Aviation

In 1947, the first recorded flight in excess of the sound barrier was recorded. This was the famous flight of Air force Captain Chuck Yeager in the Bell X-1 rocket powered aircraft. There are disputes that other pilots had previously broken the sound barrier but their claims were not substantiated. This flight was recorded at Mach 1.06 as the peak airspeed.

During World War II, the German Air Force was designing a rocket powered aircraft but the end of the war disrupted these plans. The British turned over some of their plans for a rocket engine to the Americans on a reciprocal agreement but they were later disappointed when the Americans did not turn over any of their technical information pursuant to that agreement. The design of the Bell X-1 aircraft was provided by the agency that is the predecessor for what is now NASA. This development is the driving force behind the...

Foo Fighters was the name used for numerous unexplained phenomena in WW II, as well as being used in a derogatory sense. Some pilots over Europe called them "Kraut balls". In the Pacific Theater, it was how some pilots referred to the Japanese fliers who were infamous for their erratic flying. Foo fighters is the name given by the scientists and historians to the general body of spherical, circular, disc-like, or wedged shaped "bogies", sometimes seeming to glow, shine, or reflect a high degree of illumination seen mostly by World War II pilots or flight crews. They usually paralleled or followed aircraft and were seen by aviators on all sides of the action, being reported by American, British, German and Japanese crews. No Foo Fighter was known or reported to have made or attempted any sort of contact, interaction or attack. They were known, however, for their high rate of spee...

Officially, the justification by the USAF for the new B-50 designation was made on the basis that the changes introduced by the B-29D were so major that it was essentially a completely new aircraft. The ruse worked and the B-50 survived the cutbacks to become an important component of the postwar Air Force. The decision to produce the B-50 was confirmed on May 24, 1947. From the start, the B-50 was earmarked for the atomic bombing role. This decision was prompted by the uncertain future of the Convair B-36, the first long-range heavy bomber produced as an atomic carrier. A few B-29s that had been modified to carry the atomic bomb were still available, but they were nearly obsolete and would have to be replaced by a more efficient, atomic-capable bomber pending the availability of the B-36 or another bomber truly suitable for the delivery of atomic bombs.

The B-50 was exter...

Everyone knows that suitcase space is at a premium when you are flying to your destination but there are certain things you must have when going on a trip. Getting to your vacation destination and finding out you forgot something important can really start your vacation off on the wrong foot and especially if it’s something you just can’t go out and buy another one of.

But you don’t want to lug around 10 suitcases, so you really need to weed out what is important and what isn’t. Also, make some of your clothing do double duty and wearing extra on the plane can help cut down on what you have to put into the suitcase leaving you more room for other things.

One thing to carefully consider is your clothing. What will the weather be at your destination? While you should always plan for unexpected weather changes, it is not necessary to bring 5 sweaters if you are going to a tro...

Everyone wants to have a more comfortable flight but did you ever think about how this desire competes with the airlines ability to provide you with the utmost in safety?

The public desire for larger and faster aircraft sometimes comes head to head with the need for greater airplane safety. This fact was magnified soon after the world had welcomed the arrival of the year of 2000. One of the supersonic jets then carrying passengers across the Atlantic gave the public an eye-opening experience.

A piece of scrap left on the runway caught on one tire of a departing supersonic jet. The resulting crash led to a re-evaluation of the requirements for airplane safety. Eventually, the airlines decided to discontinue the use of those two jets. Now passengers are no longer able to get a super-speedy flight from London or Paris to a U.S airport.

For a time after that accident, ai...

Everyone loves a family vacation but traveling with children can be challenging, especially if air travel is involved in getting to your vacation destination. Lugging all the extra “stuff” that children need can be a drag and even on short flights any child is bound to get bored so you will need to think up ways to entertain and relax them. As with anything else, it’s best to be organized and prepared in order to make your flight a pleasant one.

A decision to undertake air travel with children should not be made without an understanding of the challenges involved in such an undertaking. Making a trip with children in tow can lead a parent to confront many unforeseen problems. Before, you make those vacation plans, it’s a good idea to sit down and assess just what might be needed for such an undertaking.

Even if things go smoothly, air travel with children means dealing wit...

When Boeing designed the B-17 "Flying Fortress" in the mid-thirties, the aim was to meet the United States Army Air Corps request for a very-heavy, very-long-range bomber capable of flying 5000 miles. Though the B-17 demonstrated impressive strength, firepower, speed, bomb load, range and altitude capability, it was not until the B-29 Superfortress flew that the original specifications were met.

The B-29 from the beginning was a producer of "firsts" unbelievably employing some of the methodologies and successes of the later NASA Lunar and Space Shuttle programs. Manufacturing facilities were already constructed before the first prototype had even been completed, a very risky and potentially extremely costly venture. The Superfortress was the heaviest production aircraft built at that time, was the first to have pressurized crew compartments (including the tail gunner's sectio...

