This Date in Aviation History: March 2 - March 4

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 03/04/2016 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, important historical events and people in aviation from March 2 through March 4.

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March 2, 1969 – The first flight of the Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde. When the first aircraft flew past the speed of sound in 1947, supersonic flight was the realm of the military. But it didn’t take long for commercial aircraft designers to start considering the benefits of supersonic transport, an effort that would culminate in the Concorde a little more than 20 years later. The Concorde traces its origins back to the early 1950s, when the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! formed a committee to study the concept of supersonic transport. After much research on various design possibilities, the designers settled on an !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! planform for the wing, with a slender fuselage meant to reduce drag. By the late 1950s, France was also investigating a supersonic airliner, so the two countries decided to pool their resources and work together. That end, a treaty was signed in 1962 to begin working on the new airliner, which would be named Concorde in honor of the international agreement. Construction of two prototypes began in 1965, one in France (001) and the other in England (002). The French airplane flew first, followed by the English Concorde on April 9, 1969. Ultimately, 20 Concordes were built, six of which were prototypes and used for development and testing. Of the remaining fourteen, Air France and British Airways each received seven following its introduction in 1976. Concorde flew regular routes from London’s Heathrow and Paris’ Charles de Gaulle to New York’s JFK Airport, Washington Dulles and Barbados. Its four !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! afterburning turbojets provided a maximum cruising speed of Mach 2.04, and cut the flying time between these transatlantic destinations in half when compared to traditional airliners, with flights averaging about 3 hours 30 minutes. Concorde set a number of records, including the fastest eastward transatlantic flight on a trip from JFK to Heathrow on February 7, 1996, completing the trip in just 2 hours, 52 minutes, 59 seconds. Concorde also set records for circumnavigation of the globe in both directions, though with numerous refueling stops along the way. The only loss of a Concorde occurred on July 25, 2000 when !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (F-BTSC) crashed shortly after takeoff from Charles de Gaulle airport after debris on the runway punctured a tire, which then caused a rupture in the fuel tank and ignited a catastrophic fire and engine failures. The airliner crashed into a hotel, killing all 100 passengers, 9 crew, and 4 persons on the ground. Concorde was never a money-maker for the airlines. Citing low passenger numbers following the 2000 crash, a drop in air travel after the 9/11 terrorism attacks, and rising maintenance costs, Air France and British Airways made the decision to retire Concorde in 2003. Of the fourteen operational aircraft, 12 are on display at sites in Europe, the US, and Barbados. Of the remaining two, one aircraft was lost in a crash, and the other was used for spare parts and scrapped in 1994. (Photo by Alexander Jonsson via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

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March 4, 1954 – The first flight of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter. During the decade of the 1950s, fighter aircraft were gaining in speed, but they were also gaining in weight and complexity. And with all that size, pilots were still vulnerable to more nimble Soviet fighters, as displayed in the skies over Korea. The primary fighter of that period, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , was capable of only Mach 0.8, or brief supersonic flight in a dive. Lockheed, led by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , wanted to change that. He traveled to Korea in 1951 and interviewed US pilots, asking them what they wanted to see in a new fighter. Most said they wanted something smaller, faster, and more maneuverable. So Johnson, never one to do things in minor measures, envisioned a very small fighter, one built tightly around a single powerful engine, and one that could race at Mach 2 in level flight. Based on captured German data following WWII on the benefits of a swept or delta wing, all subsequent American high speed designs employed that shape. However, delta wings work well around Mach 1, but tend to become “draggier” as they approach Mach 2. So contrary to current design practice, Johnson would give his new fighter short, extremely thin trapezoidal wings. The wings were canted downward slightly to help counteract potentially deadly !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and high-pressure air was blown over the flaps on landing to help decrease landing speeds. Early models were given a downward-firing ejection seat over concerns that pilots would not clear the T-tail. This questionable arrangement was changed to a standard ejection seat in subsequent models. Initially, Lockheed had planned to use the new !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! engine in the first Starfighters, but that engine was not ready for prototype testing, so a less powerful !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! was fitted instead and, with its maiden flight, the Starfighter had moved from contract to first flight in less than one year. However, development of the new fighter proved difficult, and it was four years before the first Starfighters entered service with the USAF. Then, just three months later, the F-104 was grounded because of engine problems and a series of accidents. After just one year of frontline Air Force service, the Starfighter was passed to units of the Air National Guard. Though it served two tours of Vietnam, F-104 pilots claimed no enemy kills while losing 14 of their own aircraft in the process. By this time, the Air Force had lost interest in the Starfighter, and that could have been the end of the road for Johnson’s innovative little fighter. But in 1959, a group of allied countries, led by Germany, decided to procure the F-104 as a multi-mission attack fighter to replace older jet aircraft in service, though accusations of bribery on the part of Lockheed dogged the decision. The F-104G (G for Germany) was built under license by Canadair by a group of European companies. Dubbed the Super Starfighter, it had a strengthened fuselage and wing, increased fuel capacity, enlarged fin and redesigned flaps for combat maneuvering. And, unlike the original F-104 which sacrificed a fire control radar to save space and weight, the F-104G was fitted with a radar as well as an inertial navigation system, the first on any production fighter. Thus, the F-104G made up the bulk of all Starfighters produced, with 1,122 out of a total of 2,578 built by the European consortium. Though the US Air Force was done with the Starfighter by 1969, but it would serve in Europe for another ten years, with the final aircraft, the Aeritalia F-104S, serving until 2004. (US Air Force photo)

