Thursday, June 4, 2009

Boeing 747-100 - TWA Trans World Airlines

Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet



Boeing 747 TWA


Boeing 747-100 - TWA Trans World Airlines



The US airline TWA Trans World Airlines was, like Pan Am, primarily a long-haul intercontinental airline. During the 1970s and 1980s TWA was also a major operator of the Boeing 747. It flew a total of around forty 747-100s, -200s and -SPs. Other widebodies flown by TWA were the Lockheed L-1011 Tristar and the Boeing 767.

The airline was founded in 1925 as Western Air Express. After a merger with Transcontinental Air Transport (T-A-T) in 1930 it became Transcontinental and Western Air (T&WA). The name Trans World Airlines was adopted in 1950.

Until the early 1970s TWA and Pan Am were the only U.S. airlines serving Europe and by 1969 TWA's transatlantic operation was even bigger than Pan Am's. TWA ran into financial difficulty after deregulation in the USA in 1979. TWA was forced to sell big parts of its international operation to American Airlines and it filed for bankruptcy (Chapter 11) three times. In April 2001, after the third filing, TWA was purchased by American Airlines.

The final TWA flight occurred on December 1 2001. The result was that TWA's former hub at Lambert-St. Louis Airport was dismantled in favour of American's much larger nearby hub at Chicago O'Hare.



Boeing 747-200 - Pan Am

Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet



Boeing 747-200 Jumbo Jet - Pan Am

Boeing 747-200 - Pan Am



21 January 1970 is the day of the world's first widebody commercial flight when Pan Am flew a Boeing 747 from New York to London Heathrow. Pan Am was the first customer for the Jumbo Jet and played a major role in the emergence of this aircraft type. In total Pan Am operated 65 Boeing 747-100's, -200s and -SPs. The picture shows two Jumbo Jets in different liveries at Frankfurt Rhein/Main Airport, where the airline operated a big hub during many years.

Pan Am was a real aviation pioneer. It was founded in 1927 in the Key West as Pan American Airways by Juan Terry Trippe. Pan Am's first activity was flying mail between Key West and Havana. With the arrival of a Fokker F.7 it started a passenger service on the same route in January 1928.

During the 1930s flying boats played a major role in the expansion of Pan Am. Flying boats were used for example to start services to South America, over the Pacific and over the Atlantic Ocean.

Pan Am developed as a mostly international airline. It lacked a large domestic network like American, Delta and United had. This meant that Pan Am couldn't compete effectively with these airlines when they started intercontinental services after US deregulation in 1979. To rise money the airline sold its Pacific routes to United Airlines and the transatlantic services to Delta.

On 21 December 1988 PanAm 747 'Clipper Maid of the Seas' was blown up in the air by a terrorist bomb when it flew over Lockerbie in Scotland on its way from London Heathrow to New York. In that disaster 270 people died, including 11 inhabitants of Lockerbie. Pan Am didn't survive this final blow. In December 1991 the airline stopped flying and that marked the end of one of the proudest airline histories in the world.


Boeing 747 "Jumbo Jet"

Boeing 747

Boeing 747 "Jumbo Jet"

The Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet was the largest passenger aircraft in operational service in the world for almost forty years, until in October 2007 the Airbus A380 took over this position. The 747 was the first widebody aircraft to fly and being much larger than its predecessors like the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 meant a revolution in air transport.

The history of the 747 started halfway the 1960s. Boeing lost the competition for the development of a large airlifter for the US Air Force in 1965 to Lockheed's C-5A Galaxy and sought ways to apply the experience gathered on this project to a big airliner. In March 1966 the Boeing board of directors decided to go ahead with the 747 programme and one month later Pan American World Airways announced the purchase of 25 aircraft. Many airlines followed, not always because had enough passengers to fill the aircraft, but often because their managements feared that the Jumbo Jet would make the DC-8 and 707 look obsolete in the eyes of the travelling public.

