First Commercial Airliner with pressurized cabin AND HALIBURTON LUGGAGE Turn on sound

http://www.twaseniorsclub.org/twavideo/twastratoliner.html

John P-aka FTroopChief

 

What a neat video! Can't get the sound to work on my computer but it was fun to watch anyway.

Quiz time:

What plane was the wings and tailplane lifted from?

What was the first airplane that could earn a profit by carrying passengers only?

Who was the first person to fly across the Atlantic (trick question here)?

 

I would guess the C-46,

The Junkers tri-motor

Wiley Post, Lindberg was 1st non-stop

What type Aircraft took the first color photo of the Eye of a Hurricane--from ABOVE IT?

 

WINGS AND TAIL FROM B-29?

 

The video was quite a hoot. Passenger travel from a different era has everyone dressed well and treated like kings. This will be a far cry from being stuffed into a cattle car for a non-stop Rome this Saturday. And the guys with hats? I won't even take a cap for fear of it being crushed.

Don't want to get into a rant here, but over the 40 years I've been using commercial air they have slowly but surely squeezed all of the fun out it. I think the next step will be pay toilets in the air.

 

What plane was the wings and tailplane lifted from?

C-46 bzzzzzzzt!, B-29 another bzzzzzzzt but closer. The wings and tailplane were taken from the B-17. I'd have to check pictures but I believe even the landing gear is the same.

What was the first airplane that could earn a profit by carrying passengers only?

Tri-motor. This may be correct but not the answer I was aiming for. The German government may have subsidized the German airline industry or may not have. If they didn't then the Tri-motor was probably the first. I should have specified in the US. Anyway, the Douglas DC-2 was the first plane in the US that could turn a profit with passengers only. Previous airlines and planes supplemented earnings by hauling cargo, the most lucrative being the mail. The DC-2 was stretched and the resulting plane became the DC-3. DC stood for Douglas Commercial.

Who was the first person to fly across the Atlantic (trick question here)?

Wiley Post went round the world but was not the first to cross the Atlantic. Think Lucky Lin........

What type Aircraft took the first color photo of the Eye of a Hurricane--from ABOVE IT?

My turn. Color film and hurricane most likely places this after WWII. From above would need an aircraft with high altitude performance. I'm going to go with your favorite and nominate the RB-57.

The day the airlines introduce pay toilets is the day I do my business outside the toilet on the door.

 

The first nonstop crossing of the Atlantic was made by Alcock and Brown in a modified Vickers Vimy bomber in 1919 from St. James, Newfoundland to a bog in Ireland.

The first crossing of the Atlantic was made a couple of months earlier by a U.S. Navy crew in the Curtiss NC-4 which stopped for fuel in the Azores.

 

 

The B-17 had as many alpha designations as the B-57. A thru G. The 307 was listed as having been the recipient of the B-17 wing and tailplane but no model given. Pic below shows 2 B-17Es and 1 B-17D, 1942


DINNNGGGG on the EYE. The RB-57F is credited with the first COLOR photo flying OVER TOP of a hurricane.
http://www.internetmodeler.com/awn/9...mber/rb-57.htm

Curtiss NC-4 -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia
In 1919 a Curtiss NC-4 flying boat accomplished the first aerial crossing of the Atlantic—between Newfoundland and Lisbon, with a stop in the Azores—under ...
www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/147210/Curtiss-NC-4 -

At the request of the American Army Air Service, Fokker developed the F.4 in 1920, which held 11 passengers. The F.4 set records for endurance, distance, and speed, peaking in 1922 with the first non-stop coast-to-coast flight, when Army Air Service pilots Oakley Kelly and John McReady flew from New York to San Diego, California, in 26 hours, 51 minutes.

Fokker established a company in the United States in 1924, the Atlantic Aircraft Company, which later became the General Aviation Corporation. There, he developed the Fokker F.7 Trimotor. Licenses to build the Trimotor were given to factories in seven countries as well as in Fokker’s U.S. plants. Juan Trippe’s Pan American Airways bought the Trimotor and other airlines followed. The Fokker Trimotor, along with the Ford Trimotor 4-AT, became the commercial airliner of the early years of aviation.

The RB/WB-57F was my favorite due to it's uniqueness and the lack of public knowledge of an unclassified Aircraft (except for 5) that often had missions above Top Secret.
John P

 

And another ding! ding! ding! ding! I like to throw in Lindbergh for confusion fun. Lindbergh was the first person to cross the Atlantic solo, he was something like the 92nd or 93rd person to actually fly across the Atlantic.

Neat pic FTroopChief. What's interesting about the B-17 was that even though it was designed in the mid thirties, it was still a viable weapon ten years later when the war ended. Those 10 years saw tremendous leaps in aircraft technology and performance and yet the B-17 wasn't really eclipsed until the B-29 came out. But that's nothing compared to the B-52. The youngest was built over 40 years ago and the Air Force plans on flying them until 2030s. Back then Boeing sure knew how to build them.

The Tri-Motors, from both Fokker and Ford (how many knew Ford was once in the airplane building business?), were the first practical and somewhat safe airliners. They still needed to haul cargo to make money for their airlines though.

