Some cool precision engineering solutions pictures:
Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: south hangar panorama, including Grumman F6F-three Hellcat, North American P-51C “Excalibur III”, Grumman G-22 “Gulfhawk II”, Boeing 367-80 (707) Jet Transport among other folks
Image by Chris Devers
Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Grumman F6F-three Hellcat:
The Grumman F6F Hellcat was originally conceived as an advanced version of the U.S. Navy’s then current front-line fighter, the F4F Wildcat (see NASM collection). The Wildcat’s intended replacement, the Vought F4U Corsair (see NASM collection), 1st flown in 1940, was showing excellent guarantee, but improvement was slowed by issues, including the crash of the prototype.
The National Air and Space Museum’s F6F-3 Hellcat, BuNo. 41834, was constructed at Grumman’s Bethpage, New York, factory in February 1944 below contract NOA-(S)846. It was delivered to the Navy on February 7, and arrived in San Diego, California, on the 18th. It was assigned to Fighter Squadron 15 (VF-15) on USS Hornet (CV12) bound for Hawaii. On arrival, it was assigned to VF-3 where it sustained harm in a wheels-up landing at NAS Barbers Point, Hawaii. Soon after repair, it was assigned to VF-83 where it was utilized in a training part till February 21, 1945. Following numerous transfers 41834 was converted to an F6F-3K target drone with the installation of sophisticated radio-manage equipment. It was painted red with a pink tail that carried the number 14. Its mission was to be utilised in Operation Crossroads – the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll. It flew on June 24, 1946, with a pilot, on a practice flight and was launched, unmanned, quickly after the 1st bomb test. Instrumentation on board and photographic plates taped to the control stick obtained data on radioactivity. 3 much more manned flights preceded the final unmanned flight on July 25, 1946, which evaluated the very first underwater explosion. Records indicate that exposure of this aircraft to the radioactive cloud was minimal and residual radiation is negligible.
F6F-3K 41834 was transferred to NAS Norfolk and logged its last flight on March 25, 1947, with a total of 430.2 flying hours. It was assigned to the National Air Museum on November three, 1948, and remained at Norfolk until October 4, 1960, when it was moved by barge to Washington and placed in storage. In 1976 this Hellcat was loaned to the USS Yorktown Museum at Charleston, South Carolina. A superficial restoration was performed at the museum, but due to the fact of the harsh atmosphere and its poor condition the Hellcat was returned to NASM on March 16, 1982. In 1983, it was sent to Grumman Aerospace exactly where a group of volunteers totally restored the aircraft. In 1985, it was shipped back to the Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration and Storage Facility in Suitland, Maryland, and place in storage. NASM’s F6F-three Hellcat is scheduled to be displayed in the new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy center at Dulles International Airport in Virginia in 2004.
Transferred from the United States Navy.
Manufacturer:
Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation
Date:
1943
Country of Origin:
United States of America
Dimensions:
Overall: 338 x 1021cm, 4092kg, 1304cm (11ft 1 1/16in. x 33ft five 15/16in., 9021.2lb., 42ft 9 three/8in.)
Physical Description:
Heavy armor plate, reinforced empennage, R-2800-10W engine, spring tabs on the ailerons (enhanced maneuverability), could carry rockets as properly as bombs.
• • • • •
Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | North American P-51C, "Excalibur III":
On May 29, 1951, Capt. Charles F. Blair flew Excalibur III from Norway across the North Pole to Alaska in a record-setting 10½ hours. Employing a technique of meticulously plotted "sun lines" he developed, Blair was in a position to navigate with precision where conventional magnetic compasses often failed. Four months earlier, he had flown Excalibur III from New York to London in significantly less than 8 hours, breaking the existing mark by more than an hour.
Excalibur III 1st belonged to famed aviator A. Paul Mantz, who added extra fuel tanks for lengthy-distance racing to this standard P-51C fighter. With it Mantz won the 1946 and 1947 Bendix air race and set a transcontinental speed record in 1947 when the airplane was named Blaze of Noon. Blair bought it from Mantz in 1949 and renamed it Excalibur III, after the Sikorsky VS-44 flying boat he flew for American Export Airlines.
