PLANE TALK

In honor of Formation Friday. 

Dawn of the Narrow Bodies

Boeing 737 MAX

Airbus A320 Neo

Embraer E-175 E-190 E-195 E2

Bombardier CS100 CS 300

Irkut MC-21

COMAC C919

It gives me much pleasure to be able to confidently say that this is an exciting time in commercial aviation. Frankly, it is an unprecedented time of growth in the industry. Towards the end of the 20th Century, the regulations, complexities and expenses of commercial aviation saw a loss and monopolization of aircraft manufacturing companies worldwide. With the advent of jet engines, the technicalities and engineering of commercial airliners shot up to another realm from the radial engine classics like the DC-3. Often, manufacturers were betting the entire future of their companies on their latest product design and latter 20th century recessions gave negligent aid, leaving no second chances if the plane turned out to be a flop. Therefore winners bought out losers, and monopolization came into full effect. On the other side of the coin, the only countries that could come close to manufacturing these wondrous ocean liners in the sky, were those with the technical and economic reserves to do so, the victors of World War II. In summation, these factors have led the world to a very finite group of commercial aircraft manufacturers with the glimmer of diversity looking bleaker by the day. It is by that statement that I am proud to announce the contrary as of the 21st century. The key to reverse this downward spiral is simply, globalization.

Not to delve into international economics, but the latter portion of the 20th century and thus far into the 21st, has seen a distribution of wealth, education and industry throughout the world and amongst countries that previously had none. This is a key element of globalization. In short, this phenomenon has paved the way for aircraft manufacturers to pop up in developing countries. The other essential key of this trend is demand. With globalization, more people have more resources, reasons and interests to travel. Therefore, we see a steep increase in airline passengers year after year, and an unimaginable projected spike in the near future. The international professional service firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) predicts an increase of 33, 260 commercial airliners in the next 17 years, valuing $4 trillion[1]. It is of no surprise that manufacturing firms are taking their first steps in airliner manufacturing, to take part in the gold rush.

Of all the airliner classes, the most profitable projected by a substantial margin that is the single-aisle jets. There is an estimated 24,570 to be produced in 17 years[2]. This is the class of narrow body, single-aisle 100-200 seat, medium range planes of 2,000- 4,000nm. Unsurprisingly, this is the class where there is much growth. At the end of the 20th Century, the main producers of airplanes in this class were Boeing with the 737 and Airbus with the A320. Today we see multiple companies, from many nations vying for their share of this market. In Brazil, Embraer took at step above their regional turboprop commuters and developed the E-Jets. Although, at the smaller end of the narrow-body class, they are redesigning their E-Jet family (E-175, E-190, E-195) to the E2 jets to be overall more cost effective and higher passenger occupancy for two of the three models. All these modifications are to cater towards the upcoming escalation of commercial air travel. Canada’s Bombardier is rising from its previous stature of regional jet manufacturer. They are in development of the C-series (CS100, CS300) of narrow bodies, the CS100 being in the lower portion of the class and the CS300 in the core to compete directly with Airbus and Boeing. The CS100 took its first flight in 2013. China has emerged to compete with their Commercial Aircraft Company of China (COMAC) C919. COMAC is in advanced stages of their first plane, the ARJ21 regional jet, and currently is attempting to break into the medium range class. COMAC markets their plane to be a cost effective solution to the more pricey 737s and A320s. The unit price is projected to be $10 million less than the cheapest Airbus or Boeing. Finally, Russia is updating their historical presence in narrow-bodies by Irkut’s MC-21. While Russia already has a plane that fit the specifications of this narrow body class, Tupolev’s 204, the Tu-204 was designed to be a direct competitor to the 757, thus it is on the larger fringes of the class and far less economical than the 737 and A320. On the other hand, the MC-21 promises to be a direct competitor to the current narrow-body medium range jets, with its smaller, lighter, and modern airframe and engines.  

