• Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Press Release: National Air and Space Museum Receives Boeing S-307 Stratoliner for Display at Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, the Museum's New Companion Facility at Dulles Airport:

    The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum welcomed today (Aug. 6) the sole surviving Boeing S-307 Stratoliner to its new home when the silver pioneering airliner arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia for display at the museum's new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. The museum's companion facility, adjacent to the airport, opens to the public Dec. 15.

    The luxuriously appointed Stratoliner, built in the late 1930s, was the world's first passenger airplane to be pressurized, allowing it to avoid rough weather by flying at unprecedented altitudes (20,000 feet) for transports of the era.

    The airplane has been in the museum's collection since 1972 but because of its size and weight could not be displayed at the museum's flagship building on the National Mall. A team of volunteers and Boeing staff performed extensive restoration work on the airplane in Seattle.

    "Visitors to the Udvar-Hazy Center will take one look at this airplane and be transported back to a glamorous age when the world became smaller for the traveler who required speed and luxury," said Gen. J.R. "Jack" Dailey, director of the National Air and Space Museum. "We are indebted to the Boeing restoration team for turning back the clock on this beautiful aircraft."

    The Stratoliner arrived in Northern Virginia following an appearance at the Experimental Aircraft Association's annual Fly-In at Oshkosh, Wisc. The airplane flew from Allegheny County Airport near Pittsburgh, where it landed August 5th because of bad weather.

    With a wingspan of 107 feet and a cabin nearly 12 feet wide, the Clipper Flying Cloud will be exhibited at ground level in the Udvar-Hazy (pronounced OOD-var HAH-zee) Center aviation hangar.

    [...]

    The Clipper Flying Cloud was delivered to Pan American Airways with two others in 1940. The aircraft carried 33 passengers and a crew of five. The Pan American Airways airplane was reconfigured to seat 45 passengers. Stratoliners included space for berths for overnight travel; paneling in the cabin and lavatory; wall fabric featuring the Pan Am logo, world map and exotic animals; and eight divans.

    The Clipper Flying Cloud began service flying Caribbean routes for two years. During World War II, it flew in South America under the direction of the U.S. Army Air Forces. In 1946, it made daily runs between New York and Bermuda. Throughout the next two decades it passed through the hands of several owners, and once served as a presidential plane for the notorious Haitian leader "Papa Doc" Duvalier. After its Haitian sojourn, the Clipper Flying Cloud landed in Arizona.

    In 1969, a visiting National Air and Space Museum curator spotted the airplane in Arizona and immediately recognized its historic significance, even while its then-owner planned to convert it into a fire bomber. The Smithsonian subsequently acquired the aircraft and later made arrangements with the Boeing Company for the restoration, dubbed "Operation Flying Cloud," at the Seattle plant where the Stratoliner was originally built.

    Boeing technicians and former Pan American employees voluntarily spent six years completely restoring the Stratoliner before it made an emergency landing in Elliott Bay in 2002. Since then, the restoration team has performed additional work so that visitors to the Udvar-Hazy Center will have the opportunity to view the aircraft as it looked the day it rolled off the assembly line more than 60 years ago.
  • Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Bell XV-15 TRRA (Tilt Rotor Research Aircraft), Ship 2:

    The XV-15 Tilt Rotor technology demonstrator was the culmination of efforts begun in the early 1950s to produce an aircraft that could takeoff, land, and hover like a helicopter, but with the speed of an airplane. The rotor pylons tilt from vertical to horizontal to eliminate the speed barriers imposed on conventional helicopters by retreating-blade stall and allowed the XV-15 to operate at speeds of 550 kph (345 mph TAS).

    This is the second of the two XV-15s built by Bell under a joint NASA/US Army program. It served from 1979 through 2003, demonstrating operations under a wide range of conditions and logged 700 hours in testing. Its success encouraged Bell and the US Marine Corps to develop a scaled-up Tilt Rotor, the MV-22, as a replacement for Marine transport helicopters. In association with Agusta Aerospace, Bell also developed the Model 609 civil Tilt Rotor with experience gained from the XV-15 program.

