This Date in Aviation History: April 8 - April 11

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 04/11/2017 at 12:35 • Filed to: Planelopnik, planelopnik history

11

24

Welcome to This Date in Aviation History , getting you caught up on milestones, important historical events and people in aviation from April 8 through April 11.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

April 9, 1967 – The first flight of the Boeing 737. At the start of the commercial jet era, the emphasis was on big airplanes. The four-engine !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! was the world’s first jet airliner, but when that aircraft began suffering from an alarming string of fatal crashes, Boeing was poised to step in with its own four-engine airliner, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . But there was a trend developing in the airline industry, one that called for smaller airliners to operate on shorter routes. Boeing followed the 707 with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! tri-jet, but airlines still wanted something smaller that would complement Boeing’s other offerings. Development of the 737 began in 1964 with plans to create an airliner that would accommodate 50-60 passengers. The German carrier Lufthansa signed on as the launch customer a year later, and requested that Boeing increase the seating capacity to 100 passengers. When United Airlines signed on to the project, they wanted an airliner with still more capacity. So the 737 was lengthened again, with the Lufthansa version becoming the 737-100 and the United version becoming the 737-200. But Boeing faced stiff competition from its competitors: the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . To speed the development process, Boeing based the fuselage of their new airliner largely on the 727, using 60% of the 727's fuselage shape, particularly the upper lobe. This gave the 737 the same cross section and allowed the use of the same cargo pallets as the earlier airliner. And bringing in the 727 fuselage also meant the adoption of 6-across seating in coach, which gave the 737 a distinct advantage over its rival Douglas, which featured 5-across seating in their DC-9. The relatively short fuselage, when mated to its swept wings, resulted in an aircraft that was just about as long as it was wide, and the 737 was dubbed the “square airplane.” Boeing also eliminated the flight engineer position, helping to set a new industry standard for only two crew members in the cockpit. The first 737 was constructed at Plant 2 in Seattle, the last new airliner to be produced in the building where the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! were built. Despite the building’s size, the tail of the first 737 couldn’t be attached inside, so the tail was fitted outdoors using a crane before the airliner was rolled to the production facility known as the Thompson Site. Though the 737 has since become the best selling airliner in history, its early days were less rosy. By 1970, Boeing had received orders for only 37 aircraft, and they were considering shutting down production and selling the 737 design to Japanese aircraft manufacturers. But with the cancellation of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! supersonic transport (along with the loss of 50,000 jobs), and reduction in the production of the 747, Boeing freed up enough money to continue development of the 737 into a wider range of variants, including the convertible 737C model with accommodations for palletized freight, and the 737QC (Quick Change) variant that featured palletized seating and allowed for a rapid switch from cargo to passenger configurations.

737-300 (Classic)

Following the production of the 737-100 and -200, the last of which was delivered in 1988, Boeing began developing the -300/-400/-500 series, which would later be known as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , each offering improvements in range, economy and passenger capacity. Most importantly, the Classic moved the 737 into the age of modern high-bypass turbofan engines, leaving behind the cigar-shaped !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! low-bypass turbofans in favor of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

737-800

Boeing undertook further development of the 737 to compete with rival Airbus and followed the Classic with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which encompasses models -600/-700/-800/-900ER beginning in 1991. While much of the 737NG is essentially new, it retains enough commonality with earlier aircraft to make it attractive to airlines with older fleets of 737s. And in 2011, Boeing announced the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! program, which will provide newer, still more efficient !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! engines for greater range and fuel economy. Deliveries of the MAX are scheduled to begin in 2017. In July 2012, the 737 earned the distinction of being the first airliner to surpass 10,000 orders, and nearly 9,000 have been delivered so far. Today, two 737s are landing or departing every 5 seconds somewhere in the world. As for the prototype, it never entered commercial service, though it did serve NASA as a flying laboratory for twenty years, and is now on display at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington. (Photo via Boeing; 737-300 photo by Konstantin von Wedelstaedt via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ; photo by the author)

