Visual Shards Blog. Why there was no American supersonic airliner

Can you imagine such a kind of humanoid? Well, yes, literally like this: a man, but with wings ... Today I will talk about the greatest invention, which for some reason went unnoticed.

Daedalus and Icarus ... what a beautiful myth about people, they really wanted to spread their wings and fly, how cruelly the sky took revenge for the fact that they invaded his possessions. Has heaven avenged? Maybe it was the recklessness of young Icarus that played a cruel joke on him and the sky had nothing to do with it? Or maybe...
Take another look at the picture. It clearly shows the basic error due to which neither Icarus nor Daedalus, in principle, could take off. Don't try to find it. Since the time of Icarus, no one has been able to do this for many centuries, although there were more than enough who wanted to.
Here is one famous case:

Franz Reichelt, only a funnel remained from him. There were so many that due to extremely high mortality in the 1950s, the USPA banned any testing of bat wings. She banned it as a dead-end, unrealizable idea that you just need to forget ... Forget and never remember about it. Oh, the Americans, they tell everyone: what to do, what not to do)
However, this ban lasted more than thirty years.
***
Let's go back to the previous picture. In the eighties of the last century, another Frenchman, his name was Patrick de Gaillardon, found a mistake. After many centuries, he was one of thousands of testers who understood a seemingly simple thing: a bird has not two wings, but THREE. Three wings, THREE!!!
See the mistake?)

We see one wing, we see the second, but where is the third?
And here it is!

I specially made a small picture) People did not notice the obvious for many centuries) The tail is also a wing, almost more functional than two flywheels.
The price of this mistake, hundreds of deaths. The price of this mistake, hundreds of years during which a person was considered born to crawl, but he can fly, he can!
Do you want to fly on a flying man? Yes please!

Do you want to fly yourself? Yes to health!

Do you want to fly with friends? picturesque mountains? No problem!

Or just above the city?

All this is now available thanks to a man who had the courage to deny the most unshakable dogmas. You know that a parachute at 10,000 meters is useless, don't you? Why is it useless? That's right - there is no air and a person, being at such a high altitude, will simply suffocate, freeze from frost -50, his blood will boil, his heart will stop, etc. and so on. Doctors of all kinds of sciences, professors of couch universities and so on and so on and so forth, they will tell you very authoritatively and reasonably what will happen to you if ...
And Patrick took it and jumped... First from 11,700 m, and then from 12,700... without oxygen, without any special equipment... just jumped and that's it. We had it, in the Moscow region in 1992 and 1995.
Here he is, the winged Frenchman Patrick de Gaillardon, whose greatest invention went unnoticed.

Denis is an instructor pilot of one of major airlines Russia. Which one is easy to understand by reading his blog. And if up to this point you could be tormented by typical questions from the category “How do planes take off?”, “How do planes land?”, “How do you fly an airplane in manual mode?” After reading Denis’s detailed posts, a lot will become clear.

Yuri Yashin
Without a doubt, Yuri is the most smiling of all public pilots. Now he works for S7 Airlines as a co-pilot. Airbus aircraft A-320. Thanks to Yuri's passion for photography, we have the opportunity to see in the blog picturesque shots from the cockpit, as well as photos of aircraft at destination airports. And thanks to his talent as a storyteller, we regularly learn about flying everyday life.

Marina Lystseva
Marina says: "You don't have to work for an airline to be as close to the planes as possible." The fact is that Marina is an aviation photographer whose telephoto lenses reach everywhere. Her passion for aviation began 15 years ago when she worked as the editorial manager of the Aviation and Cosmonautics Bulletin. And it still continues, now to the delight of blog readers. And yes, a small remark: in the interpretation of the author, the nickname is correctly read "photographer";)

Andrey Ivanov
Andrei admits that in childhood, like all children, he dreamed of becoming a pilot or astronaut. Vision did not allow him to learn to be a pilot civil aviation, but did not deprive the dream of flying. Today Andrei combines several hypostases associated with the sky at once. He is an aeronautical engineer, private pilot, Il-14 restoration project manager and director of AOPA-Russia.