    Transferred from National Aeronautics and Space Administration

    Manufacturer:
    Bell Helicopter Textron Inc.

    Dimensions:
    Wingspan:9.80 m (32 ft 2 in)
    Proprotor Diameter:7.62 m (25 ft)
    Length:12.83 m (42 ft 1 in)
    Height:3.86 m (12 ft 8 in)
    Weight, empty: 4,574 kg (10,083 lb)
    Weight, gross: 6,804 kg (15,000 lb)
  • Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Federal Express's Dassault Falcon 20:

    The Dassault Cargo Falcon 20 is a French jet aircraft that, on April 17, 1973, became the first to carry a Federal Express air package. This was a new milestone in the history of air transport in the United States and created a new category of airline, the exclusive air express carrier. Within a decade, no less than thirty-three were flying on the spokes of the Federal Express network. The service was so successful that, by the early 1980s, its front-line aircraft were expanded to the McDonnell Douglas DC-10Cs, whose cargo holds were big enough to carry several Falcons each.

    The first Dassault Falcon made its maiden flight on May 4, 1973. It is a well-proportioned, all metal low-wing monoplane, with full cantilever wing and tail surfaces, pressurized fuselage, and retractable tricycle dual-wheel landing gear. It is powered by two aft-mounted General Electric CF-700-2D turbofan engines. For cargo use, the Series 20 was modified by several basic changes, the success of which is a tribute to the inherent soundness of the design. The Cargo Falcon 20 also features an oversized cargo door, measuring 55 inches x 74.5 inches, and a strengthened floor to accept loads of concentrated weight.

    Gift of the Federal Express Corp.

    Manufacturer:
    Dassault-Bruguet Aviation

    Date:
    1973-1982

    Country of Origin:
    United States of America

    Dimensions:
    Height: 17 ft 7 in
    Length: 56 ft 4 in
    Wingspan: 53 ft 6 in
    Weight: 15,940 lbs

    Materials:
    Overall: Aluminum

    Physical Description:
    Twin engine jet transport, purple and white, orange trim, all metal.
  • See more photos of this, and the Wikipedia article.

    Details, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum: Steven F. Udvar-Hazy | Boeing 367-80 Jet Transport:

    On July 15, 1954, a graceful, swept-winged aircraft, bedecked in brown and yellow paint and powered by four revolutionary new engines first took to the sky above Seattle. Built by the Boeing Aircraft Company, the 367-80, better known as the Dash 80, would come to revolutionize commercial air transportation when its developed version entered service as the famous Boeing 707, America's first jet airliner.

    In the early 1950s, Boeing had begun to study the possibility of creating a jet-powered military transport and tanker to complement the new generation of Boeing jet bombers entering service with the U.S. Air Force. When the Air Force showed no interest, Boeing invested $16 million of its own capital to build a prototype jet transport in a daring gamble that the airlines and the Air Force would buy it once the aircraft had flown and proven itself. As Boeing had done with the B-17, it risked the company on one roll of the dice and won.

    Boeing engineers had initially based the jet transport on studies of improved designs of the Model 367, better known to the public as the C-97 piston-engined transport and aerial tanker. By the time Boeing progressed to the 80th iteration, the design bore no resemblance to the C-97 but, for security reasons, Boeing decided to let the jet project be known as the 367-80.

    Work proceeded quickly after the formal start of the project on May 20, 1952. The 367-80 mated a large cabin based on the dimensions of the C-97 with the 35-degree swept-wing design based on the wings of the B-47 and B-52 but considerably stiffer and incorporating a pronounced dihedral. The wings were mounted low on the fuselage and incorporated high-speed and low-speed ailerons as well as a sophisticated flap and spoiler system. Four Pratt & Whitney JT3 turbojet engines, each producing 10,000 pounds of thrust, were mounted on struts beneath the wings.

