Many people have opened up the walls of old houses only to have an avalanche of rusty old blades fall out. Fifty years ago, nearly every bathroom had a medicine cabinet. At the back of the medicine cabinet was a tiny slot for disposing of use shaving razors. But the slot was actually nothing more than a hole in the wall. So, once you put something through that slot, there was no way to get it out.
With amenities like piano lounges, dining rooms and private staterooms, airships were a luxurious and relaxed way to travel the world. 80 years ago, airships like the Hindenburg were more like flying cruise ships than conventional aircraft. They would fly so smoothly, you could balance a pencil on its end without it falling over and could fly anywhere over land and water. Before the Hindenburg disaster, plans were being drawn up for ever bigger, more luxurious airships.
While the Concorde is often hailed as a triumph of modern engineering, the first supersonic transport to ever fly was actually Soviet-built. The Tupolev TU-144 flew even faster than the Concorde and it carried more passengers. What happened to this aircraft and why have so few heard about it?
Imagine if electrical power suddenly went out for hundreds of millions of people. A blackout not just for hours, but for months, throwing our world into chaos and impacting everything from communications to food and water distribution. While a global blackout sounds like the start of an apocalyptic movie, there’s a possibility it could happen.
When launched, the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar was the most technologically-advanced widebody commercial airliner ever. This aircraft made leaps forward in efficiency, comfort, and safety. 50 years ago, the L-1011 even had the capability to land itself at certain airports in zero visibility weather, when other planes like the Boeing 747 would have to divert.
During World War Two, hundreds of cargo ships raced across the Atlantic in an effort to keep Britain supplied. But these ships were being sunk by German U-boats, warships and aircraft. In 1940 alone, over a thousand allied ships were lost on their way to Britain.
Air travel before the Jet Age wasn’t always glamorous. The relentless noise and vibration from a piston powered propeller aircraft often made long flights even more exhausting. Most aircraft also couldn’t fly high enough to avoid bad weather, so air sickness was more common.
On November 15, 1988, the world learned that the Soviet Union also had their own space shuttle. It had been secretly under development for well over a decade and it had cost the Soviets billions to build it. Several of the spacecraft were in various stages of construction. But the Soviet shuttle, named the Buran, would only ever launch once. Its development had largely been driven by the need to respond to the perceived military potential of the NASA Space Shuttle.
In the late 1960s, French aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation made a huge bet. The company designed its first commercial airliner, the Mercure 100, to do one thing fantastically well; fly short routes more efficiently than any other airliner. With ambitions to take on rival giants like Boeing and Douglas, Dassault invested huge sums into developing an airliner with unprecedented short-range performance. Anticipating demand for hundreds of aircraft, the company even built several factories across France.
It was to fly even faster than the Concorde, at speeds approaching Mach 3. And even carry more passengers. It would have flown the distance from Los Angeles to New York in under two hours. America’s effort to build a supersonic airliner was an ambitious project spanning a decade and costing a billion in government funding. But even an army of aerospace engineers and the latest in aviation technology was not enough to get America’s Supersonic Transport (SST) off the ground.
In 1974, a French train sets a speed record, exceeding 250 miles per hour. But this train is unlike any other before it. Instead of rolling on train wheels, it hovers on a cushion of air. In the 1970’s hovertrains were seriously being considered the solution to slow, antiquated railways, which increasingly had to compete with new superhighways and even intercity air travel.
Before Concorde defined what it meant to fly fast, there was another airliner that tried to push the speed of air travel. With outside the box engineering, the Convair 990A cruised faster than any airliner before it. The Convair 990A is still the fastest non-supersonic commercial transport to have ever been produced.
With a wingspan greater than a Boeing 747, The Bristol Brabazon was the largest aircraft ever built by Britain. More a flying oceanliner than plane, it featured sleeping cabins, a dining room, a cocktail bar and lounge, and even a 23 seat movie theater.
The Cold War locked the United States and Soviet Union into a tense struggle for global influence and control. The first purpose-built American spy plane to fly over the Soviet Union was the Lockheed U-2. Neither fast nor stealthy, the U-2’s tactical advantage was that it could supposedly fly above soviet radar and air defenses.
The DC-10’s story begins in the early 1970’s, at a pivotal time when air travel was undergoing a revolution. A new generation of wide-body airliners like the Boeing 747 introduced for 1970’s increased passenger capacity at a time when air travel was becoming more affordable.
