Planes That Changed the World
 

For those in the USA, Smithsonian Channel has a new series "Planes That Changed the World" - the first episode is about the SR-71. At least to me, appears to be well done, lots of interviews with "real people" including design engineers and actual SR-71 pilots (including Bill Weaver, who miraculously survived when the aircraft broke up at Mach 3 after an engine failure). Lots of interesting design details, a few I didn't know about (although they neglected my favorite bit - that they used the exhaust from another jet engine to create the proper inlet conditions for the J58 engines at Mach 3 :ok:)

Next week appears to be the DC-3/C-47.

Not sure about you folks on the other side of the pond (or the lake to the west). I watched the credits and it appears to be a Smithsonian production (unlike programs such as Air Disasters (which is 'Mayday' rebranded) so I don't know if or when it'll show up elsewhere. Even in the USA, Smithsonian channel is considered a premium channel.

Sounds interesting. It may pop up on one of the various satellite channels.

Of course, with a title like that, you're making problems for yourselves. DC-3 definitely, SR-71... maybe.

For what it's worth, my list would include, among others:

DC-3 (and Ju 52)
C-130
Boeing 707 (and Comet)
Boeing 747
B-29
Spitfire (and Hurricane)
U-2
Piper Cub
T-6/Harvard
Fokker Eindecker

What would others put there?

Vickers Vimy - transatlantic flight
Stuka. - dive bomber definitive C AS ac
B47. - As with V Force but in large numbers
B52 definitely
Canberra. - definitive high altitude long range jet bomber
Harrier. - definitive STOL aircraft for 50 years
Mig15. - cheap cheerful and leading fighter

Me262
Vickers Viscount
Harrier
Concorde
Learjet
Piper Cub

Any list would be more interesting if posters said why certain aircraft actually changed the world

For my money I would say the B52 and the V-Bombers for perhaps, keeping the 'cold war' cold.
For air travel I would nominate the Comet, Boeing 707 and 747 for bringing faster and cheaper air travel to the masses.

Sikorsky R4 first mass produced helicopter

Bell X-1 first supersonic ac

Planes That Changed the World
 

Surely the plane that changed the world the most was the wright brothers, after all, it's what started the ball rolling :)

Gloster Whittle E28/39

Fokker Eindecker - first synchronised forward firing machine gun
Boeing 247 - the first "modern" airliner.
Gloster Meteor/Me262 - first practical jet fighters
Arado Ar234 - first practical jet bomber
DH Comet - the first practical jet airliner
Boeing 747 - the first "jumbo" jet

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/pr...O=w474-h310-nc

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/pr...E=w400-h325-nc

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/pr...0=w450-h327-nc

:ok:

DC3-first real airliner where you stood a good chance of getting to your destination alive, brought the notion of air travel to the world. Plus it did a bit in the war etc. I remember the last RAF DC 3 retiring, it would have been around 1968.

P51- the best fighter of WWII. Took the escort task all the way to Berlin and was a game changer.

Gloster E28/39-I know the Germans got there first but this was the real start of the jet era, leading to the

Comet-world beater; if only they had thought about those square windows a little more.

C-130-Ford Transit of the air.

747-mass world transport, still going strong 45 years later.

Cessna 172-more 172's have been built than any other aircraft, some 43,000 to date since 1956. What most pilots including me would have learned to fly in. Apart from the 182 probably the best all round light aircraft ever built.

B-29? Enola Gay, Bockscar.

The Flying Boats

Pan Am Clipper Flying Boats

Before WW II, international air travel in the flying boats was a huge step in opening up what was possible for flying passengers. (Granted, only for those with a bit of money). Sikorsky S-40, S-42, and VS-44 A as well as the Boeing B-314 opened the era of intercontinental air travel. (Hmm, Martin M-130 China clipper as well).

You can see the VS-44A Excambian in the New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks, CT. The story of how that plane got there (once owned by actress Maureen O'Hara and her husband) and was restored is pretty neat.

Tahengurt, just about to type that! I concur, there are more impressive and exciting 'planes' but none had such a world changing effect :\

+1 for Thing on the C152/172. No other single aircraft has made making one's own acts of aviation more accessible to the great unwashed ;)

After Comet - which must be there, I'd go for the Short Empire - it opened up far more long distance travel than any other flying boat.
Then there's the Handley-Page HP42/45 which was specifically intended for the London - Australia, London- South Africa routes. Not as modern as the DC3, but nonetheless in many ways a world-changer

Still small voice: Before the DC3 was the DC1 and DC2......

.https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...uglas_DC-1.jpg


Here it is.

Danny.

Last RAF DC3
 

Sorry but the last RAF DC3 has not yet retired

We had a DC3 at Farnborough in 1983 and of course that aircraft is now serving with the BofB memorial flight

Wright flyer as it started it all off.
Cessna 152 the Model T of the aviation world.
Gloster E28 brought the world into the jet age
Comet brought passenger flying into the jet age
Shorts flying boats, opened the world up to long distance flying
Concorde brought supersonic passenger flying into existence, something yet to be surpassed.

I wasn't really surprised to see that nobody mentioned the Kc135. It was the forerunner of the 707 and is still the main tanker of the USAF. It is rarely mentioned except in passing in aviation books, but the rest of the USAF wouldn't be able to do much without it.

