This Date in Aviation History: February 8 - February 11

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 02/11/2020 at 12:35 • Filed to: wingspan, Planelopnik, TDIAH

3

27

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

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

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

(San Diego Air and Space Museum)

February 8, 1933 – The first flight of the Boeing 247. The American-born son of German father Wilhelm Böing, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! founded the airplane company that bears his name in 1916, and the first airplane he produced with his business partner George Westervelt was the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a sea-going biplane. They only built two, and Westervelt soon left the fledgling company. But since that somewhat inauspicious beginning, the Boeing Company has grown into one of the world’s largest airplane manufacturers, producing all types of civilian airliners, military aircraft, and spacecraft. But for most people, the company today is best known for their commercial jetliners, and that long heritage of excellence and design innovation began with the Boeing 247.

The Boeing Monomail, top, and Boeing YB-9 bomber. These all-metal monoplanes set the stage for the Boeing 247 airliner. (Author unknown, US Air Force)

The years between the World Wars is recognized as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a period marked not only by rapid technological developments of aircraft and a quest for ever-greater speed, but also the rise of the commercial aircraft industry. In an effort to capitalize on the emerging market for passenger aircraft, Boeing drew on what it learned with their earlier !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! mail plane, as well as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the first all-metal monoplane bomber flown by the US, to create an airliner that was truly advanced for its day. The Model 247 employed all-metal semimonocoque construction of anodized aluminum, a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and retractable landing gear. Advances in flight controls included !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , an autopilot, and de-icing boots to prevent dangerous ice accumulation on the wings.

Model 247s on Boeing’s production line (San Diego Air and Space Museum)

The need for the 247 was so great that it was ordered off the drawing board, with the first production aircraft going solely to the new United Air Lines (owned by Boeing), who received the first 60 aircraft of the 75 total built. Powered by a pair of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! radial engines (Pratt & Whitney was also part of Boeing at the time), the 247 was faster than contemporary biplane fighters, and was the first twin-engine airplane capable of flying with just one engine. When variable pitch propellers became standard on the 247D, the airliner could fly at over 11,000 feet, fully loaded, on just one engine. The relatively small cabin accommodated 10 passengers, five to either side of the aisle, and they flew in the relative comfort of a thermostatically heated, soundproofed cabin. For its innovative design, the 247 received the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1934.

Cramped even by today’s standards, the interior of the 247 accommodated ten passengers in relative comfort for the day. (Author unknown)

In order to promote the new airliner, Boeing entered it in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! from England to Australia, a grueling race of over 11,000 miles. The production 247, piloted by the flamboyant !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , now hangs in the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC. The race was won by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!   Grosvenor House purpose-built for the race, while the 247 came in third place overall behind a KLM !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! that was actually carrying passengers. Finishing behind the DC-2 proved to be an ill omen for the future of the 247.

The first production 247-D, flown Roscoe Turner in the 1934 England-to-Australia International Air Derby, better known as the MacRobertson Race, on display at the National Air and Space Museum. (Tim Shaffer)

When Boeing began producing the 247, they sold them exclusively to Boeing Air Transport, their affiliated airline and the precursor to today’s United Airlines. This exclusive contract led TWA executive !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! to turn to Douglas for airliners, and the resulting !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ended up taking the world by storm. Despite the 247's ability to cross the country in around 20 hours, it was small when compared to the DC-3, and the newer aircraft coming from Douglas could hold more passengers and thus fly more economically. Where only 75 247s were produced, Douglas built over 600 DC-3s. By the outbreak of WWII, the 247 was mostly finished flying passengers, but a number were drafted into US Army Air Corps service as the C-73. Though the 247's service life was relatively brief and it was built in small numbers, it bears a strong resemblance to another Boeing aircraft, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . And Boeing built almost 13,000 of those.  

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

A British Airways Boeing 747-400 lands at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport (Tim Shaffer)

February 9, 1969 – The first flight of the Boeing 747. Boeing was in the forefront of the burgeoning era of commercial jet aviation in the 1960s, and their !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! airliner was the first to take advantage of the swept wing and podded engine design that they had pioneered with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! bomber. But following the introduction of the 707, and the rival !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , airlines clamored for even larger aircraft, as air travel became more and more popular. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the head of Pan American Airlines, pressed Boeing to develop an airliner that would carry twice as many passengers as the 707, and at greater distances, relying on the newer, more efficient high-bypass turbofan engines. And, just like the 707, which grew out of the Air Force’s requirement for a jet tanker, the 747 traces its roots to a proposal for a military aircraft.

