FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1940
1940 - 1888.PDF
JULY 4, 1940 Three of T.W.A.'s Stratoliners and two of Pan American's Strato-Clippers under construction in the Boeing factory at Seattle. THE BOEING STRATOLINER First Pressure Cabin Airliner Goes Into Service A FLEET of five Boeing 307-B Stratoliners are nowbeing delivered from the Boeing factory, in Seattle,to Transcontinental and Western Air for the Cali- fornia-New York route and non-stop service between Chicago and New York. They follow closely the recent delivery of three of the Model 307, known as the Strato-Clipper, to Pan American Airways for routes to South America. These aircraft show that the British trend to four engines is now being followed in American air transport. T.W.A.'s transcontinental Stratoliner service, linking the Pan American Airways transatlantic and transpacific Boeing Clipper services, will complete a " four-engined " air route spanning a large part of the globe, from Lisbon to Hong Kong. The time across America will be reduced to 14J hours and Los Angeles to Europe will become a 40 hour service. The T.W.A. Stratoliners, in common with the Pan American Strato-Clippers, are the world's first transport craft to have a pressure cabin for comfortable " over-weather " flight at high altitudes. The automatic cabin pressure system maintains low-altitude conditions for passengers and crew at altitudes up to 20,000ft. At altitudes between 8,000 and 14,700ft. the pressure, condition in the cabin remains the equivalent of 8,000ft. At 16,oooft. the "pressure altitude" in the cabin is 9,000ft. At 18,oooft. it is 10,600ft., and at 20,000ft. it is 12,300ft. In other words, between 14,700 and 20,000ft. the pressure inside the cabin exceeds the outside atmo- spheric pressure by n\ lb. per sq. in. This is less than half of the 6 lb. per sq. in. pressure difference for which the cabin is designed. The advantage of the pressure cabin system is that it makes high altitude flight possible for passengers, who without pressure or oxygen, cannot go above 14,000ft. High altitude flight avoids bad weather, gives smoother (Continued on page 10.) (Left) A indicates compressed air going to cabin, while B is spent air outlet. (Centre) One of the two engine- driven pumps which compress cabin air. (Right) The flight engineer at work. Cabin pressure instruments are •within the • white line.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
