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For educational purposes
After World War II, jet aircraft technology used for bombing and military transport was quickly applied to large passenger aircraft.
Spared the wartime devastation of the aviation industry in Europe, Americans soon dominated the skies.
Featured Aircraft:
- Lockheed Constellation
- Douglas DC-8
After World War II, jet aircraft technology used for bombing and military transport was quickly applied to large passenger aircraft.
Spared the wartime devastation of the aviation industry in Europe, Americans soon dominated the skies.
Featured Aircraft:
- Lockheed Constellation
- Douglas DC-8
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:01Hi, I'm Neil Armstrong. Join me for an adventure through time.
00:55I'm Neil Armstrong.
00:57Long-range heavy aircraft had been used successfully for bombing and transport operations in World War II.
01:05At the end of the war, this technology was quickly applied to large passenger aircraft.
01:11Manufacturers like Boeing, Douglas, and Lockheed unleashed a head-on competition for airline markets.
01:19Spared the wartime devastation of the aviation industry in Europe, Americans soon dominated the skies.
01:33Air travel was long and noisy.
01:36A transcontinental trip that now takes four to five hours took 12 or more with stops.
01:42The Douglas DC-3 was the mainstay of U.S. commercial airline passenger service in the 40s.
01:48It was originally built for American Airlines as an aircraft that could sleep passengers and fly the U.S. continental
01:56routes at night.
01:57The DC-3 could carry 28 passengers or sleep 14.
02:02G.I.s affectionately dubbed the military version, C-47 Troop and Cargo Carrier, the Gooney Bird.
02:09Thousands of C-47s were built for the U.S. government during World War II.
02:14It is so useful and durable an airplane, and so many were made, more than 10,000.
02:20They still fly today.
02:22For over-water routes, the flying boat was preferred by airlines like Pan American.
02:27Aircraft like the Boeing Clippers were reliable and used across the North Atlantic and Trans-Pacific routes.
02:34But by 1946, the golden age of the flying boat was over.
02:39That happened in part because the war left better, hard-surface airports with longer runways worldwide.
02:46As a result, airlines wanted faster, more reliable, more comfortable land-based aircraft with increased range.
02:53Lockheed, Boeing, and Douglas turned their war resources to passenger planes.
02:59Douglas offered the DC-4.
03:01Instead of buying new ones, Delta Airlines had Douglas refurbish the military versions, C-54 cargo planes.
03:08Most of the passenger planes in this post-war period were military designs in civvies.
03:15Lockheed's C-69 military transport became the venerable Constellation.
03:20Sleek, beautiful, pressurized, 300 miles an hour.
03:26Big boy on the airline block at the time, Eastern Airlines, bought more than 20, as did TWA.
03:32Douglas countered by enlarging the DC-4, adding pressurization, and calling it the DC-6, the most economical of the
03:41piston-engine airplanes.
03:43The DC-7 came along in 1953.
03:47It approached jet speeds and could fly more than 7,000 miles non-stop.
03:52Boeing took its B-50 bomber, transformed it into civilian livery, and created a luxurious and fast liner, the 377
04:03Strato Cruiser.
04:04It had a lounge and a bar and seated up to 100.
04:08For all these aircraft, the goal was to fly faster, higher, above the weather, and carry more and more travelers.
04:16For those passengers, flying was romantic, and still only affordable for a select few.
04:22From 1945 to 1960, dramatic advances in jet commercial aviation would bring air travel to just about everyone.
04:31And the competition between the makers of those aircraft would be furious.
04:37In the 1950s, outstanding aircraft designs like the Lockheed Super Constellation,
04:45the Douglas DC-6 and 7, and the Boeing Strato Cruiser ruled the world's airline markets.
04:52Piston engine development was at its peak.
04:55Then the British introduced the Comet 1, an all-jet airliner.
05:00It was a sign of things to come.
05:06By the mid-50s, American airplane manufacturers led the world in newer, faster passenger aircraft.
05:13It happened because the British took a different, often troubled path in an effort to be in the lead.
05:19In a misguided effort, Lord Brabazon of Terra headed a post-war committee which focused on the development of new
05:27flying boats
05:28and a non-stop transatlantic plane.
05:31The Saunders-Roe Princess flying boat could fly 220 passengers easily,
05:37but it had 10 complex turboprop engines, and flying boats were on their way out.
05:42The entire project became too expensive.
05:46Only a prototype flew.
05:48A similar fate awaited the transatlantic Bristol Brabazon, a spectacular land-based aircraft.
05:55It, too, failed because of cost.
05:58At the Brabazon committee's bidding, de Havilland developed a prophetic design,
06:02and, in 1952, introduced the first all-jet airliner, the Comet 1.
06:08It had a cruise speed of 490 miles per hour and began setting speed records.