    Upon the Dash 80's first flight on July 15, 1954, (the 34th anniversary of the founding of the Boeing Company) Boeing clearly had a winner. Flying 100 miles per hour faster than the de Havilland Comet and significantly larger, the new Boeing had a maximum range of more than 3,500 miles. As hoped, the Air Force bought 29 examples of the design as a tanker/transport after they convinced Boeing to widen the design by 12 inches. Satisfied, the Air Force designated it the KC-135A. A total of 732 KC-135s were built.

    Quickly Boeing turned its attention to selling the airline industry on this new jet transport. Clearly the industry was impressed with the capabilities of the prototype 707 but never more so than at the Gold Cup hydroplane races held on Lake Washington in Seattle, in August 1955. During the festivities surrounding this event, Boeing had gathered many airline representatives to enjoy the competition and witness a fly past of the new Dash 80. To the audience's intense delight and Boeing's profound shock, test pilot Alvin "Tex" Johnston barrel-rolled the Dash 80 over the lake in full view of thousands of astonished spectators. Johnston vividly displayed the superior strength and performance of this new jet, readily convincing the airline industry to buy this new airliner.

    In searching for a market, Boeing found a ready customer in Pan American Airway's president Juan Trippe. Trippe had been spending much of his time searching for a suitable jet airliner to enable his pioneering company to maintain its leadership in international air travel. Working with Boeing, Trippe overcame Boeing's resistance to widening the Dash-80 design, now known as the 707, to seat six passengers in each seat row rather than five. Trippe did so by placing an order with Boeing for 20 707s but also ordering 25 of Douglas's competing DC-8, which had yet to fly but could accommodate six-abreast seating. At Pan Am's insistence, the 707 was made four inches wider than the Dash 80 so that it could carry 160 passengers six-abreast. The wider fuselage developed for the 707 became the standard design for all of Boeing's subsequent narrow-body airliners.

    Although the British de Havilland D.H. 106 Comet and the Soviet Tupolev Tu-104 entered service earlier, the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 were bigger, faster, had greater range, and were more profitable to fly. In October 1958 Pan American ushered the jet age into the United States when it opened international service with the Boeing 707 in October 1958. National Airlines inaugurated domestic jet service two months later using a 707-120 borrowed from Pan Am. American Airlines flew the first domestic 707 jet service with its own aircraft in January 1959. American set a new speed mark when it opened the first regularly-scheduled transcontinental jet service in 1959. Subsequent nonstop flights between New York and San Francisco took only 5 hours - 3 hours less than by the piston-engine DC-7. The one-way fare, including a $10 surcharge for jet service, was $115.50, or $231 round trip. The flight was almost 40 percent faster and almost 25 percent cheaper than flying by piston-engine airliners. The consequent surge of traffic demand was substantial.

    The 707 was originally designed for transcontinental or one-stop transatlantic range. But modified with extra fuel tanks and more efficient turbofan engines, the 707-300 Intercontinental series aircraft could fly nonstop across the Atlantic with full payload under any conditions. Boeing built 855 707s, of which 725 were bought by airlines worldwide.

    Having launched the Boeing Company into the commercial jet age, the Dash 80 soldiered on as a highly successful experimental aircraft. Until its retirement in 1972, the Dash 80 tested numerous advanced systems, many of which were incorporated into later generations of jet transports. At one point, the Dash 80 carried three different engine types in its four nacelles. Serving as a test bed for the new 727, the Dash 80 was briefly equipped with a fifth engine mounted on the rear fuselage. Engineers also modified the wing in planform and contour to study the effects of different airfoil shapes. Numerous flap configurations were also fitted including a highly sophisticated system of "blown" flaps which redirected engine exhaust over the flaps to increase lift at low speeds. Fin height and horizontal stabilizer width was later increased and at one point, a special multiple wheel low pressure landing gear was fitted to test the feasibility of operating future heavy military transports from unprepared landing fields.

    After a long and distinguished career, the Boeing 367-80 was finally retired and donated to the Smithsonian in 1972. At present, the aircraft is installated at the National Air and Space Museum's new facility at Washington Dulles International Airport.

    Gift of the Boeing Company

    Manufacturer:
    Boeing Aircraft Co.