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March 4, 1936 – The first flight of the Hindenburg (LZ 129). The first Zeppelin, a rigid airship named after its creator, German !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , entered commercial service in 1910. By 1926, after the restrictions of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! against German production of Zeppelins was repealed, airships became the world’s first airliners, and transatlantic flights became commonplace. The Hindenburg , German dirigible LZ-129 ( Luftschiff Zeppelin #129, registration D-LZ129) was the lead ship of the Hindenburg class and the largest aircraft ever built. Designed and built by the Zeppelin Company (Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH) and named after the late !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the President of Germany from 1925-1934, Hindenburg was constructed of a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! frame and fitted with 16 cotton gas bags. The outer skin of the dirigible was made of cotton and covered with a reflective coating that was meant to protect the gas bags from ultraviolet and infrared radiation. Hindenburg was originally built to be filled with helium, but at that time, helium was rare and came at an exorbitant cost. Even though the designers knew they would have trouble obtaining helium from the US, where it was a byproduct of natural gas mining, they went ahead with their plans to use it. However, the US refused to lift the export ban on helium, and Hindenburg’s designers made the fateful decision to switch to flammable hydrogen. Hindenburg’s final flight took place on May 6-7, 1937, a transatlantic crossing from Frankfurt to Lakehurst, New Jersey. It’s arrival was initially delayed by a line of thunderstorms, but Hindenburg was finally cleared to land at about 7:00 pm. At 7:21 pm, shortly after dropping mooring lines to the ground crew, Hindenburg suddenly burst into flames and crashed. Within thirty seconds, the Zeppelin had been reduced to a smoldering wreck of twisted, charred metal. Thirteen of the thirty-six passengers died, 22 of the crew of 61 perished, and 1 man on the ground was killed. The cause of the crash has been the topic of much conjecture, and no exact cause has ever been determined. Some suspect sabotage, others suggest atmospheric conditions. One of the more plausible theories is that hydrogen gas leaking from one of the cells was ignited by static electricity. After the crash, the duralumin hulk was returned to Germany and recycled for use in the construction of Luftwaffe aircraft. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (LZ 130) , Hindenburg’s sister ship and the last great Zeppelin built by Germany, was scrapped in 1940, and its duralumin frame was melted down for the construction of warplanes. (Photo author unknown)

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Short Take Off

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March 2, 1955 – The first flight of the Dassault Super Mystère, a French-built fighter-bomber and the first Western European supersonic aircraft to enter mass production. The Super Mystère is the ultimate evolution of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which had in turn been developed into the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The Super Mystère was the first in the series to achieve supersonic speeds in level flight. Following its introduction in 1957, the Super Mystère served with the French Armée de l’Air until 1977. It was also exported to Honduras and Israel, where it saw action in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . A total of 180 aircraft were built. (Photo author unknown)

