News | 02 Jan 2009 00:01 | Günter Endres
The jet was king and the Jumbo Jet proved bigger was definitely better. Meanwhile, the Harrier showed the UK could still leadhttp://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/Flight-100-History-1959-1979-320367/News | 07 Jul 2008 15:00 | Jon Ostrower
After more than 40 years of service Boeing's jumbo jet is still going strong as the manufacturer has adapted and honed its widebody to suit the markethttp://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/Boeing-747-The-Big-Survivor-225118/News | 16 Jun 2003 23:00
<p>Boeing's long and complex story has encompassed virtually all aspects of military and civil aviation.</p> <p>Boeing has not always been synonymous with airliners. From the 1940s to the 1960s, the company was the pre-eminent producer of bombers. Then, Douglas was the dominant builder of airliners, as well as attack aircraft, while McDonnell was rivalling North American as the leading manufacturer of fighters. Boeing today is a combination of all four companies, plus the helicopter and satellite heritage of Hughes. It has been an interesting journey.</p> <p>Beginnings</p> <p>William Boeing's first aircraft, the B&W seaplane, flew in 1916 and his company, Pacific Aero Products, was renamed Boeing Airplane a year later. Its first contract came from the US Navy, for 50 Model C seaplane trainers. Donald Douglas's first aircraft, the Cloudster, flew in 1921. It was followed by the DT torpedo bomber for the US Navy. Douglas World Cruisers - modified DTs - flew round the world in 1923http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/Boeings-new-course-Ten-decades-of-Boeing-167250/News | 14 Apr 2003 23:00
Concorde has been vectored onto its final approach to retirement, but its legacy is today's European aerospace industry <p>Amid the vortex of commercial, technical, emotional and flat-out irrational arguments that have swirled around Concorde since its birth, the project's industrial implications have often been forgotten. The Anglo-French supersonic transport was the first international aerospace programme and the first to face the cultural and political issues of industrial collaboration: issues ranging from how workshare should be allocated and which language should be used, to inches versus millimetres.</p> <p>In tackling the issues, and overcoming them, Concorde paved the way for every European collaborative programme that followed, and helped shape the region's aerospace industry. Not every attempt at co-operation was as successful. The Anglo-French Variable Geometry (AFVG) fighter failed, but the two countries developed and produced the Sepecat Jaguar strike/trainer aircraft,http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/Ground-breaker-164252/News | 11 Feb 2003 00:00
<p>GRAHAM WARWICK / WASHINGTON DC</p> <p>In the second of a monthly series marking the centennial of flight, we look at how commercial airliners will develop over the next 100 years</p> <p>Breaking the sound barrier was once as impossible as travelling faster than light. Beginning with the Wright brothers' first flight, it took aviation 44 years to reach Mach 1, six more to exceed M2, and another 14 to reach the M6.7 speed record that still stands, 36 years later. Today only one civil aircraft can exceed the speed of sound and only a handful can fly faster than M0.9. Has civil aviation hit the speed barrier? </p> <p>The new century opened to the debate over speed versus size. After Airbus launched the A380 large airliner in 2000, Boeing abandoned its competing 747-X and tried to interest airlines in the smaller, but faster Sonic Cruiser. The US manufacturer argued that the projected growth in international point-to-point services would favour speed over size. </p> <p>Late in 2002,http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/Speed-barrier-161523/News | 01 Jan 2000 00:00
Predictions can prove embarrassing. And airlines are much more cautious these days <p>If <I>Flight International</I> had polled airlines 30 years ago for their predictions on long-term developments within the industry, the answers would have been exciting, ambitious and possibly outrageous. They would also have born little or no relationship to subsequent events. </p> <p>If those airlines were asked today about their long-term requirements, their answers would be different - although the need for quietness and efficiency would still exist. </p> <p>Three decades ago airlines would have been predicting, and seeking, increased speed, capacity and probably vertical or vertical/short take-off and landing (VTOL or V/STOL) ability for their short-haul fleets. Now they are less visionary, with no burning desires to tackle high-risk technologies for additional speed. Instead, they are more interested in efficiency and reliability. </p> <p>Airlines want low-risk, competitively priced designhttp://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/Perils-of-prediction-60467/