In the 1960s, humanity was in a state of optimism. The horrors of war were far behind us, and the potential for technological progress seemed boundless. Gagarin flew into space, the Americans pretended to be driven to the moon, and it seemed that if not today, then tomorrow, someone would build a city on Mars. Meanwhile, here on Earth, the development of civil aviation has brought countries and continents closer together.

The era of jet aircraft has come, and by the end of the decade. Everyone firmly believed that the future of aviation lay with supersonic aircraft. The Europeans built the Concorde, the USSR worked on the Tu-144, and the Americans ... And here we have a snag. Americans never built passenger aircraft capable of flying faster speed sound. But why? The answer to this question can be found in strange place: Oklahoma City.

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Of course, in the midst of Cold War The US could never afford to fall behind the Europeans and Russians in the prestigious high-tech race of the future. Then everyone thought that in ten years, all passenger air transportation will be carried out exclusively on supersonic aircraft: why fly slower if you can fly faster?! Therefore, of course, the Americans had a response to the challenges of overseas partners.

The government established the SST ("supersonic transport") program, at the request of which one of the aircraft manufacturers was to create a supersonic liner. For this role, the Boeing design, codenamed 2707, was chosen. In classic American style, this aircraft was supposed to be larger and faster than the European Concorde. Instead of 92-128 passengers, a supersonic Boeing would be designed for 250-300. The Concorde flew twice as fast as the speed of sound, and the Boeing was going to fly three times as fast! It would be a worthy example of American industrial superiority.

Then, in the 1960s, supersonic aviation seemed like a natural development of technology. Enthusiasm for the future aircraft was so great that Seattle, where the headquarters of Boeing () is located, named its new basketball team "Supersonics" ("Supersonics").

There was only one snag in all of this. Military supersonic aircraft already existed at that time, and everyone knew that they create a sonic boom in front of them - this is a very loud sound that can be heard for kilometers. It was not clear whether it was possible to fly at such a speed over the ground where settlements and people live. If a supersonic plane flies low, then the sonic boom is very strong - it can knock out windows and knock people down. But even when the plane is flying very high at high speed, its loud rumble is heard on the ground. It can override other sounds and make normal conversation between people impossible.

It was not clear how much urban residents could get used to the fact that supersonic liners would constantly fly over their heads? I spent my childhood in Moscow in an apartment whose windows overlooked the street with a tram. And not, but noisy, rumbling and rattling Soviet. He walked under the windows all night long, but my whole family got so used to him that they slept peacefully, not noticing his roar.

Maybe with sonic booms there will be such a story? Can people get used to them? To test this, the US Aviation Administration launched the so-called "Operation Bongo II". The idea was to choose one american city, and launch supersonic aircraft over it. Several times a day. And in order to understand how much one can get used to this, they decided that this operation would last not one or two days, but six months.

Do you understand? SIX MONTHS over the city were supposed to fly such noisemakers eight times a day. For this purpose, a city was chosen in the heart of the United States, Oklahoma City.

The inhabitants of the city were not asked, although some of them were at first glad that it was their city that got such an honor: the local Chamber of Commerce even threw a holiday on this occasion.

Starting from February 3, 1964, they were carried out by Air Force fighters from a nearby base. The planes were supposed to fly over the city eight times a day along the planned route. The first flight was at seven in the morning, the eighth - in the afternoon.

The Civil Aviation Authority has placed microphones and other equipment in the city to measure the sound and vibration levels caused by overflying fighter jets.

At first, the people of Oklahoma City didn't mind much. Since the flights were relatively predictable, it seemed that one could live with them. Film crew sent to watch local residents, was surprised to find the construction crew, for which the next peal of a sonic boom served as a signal for a lunch break.

However, soon the constant rumble from heaven began to annoy the townspeople. Plus, the program resulted in real injuries: in the first 14 weeks of the experiment, in the two most tall buildings city, the shock wave knocked out a total of 147 windows!

By the end of spring, activist groups were demanding an end to the bullying, but local politicians asked them to be patient for the national good - Oklahoma City was believed to be the site of an important experiment for the country. However, the pressure continued to mount - the story was covered by popular newspapers east coast.