An artist’s rendering of Boeing’s proposal for the CX-HLS program. Though this proposed aircraft had a high wing, the placement of the cockpit above the cargo hold was carried over into the 747. (Author unknown)

In 1963, the Air Force wanted to develop a new, high-capacity cargo aircraft as part of the CX-Heavy Logistics System (CX-HLS) program. One of the terms of the contract stated that the aircraft must have a door in the nose that could be raised to load cargo. Boeing’s solution was to house the cockpit in a pod above the cargo bay that stretched back to the root of the high-mounted wing . Lockheed eventually won the competition with their !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , but some of what Boeing put into its CX-HLS contender was transferred to their new airliner, though ultimately, the 747 would be a completely new design.

The prototype 747 is rolled out of Boeing’s facility at Everett, Washington on September 30, 1968 (SAS)

In just 28 months, Boeing developed what would come to be known as the Jumbo Jet, and the prototype was rolled out of Boeing’s Everett, Washington facility on September 30, 1968. Boeing had originally considered a fully double-deck airliner, a carry-over from the CX-HLS, but that idea was dropped over concerns for emergency evacuation. However, they retained the idea of the cockpit being placed over top of the fuselage, an arrangement which allowed the entire length of the plane to be filled with passengers. Thus, the 747 gained its iconic hump, while the space behind the cockpit was originally envisioned as a lounge without fixed seats. In a hedge against future airliner developments, including the possibility of supersonic transports supplanting large airliners, Boeing purposely developed the 747 so it could carry both passengers and compartmentalized freight.

On January 15, 1970, First Lady Pat Nixon christened the first 747 for launch customer Pan Am at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, DC, and that aircraft entered service on January 22, 1970 with an inaugural flight from New York to London. 747s eventually flew for every major American air carrier, and for many more !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Boeing held a monopoly on the wide-body airliner market until the arrival of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1971, but even then, the DC-10 did not have the passenger capacity of the 747. The US military flies the 747 as a command and control aircraft in the E-4 Sentry, and as transportation for the President of the United States as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , known popularly as Air Force One.

A Lufthansa Boeing 747-8 on final approach to Dulles International Airport. Lufthansa is the largest operator of the type. Note the extended upper deck. (Tim Shaffer)

The initial 747-100 accommodated 366 passengers in a 3-class configuration, but in a single-class configuration it could hold 480, or even up to 550. Later developments of the 747 increased the aircraft’s size and payload. The 747-400, which is the most common variant in service today, has room for 412 passengers in a 3-class arrangement, but can carry as many as 660 at maximum. The latest version, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , shares the same modern cockpit and engines as the Boeing 787, hence the “8" suffix. The fuselage bubble was extended, and it holds the distinction as the longest passenger aircraft in the world, though the Airbus A380 has a greater wingspan. In its passenger configuration, the 747-8 boosts 3-class accommodation up to 467 passengers. As a freighter, it has a total payload capacity of 308,000 pounds. However, production of the 747-8 has been scaled back, and Boeing only expects to build a total of 136, with two-thirds of those being the 747-8F freighter.

An Eva Air Boeing 747-200SF departs from Dallas-Fort Worth Airport (Tim Shaffer)

Though the 747 has proven to be extremely successful, the era of the four-engine airliner is coming to a close. Advances in jet propulsion, as well as changing economies of air travel, have made the twin-engine airliner more practical and economical. In January 2018, Delta Airlines became the last major American air carrier to retire its fleet of 747s, while others remain in limited service with airlines throughout the world, though the majority of aircraft still operating are used to haul cargo. Though Boeing’s hedge of making the 747 a cargo hauler wasn’t needed in the 1970s, it has proven to be a savvy move that will keep the 747 in the air for some time to come, long after the passenger variants have been retired from service.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

February 9, 1963 – The first flight of the Boeing 727. When the four-engine !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! entered service in 1958, it opened up the world with transoceanic passenger service. But just a year after the arrival of the 707, airlines identified a need for a short- to medium-haul aircraft that would be capable of operations from smaller airports with shorter runways. United Airlines wanted a new four-engine airliner that could operated from high-altitude airports. After all, their hub in Denver, Colorado sits a mile above sea level. American Airlines wanted an airliner with just two engines that would be more economical to operate, and Eastern Air Lines wanted an airliner with three engines (or at least more than two) because federal regulations at the time limited overwater flights to aircraft with more than two engines ( !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ). So Boeing decided to split the difference and developed a three-engine airliner in hopes of catering to the needs of different airlines.