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Short Takeoff

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

April 8, 1944 – 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 !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Designed by noted Douglas engineer !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the Destroyer featured a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! wing and, in a first for a carrier aircraft, a tricycle landing gear. When the Navy changed its requirements, Douglas removed the extra crew member and the defensive armament. Still, only 28 were delivered before the war ended and production was canceled. (US Navy photo)

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

April 9, 1964 – The first flight of the de Havilland Canada DHC-5 Buffalo, a cargo and transport aircraft developed from the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and designed for extremely short takeoffs, specifically from rugged or unimproved airstrips. Unlike its piston-powered predecessor, the Buffalo is powered by a pair of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turboprop engines. It was originally pursued by the US Army as a replacement for the Caribou before all fixed-wing aircraft were transferred to the US Air Force, who wasn’t interested in the aircraft. Thus, only 122 were built, and the type certificates for all the de Havilland transports were purchased by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in Canada who plans to restart production of a newer, more powerful version of the Buffalo. (Photo by Darian Froese via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

April 9, 1959 – NASA names the Mercury Seven, the first American astronauts who took part in the manned !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! spaceflights from May 1961 to May 1963. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! was the first Mercury astronaut to travel in space in 1961, just one month after Soviet Cosmonaut !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . He was followed by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , then !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , who would be America’s first astronaut to orbit the Earth. They were followed by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The seventh member of the group, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , was grounded for health reasons, but served as NASA’s Director of Flight Crew Operations until 1972. The Mercury 7 formed the core of American astronauts, and played a role in all NASA space missions of the 20th century. (NASA photo)

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

April 9, 1899 – The birth of James Smith McDonnell. Following the failure of McDonnell’s first aircraft in 1927, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , McDonnell Aviation was founded in 1939 as a major aircraft parts producer during WWII. Though its first military aircraft, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , was also unsuccessful, McDonnell Aircraft found great success after WWII with the development of jet fighters such as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and the legendary !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . In 1967, McDonnell Aircraft merged with !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! to form !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The new company produced some of the most successful military and civilian aircraft in history, including the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and its derivatives, and the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , plus numerous helicopters, missiles and space vehicles. James McDonnell died in 1980, and McDonnell Douglas merged with !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1997. (McDonnell photo via University of Arkansas Libraries; US Navy, US Air Force photos)

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

April 10, 1963 – The first flight of the EWR VJ 101, a supersonic vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) fighter developed as a replacement for the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Two aircraft were completed during the five-year test program, and known as the X-1 and the X-2. The X-1 performed the first successful hover in April 1963, then the first transition to forward flight in September 1963. In all, a total of 40 level 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, and though the program showed promise, it was canceled in 1968. (Photo by Ralf Manteufel via !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

April 11, 1943 – The first flight of the Piasecki PV-2, the second successful helicopter flown in the US after the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Constructed as a technology demonstrator, the PV-2 introduced new features such as dynamically balanced rotor blades, a rigid tail rotor with a tension-torsion pitch changing system and full cyclic and collective pitch control. Only one example was ever produced, and it is now on display at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum’s !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in northern Virginia. (Photo author unknown)

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

April 11, 1952 – The first flight of the Piasecki H-21 Workhorse/CH-21 Shawnee, a multi-mission tandem rotor helicopter originally developed from the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The H-21 was originally designed for Arctic rescue missions and featured full winterization for polar climates, but it was used primarily as a troop transport in the early days of the Vietnam War as the CH-21. Called the “Flying Banana” by troops, the Shawnee was poorly suited to the hot jungle climate of Southeast Asia, and was removed from service in 1965 with the arrival of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , better known as the Huey. (US Air Force photo)

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Recent Aviation History Posts

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

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!!! . You can also find more stories about aviation and aviators at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

For Sweden > ttyymmnn 04/11/2017 at 12:41

8

April 9, 2017: United Airlines and Chicago PD mess up crew scheduling/enforcement in spectacular fashion, and For Sweden has to listen to/read people saying “askcuallay, let me tell you how the airlines work” for a week.

ttyymmnn > For Sweden 04/11/2017 at 12:49

5

For Sweden:

user314 > For Sweden 04/11/2017 at 12:52

3

Trump and Putin faked the United debacle to get Syria and Russia off the news! Wake up sheeple!!!