Present of Pan American Planet Airways
Manufacturer:
North American Aircraft Firm
Date:
1944
Country of Origin:
United States of America
Dimensions:
Wingspan: 11.three m (37 ft)
Length: 9.eight m (32 ft three in)
Height: three.9 m (12 ft 10 in)
Weight, empty: four,445 kg (9,800 lb)
Weight, gross: 5,052 kg (11,800 lb)
Best speed: 700 km/h (435 mph)
Materials:
Overall: Aluminum
Physical Description:
Single seat, single engine, low wing monoplane, Planet War II fighter modified for racing.
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Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Grumman G-22 "Gulfhawk II":
One particular of the most fascinating aerobatic aircraft of the 1930s and ’40s, the Grumman Gulfhawk II was constructed for retired naval aviator and air show pilot Al Williams. As head of the Gulf Oil Company’s aviation division, Williams flew in military and civilian air shows around the country, performing precision aerobatics and dive-bombing maneuvers to market military aviation during the interwar years.
The sturdy civilian biplane, with its strong aluminum monocoque fuselage and Wright Cyclone engine, nearly matched the Grumman F3F standard Navy fighter, which was operational at the time. It took its orange paint scheme from Williams’ Curtiss 1A Gulfhawk, also in the Smithsonian’s collection. Williams personally piloted the Gulfhawk II on its final flight in 1948 to Washington’s National Airport.
Present of Gulf Oil Corporation
Manufacturer:
Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation
Date:
1936
Nation of Origin:
United States of America
Dimensions:
Wingspan: 8.7 m (28 ft 7 in)
Length: 7 m (23 ft)
Height: three.1 m (10 ft)
Weight, aerobatic: 1,625 kg (3,583 lb)
Weight, gross: 1,903 kg (4,195 lb)
Prime speed: 467 km/h (290 mph)
Engine: Wright Cyclone R-1820-G1, 1,000 hp
Components:
Fuselage: steel tube with aluminum alloy
Wings: aluminum spars and ribs with fabric cover
Physical Description:
NR1050. Aerobatic biplane flown by Key Alford "Al" Williams as demonstration aircraft for Gulf Oil Business. Similar to Grumman F3F single-seat fighter aircraft flown by the U.S. Navy. Wright Cyclone R-1820-G1 engine, 1000 hp.
• • • • •
Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Boeing 367-80 Jet Transport:
On July 15, 1954, a graceful, swept-winged aircraft, bedecked in brown and yellow paint and powered by 4 revolutionary new engines initial took to the sky above Seattle. Built by the Boeing Aircraft Company, the 367-80, far better recognized as the Dash 80, would come to revolutionize commercial air transportation when its created version entered service as the well-known Boeing 707, America’s initial jet airliner.
In the early 1950s, Boeing had begun to study the possibility of generating a jet-powered military transport and tanker to complement the new generation of Boeing jet bombers entering service with the U.S. Air Force. When the Air Force showed no interest, Boeing invested million of its personal capital to create a prototype jet transport in a daring gamble that the airlines and the Air Force would buy it after the aircraft had flown and confirmed itself. As Boeing had accomplished with the B-17, it risked the business on one particular roll of the dice and won.
Boeing engineers had initially primarily based the jet transport on studies of improved designs of the Model 367, much better recognized to the public as the C-97 piston-engined transport and aerial tanker. By the time Boeing progressed to the 80th iteration, the design and style bore no resemblance to the C-97 but, for safety reasons, Boeing decided to let the jet project be identified as the 367-80.
Function proceeded rapidly following the formal commence of the project on May 20, 1952. The 367-80 mated a large cabin primarily based on the dimensions of the C-97 with the 35-degree swept-wing design and style based on the wings of the B-47 and B-52 but considerably stiffer and incorporating a pronounced dihedral. The wings were mounted low on the fuselage and incorporated high-speed and low-speed ailerons as nicely as a sophisticated flap and spoiler method. Four Pratt & Whitney JT3 turbojet engines, every single creating 10,000 pounds of thrust, had been mounted on struts beneath the wings.
Upon the Dash 80’s 1st flight on July 15, 1954, (the 34th anniversary of the founding of the Boeing Firm) Boeing clearly had a winner. Flying 100 miles per hour quicker than the de Havilland Comet and substantially larger, the new Boeing had a maximum range of much more than three,500 miles. As hoped, the Air Force bought 29 examples of the design and style as a tanker/transport right after they convinced Boeing to widen the style by 12 inches. Satisfied, the Air Force designated it the KC-135A. A total of 732 KC-135s have been constructed.