The first designs of the intended 747 looked much like a military transport. The drawings showed a high-wing and room for up to 800 passengers on two decks. Boeing concluded, however, that such an aircraft would be too big for the aviation world of the 1970s. The engineers took a clean sheet of paper and designed a smaller aircraft for up to 500 passengers and a low, relatively small wing for fast and efficient cruising and a sophisticated system of flaps for low speed and good handling characteristics. These high-lift devices were even a step beyond the already very advanced systems used on the 727. The 747 is the first civil aircraft fitted with high-bypass turbofan engines, which are more powerful and economical than earlier jet engines and less noisy.


Single passenger deck



An important decision was the choice for a wide single passenger deck instead of two. To get a better nose shape, Boeing decided to put the cockpit on top of the passenger cabin. For aerodynamic reasons engineers faired the cockpit gently into the main body, creating a small upper deck that could be reached via a spiral staircase, remembering Boeing's earlier Stratocruiser airliner.

For the final assembly of the Boeing 747 Boeing had to construct the largest building (measured in volume) in the world, at Everett Paine Field, near Seattle. On 9 February 1969, the 747 flew for the first time. The FAA certificied the aircraft type on 30 December 1969 and Pan Am started commercial operations on 21 January 1970 between New York and London.


Boeing 747-100 /-200 / SR



The first version, introduced by Pan Am, was the 747-100. Boeing soon followed with the 747-200B, which took to the air for the first time on 11 October 1970. The first airline to fly this version was KLM. Other early versions are the 747-200F Freighter with a hinged nose and an optional side cargo door, the 747-200C Convertible with a cabin that could easily be changed from passenger layout to cargo configuration and the 747-200M Mixed (or Combi) with a combined passenger and cargo main deck. The 747SR is a short-range version for routes demanding high capacity. This version is mainly used on domestic flights in Japan.


Boeing 747SP



The Boeing 747SP (Special Performance) is a short-body long-range version of the Jumbo Jet. It flew for the first time on 4 July 1975 and the first delivery to Pan Am took place in March 1976. The SP's fuselage is 14.35 m (47 ft 1 in) shorter compared to the earlier 747-models. SP components are about 90 per cent common with the 747-100 and -200. The vertical tail is increased in height and area and the construction of the aircraft is lightened where possible and cost-effective. No more than 45 747SP aircraft have been sold.


Boeing 747-300



The first flight of the 747-300 took place on 5 October 1982. This version's most important difference compared to the earlier models was an extended upper deck, a 'longer bulge', so to say with room for extra passengers. The first 747-300 entered service with Swissair in March 1983. Some 747-200s, including ten KLM aircraft, were modified to have the stretched upper deck as well. Later KLM had two of these modified 747-200s converted to freighters.


Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet Virgin Atlantic


Boeing 747-400



During the late 1980s Boeing developed the 747-400, with the same fuselage length and extended upper deck as the 747-300, but with a larger wingspan, winglets, a highly modernised digital flight deck, higher weights and a lower fuel consumption thanks to improved engines. The 747-400 made its maiden flight on 29 April 1988. It is also available in a 'short-bulge' cargo version (747-400F)and as a combi (747-400M). The 747-400D (Domestic) for short-range flights doesn't have winglets. The 747-400ER is an improved extended range version, of which also a freighter variant exists, the 747-400ERF.

Boeing sold more than 1300 aircraft of all 747 versions. 724 aircraft were so-called 'Classics' (747-100, 747-200, 747-300 and 747SP). Today a growing number of passenger aircraft is being converted to freighters. Some Boeing 747 aircraft are used for special purposes, like two 747-200s designated 'Air Force One' as the U.S. presidential aircraft and four 747-200s designated E-4 as airborne emergency command and control posts for the US Air Force. One 747 was modified to ferry space shuttles between California and Florida and one modified 747SP is flying as an astronomical observatory with an infrared telescope on board.