Any chance we can read about super Top Secret RB-57 flights?

 

NICE find Ftroopchief, I have worked on a bunch of different birds... one even mentioned in this thread! (surprisingly enough) the Ford Trimotor... and oddly enough, it is not the only trimotor I have wrenched... I know that when you hear about the other smaller one you will probably recognize it as a twin... but there were TWO made as trimotors... the Beechcraft D-18 one was destroyed, and the other one was donated to an aviation school in alabama... where i went... originally, the pair were built to be engine testbeds, and what better place to test out an engine than ON a plane! so, the third nacelle was the standard nose position, and was done to safely test new designs for Continental engines in Mobile Alabama...

Seannon

Also, with Ike heading kinda our way, I may or may not make it this sunday for the ride... work is calling for mandatory overtime... and I was planning SLEEP time for driving... (I work evening shift, and weekends)

 

Seannon, Don't ya just love the spit and sputter of the radial? The C-119s with the PW 4360s could wipe out a lot of ductwork when they burped in flight.
Sorry, I didn't like Ike then, and I don't like Ike now. Our GTG for the 14th has been aborted, may be rescheduled for the 21st. Keep checking the "South Forum".

John P aka FTroopChief

 

Brent, let me be as non-specific as I can and still give you some insight. Open this link and check the Missions we were involved with. http://www.internetmodeler.com/awn/9...mber/rb-57.htm
Listed on the right side are a number of Cold this and Cold that. Some are classifed but most are not. In order that we did not divulge WHO had ordered WHAT, all of our customers were referred to as CUSTOMERS because their names or xyzz designations could reveal the nature of the missions. Having said that, our aircraft were procured by the AEC for Upper Atmospheric Sampling. The US and USSR were in agreement to NOT do any above ground nuclear testing, however the French and the Chinese were not. In the event above ground testing were resumed, we had a once a year excercise where a simulated drop was made. We went bag and baggage to Johnston Atoll and at a scheduled time a B-52 took off toward the DZ, NC-135s were command planes and our F models, about 9 of them flew to the DZ. Immediately after the drop, our planes flew through the simulated "cloud" from max altitude to sea level gathering samples, both particulate and gaseaous. When the Fs landed we had to simulate de-con of aircraft and crews along with Pressure Suits.
As you know, the French and the Chinese continued to test, and when our customer ordered us, we went to South America or Europe to check the air and send the samples to the customer.
We flew GIB (Guy in Back) Scientists from LASL. LRL, Sandia Labs, NASA and others.
The hairy stuff was with three 500 series birds. They were under 24 hour armed guard wherever they were, and required a "Q" clearance to approach them. Hidden in the back pages of the Air Force Times, 14 Dec 1965, an RB57F crashed in the Black Sea killing both crew members. Officially the cause was oxygen failure but many recent documents suggest a Cold War Shootdown. Bodies never recoverd.
Being Life Support Superintendent at the 58th, I question the oxygen failure of both crewmembers in Full pressure Suits, and no attempt to bail out. Why hasn't there been any (?) attempts to recover the ejection seats from the wreckage? Several "300" tail #s flew from Yokota AFB, Japan with the 56th WRS. Two F's flew with and by the Pakistani Air Force, one almost shot down. I will try to shoot you some pics from our 1974 Year Book, especially of the underside and list of payload equipment.

John P aka FTroopChief

 

Thanks John for the link.

To me many of the declassified "Cold" missions seem fishy, as if the missions were covers for something entirely different. Maybe we will know in another 50 year.

The Black Sea crash was almost certainly a shootdown. It reminds me of a story a bubblehead (that's what we called submariners) told me. We were sharing a barracks room while attending navy schools back in the early 80s so his story stems from the cold war. According to him one time in the Indian Ocean his sub was tracking, and taunting, Soviet surface ships. In retaliation the Soviets shot rocket propelled depth charges at them. Scenarios like this supposedly happened quite often when the adversaries were out of sight.

 

Brent, here's another interesting link on both the D and the F.
http://www.spyflight.co.uk/rb57.htm The D with the "bent" wing was one of the 1211th Test Sq planes at Kirtland AFB before the org was redesignated the 58th WRS and we received the F models affectionately dubbed LONGWINGS. Holding your mouse over the pictures will identify the aircraft. There are a couple of statements I would take issue with in that the aircraft were not divided among ALL the 9th WRW Squadrons. Only the 56th and the 58h had the honor of claiming them. Also SRS was reserved for SAC and we were MAC, Air Weather Service. Had we been with Strategic Air Command, new wings and Rolls Royce Turbo Fans adding 10,000 feet for a paltry $35 Mill for the fleet, we would have gotten another 10 years from the planes. As it were we were shut down in 1974 and most of the birds boneyarded. Another misleading statement about the Black sea incident is the plane was NOT flying from Rhein main, BUT Turkey. Political sensativities did not wish to advertise that Turkey was hosting the aircraft. This link was updated in August this year and states it was a SHOOTDOWN. Be sure to read the 2006 trip of NASA unmarked F to Mildenhall with stopovers in KANDAHAR before returning to the US. Maybe it was Spielunking from a-high?
John P, now you know where I picked my AKA from.