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March 3, 2005 – Steve Fossett completes the first nonstop solo circumnavigation of the Earth. Millionaire adventurer Fossett took off from Salina, Kansas on February 28, 2005 in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , an aircraft designed by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and built by Rutan’s company !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! with an airframe made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic and powered by a single !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turbofan engine. After taking off, Fossett flew eastward from Kansas, and slightly more than 67 hours later he returned to Salina, managing an average speed of 342.2 mph and claiming the absolute record for “speed around the world, nonstop and non-refueled.” The following year, Fossett would set the world’s record for the greatest distance ever traveled in an aircraft, 25,766 miles. (NASA photo)

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March 3, 1969 – The US Navy establishes the Fighter Weapons School at NAS Miramar, popularly known as Topgun or TOPGUN. In 1968, the US Navy published the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a review of Navy air-to-air missile system capabilities in the period from 1965-1968 when US pilots suffered a high loss rate during the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! campaign. Rather than place the blame for American aircraft losses entirely on missiles or missile systems, the Ault report recommended that an Advanced Fighter Weapons School be created to re-educate pilots in the skills of air combat maneuvering (ACM), or dogfighting, skills that had become rusty when the US started to rely solely on guided missiles. Select Naval Aviators and flight officers are selected to train at Topgun, then return to their operating units to share what they learned. In 1996, Topgun was merged into the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! at NAS Fallon in Nevada. (US Navy photo)

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March 4, 1993 – The first flight of the Dassault Falcon 2000, a business jet made by the French company Dassault and a smaller development of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Where the 900 is a trijet, the 2000 has only two engines, yet it is still capable of intercontinental range. Continued development of the 2000 has brought extended range, short runway capability and increased fuel efficiency. Dassault has also proposed a maritime reconnaissance version, and it is currently operated by the militaries of France, Bulgaria, Slovenia and the Republic of Korea. Powered by 2 !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turbofans, the 2000 is capable of speeds of Mach 0.85 with a range of up to 6,000 nautical miles. (Photo by the author)

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Recent Aviation History Posts

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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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MonkeePuzzle > ttyymmnn 03/04/2016 at 12:41

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I wish someday to ride in the cockpit of a fighter jet. However, as I’ve become an adult soemthing happened and now I get sick on roller coasters, so that’s not gonna happen.

And I always wanted to ride on the Concorde. and that ain’t gonna happen either.

#DepressingPost

MonkeePuzzle > ttyymmnn 03/04/2016 at 12:44

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classic fighters with bubble cockpits, it’s my Roger Ramjet childhood dreams

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ttyymmnn 03/04/2016 at 12:45

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Tim, have you ever gotten a chance to see a Concorde up close? I’ll admit I had one and blew the chance to actually go inside and spend more time with it - but in my defense, that was at Brooklands and there were ‘30s racecars and 6WD Range Rovers calling my name. At any rate, it’s surprisingly *less* imposing in person, partly because it’s really not as big as it seems.

On the topic of the F104, one of my favorite details is that the wing edge was so sharp it caused crew injuries. If you haven’t seen The Starfighters, it’s worth viewing in at least MST3k form, because even with a dull story and refueling scenes that drag out too long, it has a lot of interesting footage. Should be up on Youtube, though I haven’t checked recently.

ttyymmnn > MonkeePuzzle 03/04/2016 at 12:46

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I’d give my left nut to go up in a fighter. I’ll never get the chance either, but it always bugs me when the Blue Angels or Thunderbirds come to town and they take some news reporter or celebrity up for a ride. The Blues once took Bob Stoops for a ride. Bob Stoops? Are you kidding me? The whole rationale for having these demo squadrons is that are a good recruiting tool. Okay, then, instead of some dipshit celebrity, take a high school kid up. Have an essay contest and pick a winner. Take an excellent ROTC kid up. Have a lottery. As much as I like airplanes and air shows, and like to see these guys fly, this is the one thing that has always really pissed me off.

Also, I heard that the jet jocks tell their first time passengers to eat bananas before the flight. Why? Because they taste the same coming up as they did going down.