06:14But not more than a year after it was introduced on regular passenger routes,
06:20two tragically broke up in flight.
06:22The Comet was grounded.
06:25Stress cracks in the corners of square cuts in the fuselage caused it to rip apart.
06:31Cuts in future models were rounded, but it required three years to design a safe Comet.
06:36By that time, American passenger airplane manufacturers owned world markets with their new jets.
06:43If there was a plus to all of this, Britain did develop the turboprop engine,
06:48which allowed jet-driven propeller engines to fly higher and faster on less fuel.
06:53Even so, America still ruled the sky with its piston-engine airplanes.
06:57Of all the airplanes put into commercial passenger service between 1945 and 1960,
07:04maybe none so captured the imagination as the Lockheed Constellation,
07:09in its most advanced model, the super-constellation Starliner A.
07:15At least one still flies in the caring hands of pilots who knew Connie in her prime.
07:21Neil met up with the members of Save-A-Conny, Incorporated.
07:25Frank, tell me, what is Save-A-Conny?
07:27Well, it's Save-A-Constellation.
07:28This is a Lockheed Constellation, and it got nicknamed Connie.
07:31Some people think we say Save-A-Conny.
07:33They wonder what this girl did, but it's an aircraft.
07:35And we're organized to acquire and preserve piston-driven air transports that are disappearing.
07:42This aircraft is the only one licensed the United States to fly right now.
07:45After the war, kind of the change in air transport was long distance and higher speed so that you could
07:55go across the ocean and across the continent.
07:57Well, that was the principal design of the aircraft, was to make it a nonstop coast-to-coast for the
08:03United States and also for the international flights.
08:07The luxury of the flight and all later models of the Constellation was designed with berths in it for the
08:16passenger comfort, so for these long flights.
08:18And they were occupied quite often by the coast-to-coast passengers, mostly out of Hollywood with the celebrities traveling
08:27on to New York for their shows in New York.
08:30And then, of course, into Europe by this airplane that supplied that luxury that they had never seen on the
08:38earlier model aircraft, such as the DC-3 and so forth.
08:41This is a very typical, as you know, engine to start.
08:43Which engine is this?
08:45Oh, this is a Wright-Cyclone engine.
08:48This is the engine here, the Wright-Cyclone engine.
08:51The 33-50 engine, same engine that was in the B-29.
08:55B-29, same engine.
08:55Yeah.
08:56It's a good engine.
08:57It's touchy.
08:58It takes a real technician to keep it up.
09:00Hard to start.
09:01Oh, yeah.
09:01Oh, yeah.
09:01It's a lot of work.
09:02Especially cold days.
09:03An engineer is the busiest man in the airplane.
09:05He works.
09:05We always tell him this.
09:06But it's a real sight when you start it up because of all the oil.
09:10It's collected into cylinders until it runs free.
09:13It shoots out a lot of blue smoke.
09:15A little fire, maybe.
09:16Coffin and fire.
09:18Yeah.
09:19It's supposed to do that.
09:20That's what it does.
09:21It's designed to do that.
09:22That's right.
09:24That's like the 37 Charlie traffic's a Cessna just listed.
09:29It'd be eastbound.
09:30So, DC departure approved.
09:32Cleared for takeoff.
09:34Okay.
09:34We have the same sight.
09:36And, uh, so DC departure approved.
10:04We don't pressurize this airplane.
10:05It's a roof below 10 most of the time.
10:07I see.
10:07And it's kind of nice getting down there,
10:09seeing the farms and the houses, and say,
10:11well, it's a little bitty town at 39,000.
10:13That's a great big city.
10:14You're five.
10:15You fly across.
10:16That's very true, yeah.
10:17How about navigation?
10:19What navigates?
10:20It's all right there.
10:21Nothing.
10:22Well, there are some listeners, too.
10:24Domestically, we just used range at that time.
10:28Radio range.
10:28Radio range.
10:29I remember the low frequency ranges.
10:32But overseas, when we were flying overseas,
10:34we had to have a navigator.
10:37And on this particular airplane,
10:39we have left the navigator station in it also
10:42to show people how it was.
10:43And, of course, he went up into the dome,
10:46originally into the dome,
10:47and took shots of the sun and the star shots
10:53and reduced them to celestial navigation.
10:56Celestial navigation.
10:57Celestial navigation.
10:57And maybe was that the predominant method
11:00for overseas?
11:01At that time, yes.
11:02See, most of your tablet overseas,
11:04was at night, actually.
11:06It was predominantly star shot.
11:07Star shot.
11:08You start flying here,
11:09but in the slender days,
11:10it went to Vietnam.
11:11Well, it was a cargo aircraft.
11:13One man came through one day,
11:14and he says,
11:15this thing had a computer.
