This Date in Aviation History: January 1 - January 3

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 01/03/2020 at 12:35 • Filed to: wingspan, Planelopnik, TDIAH

5

8

!!! 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 January 1 through January 3.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

An artist’s concept of the Boeing 2707 in service with Delta Air Lines (Author unknown)

January 2, 1967 – The National Supersonic Transport program awards a contract to Boeing for its 2707 SST design. By the early 1950s, the jet engine had begun to revolutionize commercial aviation, and military aviation had begun to operate at speeds beyond the sound barrier. The next step in the evolution of air travel would be to combine the two into a supersonic transport (SST). The Americans, Russians, British and French were all working on developing their own SST, and soon after President John F. Kennedy took office in 1953 he announced Project Horizon, which directed the Federal Aviation Administration to investigate advances in civil airline design to keep the US competitive with the rest of the world. But when the French and English joined forces and announced their intention to develop !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the Americans realized that they were far behind Europe in development of their own SST.

An illustration of an early concept for the Boeing 2707 with variable geometry wings. Designers ultimately opted for a traditional delta wing to limit weight and complexity. (Author unknown)

The US government announced a competition to select a design for an American SST, and entries were submitted by North American, Lockheed and Boeing. North American submitted a scaled-up version of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and Lockheed’s design was nearly identical to the Concorde. But Boeing, who had begun work on their own SST in 1952, initially proposed a swing-wing design that would seat about 125 passengers (interestingly, Boeing’s initial proposal bore a strong resemblance to today’s !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! supersonic bomber). Boeing’s proposal was selected, but by this time the Americans realized that they were somewhat late to the supersonic party, and with the more mature development of the Concorde, as well as a competing design from the Russians in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , Boeing decided that the only way to compete effectively was to develop a larger and faster SST, one that could travel at speeds up to Mach 3.

Hearkening back to the groundbreaking 707, Boeing gave their SST the designation 2707. By the time it reached mock-up, the aircraft showed its true size. Unlike Concorde, which had a single aisle, the 2707 was planned as a wide-body aircraft with 2-3-2 seating at its widest point and accommodations for up to 247 passengers in a single-class configuration. But with any aircraft of this size, weight became a serious problem, and the heavy, complex swing-wing design was abandoned in favor of a traditional delta wing. But despite the glamour of flying at up to three times the speed of sound, the realities of supersonic transport were hard to conquer. Flying that fast meant using enormous amounts of fuel and, in an era when the general public was starting to take a concern in the health of the environment, worries over fuel economy, sonic booms, and ozone pollution made SSTs unpopular. In fact, with support from environmental organizations, supersonic commercial flight was eventually banned over the continental US, and some states banned Concorde altogether.

The completed mockup of the Boeing 2707. Some idea of the SST’s size can be gleaned from the people standing on scaffolding next to the model. (Boeing)

By 1971, even with orders for 115 aircraft by 25 airlines, significantly more than those for Concorde, Congress cut funding for the American SST. The two Boeing prototypes under construction were never completed and, in conjunction with a general downturn in the airliner market, Boeing was forced to lay off over 60,000 employees. Despite Concorde’s successful launch, it was never a money maker for European airlines, and it’s almost certain that the 2707 would have faced the same economic difficulties. While crossing the Atlantic Ocean in three hours is a great feat, and a luxury for those who could afford it, developments in modern jet engine and materials technology have proven that it is far more efficient and economical to travel just shy of Mach 1. Nevertheless, Boeing has not given up on the idea of carrying passengers beyond the speed of sound, and has !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! plans for hypersonic transport that will fly at up to five times the speed of sound.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Short Takeoff

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Hungarian refugees arrive at Charleston AFB (US Air Force)

January 1, 1957 – “Operation Safe Haven” brings nearly 10,000 Hungarian refugees to the United States. Following the brutal suppression of the Hungarian revolt against Soviet leadership, the US responded by working to evacuate as many civilians as possible and remove them from Communist rule. US President Dwight D. Eisenhower announced Operation Safe Haven, which began with an airlift carried out by air transports belonging to the 1608th Air Transport Wing from Charleston Air Force Base in South Carolina, along with 175 aircraft from the 1611th Air Transport Wing based at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ir Force Base in New Jersey brought 9,700 refugees to the US, which were followed by additional refugees carried to the US by the US Navy’s Military Sea Transportation Service. In all, nearly 38,000 Hungarian refugees were brought to safety in the US.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

(University of South Carolina)

January 1, 1914 – The first scheduled commercial airplane flight. Though it is common today for commercial airliners to complete nonstop flights of more than 9,000 miles, the first scheduled commercial flight had much humbler beginnings. Hoping to cash in on the tourist trade, Florida businessman P.E. Fensler teamed with aircraft builder !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! to create the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! to provide service between the two coastal Florida vacation destinations. The route covered just 21 miles and passengers paid $5 for the 23-minute journey. Barnstormer !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! carried former St. Petersburg mayor Abram Pheil on the inaugural flight. After three months of service through the tourist season, the airline closed down and the planes were sold, though 1,204 passengers had made the flight.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

January 2, 1989 – The first flight of the Tupolev Tu-204, a single-aisle, twin-engine passenger airliner that is comparable to the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and capable of carrying up to 215 passengers depending on variant and class layout. Designed for Soviet flag carrier airliner !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! as a replacement for the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! tri-jet, the Tu-204 features significant innovations over its Russian-built predecessors, such as fly-by-wire controls, a glass cockpit, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! for increased fuel efficiency. The Tu-204 was introduced in 1996 and remains in production, with 86 aircraft completed to date.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

The Yutu-2 rover rolls away from the Chang’e 4 lander to explore the far side of the Moon (CLEP)