In 1964, Japan unveiled the Shinkansen - a new high speed railway connecting the country’s two largest cities (in the 1960's), Tokyo and Osaka. Travelling at speeds in excess of 120 mph (200 km/h), the new specially designed Shinkansen trains had the highest service speeds in the world.
Until the mid 1950’s, small short-range airliners like the twin engined IL-14 were really the only type the Soviet Union produced. And that meant flying across the country’s vast territory required multiple stops for refueling. The exhausting flight could take could take over 24 hours and require multiple stops for refueling. The need for a new Soviet airliner was clearly pressing, especially since the country’s new leader Nikita Khrushchev had a much more open stance with the West and plans for visits around the world.
It sounds like the stuff of science fiction: A Boeing 747 with an internal hanger loaded with 10 specially designed fighter jets. An on board crew to launch, recover, refuel and rearm the jets while in mid-flight. Sleeping quarters and a crew lounge to ensure that a squadron of 14 fighter pilots and 18 mission specialists stay rested. All of it hurtling forward at Mach 0.85, 35 thousand feet above sea-level. That’s asking a lot from a Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet. But a once classified feasible study prepared for the U.S. Air Force details how it could be done.
In August of 1957, the Soviet Union launched the world’s first successful Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). It was capable of delivering a heavy nuclear warhead to a target six thousand miles away, in under half an hour. The West was left scrambling for a solution. From what U.S. Intelligence could gather, the Soviets were quickly pulling ahead in developing missile technology. Projections showed that by the 1960s, the Soviets would likely have enough missiles to launch a preemptive nuclear attack. America needed a way fill this perceived ‘missile gap’.
In the 1960’s, Britain's railways were in decline. The country’s railways were slow and antiquated and facing fierce competition against growing automobile ownership and booming air travel. But elsewhere in the world, railways were beginning to make a comeback, and the key seemed to be much higher speeds. Japan’s new high speed Shinkansen Bullet Trains proved enormously successful with passengers, carrying over 100 million passengers in just the first three years of service. The French had also begun working on a revolutionary new high train, the TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse, "high-speed train"). If British Rail was going to compete with automobiles and airliners, the solution seemed clear: much faster trains.
In 1974, Boeing vice president Jim Austin described the Airbus A300 as “a typical government airplane” of which “they’ll build a dozen or so and then go out of business.” He wasn't alone in his criticism. And he was almost right.
In the late 1950’s, intercity air travel was on the rise. But while a trip from New York to Boston by airplane might only take about an hour, you’d still need to get to and from the airport. And in many congested cities, that was already taking longer than the flight itself. As a solution, helicopter airlines had begun to crop up in major cities, letting passengers skip over traffic to connect airports with their city centers. But helicopters were ultimately too inefficient to become a viable form of mass transport. The Rotodyne was going to change all that. Taking off from downtown rooftops and heliports, but flying faster, further, and more economically than any helicopter, the Rotodyne would be the quickest way to move from one city centre to the next.
In the 1960s, the leader of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev bragged that his nation had ships that could jump right over bridges. His cryptic words confused Western leaders, but he was alluding to a secret project deep within the Soviet Union.
The rapid development of aircraft in the 1920’s and 1930’s far outpaced the development of aviation infrastructure to support them. Runways, even by the late 1930’s, were rare and often little more than an open grass field, useful only for the smallest and lightest of airplanes. It would be at least another decade until many cities developed suitable airports. But commercial aviation wasn’t going to wait around.
Vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) refers to aircraft that can take-off, hover, and land vertically. To this day, the Dornier Do-31 remains the largest VTOL jet to take to the skies and the world’s only VTOL jet lift transport.
In August of 1945, as the world celebrates Imperial Japan’s surrender and the effective end of the second world war, the American’s make a puzzling discovery out in the Pacific. The US Navy has intercepted a Japanese submarine that’s unlike anything they’ve seen before. It’s by far the largest submarine ever constructed, at nearly twice the length of a typical German U-boat. But it’s what the submarine carries that truly baffles the Americans.
Concorde was the world’s most iconic airliner and one of the most technically ambitious projects in aviation history. Billions were spent on its development over a span of more than a decade. When the Concorde program was launched, it was to be the next giant leap forward in air travel. Many believed that mass supersonic commercial air travel would be commonplace by the end of the 1970s.