The 727-100 prototype (N7001U) is rolled out of the Boeing factory on November 27, 1962 (Boeing)

To design the 727, Boeing turned to their tried and true 707. To save development costs, the 727 borrowed the upper fuselage cross-section and cockpit from the 707. The three !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! low-bypass turbofan engines were mounted on the rear of the aircraft, with the third engine on the aircraft centerline and fed with air through a distinctive S-duct air inlet in the vertical stabilizer. These engines were much louder than newer high-bypass turbofans, and the 727 was one of the loudest airliners in service. It was classified as a Stage 2 by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! of 1972, while newer, quieter engines were classified as Stage 3. This meant that operation of the 727 was limited in some high-population areas to certain times of the day or not allowed at all at some airports. Boeing investigated the possibility of modifying the 727 to accept quieter Stage 3 engines, but it would have meant an entire redesign of the aft fuselage. Instead, the JT8Ds were outfitted with !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , along with changes to the wings, to help reduce noise.

The original 727-100 accommodated up to 131 passengers, and the later stretched 727-200 increased capacity to as many as 189 passengers in a single-class configuration. Eastern Airlines took delivery of the first 727 on February 1, 1964, and the new airliner soon became popular worldwide. The third engine allowed for longer flights over water and internationally, and the extra lifting power provided by the third engine made the 727 popular among freight carriers. With its engines mounted at the rear, the entire wing was available for the use of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! which allowed the 727 to operate from shorter runways. This made it ideal for smaller regional and more remote airports. And the addition of a built-in retractable stairway at the rear, called an !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , made it popular at smaller airports with limited infrastructure. The 727-200 Advanced brought more powerful engines for both the passenger airliner and its freighter version which increased the maximum takeoff weight and extended range by 50-percent.

The 727 was operated by airlines of 45 nations and was the first commercial airliner to sell over 1,000 aircraft. It proved popular with start up airlines, and many more purchased the airliner second hand. 727 production lasted from 1963 to 1984, and Boeing built over 1,800 aircraft in three variants. The final 727, a cargo version, was delivered to Federal Express in September 1984. As more economical twin-engine airliners began to take over the market, most airlines began phasing out the 727. Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines both retired their last 727s in 2003, but others soldiered on in both passenger and cargo roles. On January 13, 2019, Iran Aseman Airlines carried out the last passenger flight of the 727 from Zahedan (ZAH) to Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport (THR).

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

February 10, 1962 – American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is exchanged for Soviet KGB spy Rudolf Abel. In the early days of the Cold War, the United States was desperate for timely, accurate intelligence on Russian military plans. By 1960, rudimentary satellite imagery was availble, but it was unreliable, and not at all timely. Since the end of WWII, US aircraft had been probing the edges of the Soviet Union to measure the Russian response, and many American spy planes were shot down. So work began on an aircraft that could fly high above Russia, take pictures of military installations, missile tests, or other high-value assets, then return quickly to have the images analyzed. The !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! at Lockheed, under the direction of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , produced just what the American government needed in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , an aircraft that was capable of flying at 70,000 feet, immune to interception by enemy aircraft. But as Soviet missile technology improved, the US knew it was just a matter of time before one of their pilots was shot down.