MonkeePuzzle > ttyymmnn 03/04/2016 at 12:46

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“Millionaire adventurer”

now THAT is why you get rich people! ok that OR fight malaria like the Gates’. But adventurer would be an epic way to live

MonkeePuzzle > ttyymmnn 03/04/2016 at 12:48

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Rather than place the blame for American aircraft losses entirely on missiles or missile systems, the Ault report recommended that an Advanced Fighter Weapons School be created to re-educate pilots in the skills of air combat maneuvering (ACM), or dogfighting, skills that had become rusty when the US started to rely solely on guided missiles.

I love this! stop thinking inside the box people. think about the real issues, find the real problem and solve it. don’t just throw money at the problem with “better” weapons.

MonkeePuzzle > ttyymmnn 03/04/2016 at 12:49

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as usual. another fine read. thanks again for what is probably a mountain of work for an under-appreciated post on a backwater car blog

MonkeePuzzle > ttyymmnn 03/04/2016 at 12:51

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the pastor at my church was an F4 phantom pilot, he does flights over denver in his small Cessna like (or actually one, I dunno) to keep up his flight hours and to pray over the city. He takes up various church members. man, i would be there in a heartbeat if we could go pray over the city in an f4! :D

ttyymmnn > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 03/04/2016 at 12:52

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I have walked around the one at the Udvar-Hazy Center, and yes, it’s surprisingly small. The American one would have been significantly bigger.

No, I have not seen Starfighters , but I have taken a peek at the MST3K version. One of these days I’ll crack open a beer and give it a good watch. Some of those military propaganda movies from the 50s-60s (and let’s face it, that’s exactly what they were) are pretty hokey, but there’s some great aerial footage in them. Strategic Air Command , an utterly forgettable film starring Jimmy Stewart, has some absolutely breathtaking aerial footage of the Peacemaker.

ttyymmnn > MonkeePuzzle 03/04/2016 at 12:53

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Thanks for the kids words, and you’re welcome. Yes, it’s a ton of work, but it’s a labor of love. As long as I get the clothes washed and the kitchen cleaned my wife doesn’t ask me how much time I spend doing it. Thank god for Kinja future posts. The only way to keep up is by staying ahead.

AuthiCooper1300 > ttyymmnn 03/04/2016 at 12:54

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Hey, some anniversaries for this week!

Lovely effort. Keep’em coming!

Rock Bottom > ttyymmnn 03/04/2016 at 12:54

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Another great installment!

I do wish that the US would have been able to push forward an SST of our own. I have always been drawn to the Lockheed L-2000 program, mostly because it was such an underdog compared to the Boeing program.

And of course I will post pics from some of the wind tunnel testing campaigns! The first is in the NASA 40x80 wind tunnel and was a study for take-off/landing performance. The second is in the NASA 30x60 tunnel dynamic stability testing (with a pretty cool old-timey video to boot).

For Sweden > ttyymmnn 03/04/2016 at 12:55

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Has their ever been a bigger middle finger to aerodynamics and economics than the Concorde? They didn’t even try to apply the area rule!

ttyymmnn > MonkeePuzzle 03/04/2016 at 12:57

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What’s interesting is that the Air Force and Navy came away from this with entirely different lessons learned. Where they Navy returned the focus to pilot skills, the Air Force determined that since so many of their losses were caused by kills from behind that they needed better radars.

My esteemed trumpet teacher often quoted his own famous teacher: “I have never seen a man who was a bad trumpet player suddenly become a good one when given a good instrument. Likewise, I have never seen a good trumpet player suddenly become a bad one when given a poor instrument. It’s 90% the man.”

The Powershift in Steve's '12 Ford Focus killed it's TCM (under warranty!) > ttyymmnn 03/04/2016 at 12:57

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Great post as always!

Fun fact about the Dassault Falcon - the instrument panel is a structural member of the aircraft, rather than separate panels latched to the structure via cam-lock fasteners like most commercial and business aircraft.

ttyymmnn > The Powershift in Steve's '12 Ford Focus killed it's TCM (under warranty!) 03/04/2016 at 12:58

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Thanks! And thanks for the extra info. I learned something!

ttyymmnn > Rock Bottom 03/04/2016 at 13:00

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One of the things that doomed the American SST, aside from the economics, was Operation Bongo II. Check it out.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_…

ttyymmnn > AuthiCooper1300 03/04/2016 at 13:01

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Thank you!

