One more…
Apr 202012
Apr 192012
So a 757 flies into a flock of birds on takeoff from JFK International, has a strike on one of the engines and returns for a safe landing. Modestly newsworthy. A passenger takes a video of the birdstrike; modestly newsworthy. News anchor demonstrates a stunning lack of knowledge of the aircraft involved: priceless.
Watch the video.
Apr 182012
This one’s better.
Apr 182012
An animation from NASA-Langley, 1972, showing structural/vibrational responses of an early Space Shuttle configuration. While hardly “Avatar,” it’s certainly interesting to see such early CGI.
[youtube D-b6ko4wbZ0]
Three years later, Case Western Reserve University produced another structural response video, this time of an SST configuration. In those three years, some pretty obvious advances were made.
[youtube LsN1V8d7-8c]
Apr 172012
A panoramic view of the X-15A-2 on display at the national Air & Space Museum. This view shows the problem inherent with taking a panoramic shot of something from up close… it just looks *wrong.*
Apr 172012
Awesome, if true:
Spitfires buried in Burma during war to be returned to UK
… in July 1945, officials fearing a Japanese occupation abandoned them on the orders of Lord Louis Mountbatten, the head of South East Asia Command, two weeks before the atom bombs were dropped, ending the conflict.
“They were just buried there in transport crates,” Mr Cundall said. “They were waxed, wrapped in greased paper and their joints tarred. They will be in near perfect condition.”
Giggity. Now, if only the same could be said of a six-pack of B-29s…
Apr 152012
I missed it by a day:
Sixty years on, the B-52 is still going strong
It was 60 years ago today, on April 15, 1952, that a B-52 prototype built by Boeing took off on its maiden flight. The 1950s-vintage B-52s are no longer in the U.S. Air Force inventory, but the 90 or so that remain on active duty (a total of 744 were built, counting all models) aren’t that much younger. They’re all the H model of the B-52, delivered between May 1961 and October 1962.
The B-52 is expected to make it to at least 2040.
On the one hand, it’s impressive that the design has lasted this long. Ont he other hand, it’s sad that nothing better has come along.
Apr 152012
The proposed X-15A-3 was a stretched, delta-winged version intended for extended duration flight at Mach 6+. As with the X-15 and X-15A-2 versions, the plan was to launch the X-15A-3 from a B-52 underwing pylong. However, North American Aviation proposed launching it from atop a B-70 bomber. The theory was that the B-70 could get the X-15 up to around Mach 3 prior to separation, thus greatly improving the rocketplanes performance. However, launchign winged vehicles from the back of supersonic aircraft is non-trivially difficult… as the M-21/D-21 crash demonstrated.
A high-rez of this can be downloaded HERE.
Apr 122012
Apr 112012
From the Fifth Semiannual Report to Congress (NASA, 1961) comes a photo of a supersonic transport wind tunnel model. This configuration would have been quite difficult to translate into a practical airliner design; while the dedication to area ruling would have made it quite low drag at supersonic, it would have made manufacturing a nightmare. Additionally, the severe wasp-waisting of the fuselage would have made not only the structural design of the pressure vessel a challenge, it would have made the passenger seating layout quite a mess.
