During WWII, the United States helped USSR with military equipment such as Jeeps, tanks and 14000 airplanes through the Land Lease program and some of these aircraft were: Bell P-39 Aircobras, Bell P-63 Kingcobras, Curtiss P-40, Douglas A-20 Havocs and North American B-25s but the soviets wanted long-range bombers also. This request was declined by…
Tag: Boeing
B-17 Flying Fortress
With all the hype around the new series ‘Masters of the air’ centered around the 100th Bomb Group, let’s take a closer look to the airplane used by them, the unforgettable B-17 Flying Fortress. The B-17 Flying Fortress is more than just a World War II aircraft: it’s a symbol of American resilience and innovation….
What to expect from 2024?
2024 has already begun, so what should we expect from the aerospace world this year? Take a small glimpse into some of the projects that will be launched during this year.
Aerospace achievements during 2023
2023 it’s coming to an end and the aerospace industry has continued to grow. Let’s review together some of the most achievements seen during this year.
Eyes in the sky
Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) is a vital component of modern air defense systems. It provides a comprehensive and integrated view of the battlefield, enabling friendly aircraft to operate effectively and neutralize potential threats. AWACS is essentially a flying radar platform that can detect aircraft, missiles, and ships at ranges of hundreds of kilometers…
Need some competition?
Boeing 737 entered service in 1968 with Lufthansa and was an instant hit. Its main competitor was McDonnell Douglas DC-9, followed by its MD-80/MD-90 but there were signs that Europe also wanted its own major aircraft. After a jointure between some of the largest aircraft manufacturers in Europe, Airbus was formed and started to design…
The Space Launch System (SLS) for Artemis I
On mid-March 2022, NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) with the Orion spacecraft was first seen by the public on its launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launcher will be subjected to a series of tests before its maiden flight in May 2022. The Space Launch System is the new super heavy-lift…
The Boeing Case
On October 29, 2018, Lion Air Flight 610 crashed into the Java Sea shortly after departing Jakarta, killing all 189 passengers and crew aboard. In short order, questions emerged about the safety record of the Indonesian budget airline and the qualifications of its pilots. Few blamed the airplane itself, a hot-off-the-presses Boeing 737 MAX jet….
The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress
Evolution is constant, slowly but unstoppable, species are born and extinct, same happens to aviation technology in a faster way. But as it happens to animals, you can find specimens that belong to cretacic eras but somehow are still alive in plein 2022, in terms of comparison; we are going to talk about the tyrannosaurus…
The queen of the skies
The first of its class Truly the first Jumbo jet, Boeing 747 also referred to as “The queen of the skies” is in service for over 50 years now. It was introduced in 1970 to the public with the now-defunct company Pan Am which wanted a large airplane that could lower the price of tickets for the average paid man. Boeing accepted the challenge and designed a four engines, two-deck airplane that now has decades of faithful service. The thing that differentiates the 747 from other airplanes is its specific hump that houses the cockpit, a feature that makes this airplane not only a great passenger aircraft but a cargo-capable one too. For Boeing 747 to become a reality, it needed a big factory which the company constructed in Everett, 50 km outside Seattle and almost three million cubic meters of earth had to be moved to make space for a queen palace. But the queen had its problems too, initially, the airplane did not meet the FAA requirements for the evacuation process which had to be done in 90 seconds, then, the pilots were not trained for such high deck airplanes so Boeing mounted a cabin above a truck to make pilots train for taxing. The 747 had problems with its structure also when tests showed that wings suffered oscillations under certain conditions but this was solved by reducing the stiffness of some wing components, however, a particularly severe high-speed flutter problem was solved only after depleted uranium counterweights were introduced in the outboard engine nacelles of the early 747s. This measure worried people, especially when these aircraft crashed, for example in 1992 in Amsterdam, the airplane had 282 kilograms of uranium in the tailplane. This and other problems did not stop Boeing from bringing the 747 to Paris Air Show in mid-1969, where it was displayed to the public for the first time. Before the end of development, the company was over $2 billion in debt to a banking syndicate, and if the airplane was a failure this could have meant the end of Boeing, but the gamble succeeded and Boeing had the only Jumbo Jet at the time and held a monopoly in this category for many years. The program’s final cost was 1 Billion US $ (7.4 Billion today). On January 15,…