11:16I said, yes, it does.
11:17It's right here in the guy's head.
11:18You tune in the ILS.
11:20You've got to get it over there.
11:20It doesn't do anything.
11:21So it's strictly hand flying.
11:23We don't have an autopilot operational in it,
11:25so nobody would use it anyway.
11:26We just fly it by hand.
11:28Well, we don't use it because we want to fly.
11:30We've been away from it so long.
11:31Yeah.
11:32But it's good.
11:46Douglas DC-8 and its competitor,
11:49the Boeing 707,
11:50did what previous aircraft could not.
11:53They changed passenger transport forever.
11:56The jet airliner, with its high thrust,
12:00its reliability,
12:01and its high altitude efficiency,
12:03opened the door to unheard of growth
12:05in mass transport.
12:07In one decade,
12:08the continents of the world
12:10became a global village.
12:13In 1954,
12:15while the British jet comet
12:17was falling apart in the sky,
12:19Boeing was test flying its 707 prototype.
12:23It is said that Boeing even camouflaged the plane
12:26to keep its new ideas from competitors.
12:29It could fly at more than 600 miles per hour
12:32and more than 4,000 miles.
12:35Because of this 707's speed and comfort,
12:38like its chief competition, the DC-8,
12:40these two aircraft changed passenger air travel in the world.
12:45Both jetliners squelched critics who said
12:47buying jets would be a financial disaster for the airlines.
12:51The McDonnell Douglas DC-8 entered service as the 50's ended.
12:56It was the first long-range American jetliner,
12:595,800 miles.
13:00Delta Airlines flew the first passenger flights
13:03on the DC-8 in September 1959.
13:05In the airline passenger business,
13:07the DC-8 became a formidable weapon.
13:10Retired Delta pilot Tom Kilkelly
13:12has nothing but fond memories
13:14of his more than 20 years at the controls of a DC-8.
13:18When they first got the jets,
13:20we were told that Delta Airlines
13:23actually wouldn't grow very much.
13:26The company itself would have to get smaller
13:28because we had these great big airplanes
13:30that went so fast and carried so many people
13:33that we just wouldn't need as many pilots
13:35and flight attendants as we had.
13:37There'd probably be less.
13:40Well, as it turned out, that was entirely wrong.
13:42That's when the airline industry really started to boom.
13:45The industry was changing rapidly with newer airplanes
13:50and, of course, the airline industry is not only the people
13:55that fly the airplanes.
13:56It's the flight attendants where we,
13:59small airplanes with propellers,
14:01we had one or two flight attendants.
14:02Now we're thinking, here come these airplanes.
14:05We got eight or nine of them and three pilots.
14:12Things progressed while the airline was trying to figure out
14:14how to make it more appealing to their passengers.
14:18And, of course, they did over a period of time
14:20come up with better food.
14:22And, of course, it was a lot of airplanes
14:25were sort of like a flying bar.
14:28You know, the cocktails flowed pretty freely on the early jets.
14:32That was part of the come on was, you know,
14:35free drinks and free food and that sort of thing.
14:39And then from our standpoint,
14:42we were just carrying a whole lot more people
14:45than we'd ever seen on an airplane.
14:46And it just got bigger and bigger and bigger as years went by.
14:55We had a basic airplane.
14:56I mean, when I say a basic, it had round instruments
14:59and everything was analog.
15:02And some of the aircraft, when they were new,
15:04were delivered without autopilots,
15:06which is kind of hard to believe nowadays
15:08because everything is automatic and it relies on the autopilot
15:12as they were being produced while they were still adding them
15:15to the early jet aircraft.
15:19And today you go and get a flight plan out of the computer,
15:24press a couple of buttons and there it comes
15:26and tells you what you're going to do on the way from Atlanta
15:30to, say, Los Angeles.
15:32We did the whole flight planning ourselves,
15:34wrote it down on paper and did all the fuel computations
15:39and all the radio work.
15:41Everything was just between VORs.
15:43It was a hands-on aircraft.
15:45You did everything.
15:48You see, it was a good airplane in adverse conditions.
15:51If it was rough and bumpy, it was big.
15:55It was long and heavy.
15:58And it didn't have a lot of sweep in the wings.
16:01And consequently, when you went, it was a pretty solid-feeling airplane.
16:06It would roll around a little bit, you know.
16:09Of course, all of them will if you get in any kind of thunderstorm activity
16:14or wind shifts and things like that.
16:17But it was a comforting airplane to fly.
16:20I mean, you felt like this big old airplane's got you all held in there
16:25and you felt like the airplane was solid.
16:29You know, airplanes, the wings flex on airplanes, you know.
16:31If you ever sat in the back end and looked out, you can see them going up and down.