Boeing 747-8



The newest version of the Boeing 747 will be the 747-8, which is to be developed in two versions: the 747-8I (Intercontinental) passenger plane and the 747-8F freighter). Both versions will be 5,6 meter longer than the 747-400. The new version is named 747-8 to underline the use of modern technology from the 787 Dreamliner twinjet, including the General Electric GEnx turbofan engines. Boeing will deliver the first aircraft in 2009.

Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet

Technical Specifications

Airbus A380-800

Airbus A380 Qantas
Artist's impression of an Airbus A380-800 Qantas - Photo: Airbus

A380-800

- -

Length

239 ft 3 in

72.7 m

Wingspan

261 ft 8 in

79.8 m

Height

79 ft 7 in

24.1 m

Max. takeoff weight

1235,000 lb

560,000 kg

Passengers

555-822

.

Payload

145,500 lb

66,400 kg

Cruise speed

0.89 Mach

-

Range

8,000 nm

15,000 km

Engines:
Four Rolls-Royce Trent 970 - 70,000 lb / 311 kN. Four Engine Alliance GP7270 - 70,000 lb / 311 kN.



Airbus A380-800F


Airbus A380-800F
The Freighter version of the Airbus A380 has been suspended after customers like FedEx
and UPS canceled their orders for this version. - Image: Airbus

A380-800F

- -

Length

239 ft 3 in

72.7 m

Wingspan

261 ft 8 in

79.8 m

Height

79 ft 7 in

24.1 m

Max. takeoff weight

1300,726 lb

590,000 kg

Payload

347,000

157,400 kg

Cruise speed

0.89 Mach

-

Range

5,616 nm

10,400 km

Engines:
Four Rolls-Royce Trent 977 - 76,500 lb / 339 kN. Four Engine Alliance GP7277 - 76,500 lb / 339 kN.

Airbus A380

Airbus A380 Singapore Airlines

Airbus A380

The Airbus A380, formerly known as A3XX, is the world's biggest and heaviest passenger airliner. It is Airbus's answer to the Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet. The aircraft has two passenger decks over the full length of the fuselage.

The basic version is the A380-800, an aircraft with 555-seats in a three-class cabin. In charter-layout there is even space for more than 800 passengers.

On 27 April 2005 the Airbus A380 flew for the first time from Toulouse Blagnac, where the final assembly of the airliner takes place. Service entry with Singapore Airlines, however, is delayed several times, from March 2006 to October 2007, due to production problems, especially with the complex wiring of the aircraft.

Airbus had planned a A380-800F cargo variant. However, because of the production delays all orders for the freighter version were cancelled and Airbus stopped the development of this version. Among the airlines that had ordered the A380-800F were UPS (United Parcel Service) and Federal Express (FedEx). Possibly Airbus will restart the development of the freighter at a later stage.

Proposed variants of the A380 are a A380-700 'short-body' version seating 480 passengers in a three-class layout and the A380-900 stretch with a capacity of 656 seats in three-class layout and around one thousand passengers in high-density configuration.

The A380 has an advanced fuel system, which helps actively controlling the aircraft in flight. Because before take-off fuel in the wing makes the wing bend too much, fuel is mainly kept in the inboard tanks and in the tailplane tanks. Later, when the aircraft is in the air, the fuel is gradually pumped into the wing tanks. This also helps to control the centre of gravity and reduce drag.

The Airbus A380 airframe consists of 22 per cent composite materials. The upper fuselage skin is made of Glare, a material made of alternating layers of aluminium and glass fibre reinforced material, to save weight and to achieve more structural strength.

Airbus offers A380 customers a choice of two engines: the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 or Pratt & Whitney - General Electric Engine Alliance GP7200s. The first aircraft was fitted with Trent 900 engines.

Among the first airlines that have ordered the Airbus A380 are: Emirates, Air France, Singapore Airlines, Qantas, Korean Air and Virgin Atlantic.