The Soviets built some of the largest and most technically advanced helicopters in the world. By 1957, the Mil Mi-6 had already emerged as the largest helicopter ever built, far out-sizing helicopters built in the west. But for the Soviet Union, the need to build a helicopter far larger than even the Mi-6, soon became a matter of national security.
In June of 1919, two daring British aviators made the world's first successful non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean from North America to Europe using a modified Vickers Vimey airplane. In just 16 hours, they achieved what up until that point, required days to accomplish by ocean liner. John Alcock and Arthur Brown’s transatlantic flight was celebrated around the world as a monumental achievement, but regular passenger carrying flights were still decades from becoming reality.
Throughout the 1950s, aircraft designers around the world began developing a unique aircraft configuration, called a tail-sitter. Unlike conventional airplanes, tail sitting planes rested on their tails and used engine power alone to lift off the ground before transitioning to vertical flight, and returning to land vertically once again on their tail. The configuration, although technically challenging to develop, would allow aircraft to operate without runways, fundamentally changing how and where air forces could use their aircraft.
The Energia-Buran was the most expensive and ambitious Soviet space project in history. As the Soviet Union’s answer to the US Space Shuttle, the rival reusable launch system was designed to match any potential strategic advantage offered by the Space Shuttle. But the Soviets had a unique challenge on their hands.
Maybe it wasn't as bad of an idea as you might think. In 1956, Goodyear combined their expertise in building inflatable airships and rubber tires, to develop an inflatable airplane. A plane small and light enough to pack up inside the family station wagon, that could be fully inflated and ready for flight in just five minutes. Earlier attempts at building inflatable aircraft had failed because inflated rubber was a poor material choice for aircraft, resulting in planes that were too slow, wobbly and structurally unstable to be of practical use. But Goodyear’s newly developed material called Airmat promised increased rigidity when inflated, while still being lightweight and flexible to be packed up inside a small container With Airmat, Goodyear was convinced that they could develop an inflatable airplane that could help save lives.
In just a few short years, Japan’s Superconducting Maglev (SCMaglev) will become the world’s fastest train in operation. Traveling at near aircraft-like speeds of 503km per hour, the SCMaglev will eventually link Japan’s population centers of Tokyo and Osaka in just 67 Minutes. The SCMaglev will operate on the Chuo Shinkansen, a new 438km intercity route connecting Tokyo to Osaka. The line will run right through a mountain range, requiring the vast majority of the route to run in tunnels. However, the Chuo Shinkansen will be more direct than the current Shinkansen high-speed rail route. The first section is expected to open in 2027 with the remaining connection to Osaka completed a decade later in 2037 The SCMaglev will be the world’s first superconducting maglev to enter service. To levitate trains off their guideway, electromagnets are cooled to extreme temperatures in order to take advantage of a phenomenon called superconductivity. The electromagnets on board the train interact with two sets of coils embedded inside a guideway, one to propel the train and the other levitation and guidance. The low electrical resistance in superconducting magnets allows SCMaglevs to consume 30% less energy than other high-speed maglev trains, like Germany’s Transrapid. The technology behind SCMaglev is nearly 60 years in the making. But the Chuo Shinkansen is also one of the most expensive transport projects in history and an enormous bet on high-speed maglev, a technology that has yet to prove itself. Given the enormous costs and move away from proven high-speed rail technologies, some question whether building the world's fastest train really makes sense.
As an aircraft designer, physicist, astronomer, philosopher, painter and musician, Robert Bartini is often described as a genius ahead of his time. Throughout his life, he designed over 60 aircraft and made significant contributions to Soviet aviation. Although most of Bartini’s aircraft designs never left the drawing board, many of his aeronautical innovations were incorporated into production aircraft. In 1965, Bartini was given a rare opportunity to realize the full potential of one of his concepts. With the emergence of American Polaris missile submarines, the Soviet Union needed a new kind of aircraft to respond. Bartini proposed building the ultimate submarine hunter. Designated as the VVA-14, it would be a truly unique and innovative aircraft. With a catamaran-like fuselage it would be optimized to fly within the ground effect (like other ekranoplan of the era), giving it endurance needed to fly long-range missions. It would also have wings so that it could fly like a conventional airplane if needed. Bartini would equip the VVA-14 with both a conventional landing gear for runways and a unique inflatable pontoon system to give it amphibious capabilities. Ten lift jets would allow for vertical take-off and landings (VTOL) from any kind of surface, giving the aircraft the ability to operate from the even most harsh and remote regions of the Soviet Union. Development would stretch nearly a decade, but like Bartini himself, the VVA-14’s design would end up being a little too ahead of it's time.
