jet age

The Boeing SST in its various guises seemed to be the future of civil aviation and the 747 was designed to be converted easily to cargo lifting when the 2707s arrived in the late 70s. Even Air France and BOAC planned to operate them alongside the Concordes expected to be in service some years...

The A-12 and the later SR-71 used the NAS-14v2 astro-inertial navigation system (ANS) from the 1960s, which was particularly interesting in the pre-GPS times. The set apparently looked like this...

Was wondering if anyone else remembered this little Tex Avery short from their childhood.

Messerschmitt Me 262 Development & Politics by Dan Sharp There are many myths surrounding the development of the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter. Its unparalleled performance is beyond doubt; easily able to outpace its opponents and possessing the firepower to shred them in seconds. Yet...

So I was reading " concorde and the Americans" and one of the things that caught my eye was that neither Britain or France were each others first choice. Britain originally wanted to work with America inorder to build the first supersonic jet, but the Americans were set on there mach 2.7 speed...

Germany was experimenting with various VTOL aircraft during the cold war in the end they didn't go for any of them. in this alternate scenario.. what if Germany did order some into production? 1. Which design would be the most likely to lead to operation? they had the VAK 191, DO 31 (this...

MiG-19 Fake

Back in the 1960s Boeing was telling everyone that its Supersonic 2707 transport would be the must-have airliner for the 1970s. Some 26 airlines took out options on the plane. There is a comprehensive thread about the US designs on this site, but no illustrations of the artwork Boeing must have...

Sad news, John Farley has passed away. https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/obituary-john-farley-the-harriers-champion-449661/

The arrival of a new book on the F8 Crusader got me thinking of the old chestnut of giving the RN a fighter for Ark, Eagle, Victorious and Hermes I have always felt that if we had done what France did and purchased the F8 we could have kept a carrier force as long as the French did. We could...

The Thunderbirds series from the 1960s featured in its first episode a wonderful airliner called Fireflash, which was totally improbable but looked very cool. In the series it crops up in a few episodes in the livery of "Air Terrainean", a sort of mixture of Pan American and BOAC. However, in...

Sad news: http://aviationweek.com/commercial-aviation/joe-sutter-father-747-dies-95 I was just watching him in this BBC documentary a few days ago: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03wtnfv/jumbo-the-plane-that-changed-the-world A great loss - the designer of an iconic aircraft.

Boeing KC-135 model with winglets found on eBay. Source: http://www.ebay.com/itm/NASA-USAF-AIR-FORCE-KC-135-WINGLETS-MODEL-KC135-/251161721311?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a7a67b9df Seller's description:

I found this online - a view of the D-558-2 I've never seen before (note original cockpit canopy). Credit Life magazine - Steve Pace

Vladimir Sergeevich Ilyushin was born on 31 March, 1927, the eldest son of leading Soviet aircraft designer Sergei Vladimirovich Ilyushin. Ilyushin's father was a favoured member of the Soviet establishment. It may be noted that aircraft designer Tupolev blamed Ilyushin's father for the...

Over many years I have gathered together brochures and artwork (cards ads etc) for the Boeing SST So far I have artwork for the following: Airlift (photo of broken model from ebay) Alitalia (drawing in brochure) Braniff (image from Internet site) Continental (photo of model in brochure-meatball...

Technical Report http://naca.central.cranfield.ac.uk/reports/arc/cp/0815.pdf

The AP-76 was one of the neatest-looking of the X-15 contenders... and also the poorest performer of the bunch. Looks ain't everything. BLATANT COMMERCIALISM WARNING.... Along with the AP-76, I just added a slew of new items. The AP-76 report is a prime example of how a design *should* be...

Got this form Groggy on the TGP site http://www.tgplanes.com/Public/snitz/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1268 “The L.R.1 bomber project was first submitted to the Ministry of Aircraft Production late in 1944” and “In May, 1945 a project was prepared for a transatlantic civil transport powered by four...

According to Key Publishing (I just hate this forum, so don't ask me why I browse there!) there had been studies for an improved concorde. - No reheat - another stage compressor on the engines - 25% more range - leading edge slats - more fuel Of course, this went to nothing because of the...