As a result, the program was stopped on July 30, just a month before the successful completion. During this time, 1253 supersonic flights were made over Oklahoma City.

In the final report, they wrote that 73% of the residents surveyed decided that they could eventually get used to life with constant sonic booms over their heads. A quarter of the population reported that they were not ready to endure it. And somewhere around 3% of the citizens were so angry with these flights that they wrote angry letters, called to complain or even sued. About half a million people lived in the city at the time, which meant 15,000 very disaffected people.

The problem was aggravated by the fact that the civil aviation administration rejected many applications from people who asked for compensation for various damages.

As a result of this experiment, the government was forced to abandon the supersonic air travel program. The development of the Boeing 2707 was canceled in 1971, and a couple of years later, civilian supersonic flights over the United States were banned. For many years, Concorde, operating transatlantic flights in NY, was forced to slow down, flying up to American shores.

PS: And in 2008, the Seattle Supersonics basketball team was transferred from Seattle to Oklahoma City, where it was renamed the Oklahoma City Thunder ("Thunder of Oklahoma City"). So a city in Oklahoma stole Seattle's supersonic future not once, but twice.

I, as promised, post the final post about the most interesting authors of LiveJournal. And it will be dedicated to a highly specialized topic, namely aviation, and everything connected with it. Why this particular topic? If, for example, we take nature, it is rare that anyone can resist the greatness mountain ranges and oceans. So it is in technology. Graceful multi-colored handsome planes, both in the sky and on the ground, have always attracted and will attract the enthusiastic glances of people. This topic has not bypassed me. I have been fond of airplanes and air spotting for a long time, and I keep a separate one in my own blog.

There are dozens of bloggers for whom the airport is their second home. And among them there are real pros, leading very, very interesting blogs. In my first post, under #5 favorites, I already mentioned Alexandra Chebana alexcheban and today I will introduce you to other interesting authors. Of course, the people I will talk about below know each other very well, have been friends for a long time and are professional colleagues. But the rest of the authors and readers of LJ, perhaps, will discover new faces and the amazing, exciting world of civil and military aviation.

In the first place I will put the inimitable Marina Lystseva photographersha - a professional aviation photographer, the author of dozens of simply gorgeous posts, whether it is a report from any aviation festival, a major air show, or from aboard a new model of an airliner.

02. Marina.

Selected publications and collections of Marina recommended for viewing:

Aviator - Sergey Martirosyan aviator_ru also known to many. No one will represent him better than himself: " My love for aviation started a long time ago, but it only started to show itself actively when I started taking notes and saving moments and images that I liked in photos. I have a fairly large archive of personal aviation photographs that I took at airports, in flight or just for fun, as well as at various air shows.

08. Sergey.

My friends are calling me Aviator, I can't walk past a plane taking off, or look up into the sky, noticing an airplane's contrail, or admiring a handsome airplane in an airport parking lot. Boarding an airplane, I feel at home, saying “Hello, hostesses” to the flight attendants, and after the completion of the flight, which is always pleasant for me, “Thank you for the work” to the crew. Sky, Airplane, Runway This is everything that makes up my life. "

10. Airbus A350-1000 - the most spacious of the entire A350 family, 74 meters long, and maximum capacity 440 passengers.

11. The Airbus A350-900 has a distinctive carbon livery that symbolizes cutting-edge technology in the use of composite materials in aircraft design (more than 50%).

WITH Julia Loris relax_action I am well acquainted personally, thanks to the first official spottings at our Kaliningrad airport Khrabrovo. Julia is an amazing soul! It is not only interesting to shoot planes with her, but also to talk on many topics. Julia is not only a wonderful photographer and spotter, but also a professional designer.

13. Julia in Kaliningrad Khrabrovo.

Thanks to Yulia, many spotters of our country have unique aviation key chains, branded T-shirts and safety vests in their collections. Julia is also the author of such a wonderful "branded" event as "". The term “podzaboring”, which is familiar to spotters, has acquired new facets thanks to him.