Hempy, I knew that was coming :) - but I had to use the title of the program (yes, aircraft or airplanes would have been a better choice):rolleyes:


Danny, the DC-3 episode first airs this weekend so I'm making an educated guess here, but I fully expect they will cover the evolution of the DC-3 which naturally would include the DC-1 and -2.
BTW, IIRC, the DC-1 was really just a prototype - only one built, DC-2 was the 'production' version (similar to the Dash 80 being the prototype for the KC-135 and 707)

Although an aircraft, rather than an aeroplane, the UH-1 Huey changed warfare as we knew it.

Surely one that changed the world :ok:

If we say Comet is it fair to say Yoke Peter particularly? Arguably it's loss led to a greater understanding of the effects of Hull pressurisation and metal fatigue?

IMO, Planes that changed the world (the most) were catalysts of real change, sometimes coupled with a particular engine but, not necessarily the first in a particular speciality !

Wright Flyer
Fokker Eindecker
Gotha bomber
Supermarine S6
DC2/3
Spitfire
DH Mosquito
Me262
B29
B47
Bell X-1
DH Comet
Fairey Delta 2
F-111
747
Concorde
F14
Tornado IDS
Space Shuttle
A300 two-man flightdeck
F22
:D

OAP

I can't believe this thread has got to post 26 without mention of the Wiggins Aerodyne.

Onceapilot,

If you're having Tornado IDS then you have to add Buccaneer to that very long list of yours.

Lower, faster, further with a greater payload = Buccaneer!

Bloggs

Hi Bloggs,
Tornado IDS gets there, mostly, for the first operational integrated all-weather, LL, nav-attack, digital computer based weapon system.:D
Also, I flew it!;)

OAP

Both very impressive aeroplanes, but were either really world changing? If that could be said of any military type it would surely be the Sturmovik.

The 747 opened up long-haul travel beyond the "jet-set". The A330 has (for better or worse) allowed people of all incomes to travel the world.

Never, never call it a plane, it's an aeroplane.

having a dodgy bowel movement after a king prawn phall?

'plane.

Aeroplane is just so faggotty and pompous.

In no particular order:

UH1 - helicopter workhorse which created manoeuvre warfare.
C47/DC3 - the first realistic AT.
C130 - ubiquitous second gen AT.
HS Trident - 1st commercial Cat III autoland
747 - intercontinental travel system that created true profit
Airbus (various) - changing the World with commercial FBW ethics, but not quite there yet.
B52 - global strategic projection.
CH47 - a monster SH capability.
Predator/Global Hawk - the future.

Person....

Bell X-1
 

There are a few mentions of the Bell X-1 here but perhaps the posters should google the Miles M52.

I believe that the X-1 was a reworked M52 after Miles were told to send their design to the USA as part of the war reparations. The Air ministry spec for the M52 was published in 1943 with innovations such as the all flying tailplane, which Chuck Yeager publicly said was the most significant part of the X-1, and the intakes used on the SR71 specified already as designed by Frank Whittle, all back before 1943!

An interesting read. The M52 was due to be flown by Capt Eric Winkle Brown.

MM

Boeing 314 Flying boat; probably the biggest contributor to the idea that people could fly anywhere.
Boeing 747. probably the biggest contributor to the idea that lots of people could fly anywhere.
Boeing 737 probably the biggest contributor to the idea that people could fly cheaply (almost) anywhere. Completely killed the romance of air travel as a consequence; now we just whinge about security delays.

B-29 We can hit you. The Manhattan Project cost $2bn, the B-29 cost $3bn. The weapon needs to hit the target.
B-52 We can hit you anywhere
KC-135 Anything we fly can now get anywhere and stay airborne there forever.

Mosquito, a novel idea that worked far better than anyone outside DH expected, and that has had designers ever since continually looking for novel ideas. It's the airborne equivalent of trying to design a better mousetrap.

Spitfire/Merlin - Excellence is beautiful.

Whatever you first flew solo/operationally. ;)

The DHC-2 Beaver - the airborne pick-up truck

AOC authorised thread drift re never call it a 'plane.

Willard said " Aeroplane is just so faggotty and pompous ".

You had better tell that to Flying Officer W.J. "Pissy" Pearson.

Matter closed.

Aircraft that changed the world
 

The very first... the Wright Flyer, and those aircraft of the next 5-10 years that developed the idea of flight.

The protagonists of the BoB; had that gone awry, things would have been very different around the world. So the Hurricane, Spitfire and the Bf109.

The WW2 heavy bombers. Lancaster, B-17, B-29 and to a lesser extent the B-24, Stirling etc.

The 707 for really bringing jet travel to the fore.

The 747 for making it a bit cheaper.

Not so much an aircraft, but an idea. ETOPS. Making the world smaller and even cheaper, with the A300,310,330, 757, 767, 777. I know there are others, but you don't really want to cross the Atlantic in a 737. Nor really a 757.

The 727, 737, A319/320/321, for making the short hauls accessible to the average man/woman/family.

Military jets - the Phantom, F16, MiG 21, MiG 29, thousands upon thousands of them made.

But the one that gets my vote is the CH-47. The Wokka is a beast of a machine. It perhaps doesn't really belong in this list, but it certainly changed my world. I loved flying in those things, and hooking under them. Spending a lazy afternoon on SPTA setting up for night flying, and then controlling them at night. Calling in a missing-man formation of them at a MACR's funeral. But above all, flying in them.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3869/1...26180657_b.jpg

What it is is an Aircraft.