MonkeePuzzle > ttyymmnn 03/04/2016 at 13:03

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as a classically trained flute player, I can say that my garbage ex-rental flute was perfectly suitable until I got good. but boooooooy did a quality flute change things after that.

Its worth backing your Top Gun trained pilots the good jets after they graduate.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ttyymmnn 03/04/2016 at 13:09

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Sometimes I think it’s a shame we’ve lost the subtle distinction in language between the word “propaganda” and “obvious brainwashing/implicitly untrue”. If no kind of boosterism is acceptable, then you still get the boosterism in unacceptable forms... Anyway, The Starfighters is a feeble kind of venture and was supported with defense contractor spare change and not agency... who then didn’t really bother to exert any control over the film. “Hi, we’d like to make a movie which is mostly footage of flight and is a boring General Hospital reject of a plot that has your plane in it somewhere.” “Okay, we can wangle you access and some stock footage.” *files tax writeoff, makes three phone calls*

Then when the movie comes out, dull melodrama which could be taken as actually popularizing the idea of the plane as unsafe. DURRR.

AuthiCooper1300 > MonkeePuzzle 03/04/2016 at 13:13

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You never know. Maybe some day. Even the Concorde may yet take up to the skies at some stage: inspired by Vulcan XH558, quite a few wonderful lunatics are raising funds to make one airworthy again.

If you like it so much you have to keep in touch with this world.

I did not get my driving license until I was much older than the norm. But I kept in touch with the car world, somehow. OK, I may not be an excellent driver –not as good as many people my age, say – but over time I bagged some amazing experiences just by being at the right place at the right time and saying the right things. I once interviewed a well-known F1 driver; I was taxied sideways around a racetrack for five laps by a former LeMans winner; and I got to see up close some amazing cars and meet even more amazing car people; and so on and so forth.

You just never know.

I remember when I had just enough pocket money to a buy a weekly car magazine and reading about the Alfa Romeo GTV6 – and feeling the chances of ever driving one seemed as remote as, say, winning the lottery. (Actually at the time even just learning to drive seemed as remote as winning the lottery).

I ended up buying one for my girlfriend’s birthday, a few years ago.

AuthiCooper1300 > MonkeePuzzle 03/04/2016 at 13:15

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Some pastor...

Rock Bottom > ttyymmnn 03/04/2016 at 13:16

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That’s wild! I can only imagine how pissed people were after months of that crap!

The Powershift in Steve's '12 Ford Focus killed it's TCM (under warranty!) > ttyymmnn 03/04/2016 at 13:24

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Glad I could contribute for once! My last job was for an avionics manufacturer that specialized in retrofitting modern electronics into older aircraft. They were looking into working on the Falcons and backed off when they learned that they needed a full structural engineering analysis when they so much as added another screw hole in the IP.

ttyymmnn > MonkeePuzzle 03/04/2016 at 13:29

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In a similar vein, I was taking pictures at Pedernales Falls State Park last weekend. I had two cameras, one with a big, imposing 200mm lens on it. A teenager with a very good P&S camera asked me about my rig, and she said that she wants a DSLR. It told her this well-known vignette:

A famous photographer went to a dinner party. When the hostess opened the door on his arrival, she said, “I’ve seen your pictures. They’re great! You must have a terrific camera.” After a delicious dinner, the photographer said to the hostess, “Dinner was fantastic. You must have a terrific stove.”

As I parted with the young girl, I told here that there are many, many great pictures yet to be taken with her camera.

MonkeePuzzle > ttyymmnn 03/04/2016 at 13:43

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lol at the stove!

the best camera is the one that is there at the right time. I bought a DSLR when the kids were born, the rapid fire is amazing to catch their high motion antics... but not much use when it’s never with me. All my best pictures have been on the phone :D

facw > ttyymmnn 03/04/2016 at 14:52

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Best Concorde livery:

facw > For Sweden 03/04/2016 at 15:03

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There’s some area rule type shaping going on on the bottom:

ttyymmnn > facw 03/04/2016 at 16:10

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Retro livery is best livery.

Settings > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 03/06/2016 at 10:42

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I think the closest I’ve been to one is the one that was at Heathrow (Not sure if it’s still there). I also saw the last 3 flights from my back garden landing into Heathrow.