Russian Premier Nikita Kruschev examines wreckage from Gary Powers’ U-2 spy plane (Author unknown)

On May 1, 1960, Francis Gary Powers, a U-2 pilot flying for the CIA, took off from Pakistan and flew northward to photograph ICBM sites at the Baikonur Cosmodrome and the Plesetsk Cosmodrome before continuing north for a landing in Norway. Thinking that the U-2 could fly with impunity, Powers was flying a predictable route. Soon after takeoff, his aircraft was detected near Chelyabinsk and fighters were sent to intercept it. Try as they might, the fighters were unable to reach the spy plane at its extreme altitude. The Russians launched eight !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! missiles, one of which felled a Soviet fighter. Another struck the U-2. Powers ejected, but the plane came to earth relatively intact. He chose not to take the poison pill that the CIA provided him with, though its use was optional.

Powers on trial in Moscow (Author unknown)

At first, the US denied that Powers was on a spy mission, saying instead that it was an errant “weather plane.” But it was impossible to maintain the ruse, and the incident was another blow to already-brittle US-Soviet relations. Powers plead guilty at what was essentially a propaganda show trial and was convicted of espionage. He was sentenced of ten years in prison, which included seven years of hard labor. However, Powers served only 21 months of his sentence. On February 10, 1962, Powers was exchanged for KGB spy !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , who had been convicted for espionage in what was known as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The prisoner exchange took place on the Glienicke Bridge between East and West Germany, a location that was the site of seven prisoner exchanges during the Cold War. After his release, Powers returned to the US and worked as a Lockheed test pilot until 1970, but was killed in 1977 when the news helicopter he was piloting crashed while covering a brush fire. The swap of Powers for Abel was dramatized in the 2015 Hollywood film !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Short Takeoff

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

(NASA)

February 8, 2006 – Steve Fossett takes off to set an absolute distance record in an airplane. Steve Fossett was a well-known adventurer who set numerous records in aviation, as well as other records in skiing, mountain climbing, and sled dog racing. As a balloonist, Fosset became the first person to travel across the Pacific Ocean in 1995, then became the first to circumnavigate the globe nonstop in a balloon in 2002. Turning to fixed-wing records, Fossett made the first nonstop solo circumnavigation of the Earth in 2005 flying the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , an aircraft that had been designed and built by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . To top that feat, Fossett again took to the skies in the GlobalFlyer and departed from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, flew around the world, and passed Florida before landing in Bournemouth, England. The flight covered 25,766 miles and took 76 hours and 45 minutes to complete. Fossett died in 2007 in the crash of his private single engine !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

(NASA)

February 8, 1974 – The crew of Skylab 4, the final mission to the Skylab orbiting space station, splashes down in the Pacific Ocean . The only space station run exclusively by the United States, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! was launched into Earth orbit on May 14, 1973 and hosted three crews between May 1973 and February 1974, with the visits totaling 171 days in space. The Skylab 4 crew of Commander Gerald P. Carr, Pilot William R. Pogue, and Science Pilot Edward G. Gibson launched on November 16, 1973 and spent a total of 84 days aboard the orbiting space station, a duration record that stood for four years. During their time in orbit, the crew completed three spacewalks (Extravehicular Activities, or EVA) to retrieve and replace film canisters in the Apollo Telescope Mount (ATM), and observe newly-discovered !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! during its close pass to the Sun. They also carried out many other experiments and celestial observations. NASA had hoped to prolong the life of Skylab by using the Space Shuttle to push it into a higher orbit, but delays in the Shuttle program made that impossible, and Skylab fell to Earth on July 11, 1979.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

February 8, 1967 – The first flight of the Saab 37 Viggen. Developed as a replacement for the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the Viggen ( Thunderbolt ) was the first aircraft produced in large numbers to make use of a forward canard for added STOL capability, as Swedish fighter aircraft routinely operate from short runways or roadways. Designed to be supersonic and robust, the Viggen was originally intended as a ground attack aircraft, with subsequent variants produced for aerial reconnaissance and maritime patrol. Saab also produced a two-seat trainer variant, and the final variant was the JA37 all-weather fighter-interceptor. The Viggen was introduced in 1971, and 329 a total of 329 were built from 1970-1990.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

(Authors unknown)

February 9, 1977 – The death of Sergey Ilyushin, a Soviet aircraft designer and founder of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Ilyushin was born in 1894, the son of a factory laborer and the youngest of 11 children. He served in WWI in the infantry before volunteering for an aviation unit, where he worked as a mechanic. In 1921, Ilyushin entered the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy where he received a degree in engineering and went to work at the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , known as TsAGI. There he worked with famed aircraft designers !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and designed the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! bomber, both of which saw extensive service in WWII. Following the war, Ilyushin concentrated on the development of passenger aircraft, the most successful being the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turboprop airliner and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! passenger jet.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

