I worked on the program. Airborne Express was the interested party and McDonnell Douglas was involved. What killed it was that Vmca had to increase a lot.
Jump to post<table border="0" align="CENTER" width="95%" class="quote"><tr><td><font size="2" face="ARIAL, Helvetica, Geneva" color="#9A9DA0">Quoting <a href="/profile/bikerthai" class="quote" target="_blank">bikerthai</a> (<a href="#6" class="quote">Reply 6</a>):<br/><i>Don't forget that Boeing built some of t...
Jump to post<table border="0" align="CENTER" width="95%" class="quote"><tr><td><font size="2" face="ARIAL, Helvetica, Geneva" color="#9A9DA0">Quoting <a href="/profile/KELPkid" class="quote" target="_blank">KELPkid</a> (<a href="#15" class="quote">Reply 15</a>):<br/><i> Most prop airframes are optimized for pro...
Jump to postI worked on the Starship and saw concept drawings of a Starship 2 with turbofans. The problem was, the basic Starship design had serious aerodynamic shortcomings. To minimize drag on a canard aircraft, the sum of the canard and wing loading needs to be elliptical. The canard is heavily loaded and it...
Jump to postDirected <acronym title="Iran Air">IR</acronym> CounterMeasures (DIRCM) systems are only capable of defeating <acronym title="Iran Air">IR</acronym> homing missiles. Under a Department of Homeland Security contract, Fedex flew the <acronym title="Lauda Air (Austria)">NG</acronym> Guardian DIRCM syst...
Jump to postThe S-92's cabin is manufactured by <a href="http://www.utc.com/News/Executive-Speeches/Pages/Unveiling-Ceremony-for-First-Sikorsky-S-92-Helicopter-Cabin-Made-in-India.aspx" target="_blank">Tata in India</a>, with components from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Japan. The cockpit is manufactured by <...
Jump to postI've had similar run-ins with the self-proclaimed editors of the English (US) version of Wikipedia. I have a really good source (Birch Matthew's book "Cobra!", researched from Bell documents) that says that first flight of the <acronym title="NEW: Xtra Airways (USA) and OLD: Casino Express (USA)">XP...
Jump to post<table border="0" align="CENTER" width="95%" class="quote"><tr><td><font size="2" face="ARIAL, Helvetica, Geneva" color="#9A9DA0">Quoting <a href="/profile/L-188" class="quote" target="_blank">L-188</a> (<a href="#32" class="quote">Reply 32</a>):<br/><i> A 100/200 would be a good choice.</i></font><...
Jump to postUnfortunately, Wikipedia is now controlled by a bunch of prima donnas. I fought with them to correct the year of the first flight of the P-39 and finally gave up. While all they could cite was books based on second-hand knowledge, I cited a contemporary New York Times article and a book, based on fi...
Jump to postRumor is that it will be 8 JT8D-200s (21,700 lbs each), 8 BR 715s (21,430 lbs each) or 8 F118s (19,000 lbs each).
Jump to postThere have been four different winglet designs flown on the A320, excluding the tip fences. In the first test program, two winglets, designed by Airbus and Winglet Technology respectively, were flown: <br/><table align="center" border="0" width="500"><tr><td><center><font color="#EEEEEE" size="1" fa...
Jump to postBack in 1967, the Air Force felt threatened by the Army's fixed-wing operations and grabbed the tactical airlift mission, getting the Army C-7 Caribous that were in service and the C-8 Buffalos that were on order. The Air Force promptly retired the Caribous and cancelled the Buffalo order. The Air F...
Jump to post<table border="0" align="CENTER" width="95%" class="quote"><tr><td><font size="2" face="ARIAL, Helvetica, Geneva" color="#9A9DA0">Quoting <a href="/profile/moo" class="quote" target="_blank">moo</a> (<a href="#7" class="quote">Reply 7</a>):<br/><i>As of 2008, there were more than 65,000 non-US citiz...
Jump to post<table border="0" align="CENTER" width="95%" class="quote"><tr><td><font size="2" face="ARIAL, Helvetica, Geneva" color="#9A9DA0">Quoting <a href="/profile/nomadd22" class="quote" target="_blank">nomadd22</a> (<a href="#4" class="quote">Reply 4</a>):<br/><i>I don't think the <acronym title="Ulsan (U...
Jump to postI learned about them after someone posted a link to them in this forum many years ago. Its one of those cases where, if you know the title of what you are looking for, Google will lead you there pretty quickly. Otherwise, it can be really hard to find stuff.
Jump to postDo a web search on A340 Aircraft Recovery Manual and you will find what you are after.