Seventeen meters long, six meters wide, and weighing more than 34,000 kg, the Antarctic Snow Cruiser was unlike any exploration vehicle the world had ever seen. Designed to tackle the most difficult and inhospitable place on earth, five explorers would live, work and sleep aboard the machine in isolation while they ventured into uncharted regions of Antarctica. Equipped with enough food, fuel and supplies to last an entire year, the Snow Cruiser would carry the latest surveying instruments and tools. The enormous land cruiser would even carry a survey aircraft moored to its roof. By 1939 a global race was underway to claim portions of Antarctica. With the prospect of huge oil, coal and mineral reserves under the ice, Norway, Britain, France, Germany, Australia and New Zealand had all claimed large portions of the continent for themselves. Alarmed at the prospect of territorial claims, U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt established the U.S. Antarctic Service Expedition. It would be the first U.S. government sponsored expedition in decades, and would set sail for Antarctica in the fall of 1939. The Antarctic Snow Cruiser would have a special role to play. Its main objective would be to reach the South Pole (only two prior expeditions had ever set foot on the South Pole prior to 1939). During its months-long trek, the Snow Cruiser and it’s aircraft would make surveys along its course, and in just a few months the Americans were expecting to explore more of Antarctica than all previous expeditions combined. The ambitious effort would help the Americans establish their own territorial claim on the continent. But in the race to leave for Antarctica by the fall of 1939, the Snow Cruiser would have to be constructed in just 11 weeks, an incredibly short amount of time for such an ambitious, first of its kind machine. Soon, it would become abundantly clear that the Cruiser had been over-designed and under-tested, with extreme optimism seemingly guiding it’s design.
In the late 1950s, Soviet intelligence learned that the Americans were developing a new state-of the art supersonic bomber that could render the entire Soviet Air Force and air defense system virtually obsolete. The nuclear-armed North American XB-70 Valkyrie would fly more than three times the speed of sound and at an altitude of 75,000 feet. Only a handful of the XB-70’s would be needed to overwhelm any target. The Soviets would have just a few short years to respond to the threat by designing a new interceptor that could match the incredible performance of America’s XB-70 aircraft. But to guard the enormous air space of the Soviet Union, the interceptor would have to be quickly engineered and mass produced by the hundreds. The result would be the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25, an interceptor engineered to do one thing; climb, catch and bring down the American bomber. But the aircraft would end up as one of the most misunderstood jets of the Cold War.
With sleek futuristic lines and shining red and white paint, NS Savannah was designed to stand out. But what really set it apart was it’s powerplant. At the heart of the ship was a 74 megawatt Pressurized Water Reactor, making Savannah the world’s first nuclear powered merchant ship. Launched in the summer of 1959, Savannah was built to prove that nuclear energy could safely power civilian ships of the future, promising to make cargo and cruise ships more economical, reliable and faster. It would also allow them to travel for years before needing to refuel, offering increased flexibility and operating time. As the first of its kind, Savannah carried both passengers and cargo to demonstrate the safety and reliability of nuclear propulsion for all kinds of civilian uses. When it came to engineering, Savannah was an undeniable engineering success as it outperformed even it’s designers expectations when it came to speed and reliability. Savannah also helped inspire other countries to buil
When the first hovercraft debuted in the summer 1959, it stunned the world as it appeared to almost magically float over any surface. It was a new kind of machine that could travel almost anywhere, on land, water, or just about any other surface. The first prototype hovercraft, designed by British engineer Christopher Cockerell, was a mere demonstrator for the technology, but in just a few short years hovercraft would go from being a curiosity to promising to herald in a new transport revolution. Britain, the United States, and France poured millions into hovercraft development, both for civilian and military purposes. The British would quickly emerge as leaders in hovercraft development and adoption. Small scale hovercraft transport services began popping up throughout the country only two years after the hovercraft first made its debut. The pinnacle of British hovercraft design was the enormous SR.N4. The largest version was capable of transporting sixty cars and as many passenger