For Sweden > user314 04/11/2017 at 12:58

2

You joke but...

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

MonkeePuzzle > ttyymmnn 04/11/2017 at 12:59

1

oh my! I love the caribou, I didn’t know there was a version with updated turbo props!

MrDakka > ttyymmnn 04/11/2017 at 13:00

1

Love the VTOL Starfighter aesthetic on the VJ 101 and LockMart’s own CL 704.

Mercedes Streeter > ttyymmnn 04/11/2017 at 13:02

0

I love the work you put into these things ttyymmnn!!! They’re my favourite “This Date in _____ History” posts ever. :)

Do you have the lede 737 in a higher res? :D

user314 > For Sweden 04/11/2017 at 13:08

0

Oh, I saw that twit on yesterday’s Gawkmodo hyperventilating. I’m kinda surprised there haven’t been and “ Thanks, Trump! ” memes yet.

facw > Mercedes Streeter 04/11/2017 at 13:12

4

Less cropped pic at 2981x2355

Link in case Kinja won’t let you get the full res one

ttyymmnn > Mercedes Streeter 04/11/2017 at 13:13

1

Thanks, Miss Mercedes, I appreciate your kind words. It’s a labor of love, but it is still labor. It probably takes 2-3 hours to write one of these posts, and that is with reworking of older material. But I do enjoy it.

This is the biggest version I could find of the 737 prototype photo.

Mercedes Streeter > facw 04/11/2017 at 13:15

0

New addition to PC wallpapers here I come! Thanks! :)

ttyymmnn > MrDakka 04/11/2017 at 13:16

2

Bell had a go at a tip-jet VTOL fighter with the D-188 (XF-109), but it never made it past mock up.

Mercedes Streeter > ttyymmnn 04/11/2017 at 13:17

1

The care and the love does show. Each post looks meticulously put together! Also, how am I not already following you? Fixed that. :) Keep up the awesomeness!

I’m just going to slip that picture into my library. I love pics of airliners in the skies. 

facw > Mercedes Streeter 04/11/2017 at 13:17

0

Also, since I heard you liked trijets:

Viggen > ttyymmnn 04/11/2017 at 13:52

2

Ah, but it’s thanks to the Shawnee that one of the most versatile heavy lift helicopters is around today.

ttyymmnn > Viggen 04/11/2017 at 14:13

2

Thank that dapper gent with the fedora flying the PV-2. This is a great photo of Frank Piasecki.

Rock Bottom > ttyymmnn 04/11/2017 at 14:39

3

In 1944, the Douglas BTD-1 Destroyer was the first test article to enter the NACA 40x80 wind tunnel when she was used for the initial Integrated Systems Test (40x80 IST). I had a 6 foot wide print of this image outside my office for several years! Super neat machine.

Note the man kneeling on the floor under the test article, for scale.

Rock Bottom > ttyymmnn 04/11/2017 at 14:42

0

I wish I could give you more than one star for these. Great work!

ttyymmnn > Rock Bottom 04/11/2017 at 15:33

1

Thanks and thanks. And thanks for reading!

ttyymmnn > Rock Bottom 04/11/2017 at 15:34

1

You left a lengthy reply the last time the Destroyer showed up! Thanks again.

http://oppositelock.kinja.com/in-the-wind-tunnel-at-ames-1790816225

Rock Bottom > ttyymmnn 04/11/2017 at 21:52

0

Ha ha, sorry! This shit excites me!

ttyymmnn > Rock Bottom 04/11/2017 at 22:01

2

No worries! I always appreciate contributions from people who know more about something than I do, particularly first hand. I should have linked that wind tunnel article in this post.

Rock Bottom > ttyymmnn 04/11/2017 at 22:07

1

Haha I’ll be waiting for the next installment!

pip bip - choose Corrour > ttyymmnn 04/12/2017 at 07:05

1

Boeing 737 is quite interesting.