the first US warplane to deploy the JDAM satellite-guided bomb. B-2s saw additional action in Iraq and Afghanistan, and during Operation Enduring Freedom a B-2 flew from Whiteman AFB in Missouri to Afghanistan and back, with aerial refueling. A total of twenty-one Spirits have been built since they entered service in 1997 (one was lost to a crash in 2008), and the Air Force expects them to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , only eighteen years longer than the B-52s they were meant to replace.

Short Take Off

July 15, 1975 – The launch of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. The joining in space of the American Apollo spacecraft and the Russian Soyuz spacecraft was meant as a symbol of détente and and an end to the space race. It was the last manned American space mission until the Space Shuttle launched in 1981.

July 15, 1970 – The Tupolev Tu-144 super sonic transport exceeds Mach 2 in level flight , becoming the first commercial aircraft to do so.

July 15, 1952 – The first transatlantic crossing of the Atlantic by helicopter , when two Sikorsky H-19 Chickasaws flew from Westover, Massachusetts to Prestwick, Scotland, with five stops along the way, completing the trip in six days with a total flying time of 42 hours and 25 minutes.

July 16, 1965 – The first flight of the North American Rockwell OV-10 Bronco , a lightweight, STOL aircraft developed for the US Army, Air Force and Marine Corps for observation, forward air control, helicopter escort, armed reconnaissance, gunfire spotting, utility and limited ground attack.

July 16, 1948 – The first flight of the Vickers Viscount , a medium range airliner and the first airliner in the world to employ turboprop engines. It became one of the most popular and successful post-war transport and cargo aircraft.

July 17, 1939 – The first flight of the Bristol Beaufighter . A development of the Bristol Beaufort, the Beaufighter was conceived as a heavy night fighter, but served mostly as a maritime and ground attack aircraft.

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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!!! .

All photos are Public Domain or taken by the author unless otherwise credited.

whoarder is tellurium > ttyymmnn 07/17/2015 at 13:42

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Obligatory

RallyWrench > ttyymmnn 07/17/2015 at 14:28

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Educational as always, thanks.

Hahayoustupidludditeshutupandgohandcrankyourmodeltalready > ttyymmnn 07/17/2015 at 14:28

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These are great.

sunnydaysam > ttyymmnn 07/18/2015 at 09:31

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Thanks ttyymmnn - great stuff as usual. Love the shot of the OV-10

ttyymmnn > sunnydaysam 07/18/2015 at 09:33

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Thanks. The OV-10 is one of my faves.

Racescort666 > ttyymmnn 07/18/2015 at 11:37

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RE: TWA800, I wasn’t involved with the investigation but a strong supporter of it being a short in the fuel tank causing an explosion is that the FAA requires everything electrical in the fuel tank to now have ground fault interrupt.