Needless to say, narrow body medium range airliners are the future of aviation and Boeing and Airbus, who once dominated that market now have many competitors on the horizon. They have taken steps to upgrade their classic designs with the A320 Neo and 737 MAX, both of whom are in development at the present. As all these manufacturers approach the advanced stages of testing, and final orders are placed it will be no mystery that Boeing and Airbus will still be on top for sales in the coming decade, but it will be interesting to see where the other manufacturers find their niche and how their planes perform in service. Where will their potential successes take them in the future, eventually up to the ranks of the two current giants? This dawn of narrow-bodies has opened up an international arms race type fervor in commercial aviation, reinvigorating diversity back into the industry.  

[1] http://www.pwc.com/us/en/industrial-products/commercial-aircraft-industry-future/globalization-new-markets-and-manufacturers.jhtml

America's Parasite Fighter Programs

Republic F-84 Thunderjet

McDonnell XF-85 Goblin

Curtiss F9C Sparrowhawk

Convair B-36 Peacemaker

Boeing B-29 Superfortress

In the early jet age, when the United States' most offensive weapon were large, nuclear armed bombers, the fate of America's attack/ retaliation efforts laid heavily on these lumbering, poorly defended planes that made easy targets in the sky. These were the late 1940s and early 1950s, when jet fighters were just becoming capable, yet jet powered bombers were still in their infancy. The mainstay of USAF's SAC consisted of Boeing B-29s, Boeing B-50s and Convair B-36s. All of which decent, proven and reliable aircrafts, but also very slow, low altitude and poorly defended against near supersonic Soviet jets. The main adversary being the MiG 15, perfectly designed to down those planes by having rates of climb at 10,000ft/min, max speeds of 620mph and packing a 37mm cannon engineered precisely for the destruction of American bombers. In the previous years during World War II, the USAF protected their bombers via fighter escorts, but with the new, fuel hungry fighters that were being introduced, the ranges of escorts were shamefully minimal, thus leaving bombers starkly vulnerable. This was before the incorporated use of mid-air refueling, so it was for this reason the parasite fighter programs were reevaluated.

The Parasite program tested during the jet age got its start from previous programs of decades before. From World War I through the 1930s, tiny biplane scout and fighter aircraft were utilized as defensive means for airships and dirigibles. These biplanes were carried on hoists within the airships, lowered down into the slipstream, and released like bombs when under attack or in need of surveillance. The pilots would then skillfully maneuver their planes to hook back onto the hoists once the mission was complete. The forgotten Naval airships of the 1930s, the USS Akron and USS Macon both of which approached the size of clouds at over 780 ft in length by 130ft diameter, used the Curtiss F9C Sparrowhawk biplane for scouting and defensive missions. After the crash of both dirigibles, the US Navy abandoned its lighter-than-air initiative and thus the parasite fighters to protect them.

It wasn't until the post World War II years that out of desperation of bomber protection, one of the options the USAF considered were parasite fighter trials, this time with bomber planes instead of dirigibles. This program is now regarded as one of the most bold, daring and dangerous experiments the USAF undertook within aviation. The skills of the test pilots for the experiment are absolutely unrivaled and the piloting needed for this test program was to a degree never seen before by any aviators, as the fighters were no longer slow easy to fly biplanes, but swift and complex jets.

The program was first revisited in 1948 with a modified B-29 mothership bomber and one of the most unique and unorthodox aircraft ever built, McDonnell's XF-85 Goblin, as the test parasite fighter. The Goblin was the essence of a parasite fighter, with its nimble yet pudgy characteristics and dimensions. To this day it is one of the smallest jets ever built with a wingspan of 21ft and length of 14ft. The plane closely resembled an egg with wings and a multi-fin arrangement at its rear. The plane was designed with the same basic hook and trapeze process as the Sparrowhawks and airships of the 30s. The plane was to be lowered and dropped, protect the mothership for a maximum 30min due to its small fuel capacity and then extend its hook from the nose of the airplane and masterfully the pilot would fight the turbulence of the airflow around the bomber to delicately lock the hook on to the bombers trapeze and be retracted into the airplane for recovery. During these 1948 tests with the Goblin, the piloting necessary to accomplish aircraft recovery turned out to be so arduous that it was only successfully recovered a couple times, while most of its flights ended with a forced landing on the ground. The program and the Goblin were thus cancelled in 1949.