(Sgt Jack Pritchard, DCC (RAF/MOD)

February 9, 1972 – The first flight of the Boeing E-3 Sentry. Better known as AWACS, an acronym for Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C), the Sentry is derived from the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and provides surveillance, command and control of military assets in the air and on the ground, and coordinates communications between the various forces in the combat theater. The Sentry was developed in the late 1960s to replace the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which was based on the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . After entering service with the USAF in 1977, the Sentry has flown during all major US military conflicts, and has also been exported to France, Britain, and Saudi Arabia. The Sentry also flies under the flag of the North Atlatic Treaty Organization (NATO), with 13 aircraft based in Luxembourg. A total of 70 Sentries were built between 1977-1992.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

February 10, 1967 – The first flight of the Dornier Do 31. In the early 1960s, German aircraft manufacturer EWR ( !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ) began work on the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a project to develop a supersonic VTOL jet fighter, and the Do 31 was intended as a VTOL support aircraft for the fighter. The design employed a total of 10 engines: two vectored thrust !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! engines mounted in inboard nacelles, and four !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! lift engines in a nacelle mounted at the end of each wing. The first prototype was built for level flight only, but the third prototype employed all 10 engines and made its first hovering flight in November 1967, while the first transition to forward and backward flight took place in December 1967. The Do 31 became the world’s only VTOL cargo aircraft, but the project was canceled in 1970.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

(Author unknown)

February 11, 2008 – The death of Frank Piasecki, an engineer and pioneer in the development of tandem rotor helicopters as well as the creator of the concept of a compound helicopter which uses vectored thrust from a ducted propeller (VTDP). Piasecki founded the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1940 and produced the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the second successful helicopter in the US after the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . He followed that with a series of tandem rotor helicopters, including the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which served in Vietnam as a troop transport until 1964. By 1956, Piasecki had been ousted from the company he founded, so he started a new company called !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (his former company became Vertol, and was eventually sold to Boeing). Currently, Piasecki Aircraft is working on the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!   !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , that was modified to use a VTDP tail to achieve higher speeds than a traditional helicopter.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

(Author unknown)

February 11, 2000 – The death of Jacqueline Auriol, a   pioneering French aviatrix. Born in 1917, Auriol aided the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! during WWII, earned her pilot license in 1948, and performed as a stunt flier and test pilot. After earning her military pilot license in 1950, Auriol qualified as one the first female test pilots, and became one of the first women to break the sound barrier. She went on to set five world speed records in the 1950s and 1960s. Auriol is a four-time winner of the prestigious !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! for outstanding accomplishments in aviation, and a founding member of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

(Deutsches Bundesarchiv)

February 11, 1976 – The death of Alexander Martin Lippisch. Lippisch was born in 1894 in Munich, Germany, and became one of the world’s leading aerodynamicists and aeronautical engineers. He was one of the earliest designers to work with delta wings and flying wings, and also made important discoveries in the area of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Lippisch was active during WWII, designing high-speed fighters for the Luftwaffe, including the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the war’s only operational rocket-powered fighter. Lippisch was brought to America following the war, where his work with delta wings influenced early Convair designs such as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Connecting Flights

!!! 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. You can find more posts about aviation history, aviators, and aviation oddities at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

For Sweden > ttyymmnn 02/11/2020 at 12:37

0

But which is the better -47?

ttyymmnn > For Sweden 02/11/2020 at 12:38

1

Yes.

facw > For Sweden 02/11/2020 at 12:45

0

Obviously the 747.

user314 > ttyymmnn 02/11/2020 at 12:48

2

T he design employed a total of 10 engines: two vectored thrust Pegasus engines mounted in inboard nacelles, and four Rolls-Royce RB162 lift engines in a nacelle mounted at the end of each wing.