At the start of the 1940’s, flying wing aircraft seemed destined to be the next evolution in aircraft design. By eliminating structural components typically found on conventional aircraft, such as engine nacelles, fuselage and tail, parasitic drag would be reduced down to its absolute minimum. The result would be a high-lift, low-drag aircraft with unequaled speed, range and efficiency. Despite earlier efforts around the world to develop all-wing aircraft designs, arguably no single person was more committed to the concept than pioneering American aircraft designer Jack Northrop. Beginning in the 1920’s Northrop studied the concept, drawing up countless designs for flying wing aircraft. By 1940, he had successfully produced two prototypes, the Model 1 (“X216H”) in 1929 and the Northrop N-1M in 1940. But Northrop’s ambitions went far beyond just experimental planes. Responding to an urgent need for the United States to develop the first ever intercontinental bomber, in 1941 Northrop p
In the late 1940’s and early 1950’s the Soviet Union was in critical need of newer, more modern civil airliners. Existing aircraft like the Lisunov Li-2 (a license-build derivative of the Douglas DC-3) and Ilyushin Il-12 were small, slow, and outdated when compared to their western counterparts. Travelling across the vast expanses of the Soviet Union was measured in days due multiple refueling stops, and often unpredictable weather. By 1953 plans were underway to solve the Soviet Union's airliner shortfall, but one pioneering aircraft designer named Andrei Tupolev was committed to propelling Soviet civil aviation well into the future. By 1953, the British de Havilland Comet was beginning to prove itself in passenger service. It flew nearly twice as fast as the latest generation of piston powered airliners, and much higher. With its speed and ability to fly above most weather, the Comet was proving to be much more convenient and comfortable. Tupolev was convinced that jet power was exa
In the late 1950’s a new threat emerged from the Soviet Union for which the Americans were seemingly caught off guard. The latest generation of Soviet nuclear-powered submarines could reach incredible speeds. The Alfa-Class submarine under development at the time would eventually be capable of travelling at 41 knots (76 kph/47 mph) while fully submerged. At such speeds, these submarines could follow American fleets while easily evading ASW ships. Large, fast, ocean-going hydrofoils seemed like the answer.
It was once one of Britain’s most anticipated projects - a new form of surface transport that would combine newly invented hovercraft technology with the linear induction motor. In an era when trains seemed stuck to speeds below 220km/h, the Track Hovercraft promised to connect Britain’s cities at nearly 500 km/h. But despite all of the promise it once held, the Tracked Hovercraft's development would eventually be overshadowed by technological leaps elsewhere.
The most sophisticated and expensive aircraft ever produced, the B-2 Spirit can strike any adversary, anywhere in the world, with near impunity. Even after three decades, the B-2 is still shrouded in mystery.
In 1969 Lockheed produced a highly conceptual study to determine the uses and capabilities of the largest aircraft technically feasible using 1960’s era technology. The result was the CL-1201, a nuclear-powered aircraft with a truly enormous 1,120 foot wingspan and a weight about fifteen times heavier than the next largest aircraft in existence. Although Lockheed’s concept is now widely known by aviation enthusiast, the original report is nowhere to be found, having either been lost or destroyed. Currently, the best source of information is a paper published for the 1982 AIAA 2nd International Very Large Vehicles Conference which references several aspects of the original report. Two variants of the CL-1201 were studied. The first was an airborne aircraft carrier armed with 24 aircraft and long-range cruise missiles, and the second, a military transport capable of carrying up to 400 combat-equipped troops, 472 specialized crew, and over a thousand tons of mechanized equipment and supp
January 16, 1991 marked the start of the Gulf War, an armed campaign waged by a 39-country coalition in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. Within hours, coalition forces began to dismantle Iraq's air defense network and military communications infrastructure. Iraq’s Air Force, at the time the sixth largest in the world, was quickly thrown into disarray. The Iraqi Air Force fought sporadic and disorganized engagements against coalition aircraft, resulting in the loss of dozens of Iraqi jets. On the ground, hundreds more Iraqi aircraft were destroyed in airstrikes. With Iraq’s air force being quickly eliminated, Iraqi president Saddam Hussein ordered his air force to evacuate many of their aircraft to neighboring Iran, to preserve them for future strikes against coalition forces. In response, the United States Air Force established air patrols along the Iranian border consisting of F-15 Eagle fighter aircraft.
More than 50 years after making its first flight, the F-15 Eagle remains one of the most capable fighter aircraft ever developed.