    Date:
    1954

    Country of Origin:
    United States of America

    Dimensions:
    Height 19' 2": Length 73' 10": Wing Span 129' 8": Weight 33,279 lbs.

    Physical Description:
    Prototype Boeing 707; yellow and brown.
  • See more photos of this, and the Wikipedia article.

    Details, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Concorde, Fox Alpha, Air France

    The first supersonic airliner to enter service, the Concorde flew thousands of passengers across the Atlantic at twice the speed of sound for over 25 years. Designed and built by Aérospatiale of France and the British Aviation Corporation, the graceful Concorde was a stunning technological achievement that could not overcome serious economic problems.

    In 1976 Air France and British Airways jointly inaugurated Concorde service to destinations around the globe. Carrying up to 100 passengers in great comfort, the Concorde catered to first class passengers for whom speed was critical. It could cross the Atlantic in fewer than four hours - half the time of a conventional jet airliner. However its high operating costs resulted in very high fares that limited the number of passengers who could afford to fly it. These problems and a shrinking market eventually forced the reduction of service until all Concordes were retired in 2003.

    In 1989, Air France signed a letter of agreement to donate a Concorde to the National Air and Space Museum upon the aircraft's retirement. On June 12, 2003, Air France honored that agreement, donating Concorde F-BVFA to the Museum upon the completion of its last flight. This aircraft was the first Air France Concorde to open service to Rio de Janeiro, Washington, D.C., and New York and had flown 17,824 hours.

    Gift of Air France.

    Country of Origin
    United Kingdom and France

    Date
    1969

    Manufacturer:
    Societe Nationale Industrielle Aerospatiale
    British Aircraft Corporation

    Dimensions:
    Wingspan: 25.56 m (83 ft 10 in)
    Length: 61.66 m (202 ft 3 in)
    Height: 11.3 m (37 ft 1 in)
    Weight, empty: 79,265 kg (174,750 lb)
    Weight, gross: 181,435 kg (400,000 lb)
    Top speed: 2,179 km/h (1350 mph)
    Engine: Four Rolls-Royce/SNECMA Olympus 593 Mk 602, 17,259 kg (38,050 lb) thrust each
    Manufacturer: Société Nationale Industrielle Aérospatiale, Paris, France, and British Aircraft Corporation, London, United Kingdom

    Physical Description:
    Aircaft Serial Number: 205. Including four (4) engines, bearing respectively the serial number: CBE066, CBE062, CBE086 and CBE085.
    Also included, aircraft plaque: "AIR FRANCE Lorsque viendra le jour d'exposer Concorde dans un musee, la Smithsonian Institution a dores et deja choisi, pour le Musee de l'Air et de l'Espace de Washington, un appariel portant le couleurs d'Air France."

    Long Description:
    It began with a dream - a dream of a new age in air travel where the boundaries of time and distance were to have been shattered forever. The dream of supersonic passenger air travel was first conceived in the 1950s was developed in the 1960s and came to fruition in the mid 1970s. For 27 years, the graceful Anglo-French Concorde carried world travelers across the Atlantic Ocean in great comfort at twice the speed of sound. While the dream was real, it was so only for the world's privileged elites. It was not a machine for the average citizen. High development costs and high operating costs prevented the Concorde from achieving the dream of practical supersonic flight for the public. But for a while, the Concorde looked promising - it looked like the future.

    In the 1950s air travel was revolutionized with the advent of jet propulsion. First the de Havilland Comet and later, the Boeing 707, greatly increased the speed of travel from 350 to over 600 mile per hour. Airlines and customers flocked to the new jet airliners as travel times were cut dramatically and the seat-mile costs to the airlines dropped. The conclusion drawn by engineers, managers, and politicians seemed clear: the faster the better.

    In Europe, enterprising designers in Great Britain and France were independently outlining their plans for a supersonic transport (SST). In November 1962, in a move reminiscent of the Entente Cordiale of 1904, the two nations agreed to pool their resources and share the risks in building this new aircraft. They also hoped to highlight Europe's growing economic unity as well as its aerospace expertise in a dramatic and risky bid to supplant the United States as the leader in commercial aviation. The aircraft's name reflected the shared hopes of each nation for success through cooperation - Concorde.