Consolidated Aircraft won the original contract from the US Army Air Corps in 1939 to build a bomber that could exceed the performance of the B-17. Their prototype, the XB-24 first flew in December 1939. Slightly smaller than the Flying Fortress, it had four 1,200-hp Pratt & Whitney R-1830-65 Twin Wasp turbocharged radial piston engines which enabled it to fly farther with a bigger bomb load than the B-17.

Of seven service-test YB-24s, six were sent to the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1940 under the export designation LB-30A. Because they lacked turbosuperchargers and self-sealing fuel tanks, the RAF found them unsuitable for combat duty over Europe. Instead, they were stripped of their armament and put into service as transports on the Trans-Atlantic Return Ferry Service, which had been established to send air crews to Montreal to take delivery of American aircraft consigned to...

When you ask most people what their favorite thing in the world to do all of the will say they love to travel. If you ask the same people where they have been the majority of them will say they have gone nowhere. Then if you ask them why they have gone nowhere they will say that the cost of airline tickets is too much for them to afford. I will be the first to say that airline tickets are a lot more than they should be but there is a ton of ways to get cheap airline tickets to basically anywhere in the world. The key is to know where to look and which airline to look into. We have a few tips for you on how to get some really low fares and some very cheap airline tickets fully legitimately.

The best way that I have found to get cheap airline tickets is to go to the last minute airline ticket websites and see what they have. The airlines must sell tickets to their lights to o...

Made by Bell Aircraft Corporation, the P-39 Airacobra was produced from 1939 until 1944 and it might be called the most controversial US fighter plane of WWII. It was embraced heartily by the Soviets and equally shunned by both the USAAC and the RAF; it was hounded by myths and falsehoods that added to the controversy to this day.

It was off to an auspicious start when the first unit, the XP-39 was unveiled at Wright Field on April 6, 1939 to the gasps and ahs of the assembled dignitaries. One could see at first glance the innovations and peculiarities incorporated into Bell's new Airacobra. The P-39 was the first fighter plane to use a tricycle landing gear configuration, later adopted by all aircraft of all makes. One feature that didn't catch on was the car-like door by which the pilot entered and exited the cockpit, instead of the usual sliding cockpit canopy.

Basi...

Due to high fuel prices and often very rapid price spikes in fuel the airline industry at a severe disadvantage indeed. Due to various excuses that are used by bulk oil commodity traders or actual problems, which do severely impact fuel supply and the fact that the airline tickets are sold in advance; it does create a hardship for both consumer and airlines.

Supply spikes can occur for a number of reasons such as an impending show down with Iran over its nuclear weapons manufacturing and sponsoring of International Terrorism or the 2006 Atlantic Tropical Hurricane Season you see? It is for this reason that the subject came up and a moderator in an online think tank was asked the following question; “Are the extra surcharges that influence the price of airline tickets in the advertised price or are they included later?”

Occasionally, the airlines will find ways to make extr...

The airline industry is just one industry in the transportation sector, which is impacted by high fuel costs. How will the airline industry over the next two decades survive if fuel prices remained high? Will be industry be destroyed or will new technologies give a boost to improve fuel efficiencies to an adequate level for the airline industry to remain profitable and continue serving mankind? You maybe pleasantly surprised to find that the future actually looks very good for the industry.

The Boeing 7E7 with composite fuselage and wings will make aircraft more efficient, but we still need more work on UV coatings and studying the affects of composite chemicals given off in a fire, as well as longevity and life of this material and its decaying processes and stress issues too. Lighter materials is a key to fuel efficiency and performance for modern day airliners and the new m...

High fuel prices hurt the American family and they also hurt many industries, but what about the airline industry? The transportation sector relies on fuel to move around products in people and high fuel prices do impact this industry. Do high fuel prices hurt the airline industry as well? This is indeed a very good question and recently someone had asked clarification on this subject from an online think tank member when they stated;

“On average when the fuel prices rise, is it the airlines themselves that take the blow cost wise, or do they raise the price in airline tickets to cover the cost?”

The Airlines will attempt to pass on costs and we are seeing this now. But it is not always possible to do this if tickets have already been sold in advance and the prices rise very quickly, unless of course there are stipulations in the sale of the ticket that surcharges maybe ...

The goal of a business or corporation is to make a profit and to do so they must perform a desired service or make a needed or desired product that the customer or consumer is willing to impart a unit of trade for; a dollar or many dollars you see? When fuel prices go up in the transportation sector business must find ways to pass on these costs and streamline their operations to do more, carry more, more efficiently.