From 1950-1956 the use of parasite fighters were tested again and for the last time by the USAF starting with the "Tip Tow" and "Tom Tom" projects. These experiments incorporated modified Republic F-84F Thunderstreaks (an accomplished and inservice fighter jet) as the parasite plane that were able to attach and detach via their wingtip to the wingtips of B-29s and B-36s. Once attached the pilots of the fighters could turn off their engines and be tugged by the mothership, effectively extending the range of the fighters for bomber escort. The complexities and difficulties of attaching the wingtip of a fighter to the wingtip of a bomber ended up being the downfall for that program.

From 1952-1956, the FICON (Fighter In CONvair) Project was tested. This was a more conventional means of parasite fighters, with the mothership having a retractable trapeze arrangement and the fighter having a hook to connect to the trapeze. These tests were also done with B-36s as the mothership and F-84s as the fighters. From analysis of trial testing, and attention to enemy defenses, the roles of parasite fighters of FICON changed from bomber escort, to that of tactical reconnaissance. While the B-36 would loiter outside barriers of enemy defense, the F-84 would drop from the mothership, fly fast and low through enemy defenses while gathering information on enemy positions, then fly back to attach to the trapeze of the mothership. These tests were far more successful than the Goblin trials, yet the final nail in the FICON's coffin was of the same type as that of the Goblin, "Tip Tow" and "Tom Tom" projects. It was too difficult to consistently hook the fighter to the trapeze, thus the projects were infeasible for operational service. 

America's Golden Jet

North American F-100 Super Sabre

The Super Sabre is hardly a forgotten aircraft today, because it was one of the first famous fighters of the jet age. This era spanned from the end of WWII through the mid to late 1960s. During this period, the advancement in jet aircraft was unparalleled. Speed and altitude records were seemingly broken every couple months. Pilots were pushing past boundaries that were deemed impossible only years before. Most importantly, American citizens had a seemingly unanimous interest in these planes and pilots. These were the days when model airplanes were sold in every toy store in every city, and every boy wanted to fly jets or be an astronaut when he grew up. How could they not when in 1947, for example, the most advanced fighter was subsonic North American F-86 Sabre (First American swept wing jet maxing at 650mph and 50,000ft) and only 10 years later the premier fighter was McDonnell Douglas' F-4 Phantom II (maxing at 1,472mph at 60,000ft)? The industry and technology was booming during this era, showing the nation that the impossible could be possible.

The Super Sabre was the epitome of this age, because it was the first of the "Century Fighters" (a span of fighters and fighter bombers during the jet age that had military designations from F-100 to the F-106). The F-100, also known as "the Hun", distinguished itself and became solidified in the record books in 1953 when it became the first USAF fighter to break the speed of sound in level flight. This was a momentous achievement, especially during an age when these milestones were paramount to many American citizens. Until the development of the F-100, harnessing the power of jet engines was still in its infancy. Manufacturers were struggling to make the most of engine thrust to propel the airframes past the coveted milestone of Mach 1 in level flight. Yeager passed Mach 1 in 1947, but his Bell X-1 was a rocket plane and it took the US another 7 years to make jet engines powerful enough to get their airframes to supersonic speeds. It was the low drag airframe and inlet, starkly sweptback wings, and afterburning Pratt & Whitney J57 (16,000lbs of thrust) that helped the Super Sabre reach such speeds. The Hun blazed through the skies at 850+ mph, had a ceiling of 50,000ft, range of 2,000miles, and rate of climb of 22,400ft/min. These respectable statistics led the F-100 to have an appreciable service life of 25 years with the USAF, see a fair amount of action as a fighter-bomber in the Vietnam War, and fly for 11 years as the aircraft for the Thunderbirds.

     The Bomber Blueprint 

        Boeing XB-15  

            Boeing is regarded as the most successful airplane manufacturer of all time. Some of their most successful birds include the legendary B. 314, B-17 Flyingfortress, B-29 Superfortress, B707, B-52 Stratofortress and B747. What all these influential planes have in common is their relative sizes. The Boeing name has become synonymous with large aircraft, both bombers and airliners. It has been their area of expertise since WWII to the present. While many people are familiar with Boeing’s successes, many have forgotten the plane that put Boeing on the map as a heavy bomber and long-range airliner producer.