The creative work of the designer has a direct effect on Yulia's photographs, making them bright, unusual, and also taken from non-standard angles.

Another great master of aerial spotting - diman7777 . Dmitriy lives in the south of Germany, practically on the border with Switzerland, and thanks to him we can enjoy magnificent colorful reports from best airports Germany and other European countries. Not so long ago, Dmitry visited, very beloved by me, the island of Fuerteventura on canary islands and, thanks to good traffic, I brought dozens of wonderful pictures from there, which I recommend that you familiarize yourself with without fail.

Completes the top five Maxim Golbraikht max_sky from Omsk, which has unique airport"Omsk-Central", located in the city. Maxim is not only an active participant in many official spottings in various Russian cities, but also the author and compiler of a unique catalog of LJ spotters from Russia and the CIS countries. If you suddenly didn’t have enough of the five air bloggers described by me, you, thanks to Maxim, can always get acquainted with a few dozen more similar authors.

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February 17, 2010

Together with the pilots of the S7 airline, I arrived at Domodedovo Airport, passed the medical examination, pre-flight briefing, met the flight attendants, received permission to take off, took a minibus ride to the plane, inspected it, started the engines and ... did not fly anywhere. However, I photographed the entire process of preparing for the flight ...

The pilots enter the office through a separate entrance in the terminal. Just like everyone else, they go through a full screening:

The airport is divided into 2 zones: clean and dirty. A clear zone is an area within an airport that can only be accessed through security. The rest of the terminal building is called the dirty zone:

Immediately after the inspection, the entire crew undergoes a medical commission:

Here the pilots receive a flight task, where all other notes about the flight will be entered. You can pass the medical examination no earlier than 2 hours before departure and no later than one hour. The doctor measures blood pressure and pulse. He looks at the pilot and assesses his condition. If there is suspicion, additional tests may be performed:

In the next room, senior flight attendants receive first-aid kits. After the flight, they hand them back. The contents of the first-aid kits are constantly updated, and a special doctor ensures that all medicines are with an unexpired expiration date:

After the medical examination, the pilots go down one floor and enter the briefing room:

At the end of the hall, in the window, the co-pilot receives the documentation for the aircraft in an impressive suitcase. It is always worn by the assistant commander. A kind of hazing:

There is a large table in the middle of the room where the pilots prepare for the flight. They study route documents, schemes for entering the destination airport, check the weather report on the route, choose optimal route, determine the amount of fuel needed, select an alternate airfield, etc.:

10.

Here they also receive weather data for all flight segments, wind speed and direction at altitudes, and possible turbulence. The entire route is divided into sections, and the pilots know in advance the expected strength of turbulence on each of them:

11.

S7 Airlines has a separate desk with computers in the briefing room, where the Aircraft Commander (PIC) can view Additional information about the flight:

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If the commander has doubts about weather conditions, then he can consult with the meteorologist on duty:

13.

At the balance controller, the assistant commander fills out and submits a sheet with information about the flight. This includes information such as flight number, direction, side number, aircraft curb weight, total refueling, taxi fuel, takeoff fuel, flight fuel, flight time and number of seats. This information determines where the aircraft's center of mass will be:

14.

15.

After completing the training, the PIC calls the chief flight attendant and instructs him:

16.

The philosophy of AIRBUS is that the crew should not be let down. Therefore, every time the PIC and the co-pilot are different. Same with flight attendants. An explanation of this philosophy is in or on the first page with comments on this). They get to know each other already in the rest room before the flight:

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Here the senior flight attendant instructs the crew:

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After completing the preparation, the pilot approaches the controller and informs him that he has decided to fly:

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Pilots go to the plane in a special minibus. By the way, for the airline, each such trip costs 1000 rubles:

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On the territory of the platform, all people must move in green vests. Pilots are no exception.

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There is no ignition key in the aircraft, and it is turned on with a button. An initial check of the system operation is carried out:

22.

The co-pilot conducts an external inspection of the aircraft. Checks for the absence of the check "Remove Before Flight" on the front landing gear, "because if it is present, the landing gear will not be removed:

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