In the 1950’s many believed that railways were an antiquated 19th century technology, soon to be abandoned in favor of faster and more convenient forms of transportation. Short and medium-haul jet travel offered unparalleled speed, while the automobile promised unmatched freedom and convenience. In France the fastest express trains (Le Mistral) averaged speeds of just 120km/h. Although French engineers had set remarkable railway speed records during the decade, including reaching 331 km/h in 1955, few considered railways to have much of a future. To compete against newer forms of transports, trains would have to get significantly faster. This would require engineering new locomotives, as well as rebuilding rail lines with greater precision, more gentle curves, smaller grades and more precise signaling. The effort and resources required seem too great to be worthwhile, but the Japanese were about to radically change how railways were viewed..
By the 1930’s it was well understood that military aircraft would play a crucial role in future conflicts. But there was an issue that had challenged aircraft designers since the dawn of flight. Large, heavy aircraft, like bombers, could carry plenty of fuel, allowing them to fly great distances, but smaller planes like fighters needed to be light and agile could carry only a small amount, limiting their range. This mismatch in flight range meant that on long range missions, bombers couldnt rely on the protection of escorting fighters. The Zveno Project was a Soviet experiment in the 1930s that involved attaching fighters to a bomber mothership and using them as long-range bombers or escorts.
In 1969 Lockheed produced a highly conceptual study to determine the uses and capabilities of the largest aircraft technically feasible using 1960’s era technology. The result was the CL-1201, a nuclear-powered aircraft with a truly enormous 1,120 foot wingspan and a weight about fifteen times heavier than the next largest aircraft in existence. Although Lockheed’s concept is now widely known by aviation enthusiast, the original report is nowhere to be found, having either been lost or destroyed. Currently, the best source of information is a paper published for the 1982 AIAA 2nd International Very Large Vehicles Conference which references several aspects of the original report. Two variants of the CL-1201 were studied. The first was an airborne aircraft carrier armed with 24 aircraft and long-range cruise missiles, and the second, a military transport capable of carrying up to 400 combat-equipped troops, 472 specialized crew, and over a thousand tons of mechanized equipment and supp
For centuries, the North Pole remained elusive. Early attempts to reach it were primarily motivated by the search for a navigable route through the Arctic to Asia, known as the Northwest Passage. Later, expeditions focused specifically on reaching the Pole itself. But for centuries, the goal seemed impossible. The polar environment was extremely unforgiving. Located in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, the North Pole is covered by a vast expanse of sea ice which constantly changes due to wind, ocean currents and seasonable melts. Explorers tried to reach the pole using ships, dogsleds, and even traveling on foot. Reaching the North Pole proved to be so challenging, that the first verified, and officially recognized expedition to reach it didn’t occur until 1926 (although several earlier explorers claimed to have reached it earlier). The pole was first reached using the airship Norge, which flew overhead but did not touch the surface.
Mr. Mustard here wishing you all the best. Thank you for watching and I hope that you'll stick with us through 2018. We’ll be back in a couple weeks with new video!
From drawing board to Mach 2, the Concorde's development story is marked by a series of challenges. In this extra supplemental video, we look at some of the less known stories behind Concorde's development Concorde was the world’s most iconic airliner and one of the most technically ambitious projects in aviation history. Billions were spent on its development over a span of more than a decade. When the Concorde program was launched, it was to be the next giant leap forward in air travel. Many believed that mass supersonic commercial air travel would be commonplace by the end of the 1970s. But British Airways and Air France were ultimately the only airlines to put Concordes into service, taking delivery of just a handful of aircraft each. The two airlines would eventually turn a profit by branding Concorde as an ultra-exclusive way to travel. Ticket prices were set as high as $12,000 for a London to New York round trip for the elite few who could afford the price of flying supersonic. While the prospect of mass supersonic travel never arrived, Concorde earned a legacy as an engineering marvel and symbol of pride for the British and French until it's retirement in 2003.
Perhaps the most unusual of the many MiG-25 spin-off ideas proposed in the 1960's, the Ye-155 design would turn the fearsome Soviet interceptor into a VIP business jet. Preliminary design work started in 1963 and continued well into 1965. As a project internally funded by the MiG Design Bureau, as much of the MiG-25's original design was to remain intact as possible. The fuselage forward of the engines would be all-new, being much longer and wider to accommodate a flight deck and passenger cabin with a single row that would fit five to seven seats. The cabin would be accessed via an entry door on the port side immediately aft of the cockpit. The cabin could also be converted into a cargo hold by removing the seats. The wider fuselage necessitated an increase in the fuel load in order to extend the range to 3,000-3,500km (1,875-2,178 miles) at a cruise speed of Mach 2.35. A relatively short range, limited utility and large amount of design work still needed all conspired against the Foxbat Business Jet and the project was abandoned in 1965.