16:36And the VCA did it just like the rest of them.
16:38Otherwise, the wings would pop off, you know.
16:41But it was a nice, it was a fun airplane.
16:44Back in those early days, we'd just pop the doors open and block them open
16:49and people would walk up and look around.
16:51We'd talk to them, you know.
16:52The engineer would talk to them.
16:54And a lot of times, the captain would get up out of the seat,
16:57go back and sit in the lounge and talk to people.
17:00And it was encouraged at first.
17:03But nowadays, it's, you know, an entirely different situation.
17:06But I'd say it was a more relaxed airline operation.
17:13DC-8 was a pretty airplane.
17:15And it stayed that way.
17:17I just, you know, I thought it was the prettiest airplane that was ever built.
17:20With a surge in passenger traffic expected,
17:22the DC-8 was designed to be stretched to carry even more people.
17:26And stretched it once.
17:28It evolved into more than three versions.
17:30And like the 707, made aviation history.
17:34As the 1960s approached, jet passenger service was born and blossomed.
17:41Jets were expensive.
17:42But compared to propeller-driven aircraft, they were fuel efficient
17:46and could carry more passengers.
17:48Airfares came down.
17:51Between 1959 and 1960, the number of passengers mushroomed
17:55from 2 million to 10 million industry-wide.
17:58And though there were others, two jets were the stars of this growth.
18:02The Douglas DC-8 and the Boeing 707.
18:19The Douglas DC-8 endures.
18:22A fleet of these venerable craft fly for United Parcel Service.
18:27UPS plans to fly these completely refurbished airplanes into the next century.
18:32Neil Armstrong talked with Captain Larry Boer.
18:34The DC-8's been around a long time.
18:36I've been on it over 15 years.
18:39One of the biggest changes in the DC-8 was when they re-engined the airplane.
18:42Yeah.
18:42Starting in the 1982-83 or so when they put the new greatly reduced fuel consumption CFM's on.
18:49It was like a brand new airplane.
18:50If they had done that years ago, Douglas would still be making DC-8's.
18:53This airplane is still a viable commercial product.
18:58People still want them.
18:59The fuel consumption went down so much when they went to the new engines.
19:02The performance.
19:03Where you used to have to really struggle.
19:05Say you're making a heavy takeoff out of Brussels or something at max takeoff weight.
19:09It was exciting.
19:10And now with the new engines with, well, it's about 4,000 pounds thrust more per engine.
19:15It's just, it's, it's easy.
19:18A lot more margin.
19:19A lot more performance margin.
19:21A lot more performance margin.
19:21A tremendous capability.
19:22You can jump out of fields that you were really questioned before.
19:25Exactly.
19:26And you don't see as many end of runway lights as you used to.
19:29What's your max payload in this cargo payload?
19:33Over 100,000 pounds for this particular version.
19:36This is a 73.
19:36This is slightly higher weights than the other airplane.
19:39We have the 71.
19:41And 100,000 pounds of freight and carry 165,000 pounds of fuel.
19:45I've never ever filled a 70 series DC-8 up with fuel.
19:49I mean, you could go like 15 or 16 or 17 hours.
19:52It just goes that long.
19:53Who would want to?
19:53Yeah.
19:54Who would want to?
19:55Exactly.
19:55I spent all day in this airplane.
19:56You were in this airplane all day.
19:58How about the performance of this airplane?
20:01Tell me generally what we're talking about in terms of speed and altitude and runways and
20:06that sort of thing.
20:07We generally, the DC-8 being a big airplane, we generally don't go into anywhere less than,
20:12oh, about 7,000 feet or so.
20:14And we don't cruise as fast as 7.4.
20:167.4 cruises at Mach decimal 8.4.
20:18We cruise at about 8.0 usually, decimal 8.0.
20:21When people say, how does the airplane fly?
20:23The analogy I always hear is, it's like flying your house.
20:27It is a very heavy airplane to fly.
20:29The controls are very heavy.
20:30It's not like a 7.2 where you can flick things around with your wrist.
20:33This is many, many times, especially when you've got one.
20:36Get your exercise.
20:38There are times in the simulator, I've got to stop just because my hands hurt too much
20:42from manhandling it around.
20:43I've heard that that was intentional when Douglas designed the airplane.
20:46They wanted it to fly as much like a DC-6 or DC-7 as possible.
21:09The innovations made in the late 40s and early 50s for the military led to development
21:15of larger and more powerful jet engines.
21:18These engines, in various derivatives, found their way into civilian jet aircraft
21:23and heralded the beginning of the jet age in air passenger transport.
21:28It was a great and exciting turning point in the history of the airline passenger business.
21:33These milestone first flights meant jet passenger travel had come of age.
21:44Join me again next week for First Flights.
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