            During the early 1930s Bill Boeing and his corporation greatly expanded their resume with the development of the B. 247 (recognized as the world’s first airliner) and the P-26 Peashooter (a fighter/ pursuit plane that’s name aptly fits the plane’s design). With the success of the B. 247 and P-26, Boeing took a bold and risky gamble of entering the undeveloped frontier of bombers and heavy bombers. Boeing took on the USAAC’s request for a heavy bomber with a range of 5,000 miles, and took their first steps down a road that would bring them many accolades and prosperity.

            What resulted of the Army Air Corp request was the XB-15, a plane that set the design standard and basic mold for heavy bombers for the next twenty years. At first glance it looks no different than many Allied bombers that flew in WWII ten years after its design. The plane was revolutionary in the early 1930s because of its overall enormity. It was 88’ long with a 149’ wingspan. It had an 8,000lbs bomb load, crew of 10, service ceiling of 18,900’ and top speed of 197 mph. Most significantly the plane met the requirements of the Air Corp with a range of 5,130 miles; overshadowing its would-be predecessor the Martin B-10 by 3,760 miles. America’s standard bomber at the time was inexplicably miniscule compared to the XB-15. It was by far the biggest American airplane at the time. Its wings were so thick, the crew could climb into them to service the engines. Not only was it big, but it also incorporated modern services that were revolutionary at the time such as autopilot, bunks for the crew and deicing equipment.

            What brought the airplane notoriety eventually accounted for its downfall. Ultimately, the airplane was too big for the time. Boeing requested four 2,500 horsepower Allison engines, but to meet contract deadlines they had to settle for four Pratt & Whitney 850 horsepower engines, thus the airplane was grossly underpowered and deemed unfit for combat and the project was cancelled. Before being scrapped 1945, the XB-15 prototype unsuspectingly saw service with limited humanitarian and cargo operations through the 1930s into the war years under its new designation XC-105.

Full Throttle   

Making Clouds

Smoke on the Water

General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon 

An Overlooked Niche 

Fairchild Republic's A-10 Thunderbolt II (Warthog)

         Although officially dubbed the Thunderbolt, named after its World War II counter part Republic's P-47, the Warthog is agreeably a more fitting nickname. It is fitting due to its unconventional design and its grubby, “in the mud”, close air support specification. With just a glance at the airplane an untrained eye can tell there are many differences between it and the glamorous fighters that rip through the skies at supersonic speeds. Firstly, the engine placement and empennage is irregular. The plane is equipped with twin high by-pass turbofans that resemble the engines found on civilian jets. It also has a twin tail arrangement, like those of US WWII bombers. The Warthog flies with a high lifting, straight wing that has become rare to find on any jet, civil or military, since the 1950s.

         Pre-Vietnam War, the US military and its aircraft manufacturers were focused on producing fast, highflying, nuclear capable interceptors and fighter-bombers. The role of these aircraft was to be so far removed from low altitude, close air support missions that some planes were designed without a gun (McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom). It was for this reason the Douglas A-1 Skyraider (a propeller driven relic from WWII) remained in operation throughout the war as the only effective close air support fighter. After Vietnam, the US learned that close air support was a very important niche that had to be properly filled. There was a critical gap between attack helicopters and supersonic jet fighters that needed to be bridged for the sake of the soldiers on the ground. There needed to finally be a modern aircraft specifically designed for close air support. An aircraft, with a monstrous gun, numerous hardpoints, medium to slow flight speeds, high maneuverability, and built to survive heavy combat damage. This design came to fruition in the early 1970s with the A-10. The plane was literally designed around a 30mm Avenger Gatling gun, spitting coke bottle sized projectiles 70 times a second. The gun is still so effective that one round can destroy a tank, and so powerful that the recoil produces more thrust than the engines. Hypothetically, firing the gun for an indefinite amount of time while at full throttle could make the airplane reverse direction. The plane was designed with 11 hardpoints, capable of carrying 16,000lbs of mixed ordinance (4 times as much as a US WWII bomber). The cockpit design is affectionately known as the “titanium bathtub” due to the titanium casing protecting the pilot and vital controls. The plane has many times brought its pilots back from missions after suffering presumably un-flight worthy damages.