Speedily Boeing turned its interest to selling the airline business on this new jet transport. Clearly the sector was impressed with the capabilities of the prototype 707 but never far more so than at the Gold Cup hydroplane races held on Lake Washington in Seattle, in August 1955. For the duration of the festivities surrounding this event, Boeing had gathered numerous airline representatives to appreciate the competitors and witness a fly past of the new Dash 80. To the audience’s intense delight and Boeing’s profound shock, test pilot Alvin "Tex" Johnston barrel-rolled the Dash 80 more than the lake in full view of thousands of astonished spectators. Johnston vividly displayed the superior strength and overall performance of this new jet, readily convincing the airline business to get this new airliner.
In searching for a market place, Boeing discovered a prepared buyer in Pan American Airway’s president Juan Trippe. Trippe had been spending considerably of his time browsing for a suitable jet airliner to allow his pioneering business to keep its leadership in international air travel. Functioning with Boeing, Trippe overcame Boeing’s resistance to widening the Dash-80 style, now identified as the 707, to seat six passengers in every single seat row rather than five. Trippe did so by placing an order with Boeing for 20 707s but also ordering 25 of Douglas’s competing DC-8, which had yet to fly but could accommodate six-abreast seating. At Pan Am’s insistence, the 707 was created 4 inches wider than the Dash 80 so that it could carry 160 passengers six-abreast. The wider fuselage created for the 707 became the regular design and style for all of Boeing’s subsequent narrow-body airliners.
Even though the British de Havilland D.H. 106 Comet and the Soviet Tupolev Tu-104 entered service earlier, the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-eight had been larger, faster, had greater variety, and had been much more profitable to fly. In October 1958 Pan American ushered the jet age into the United States when it opened international service with the Boeing 707 in October 1958. National Airlines inaugurated domestic jet service two months later using a 707-120 borrowed from Pan Am. American Airlines flew the 1st domestic 707 jet service with its own aircraft in January 1959. American set a new speed mark when it opened the 1st frequently-scheduled transcontinental jet service in 1959. Subsequent nonstop flights between New York and San Francisco took only 5 hours – 3 hours significantly less than by the piston-engine DC-7. The one-way fare, such as a surcharge for jet service, was 5.50, or 1 round trip. The flight was nearly 40 % faster and virtually 25 % cheaper than flying by piston-engine airliners. The consequent surge of traffic demand was substantial.
The 707 was initially created for transcontinental or a single-stop transatlantic range. But modified with added fuel tanks and far more effective turbofan engines, the 707-300 Intercontinental series aircraft could fly nonstop across the Atlantic with full payload beneath any conditions. Boeing constructed 855 707s, of which 725 had been purchased by airlines worldwide.
Obtaining launched the Boeing Organization into the industrial jet age, the Dash 80 soldiered on as a very effective experimental aircraft. Till its retirement in 1972, the Dash 80 tested numerous sophisticated systems, a lot of of which had been incorporated into later generations of jet transports. At one particular point, the Dash 80 carried 3 different engine sorts in its four nacelles. Serving as a test bed for the new 727, the Dash 80 was briefly equipped with a fifth engine mounted on the rear fuselage. Engineers also modified the wing in planform and contour to study the effects of distinct airfoil shapes. Many flap configurations were also fitted including a highly sophisticated method of "blown" flaps which redirected engine exhaust over the flaps to improve lift at low speeds. Fin height and horizontal stabilizer width was later elevated and at one point, a specific several wheel low pressure landing gear was fitted to test the feasibility of operating future heavy military transports from unprepared landing fields.
After a long and distinguished profession, the Boeing 367-80 was ultimately retired and donated to the Smithsonian in 1972. At present, the aircraft is installated at the National Air and Space Museum’s new facility at Washington Dulles International Airport.
Gift of the Boeing Organization
Manufacturer:
Boeing Aircraft Co.
Date:
1954
Nation of Origin:
United States of America
Dimensions:
Height 19′ 2": Length 73′ 10": Wing Span 129′ eight": Weight 33,279 lbs.
Physical Description:
Prototype Boeing 707 yellow and brown.