January 3, 2019 – The Chinese-built Chang’e 4 lander becomes first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the far side of the Moon. Chang’e 4 (Chang’e is the Chinese goddess of the Moon) is the third element of an ambitious !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! to place spacecraft in orbit around the Moon, explore the lunar surface with robotic rovers, and return scientific samples to Earth. In a graduated program, Chang’e 1 and Chang’e 2 achieved lunar orbit in 2007 and 2010, while Chang’e 3 landed on the near side of the Moon in 2013 and deployed China’s first robotic lunar rover. Chang’e 4 was launched atop a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! rocket on December 1, 2013 and is the first vehicle from any country to make a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! on the so-called “dark side” of the Moon. Its Yutu-2 robotic rover is expected to explore the lunar surface for three months, though it could operate for years, while sensors on the lander will perform scientific observations from the landing site. The Chinese lunar program is in preparation for the landing of a Chinese astronaut on the Moon sometime between 2025 and 2030.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

January 3, 1963 – The first flight of the Ilyushin Il-62, a narrow-body, long-range airliner developed by Ilyushin as a replacement for the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turboprop airliner. At the time of its first flight in 1963, the Il-62 (NATO reporting name Classic ) was the largest airliner in the world, and it served as the standard long-range Soviet airliner for many years and remains in limited service today. Similar to the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the Il-62 groups its four turbofan engines in pods at the rear. It was also the first pressurized Soviet airliner without a circular cross section, and the first Russian jetliner with six-abreast seating. A total of 292 aircraft were built before production ceased in 1995.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

January 3, 1953 – The first flight of the Cessna 310. The 310 was the first twin-engine general aviation aircraft to be produced by Cessna following WWII, and it proved particularly popular with the many air taxi services that arose following the war. With seating for six passengers, the 310 was faster and cheaper to operate than its closest rival, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and over 6,000 310s were built from 1954 to 1980. The 310 also served the US Air Force as a light utility transport where it was known as the L-27 (later redesignated as the U-3).

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

(NASA illustration)

January 3, 1999 – The launch of the Mars Polar Lander. The Polar Lander was a stationary robotic lander that was sent to an area near the south pole of Mars known as !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Along with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the two spacecraft were part of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! program to study the climate and geology of Mars and to search for signs of water. However, the Polar Lander was lost when it crashed into the surface of the Red Planet, and scientists surmised that the extension of the landing legs made the onboard computer believe that the lander had touched down when it was actually still 40 feet in the air. The computer shut off the descent engine prematurely and the lander plummeted to the ground. The orbiter was also lost when it entered orbit at too low an altitude due to a discrepancy between metric and Imperial units of measurement used by Lockheed Martin, the spacecraft manufacturer, and NASA.

!!! 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 01/03/2020 at 12:45

6

Only fans of Boomers want SSTs

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > ttyymmnn 01/03/2020 at 12:53

1

After reading about all the unstart problems with Mach 3 flight and the SR-17/A12 I can’t imagine a commercial airliner being safe for passenger travel at Mach 3 .

user314 > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever 01/03/2020 at 13:41

3

Eh, the unstart problem was pretty well mitigated by the early ‘80s with DAFICS, and modern designs would either include a similar control system or design away the problem entirely. In the grand scheme of getting a SST or HST to market, unstarts are a minor issue.  

user314 > ttyymmnn 01/03/2020 at 13:48

3

I’d have paid whatever they wanted for a flight on a B-70- based or swing-wing SST.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > user314 01/03/2020 at 14:01

1

From what I have read they had about a 1 and 3 chance of experiencing an unstart during a mission , seemed to get better as the technology and procedures were refined into the 1980's . I’m sure there is technology today that would prevent that with a g ood computer system and positive feedback loops. Still terrifying in my mind. “Excuse the yaw to the left folks ou r left engine just decided to not work, Oh fuck the right one quit as well. See you in the life raft. ”

user314 > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever 01/03/2020 at 14:28

0

I think you may be overselling the severity of an unstart.

In the early years of operation, the analog computers would not always keep up with rapidly changing flight environmental inputs. If internal pressures became too great and the spike was incorrectly positioned, the shock wave would suddenly blow out the front of the inlet, called an “inlet unstart ”. During unstarts, afterburner extinctions were common. The remaining engine’s asymmetrical thrust would cause the aircraft to yaw violently to one side. SAS , autopilot, and manual control inputs would fight the yawing, but often the extreme off-angle would reduce airflow in the opposite engine and stimulate “sympathetic stalls”. This generated a rapid counter-yawing, often coupled with loud “banging” noises, and a rough ride during which crews’ helmets would sometimes strike their cockpit canopies. [49] One response to a single unstart was unstarting both inlets to prevent yawing, then restarting them both. [50] After wind tunnel testing and computer modeling by NASA Dryden test center, [51] Lockheed installed an electronic control to detect unstart conditions and perform this reset action without pilot intervention. [52] During troubleshooting of the unstart issue, NASA also discovered the vortices from the nose chines were entering the engine and interfering with engine efficiency. NASA developed a computer to control the engine bypass doors which countered this issue and improved efficiency. Beginning in 1980, the analog inlet control system was replaced by a digital system, which reduced unstart instances

No question they were violent events, especially if one going caused the other to unstart as well, but only one SR-71 (61-7952) was ever lost to the phenomenon, and that was all the way back in 1966.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > user314 01/03/2020 at 14:40

2

I just finished reading a book where a lot of the early pilots had written sections. They were not particularly fond of unstarts, they were also not particularly worried about them.

ranwhenparked > ttyymmnn 01/03/2020 at 20:28

1

Incidentally, $5 in 1914 is about $128 today. Though that’s clearly a lot more than just driving, its probably still  a lot less than what it would cost to charter a small plane to fly you over Tampa Bay today.