Airbus A380 Emirates
A380 prototype in Emirates colours. - Photo: Airbus

Technical Specifications


Airbus A350 XWB-800

(provisional data)

Airbus A350-800 Qatar
Artist's impression of an Airbus A350 XWB-800 of Qatar Airways - Image: Airbus

A350 XWB-800

- -

Length

198 ft 5 in

60,5 m

Wingspan

209 ft 10 in

64 m

Height

55 ft 4 in

16.9 m

Max. takeoff weight

540,100 lb

245,000 kg

Passengers

270

.

Cruise speed

0.85 Mach

-

Range

8,500 nm

15,750 km

Engines:
Two Rolls-Royce Trent XWB, 75,000 lb / 334 kN



Airbus A350 XWB-900

(provisional data)

Airbus A350-900
Artist's impression of an Airbus A350-900 - Image: Airbus

A350 XWB-900

- -

Length

219 ft 2 in

66.8 m

Wingspan

209 ft 10 in

64 m

Height

55 ft 4 in

16.9 m

Max. takeoff weight

584,200 lb

265,000 kg

Passengers

314

.

Cruise speed

0.85 Mach

-

Range

8,400 nm

15,540 km

Engines:
Two Rolls-Royce Trent XWB, 87,000 lb / 388 kN



Airbus A350 XWB-1000

(provisional data)

-

A350 XWB-1000

- -

Length

242 ft 1 in

73.8 m

Wingspan

209 ft 10 in

64 m

Height

55 ft 4 in

16.9 m

Max. takeoff weight

650,400 lb

295,000 kg

Passengers

350

.

Cruise speed

0.85 Mach

-

Range

8,300 nm

15,360 km

Engines:
Two Rolls-Royce Trent XWB, 95,000 lb / 415 kN


Airbus A350

Airbus A350 Singapore Airlines

Airbus A350 XWB

The A350 XWB is Airbus's answer to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The design for the new Airbus type started as an improved version of the A330, which became rather difficult to sell since Boeing presented the 787. The airlines wanted a more advanced aircraft and forced Airbus to work harder on the new design. At Farnborough 2006 Airbus even presented an all new design, named 'A350 XWB' (eXtra Wide Body). Airbus officially launched the A350 XWB on 1 December 2006.

Several earlier designs based on the A330 still had the fuselage diameter of the good old A300, which allows a 2-4-2 seating arrangement compared to 3-3-3 seating in the 777 and 787. In Spring 2006, urged by criticism from airlines, Airbus started considering a wider fuselage, a larger wing, more powerful engines, a higher cruise speed and many other changes to satisfy the airlines. This resulted in the A350 XWB, but it means much extra development work and the intended in-service-date for the aircraft has slipped from 2010 to 2013, more than four years behind the scheduled introduction into service of the 787.

Airbus has planned three versions of the new airliner: the A350 XWB-800 carrying around 250 passengers in a three-class configuration, the A350 XWB-900, which accommodates around 300 passengers and the A350 XWB-1000 with about 350 seats.

Advanced materials

The Airbus A350 XWB will be substantially more fuel-efficient than the A330 and less noisy. About 60 per cent of the A350 airframe will be built of weight-saving advanced materials like carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP) and aluminium lithium alloys. In the A330 this is only 15 per cent. The new aircraft will be the first Airbus product with an all-composite wing. The rear fuselage and the tail cone will be constructed from composites as well. An aluminium lithium alloy is used in the forward and aft sections of the fuselage.

The cabin windows will be larger than on the A330. The cockpit crew rest area will be placed beneath the cockpit. This does not only saves space on the main deck, it is also a security precaution to keep the cockpit completely separated from the rest of the aircraft.

The first airline to sign a letter of intent for the A350 XWB was Singapore Airlines. Several other airlines had ordered earlier versions of the A350. Among them are Eurofly, Air Europa (Spain), Kingfisher Airlines (India), Qatar Airways, TAM (Brazil), US Airways, Finnair and several leasing companies.

Airbus A350 XWB

Boeing 747-100 - TWA Trans World Airlines

Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet Boeing 747-100 - TWA Trans World Airlines The US airline TWA Trans World Airlines was, like Pan Am, primarily a lon...