    Quickly the designers at the British Aircraft Corporation and Sud Aviation, later reorganized as Aerospatiale, settled on a slim, graceful form featuring an ogival delta wing that possessed excellent low speed and high speed handling characteristics. Power was to be provided by four massive Olympus turbojet engines built by Rolls-Royce and SNECMA. Realizing that this first generation SST would cater to the wealthier passenger, Concorde's designers created an aircraft that carried only 100 seats in tight four-across rows. They assumed that first class passengers would flock to the Concorde to save valuable time while economy class passengers would remain in larger, but slower subsonic airliners.

    Despite mounting costs that constantly threatened the program, construction continued with exactly 50 percent of each aircraft built in each country. The first Concorde was ready for flight in 1969. With famed French test pilot Andre Turcot at the controls, Concorde 001, which was assembled at Toulouse, took to the air on March 2, 1969. Although the Soviets had flown their version of the SST first, the Tupolev Tu-144 had been rushed into production and suffered from technological problems that could never be solved. Following the successful first flight a total of four prototype and preproduction Concordes were built and thoroughly tested and by 1976, the first of 16 production Concordes were ready for service. Twenty were built in all.

    But all was not rosy. During this time America sought to produce its own bigger and faster SST. After a contentious political debate, the federal government refused to back the project in 1971 citing environmental problems, particularly noise, the sonic boom, and engine emissions that were thought to harm the upper atmosphere. Anti SST political activity in the United States delayed the granting of landing rights, particularly into New York City, causing further delays.

    More ominously for Concorde, no airlines placed orders for this advanced SST. Despite initial enthusiasm, the airlines dropped their purchase options once they calculated the operating costs of the Concorde. Consequently only Air France and British Airways - the national airlines of their respective countries - flew the 16 production aircraft and only after purchasing them from their governments at virtually no cost.

    Nevertheless, in January 1976, Concorde service began and, by November, these graceful SSTs were flying to the United States. A technological masterpiece, each Concorde smoothly transitioned to supersonic flight with no discernable disturbance to the passenger. In service, the Concorde would cruise at twice the speed of sound between 55,000 and 60,000 feet - so high that passengers could actually see the curvature of the Earth. The Concorde was so fast that, despite the outside temperature of less than -56 degrees Celsius, the aircraft's aluminum skin would heat up to over 120 degrees Celsius while the Concorde actually expanded 8 inches in length with the interior of the window gradually growing quite warm to the touch. And all the while each passenger was carefully attended to while enjoying a magnificent meal and superb service. Transatlantic flight time was cut in half with the average flight taking less than four hours.

    For the next 27 years supersonic travel was the norm for the world's business and entertainment elite. But eventually the harsh reality of the economic marketplace forced Air France and British Airways to cut back their already limited service. Routes from London and Paris to Washington, Rio de Janeiro, Caracas, Miami, Singapore, and other locations were cut leaving only the transatlantic service to New York. And even on most of these flights, the Concorde flew half full with many of the passenger flying as guests of the airlines or as upgrades. With the average round trip ticket costing more than $12,000, few could afford to fly this magnificent aircraft. Operating costs escalated as parts became more difficult to acquire and, with an average of one ton of fuel consumed per seat, the already small market for the Concorde gradually grew smaller.

    Despite the excellence of the Concorde's design, its operators realized that its days were numbered because of its high costs. In 1989, in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution and the 200th anniversary of the ratification of the Constitution of the United States, the French government sent a copy of the Declaration of the Rights of Man to the U.S. Appropriately, this famous document was delivered on the Concorde and with it a promise from Air France to give one of these aircraft to the people of the United States through its eventual inclusion into the collection of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum.