Ah, that’s why it looks like someone stripped the wings and tail off a P.1127 and bolted one under each wing; they pretty much did .

facw > ttyymmnn 02/11/2020 at 12:48

2

I was at the Udvar-Hazy Center last week so got to see the Global Flyer as well as the Trimotor and DC-3 in the Air and Space 247 pic (the later two moved to the restoration hangar while the museum on The Mall undergoes renovation)

ttyymmnn > user314 02/11/2020 at 12:51

0

That’s a great detail shot. 

ttyymmnn > facw 02/11/2020 at 12:53

2

Last time I was at UHC I only had an hour, which I managed to stretch to 90 minutes. Still nowhere near enough time. My dad and brother and I went the first month it opened in 2003. One end of the hall was still completely empty.  The collection only gets more amazing with each passing year.

TheRealBicycleBuck > ttyymmnn 02/11/2020 at 13:02

1

One of m y uncles , as a Navy communications specialist, flew on the AWACS for several years. He provided cross-service communications support. There’s a squadron that is based in OKC. From what little I’ve heard, their primary area of operations is the Gulf of Mexico and the southern border.

ttyymmnn > TheRealBicycleBuck 02/11/2020 at 13:07

1

Probably doing more with immigration and narco trafficking these days. 

TheRealBicycleBuck > ttyymmnn 02/11/2020 at 13:19

0

They had communications specialists from every branch on the plane. So, yeah, you’re probably right.

ttyymmnn > TheRealBicycleBuck 02/11/2020 at 13:25

1

I find it interesting that different branches of the same country’s military would basically need translators to talk to each other. I understand the differences, but it still seems kind of silly.

TheRealBicycleBuck > ttyymmnn 02/11/2020 at 13:35

1

It may be because they have different radio frequencies, encryption protocol, and of course, lingo.

ttyymmnn > TheRealBicycleBuck 02/11/2020 at 13:37

0

Probably down more to lingo than anything. Hell, it took 40 years for them to start calling their airplanes by the same numbers. 

TheRealBicycleBuck > ttyymmnn 02/11/2020 at 13:56

1

It really is/was a radio problem. My uncle was flying with them about 25 years ago, so they were in the midst of trying to make upgrades.

https://www.gao.gov/assets/210/209222.pdf

https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/7021026391.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIL-STD-188

Notchback88 > ttyymmnn 02/11/2020 at 14:10

2

Currently, Piasecki Aircraft is working on the X-49 Speedhawk , a Sikorsky   YSH-60F Seahawk , that was modified to use a VTDP tail to achieve higher speeds than a traditional helicopter.

Lets add 1600lbs, and replace the vulnerable tail rotor with a bigger target!

I think the S-97 Raider is the way to go to replace the Hawk. Anybody but another Sikorsky. Mind you, I’m a bitter Apache driver forced into a glorified twin-engined minivan, so I’m rather biased. But there are so many quality-of-life, avionics, and pilot-workload systems and concepts that Boeing has put into the 47 and 64 that make the Hawk (especially 40 year old Limas) look sad and fly worse.

/rant

ttyymmnn > Notchback88 02/11/2020 at 14:45

0

No, no, rant on. That’s a great comment. It sounds like the Speedhawk is dead anyway. It looks like tilt rotors may be the future anyway. 

Notchback88 > For Sweden 02/11/2020 at 15:01

0

CH-47, obviously. 

Notchback88 > ttyymmnn 02/11/2020 at 15:07

0

My problem with the tilt-rotors is the space it takes up. Rotor on a UH- 60 is 53'8', and an overall length of 65'10", while the Valor is roughly 50' long and 80 feet wide!  That’s roughly 500 more square feet of an LZ per aircraft. A lot of narrow LZs are going to be out, too, for single/dual aircraft insertions. 

ttyymmnn > Notchback88 02/11/2020 at 15:37

0

Eighty feet?? Holy crap. I had no idea. And I guess that’s just the measurement from disk to disk, with no allowance for wiggle room? I read a fascinating article a few years ago about the Osprey: Flying The Osprey Is Not Dangerous, Just Different: Veteran Pilots . Among the (many)  problems they were having early on (the article is dated 2012) was with pilots transitioning from helicopters to the tilt rotor. In it, Bill Leonard, principal Osprey test pilot for Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. said:

“One of the biggest problems we’ve had in the community is getting past the idea that it’s a helicopter that flies fast,” Leonard said. “It’s not. It’s an airplane that hovers. And if you fly the airplane like a helicopter, yes, it’s very difficult to fly as a helicopter. And if you do that, you have a very good chance of having a problem with controllability because of the way the aircraft operates. If you fly it like an airplane and you are willing to take the time to understand the capabilities of it in helicopter, it’s a very, very easy airplane to fly.”