This subject came up recently when someone asked a moderator of an online think tank to explain. Here is the question; “Can we expect to see improvements in airline travel in regards to cost change or fuel-surcharges?”

Yes we sure can for instance the ATM Air Traffic Control Management and SimLabs NASA systems research and development to streamline and prevent delays and more efficiency amongst airlines even if the weather causes too much stacking. Also poin...

A lot of people shirk international travel due to expensive airfares. However nowadays, there are several discount round-trip flights to India. So, if you are planning to fly overseas, ensure that you get a good deal when you book the flight ticket. If exhaustive traveling to different cities is a part of the itinerary, it is advisable to avail yourself of an Airpass, which reduces the price down to a fraction of the actual cost.

Prime Travels offers bargain airfares. Their unbeatable tariffs include Washington-Delhi/Mumbai-Washington for $799, plus taxes; Vancouver-Delhi-Vancouver for INR $38,500 plus taxes; San Francisco-Bangalore-San Francisco for $990 plus taxes; London-Mumbai-London GBP290 plus taxes; Los Angeles-Mumbai-Los Angeles for $890 plus taxes; Boston-Hyderabad-Boston for $999 plus taxes; Seattle-Mumbai-Seattle for $999 plus taxes; Newark-Ahmedabad-Newark for $1,070...

In late 1941 the Japanese Zero fighter was gaining an aura of invincibility, winning a high percentage of its battles. It was a good aircraft, but it did have its drawbacks, one of, which were its slower speeds and its inability to withstand high-speed dives. It won most of its fights with it's outstanding agility at low speeds and altitudes.

Claire Lee Chennault was a former colonel who had retired from the U.S. Army Air Corps because his theories on tactics were so at odds with the fiercely conservative Air Corps brass. He was asked to help modernize the Chinese Air Force and quickly became friends with Chaing Kai Shek and his lovely wife. The retired colonel wrote a report about the deadly Zero and sent it to the U.S. government. It was promptly filed away. This was a mistake. If the threat had been taken seriously and if American pilots had been trained to deal with...

Medical journals published more than 50 years ago speculated on the link between deep vein thrombosis and air travel. In fact flying is not the main cause of this nasty health problem – research has shown that it is extended periods of immobility that cause deep vein thrombosis.

What the public may not know, because the media has not seen fit to give it the same coverage, is that passengers are at just the same level of developing deep vein thrombosis if they undertake a long journey by car, train or bus.

There is no evidence that air travel increases the risk of developing deep vein thrombosis – it is long periods of immobility that cause the problem and not flying.

Undoubtedly some people are more susceptible to deep vein thrombosis than others but there is much that individuals can do to protect themselves from this condition.

The Yak-9 and its variants were the final development of a line of propeller driven Russian fighters that started with the Yak-1. It was the mainstay of the Soviet Air Force in the middle and late years of WWII and was produced in greater numbers than any other Soviet fighters. By the middle of 1944 there were more Yak-9s in service than all other Soviet fighters combined. Production of the Yak-9 continued into 1947 and a staggering total of 16,769 were built.

Like other Russian fighters, it was designed for mass production and durability. It had little in new technology and due to chronic Soviet shortages of strategic materials, it used the absolute minimum of them, instead using wood and plywood. The idea of the Soviet High Command was - knowing they could not build superior fighters in any number due to shortages - they would rely instead on numerical superiority rather ...

We all know that statistically we are safer in an aircraft than we are in a car, but that fact is of little comfort to those who are afraid to fly and it will not stop them from experiencing intense anxiety and even panic attacks at the thought of having to fly.

Our imagination can be a friend of foe. It actually has no way of making the distinction between fact and fiction; it simply accepts all inputs from every sense and files them for future reference.

Our logical brains can rationalize, look at statistics, read books and articles such as this and know that flying is safer than most modes of transport. But it is our reptilian brains that keep us safe that function as a self protection mechanism and once that part of our brain has been triggered by an event it takes work to re-program it.

We really have little control over the reptilian part of our brain, but it h...

An irregular flow of air that occurs unexpectedly and usually cannot be seen by the naked eye – that is turbulence, and it can be caused by a number of conditions. By understanding more about the reality of flying in turbulent conditions you can begin to overcome your fear of flying.

Contrary to popular reports, aircraft do not drop out of the sky when they encounter turbulence. Sorry to disappoint the disaster movie script writers, but it just isn’t like that in real life.

Flying in turbulence can be likened to driving along a bumpy road; it can be tiring and a little uncomfortable but it is not dangerous. Yes, you will find the seat belt sign is illuminated in turbulence but this is for your comfort as well as for your safety. In turbulence the biggest risk comes from passengers who insist on walking around the cabin and trip and fall on to other passengers.