Jump to postThings have changed a lot since the time that the F-4 was designed. Back then, engineers estimated the loads a component was likely to experience and then designed a structure that would (very) conservatively handle the loads. The result is a massive, heavy structure: <br/><center><font color="#EEEE...
Jump to postI flew from Chicago to Phoenix and on to San Jose that day. My wife, when she heard the news of the crash, missed the city where the flight came from, but heard "Phoenix" and was terrified that I was on the flight that crashed. It didn't help that I didn't get into the hotel at my destination in Mon...
Jump to post<table border="0" align="CENTER" width="95%" class="quote"><tr><td><font size="2" face="ARIAL, Helvetica, Geneva" color="#9A9DA0">Quoting <a href="/profile/B6JFKH81" class="quote" target="_blank">B6JFKH81</a> (<a href="#2" class="quote">Reply 2</a>):<br/><i>I thought the LiveTV setup was a little (n...
Jump to postUnfortunately, the S-67 was built really fast (nine months), so there wasn't a lot of internal documentation on it within Sikorsky. Additionally, its life was relatively short, so there aren't a lot of pictures of it. However, if you search around on the web, you will find pictures of it in the vari...
Jump to postActually, its pretty remarkable that the 737-100 was certified so fast. I know that they had a flight test incident involving severe damage to the slats at dive conditions. They also had the thrust reverser problem, where the use of the thrust reversers actually increased stopping distances. Fortuna...
Jump to postThis strikes me as a continuation of a long-standing con job conducted by the US<acronym title="Air France">AF</acronym>. They grabbed all of the Army's Caribous and then promptly retired them. At the same time, they took over the Army's order for Buffalos and cancelled it. Admittedly, they did oper...
Jump to postI would speculate that likely scenarios are: 1) Airbus probably desires to increase the maximum take-off gross weight of the A380. In doing so, the root bending moment of the wing will go up. Any easy fix is to increase wing twist to move the wing load back inboard. This was done during the original...
Jump to postVought F4U Corsair failed carrier qualification trials in September 1942 and March 1943 due to numerous shortcomings including poor stall characteristics, landing gear bounce, insufficient directional control at low-speed, high-power conditions and poor cockpit visibility on approach. <a href="http:...
Jump to postOlive Ann Beech must be spinning in her grave.
Jump to postTo me, it can be summed up very easily: F-22 = Fighter airplane C-27J = Not a fighter airplane It was the same way with the A-10. The fighter mafia kept trying to retire them and then another war would start and everybody would see how valuable the A-10 is. Back in 1967, the Air Force felt threatene...
Jump to post<table border="0" align="CENTER" width="95%" class="quote"><tr><td><font size="2" face="ARIAL, Helvetica, Geneva" color="#9A9DA0">Quoting <a href="/profile/gingersnap" class="quote" target="_blank">gingersnap</a> (<a href="#11" class="quote">Reply 11</a>):<br/><i>Let me remind you of the A320-100......
Jump to postManufacturers don't like to build aircraft that are non-conforming. If they built the A320 without tip fences, it would not conform to the master drawing list for the aircraft and thus would not be type-conforming. To get a certificate of airworthiness, it would require an individual airworthiness c...
Jump to postThe Beech Starship, as originally designed by Burt Rutan, was a 3-surface design like the Avanti. When shown to the then-President of Beech, he reputedly said "No! - Give me a big Long-EZ!" and that is what he got. The later Scaled Triumph is configured a bit like the original Starship: <br/><center...
Jump to post<table border="0" align="CENTER" width="95%" class="quote"><tr><td><font size="2" face="ARIAL, Helvetica, Geneva" color="#9A9DA0">Quoting <a href="/profile/KELPkid" class="quote" target="_blank">KELPkid</a> (<a href="#4" class="quote">Reply 4</a>):<br/><i>An easy way to tell a non-advanced 200 from ...
Jump to postThe stories are true - I have heard them from people that worked on the program - and the descriptions listed of the thrust reversers are correct. The only thing I have to add is that it is generally not known, but the target thrust reverser added to the design, with the four foot tail pipe extensio...
Jump to postAccording to this Reuters (<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/02/airbus-wingtip-idUSN1E7B10U220111202" target="_blank"> Airbus sues Boeing partner over winglet patent</a>), Airbus is suing API, challenging its patent on the blended winglet. This is interesting, as US patent 5,348,253, i...
Jump to postDon't like the X-ray backscatter scanners? Let the operator know - I stuck my tongue out while being scanned.
Jump to postI have never been put in this position in the US, but I have in China. In 2009, we were traveling in an area of the Tibetan Plateau (in Qinghai Province) that had only been open to westerners for two weeks. One evening five policemen barged into our hotel room and demanded to see pictures showing wh...
