An All Nippon Airways 767 landed a little hard, bending the fuselage:
[youtube S7pXjQ16f5c]
A “news” article about it
Jun 242012
Jun 212012
A simple NASA-Lewis concept from 1971 for a nuclear-powered subsonic transport aircraft, clearly based on the Lockheed C-5. No other data available.
Jun 212012
Meteor reports ground Colo. firefighting planes
Seems an excess of caution, given that (so far as I know) no aircraft has even been *hit* by a meteor, much less seriously damaged by one… and the fact that the aircraft were being used for an *actual* on-going emergency.
Jun 192012
The McDonnell Douglas Model 176 was a generic spaceplane design derived from the FDL-7 (Flight Dynamics Lab – USAF Wright-Pat). It was incorporated into small spaceplanes adequate for taking a few crewmembers to a space station on up to Space Shuttle competitors. Below are two pieces of art (found in the NASA HQ historical archive) showing a late 1960′s concept for a Model 176 optimized for the ILRV (Integral Launch and Recovery Vehicle) role. ILRV was one of the immediate predecessors to the Space Shuttle program.
The Model 176 was a sleek dart-like design with stubby fins. While details varied from iteration to iteration, all (or nearly all) featured high aspect ratio variable geometry wings for landing.
Jun 182012
From a 1946 NACA wind tunnel test report, a diagram of the 1/4 scale model of the Bell XS-1 (Army Project MX-653, later known as just the X-1).
A higher rez of this diagram is HERE.
Jun 182012
A NASA video about the development and NASA utilization of the Lockheed YF-12, the interceptor predecessor to the SR-71.
[youtube Z1FLEbAbl4Q]
Includes footage of a test launch of the AIM-47 missile; it looks like it was launched from low Earth orbit. Also included are images and info about early 1970’s computer finite element analysis modeling of the YF-12.
Jun 152012
Taken from a January 1947 NACA-Langley wind tunnel test report are some images describing the Naval Aircraft Factory “Float wing convoy interceptor.” This was an unconventional single-engine, single-seat fighter plane designed to be catapulted off of a ship (a cargo ship, presumably), land in the water and then be picked up by crane and returned to service. There was no landing gear. The unusual fuselage had substantially more drag than a conventional one, due to the cutout needed for the mid-ship mounted propeller. The model was 1/4 scale. Full-scale information includes:
Engine: one Ranger XV-770-9, max 625 hp
Normal gross weight: 4000 lbs
Fighter overload gross weight: 4319 lbs
Wingspan: 29.83 ft
Wing area: 160 sq. ft
It seemed to be a poor performer. Not only lots of drag, but the rudder had a tendency to shake badly. This was clearly a WWII-era design; by 1947, not only was its design obsolete, so was its role.
Jun 132012
Found in the NASA HQ Historical archives was an artists impression of a supersonic manned ramjet powered aircraft, dating to either the late war years or early postwar period. It’s a fairly sizable craft with very small wings of unusual planform, razor edges and angular cross-section. The fuselage is almost entirely engine; the cockpit is squeezed into a structure used to hold the internal “spike” diffuser.
On the whole the design looks like it’d fly extremely fast, after having been launched to altitude by a rocket booster (or carried by a large aircraft), but I certainly wouldn’t want to try to land it.
Jun 122012
Commercial air travel today sucks, with people packed in like sardines. Back in the 1930’s, long range travel – such as trans-oceanic flights – tended to give at least the higher-paying passengers a small stateroom. It has been a long time since such amenities were available. However, Singapore Airlines is instituting similar suites on some of their Airbus A380’s.
Airline offers passengers luxury private suites… complete with double bed and Italian-stitched armchair
Some photos at the link.
Jun 122012
An artists impression of the National Aero Space Plane by United Technologies/Pratt & Whitney, ca. 1989. P&W was seeking to win the contract to build not the airframe, but the scramjet propulsion system. From a brochure found in the NASA HQ historical archive.
