DC-9 as loss-maker

Thank you, megan. So it might be fair to say that Douglas managed to lose money while making a fantastically successful aeroplane? (Note cunning pun in "managed".)

The B36's early career was with only six pushers as par the picture. The four jets, two B47 pods, were added to increase the performance over the target; not to get airborne or fly, this it could do with just the pistons.

The jet intakes had irises on them so that the engine could be sealed off against the airflow and prevent it windmilling all the time.
In the cruise a pair of engines would be shut down in rotation to save fuel and wear.
There were only a few runways that could take the B36, Fairford for the UK. A B36 from there landed just off Boscombes runway and had to be towed across country to get it on the airfield.
One B36 took off from the USA for Fairford, found it socked in, turned right for Wheelus in Libya, where there was a sandstorm so it flew back to the States.
The Offut 'museum' in the early sixties had an apparently serviceable B36. General Le May only would only authorise it if it had a war target. "There are no free lunches in SAC." Presumably if WW III broke out a load of staff officers would man it and charge off to Vladivostok or somewhere.

Looking at the B36 pictures, I can see instrumentation for the jets, but no controls. If they were intended just for over the target, were they "on" or "off" engines, with no throttles?

I believe the jet throttles were in the overhead panel.

Ramjets since Leduc's experiments.

http://aerostories.free.fr/construct...duc/page8.html

Of the 22 jet airliners put into production, beginning with the Comet, as of 1982 only two had made a profit for the manufacturer, the 707 and 727.

Found them; you're right.

The XC99, the passenger/cargo version of the B36 flew successfully and could carry 400 troops or 100,000lbs of cargo in its double decker fuselage. Pan Am looked at operating a civil version as did Hawaiian Airlines for shuttling tourists between the West Coast and Hawaii.

It flew with Air Material Command for several years before being retired.

To be fair, the composite (Hyfil?) blades worked perfectly, right up until the bird-strike test. That did go extremely badly and, being one of the final tests, was enough to financially break Rolls-Royce.

According to Sir Stanley Hooker, the engine was nothing to write home about anyway. I believe the current RR range of ginormous engines can still be traced back to the replacement RB-211 designed by him and other recalled retirees.

Taylor Experimental ( G-AEPY )........... just made it into the air.

HAC Halcyon ( G-ARIO )......... It didn't make into the air.

Lockspeiser LDA-01. G-AVOR.
I never saw it fly but remember it in pieces in the flight shed at Hurn about 1973.

One idea that didn't fly lead to an aircraft that did fly, and the one that didn't fly had immeasurable influence on the design of the one that did.

The boss of a certain airline had his eyes on an aircraft that was in the preliminary stages, and wanted another aircraft as an interim fill in before the other made it to service. As the interim aircraft was to be just that, he wanted it to be able to be used as freighter following its interim use as a passenger aircraft. So the aircraft projected role as a freighter dictated its design, specifically an ability to handle 8'X8'X40 shipping containers.

You may have guessed by this stage.
Boss. Juan Trippe
Airline. Pan Am
Preliminary design. SST
Interim. 747

dixi188,
I can remember seeing the Lockspeiser there still in one piece - think it had only just arrived with its owner/pilot. I, too, never saw it flying.

With regards to the rotodyne I have just seen an old video on YouTube and its was Westland heliport on the pier which it landed the cause mainly for cancellation was the noise of the rotor so loud there was a plan to fit jet engines but yet again cost and politics there was talk of orders from Canada and Australia

BAC 3-11 ...

Quote:
Ideas that didn' fly
BAC 3-11 ...

Also BAC 2-11, X-11, 1-11 srs.700 and 800, VC-10 with two RB211s for China.
All would have been built at Hurn.

TU-444

http://avia.pro/sites/default/files/images/167243.jpg

Supermarine Swift, a truly dreadful aircraft!

The list of UK (or US or French or Russian, come to that) manufacturers' projects that never got further than the drawing board is endless.

But that's the point, sense prevailed before any metal was cut, which rather puts that category beyond the scope of the OP's proposition.

I saw G-AVOR flying just once, near Crewkerne in South Somerset UK in the late 70's maybe 1979. I recall I was quite surprised and delighted to see it at the time. I even managed to get a photgraph but not sure I still have it. Is there anyone on here who knows its flying history around that time? I'd be interested to know.