Jump to post<table border="0" align="CENTER" width="95%" class="quote"><tr><td><font size="2" face="ARIAL, Helvetica, Geneva" color="#9A9DA0">Quoting <a href="/profile/tugger" class="quote" target="_blank">tugger</a> (<a href="#90" class="quote">Reply 90</a>):<br/><i>Most recent interesting tid bit that I just ...
Jump to postThere seems to be some confusion about the wing design history of the 737 series. The 737-100 and -200 (Initial Models) have a wing designed in the early 1960s. The wing design is detailed in AIAA paper 65-739 "Aerodynamic Design Philosphy of the Boeing 737" by M.L. Olason and D.A. Norton (reprinted...
Jump to post<table border="0" align="CENTER" width="95%" class="quote"><tr><td><font size="2" face="ARIAL, Helvetica, Geneva" color="#9A9DA0">Quoting <a href="/profile/KELPkid" class="quote" target="_blank">KELPkid</a> (<a href="#55" class="quote">Reply 55</a>):<br/><i>Isn't the Li-2 a license built clone of th...
Jump to postOn the military front, there are the Sepecat Jaguar and the Mitsubishi T-2/F-1. They are even powered by the same engines: <br/><table align="center" border="0" width="500"><tr><td><center><font color="#EEEEEE" size="1" face="ARIAL, Helvetica, Geneva"><a href="/open.file/1817702/L/" target="_blank">...
Jump to post<table border="0" align="CENTER" width="95%" class="quote"><tr><td><font size="2" face="ARIAL, Helvetica, Geneva" color="#9A9DA0">Quoting <a href="/profile/2H4" class="quote" target="_blank">2H4</a> (<a href="#2" class="quote">Reply 2</a>):<br/><i>What a cool idea for a thread. Here are a couple unr...
Jump to postI rode on United Airlines' DC-8 Series 71s several times. I often ended up seated in the back and I remember that the fuselage deflection and twist in turbulence was very noticeable.
Jump to postThere was an article in Aviation Week & Space Technology about 10 years ago, during the NATO airstrikes on Serbia, that said that during the 24 hour+ missions the two-person B-2 crews would put a folding cot in the open area behind the ejection seats. One pilot would sleep while the other flew d...
Jump to postIf that TSA poster is real, they used a crappy picture - poor contrast and far from level.
Jump to post<table border="0" align="CENTER" width="95%" class="quote"><tr><td><font size="2" face="ARIAL, Helvetica, Geneva" color="#9A9DA0">Quoting <a href="/profile/keesje" class="quote" target="_blank">keesje</a> (<a href="#8" class="quote">Reply 8</a>):<br/><i>I'm ashamed to admit I do not recognize this b...
Jump to post<table border="0" align="CENTER" width="95%" class="quote"><tr><td><font size="2" face="ARIAL, Helvetica, Geneva" color="#9A9DA0">Quoting <a href="/profile/Starlionblue" class="quote" target="_blank">Starlionblue</a> (<a href="#3" class="quote">Reply 3</a>):<br/><i>Wow, thanks for the great replies ...
Jump to post<table border="0" align="CENTER" width="95%" class="quote"><tr><td><font size="2" face="ARIAL, Helvetica, Geneva" color="#9A9DA0">Quoting <a href="/profile/B777LRF" class="quote" target="_blank">B777LRF</a> (<a href="#15" class="quote">Reply 15</a>):<br/><i>An aerodynamicist of some fame once told m...
Jump to post<table border="0" align="CENTER" width="95%" class="quote"><tr><td><font size="2" face="ARIAL, Helvetica, Geneva" color="#9A9DA0">Quoting <a href="/profile/soon7x7" class="quote" target="_blank">soon7x7</a> (<a href="#4" class="quote">Reply 4</a>):<br/><i>Aviation Partners first developed winglet ki...
Jump to postAs BMI727 indicated, Soviet and Chinese aircraft procured by the US<acronym title="Air France">AF</acronym> were given F-11x (actually <acronym title="Canadian Armed Forces">YF</acronym>-11x) numbers. Some were: <acronym title="Canadian Armed Forces">YF</acronym>-110B: MiG-21F-13 <acronym title="Can...
Jump to postHere are a few: A launch pad at Baikonur: <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Baikonur_CIA_U-2.gif" target="_blank"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Baikonur_CIA_U-2.gif" width="650" height="558" alt="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c...
Jump to postLast I heard, Boeing has a hiring freeze. Lots of money is going out on the 787 and 747-8, so they are tightening their belts.
Jump to postHere is an interesting question: what happened to the Iraqi pilot who launched the missiles? The US has occupied Iraq now for seven years. Was he arrested? Is he part of the new Iraq AF?
Jump to post