It’s been called the ugliest aircraft ever built, a flying barrel, or a man-made bumblebee. But in many ways, the Stipa-Caproni was a revolutionary plane, ahead of its time. It’s hollow, barrel-shaped fuselage with the engine and propeller completely enclosed made it more efficient than other aircraft of the era. The design promised to open a new chapter in aviation that would allow for the development of enormous airliners, decades ahead of their time. Some even claim that the Stipa-Caprinio helped inspire the modern turbofan engine. But despite the Stipa-Caproni forward thinking design, it's contribution to aviation has since been largely forgotten.
The F-117 Nighthawk would be unlike any aircraft ever built. A plane that would trade speed and maneuverability for a new kind of advantage. By the early 1970’s, sophisticated air defense systems were posing a huge threat to NATO aircraft. During the Vietnam War, thousands of American aircraft were lost to radar guided anti-aircraft guns and surface-to-air missiles. In 1973, the Israeli Air Force lost over one hundred aircraft in a matter of days during the Yom Kippur war. Military planners worried that if war were to break out in Central Europe, NATO aircraft would be up against a nearly impenetrable Soviet air defense network. By some estimates, NATO air forces would be depleted within a week. In 1974, the United States Department of Defense (DARPA) requested that leading aircraft manufacturers explore the possibility of designing an aircraft that could slip through air defenses by evading radar, infrared and acoustic spectrums of detection. Lockheed, although not initially invited by DARPA to explore stealth aircraft technologies, would soon make a major breakthrough. An engineer at Lockheed had stumbled across the groundbreaking research of a Soviet mathematician named Pyotr Ufimstsev. Ufimstesv's research demonstrated that the strength of a radar return from an object is related to its edge configuration, not just its size. It meant that, with the right shape, a large object could be made to appear tiny on radar. Incorporating the research into sophisticated computer software, Lockheed's engineers could now design an aircraft that would be virtually invisible to radar. But calculating the radar return of curved surfaces like those found on aircraft, would require more computing power than was available at the time. To get around this limitation, Lockheed's engineers would use a technique called faceting, where the ordinarily smooth surfaces of an aircraft would be broken up into a series of flat surfaces. It would mean that the radically shaped F-11
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A ‘genius ahead of his time’ reads the inscription on Robert Bartini’s tombstone at the Vvedenskoye Cemetery just outside of Moscow. Today, the Italian-born Soviet aircraft designer is celebrated for his extensive contribution to the development of numerous successful and experimental aircraft projects. Many of Bartini’s concepts were truly wondrous. Some were unquestionably bizarre. Perhaps his most ambitious concept was for a 5000 ton flying ground effect aircraft carrier. Designed to carry a crew of 430 and up to 25 combat aircraft at 600 km/h, Bartini’s ground effect aircraft carrier would have been the largest object to ever fly. Onboard, it’s crew of 430 sailors and 25 combat aircraft would travel at speeds of 600 km/h. While a ground effect aircraft carrier’s speed and tactical mobility could give the Soviet Union an enormous tactical advantage, it was a concept so fantastical, it could have only ever existed in the eccentric mind of Bartini
The Mikoyan MiG-31 is a supersonic interceptor and successor to the infamous MiG-25. Developed during the Cold War as a true home-defense interceptor, the MiG-31 shares only a superficial appearance to the MiG-31. Dubbed ’Super Foxbat’ by defecting MiG-25 Soviet pilot Viktor Belenko, the MiG-31 is essentially the full realization of what the MiG-25 was intended to be. Whereas MiG-25’s design was about brute force, the MiG-31 employed the state-of-the-art by way of sophisticated avionics, engines, and weapons systems. MiG-31 remains one of the fastest combat jets to enter service, and the first combat aircraft in the world to use a phased array radar, offering superior situational awareness.
In 1955 the Soviet Union learned that the Americans were developing a long-range supersonic bomber and immediately scrambled to develop an equivalent. The Myasishchev M-50 (NATO Codename Bounder) would end up as one of most fearsome looking aircraft ever built, but looks can be deceiving. In an effort to match Americans, the Soviets ended up producing an embarrassing failure, one that they would keep hidden for decades.