I am very interested to see how the Osprey handles COD for the Navy. This old history buff laments the passing of the Greyhound.

facw > ttyymmnn 02/11/2020 at 16:25

0

It’s wider but not as long:

So there’s some room for compensation, though it will have a bigger overall bounding box.

ttyymmnn > facw 02/11/2020 at 16:56

1

You can’t fly into a tight LZ sideways. Well, maybe you could , but that would be reserved for total bad asses.

That’s an interesting graphic. The impetus for development of the Osprey was Operation Eagle Claw, and we were going to land CH-53s in a soccer stadium. Two minimum probably would have been required to land covering troops and pick up the hostages. But you’d want at least three, I would think. 

Only Vespas... > ttyymmnn 02/11/2020 at 17:03

0

Great Job, T-Man, as usual.

Especially mentioning the D0 31. A cargo plane with 10 engines. That structure weight, plus fuel, and crew...perhaps enough lifting ability for a box of weinerschnitzels.

One bit of errata: The Mac Robertson Air race was won by a De Havilland DH 88 built specifically for the race, the Grosvenor House. A KLM DC-2 came second [that was actually carrying passengers], and then the Boeing 247D flown by Roscoe Turner. No mention was made of his tiger cub being on board.

ttyymmnn > Only Vespas... 02/11/2020 at 17:12

0

Thanks, and thanks for the correction. I’ll check it out. And thanks for reading!

facw > ttyymmnn 02/11/2020 at 19:00

1

I mean, you just have to pick an LZ that’s wide rather than long (potentially as easy as approaching from a different angle). I’m not sure though if the tilt rotors need more space in front and behind than a normal helicopter because they aren’t as keen on hovering (I suspect for a hot LZ neither aircraft wants to be stationary any longer than absolutely necessary though).

That’s not the only soccer field graphic I saw when looking for a size comparison, I also came cross this scene :

I would not be at all shocked to find that Eagle Claw is still brought up in these discussions, especially considering the Valor has much better range and speed than the R aider (which I guess probably needs a new name since the Air Force stole it for the B-21) , which would have made a difference in Iran 40 years ago. Or maybe it’s just showing that the world has soccer fields everywhere and you can quickly use them to deploy a bunch of troops.

glemon > ttyymmnn 02/12/2020 at 01:01

0

The 247 is a fine looking aircraft, after reading about it I was curious about how much it cost to fly back then on a ten passenger plane, according to the Smithsonian Air and Space website:

“ America’s airline industry expanded rapidly, from carrying only 6,000 passengers in 1930 to more than 450,000 by 1934, to 1.2 million by 1938. Still, only a tiny fraction of the traveling public flew.

Most people still rode trains or buses for intercity travel because flying was so expensive. A coast-to-coast round trip cost around $260, about half of the price of a new automobile. Only business executives and the wealthy could afford to fly.”

Curious about the last statement I dug further, I knew they sold Model Ts cheap, but checked and you could get a model A for about $500 in the early 30s.

Keep the good stuff coming.

ttyymmnn > glemon 02/12/2020 at 10:01

0

The 247 is a fine looking aircraft, but I can’t help feeling a sense of irony as I read the airline news this morning. Boeing’s on-again-off-again NMA, which was just off again and now is on again with a clean sheet, seems a lot like what happened to the 247. Boeing was happily humming along, and then Douglas came along with the DC-3 and blew them out of the water. Same thing is happening today with the A 321XLR. It seems like Boeing’s latest plan is to make something that looks an awful lot like an A321. I would hate to be the ones at Airbus or Boeing who have to read the tea leaves and try to figure out what the market is going to want in the five years (or more) it takes to develop an airliner. Airbus absolutely nailed it with the A321 (though they missed the whole nail and the board with the A380), and Boeing is really playing catch up.

ttyymmnn > Only Vespas... 02/12/2020 at 10:11

0

Fixed it. Thanks again for pointing that out.