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G-man
2/25/2021 1:14pm
2/25/2021 1:14pm
Edited Date/Time
11/25/2022 2:42pm
Just like motorcycles if not more so due to funding and military aircraft, the advancement of aerospace throughout the years is pretty dang amazing.
An aerial view of the Northrop "Flying Wings" at the Northrop plant in Hawthorne, taken in 1949. John Northrop, who had previously designed aircraft for Donald Douglas, set up his own company and tried tail-less aircraft. He built several smaller flying wings before designing and building the piston-powered B-35. The later version of the flying wing involved converting some B-35s to jet power, which became the B-49. The Air Force tried both versions but they did not have enough flight stability to accurately drop bombs. The Air Force chose the B-36 and later the B-52 and ordered that all the remaining B-35's and B-49's be cut up for scrap, thus none were saved for museums. The reason for the scrapping was a dispute between Secretary of the Air Force Stuart Symington and John Northrop, as Symington wanted Northrop to merge his smaller company with a larger aircraft maker like Consolidated. Northrop refused and quit the company. Many years later, John Northrop was shown a model of the flying wing B-2, which had the same wing dimensions as did his original Flying Wings. He wept with emotion after realizing that the Air Force had finally adopted his idea. He died shortly after. Photo from the Security Pacific National Bank Collection, Los Angeles Public Library.
An aerial view of the Northrop "Flying Wings" at the Northrop plant in Hawthorne, taken in 1949. John Northrop, who had previously designed aircraft for Donald Douglas, set up his own company and tried tail-less aircraft. He built several smaller flying wings before designing and building the piston-powered B-35. The later version of the flying wing involved converting some B-35s to jet power, which became the B-49. The Air Force tried both versions but they did not have enough flight stability to accurately drop bombs. The Air Force chose the B-36 and later the B-52 and ordered that all the remaining B-35's and B-49's be cut up for scrap, thus none were saved for museums. The reason for the scrapping was a dispute between Secretary of the Air Force Stuart Symington and John Northrop, as Symington wanted Northrop to merge his smaller company with a larger aircraft maker like Consolidated. Northrop refused and quit the company. Many years later, John Northrop was shown a model of the flying wing B-2, which had the same wing dimensions as did his original Flying Wings. He wept with emotion after realizing that the Air Force had finally adopted his idea. He died shortly after. Photo from the Security Pacific National Bank Collection, Los Angeles Public Library.
With regards to the advancement of aviation, its crazy to think that in less than the span of a lifetime humans went from powered flight being something out of a crazy dream to supersonic jets and space shuttles.
When the Air Force decides it needs a new aircraft to fight a new threat...they have to get funding from congress...this takes time. IF congress gives the green light then industry is given the optimal capabilities they require for defeating the threat....and if the numbers look good...the companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars designing an aircraft that will come as close as possible to the "optimal" requirements requested. This takes time.
When the manufacturers produce a "prototype" they have to test it in house...to make sure it is safe enough to hand off to the Air Force for testing against the competitors submissions. This takes time.
While all this time has passed...the congress has changed, the military hierarchy has changed, the threat has changed and DARPA has a ton of new technologies that have changed.
Many very excellent aircraft have died on the vine because of these constantly changing factors.
The Shop
My grandpa literally would have gone from driving in a horse and carriage to flying in a commercial aircraft.
From literally it taking weeks to send/receive a message, to playing mortal combat with a friend in Vietnam. (Yes I did slip in a reference to Cable Guy)
Just absolutely mind blowing what all took place in that 100 year time line.
I always thought the Victor looked pretty nuts as well.
I have my NATOPS manual around somewhere. Launch the Alert 5 tanker!
The sand pits at Lakenheath village is where I spent most of my time riding. I had to be pretty sneaky riding back roads from RAF Mildenhall to Lakenheath. There was a turkey farm on the route. The Yamaha 400 really upset the birds. It cost me a couple of bottles of Jack Daniels to get the farmer to not turn me in to the bobbies.
What a great time I had back then.
Pit Row
Luckily my neighbor's Dad who also coached me in Little League helped get me my first Aviation job at Lockheed in 1979, the L-1011 was the smoothest Airliner in the sky.
It would also be the 1st time I would be blind-sided with a layoff, we never knew it was coming but they just stopped the program.
Ever since Aviation/Corporate America has been a roller coaster ride for me.
https://simpleflying.com/lockheed-l1011-tristar-rise-and-fall/amp/
The L 1011 was a superior aircraft to the DC10. But the DC10 was out first and that put us under.
They had issues with Engines falling off due to maintenance procedures on installing them incorrectly with a forklift.
"Across the skies
There were several fans of the L-1011 during its production run. TWA praised it as one of the safest planes in the world. Meanwhile, Delta Air Lines became the L-1011 TriStar’s biggest customer receiving 70 units. The Atlanta-based carrier would fly five variants of the type; the L-1011-1, -100, -200, -250, and -500."
Would you have rather had your dad fly in the DC10 and the engine fall off? You might not be here if he was one of those unlucky pilots.
Everybody is entitled to an opinion but the overall status and safety record of the L-1011 was good.
http://www.airsafe.com/events/models/dc10.htm
https://simpleflying.com/dc-10-1979-grounding/amp/
https://tulsaworld.com/archive/aftermath-of-dc-10-crash-still-impacts-i…
As far as aircraft flaws...I have never heard of ANY aircraft ever built...no matter how much the pilots, mechanics, or passengers loved them...that didn't have some system or characteristic that was subpar in some way. I've worked planes that just never broke...spent more time polishing tools and sweeping the hanger floor than turning wrenches...but the pilots hated them. Conversely, I've had pilots get out of the cockpit with a shit eating grin and it's taken a week to get that thing flyable again.
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