When you observe commercial air travel and how it grew from it’s beginnings to modern day, you see it grow in steps. From a spare passenger on a small biplane, to the Ford TriMotor, to the tail-dragging Douglas DC-3 and the twin-tail Lockheed Constellation, each increment grew capacity for passengers, and grew overall size, but the method was the same: propellors. Big fans hooked to an engine, large discs beating the air into submission. Then came jet power in the early 1950s, in the form of the deHavilland Comet, but several high-profile crashes that were caused by metal fatigue in the Comets shook faith in the idea of jet travel.
Then Boeing brought out the 707, and another step was taken. The Comet had it’s issues and had fallen to the wayside, but the 707 proved to be the one. The Comet-4, the re-engineered Comet, was the only other competition. The 707 was the Jet Age, four screaming engines on a large jet liner with the ability to haul hundreds of passengers at a time. And as a result, it was it’s own enemy…by the late 1960s, the 707 just wasn’t cutting it anymore. More and more passengers were flying, rather than taking the train or crossing oceans on ships. Has there been another step since then? One might look at the Concorde and think that was the next logical leap, but being as fuel-hungry as it was and as compact as the sleek SSTs were, maybe not. Most commercial jets still, more or less, resemble the 707’s overall ideal that appeared in the late 1950s.
My dad flew one for years in the USAF. It was a KC-135 from 1957-1964 where the plane was sent to McClellan AFB in California to be modified into an RC-135. He flew that plane into the 1980’s when he retired.
I remember the earth shaking when the KC-135s hit water injection during take off in support of my beloved B-52H at Kincheloe AFB, Michigan. That and the fact that they actually took off with a nose up attitude, unlike the ’52s rumbling nose down take off. I always held my breath until I saw it clear the trees at the end of the runway. Never any doubt with the 135, it was Up,Up and Away!
Apostrophes are important and misused.
Very important, one of Frank Zappa’s best albums.The only misuse I see is takin’ this stuff too seriously. Seriously.