    Fourteen years later that promised was fulfilled. In April of 2003 Air France president Jean Cyril Spinetta informed the Museum in April that Concorde service would end on May 31st following the decision by the aircraft's manufacturer to stop supporting the fleet. As planned, on June 12 Air France delivered its most treasured Concorde, F-BVFA, to Washington Dulles International Airport on its last supersonic flight for the airline. This aircraft was the first production Concorde delivered to Air France, the first Concorde to open service between Paris and New York, Washington, and Rio de Janeiro and had amassed 17,824 hours in the air. Onboard were 60 passengers including Gilles de Robien, the French Minister for Capital Works, Transport, Housing, Tourism, and Marine Affairs, Mr. Spinetta, and several past Air France presidents as well as former Concorde pilots and crew members. In a dignified yet bittersweet ceremony Mr. Spinetta signed over Concorde "Fox Alpha" to the Museum for permanent safekeeping.

    The Concorde is now prominently displayed at the Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

    • • •

    Quoting from Wikipedia | Concorde:

    The Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde was a turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner, a supersonic transport (SST). It was a product of an Anglo-French government treaty, combining the manufacturing efforts of Aérospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation. First flown in 1969, Concorde entered service in 1976 and continued commercial flights for 27 years.

    Among other destinations, Concorde flew regular transatlantic flights from London Heathrow (British Airways) and Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport (Air France) to New York JFK, profitably flying these routes at record speeds, in less than half the time of other airliners.

    With only 20 aircraft built, their development represented a substantial economic loss, in addition to which Air France and British Airways were subsidised by their governments to buy them. As a result of the type’s only crash on 25 July 2000 and other factors, its retirement flight was on 26 November 2003.

    Concorde's name reflects the development agreement between the United Kingdom and France. In the UK, any or all of the type—unusual for an aircraft—are known simply as "Concorde". The aircraft is regarded by many as an aviation icon.[4]

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: Air France Concorde

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Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Concorde, Fox Alpha, Air France:

The first supersonic airliner to enter service, the Concorde flew thousands of passengers across the Atlantic at twice the speed of sound for over 25 years. Designed and built by Aérospatiale of France and the British Aviation Corporation, the graceful Concorde was a stunning technological achievement that could not overcome serious economic problems.

In 1976 Air France and British Airways jointly inaugurated Concorde service to destinations around the globe. Carrying up to 100 passengers in great comfort, the Concorde catered to first class passengers for whom speed was critical. It could cross the Atlantic in fewer than four hours - half the time of a conventional jet airliner. However its high operating costs resulted in very high fares that limited the number of passengers who could afford to fly it. These problems and a shrinking market eventually forced the reduction of service until all Concordes were retired in 2003.

In 1989, Air France signed a letter of agreement to donate a Concorde to the National Air and Space Museum upon the aircraft's retirement. On June 12, 2003, Air France honored that agreement, donating Concorde F-BVFA to the Museum upon the completion of its last flight. This aircraft was the first Air France Concorde to open service to Rio de Janeiro, Washington, D.C., and New York and had flown 17,824 hours.

Gift of Air France.

Manufacturer:
Societe Nationale Industrielle Aerospatiale
British Aircraft Corporation

Dimensions:
Wingspan: 25.56 m (83 ft 10 in)
Length: 61.66 m (202 ft 3 in)
Height: 11.3 m (37 ft 1 in)
Weight, empty: 79,265 kg (174,750 lb)
Weight, gross: 181,435 kg (400,000 lb)
Top speed: 2,179 km/h (1350 mph)
Engine: Four Rolls-Royce/SNECMA Olympus 593 Mk 602, 17,259 kg (38,050 lb) thrust each
Manufacturer: Société Nationale Industrielle Aérospatiale, Paris, France, and British Aircraft Corporation, London, United Kingdom

Physical Description:
Aircaft Serial Number: 205. Including four (4) engines, bearing respectively the serial number: CBE066, CBE062, CBE086 and CBE085.
Also included, aircraft plaque: "AIR FRANCE Lorsque viendra le jour d'exposer Concorde dans un musee, la Smithsonian Institution a dores et deja choisi, pour le Musee de l'Air et de l'Espace de Washington, un appariel portant le couleurs d'Air France."

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