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The Aircraft that Could Have Made History

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 07:10 GMT

This post is written by Will Horton, Flight's Washington, D.C. intern.

Sunday night the National Geographic channel premiers its documentary "Hitler's Stealth Fighter".

Hitler? Stealth? Fighter?

Modern stealth aircraft design did not start until the 1970s, but this documentary aims to find out if Nazis Germany developed stealth techniques three decades earlier.

In the Battle of Britain during the summer of 1940, the Luftwaffe's advantage in numbers was matched only by Britain's use of radar technology. The Nazis knew of Britain's radar development, albeit not how far developed it was, and needed to re-gain their advantage.

Luftwaffe Chief Hermann Göring came into contact with aircraft builders and enthusiasts Walter and Reimar Horten. The Horten brothers, as they are known, wanted to build an aircraft that could fly with the "elegant efficiency of birds". They developed the 2-29 (also known as the HO IX), a tailless "wing flyer" that revolutionarily incorporated the engines within the fuselage, rather than have them protrude below wings.

Image courtesy Arthur Bentely/Flying Wing Films

This futuristic aircraft is described as being the "most exotic piece of machinery in Germany at the time" and having an "unearthly shape".

With the engines buried in the fuselage, exterior surfaces blended together, and plane constructed almost entirely out of wood (possibly to prevent radar from penetrating the skin, or possibly because Germany was facing a resource shortage), it's easy to look back on the 2-29 with hindsight and say the Horten brothers were developing a stealth fighter to subvert British radar, but we don't know for sure.

"Were they thinking of radar?" a Northrop Grumman employee asks. Northrop, best known for highly capable and ultra-modern defence products like its B-2 stealth bomber, decided to find out.

Teaming up with documentary producer Michael Jorgensen--who was fascinated by the 2-29--engineers in Northrop's model shop spent three months in 2008 building a full-scale model of the 2-29 to conduct the first ever radar deflection test. Of the two aircraft constructed during the war, one was never finished and the other crashed during a test flight.

At one hour with commercials, the documentary has a few repetitive moments. While the information and various interviews are excellent, it barely skims the surface of an aircraft it acknowledges could have had major consequences for the world. Those not aviation-inclined will likely find the program sufficient while others will want to know more.

The documentary follows the Northrop engineers build the model, almost entirely out of wood, true to the original. It is ironic to watch these engineers, who normally work on projects they "can't talk about", build a plane out of wood using primarily glue and nails to hold it together. You could be forgiven for starting the documentary mid-way and thinking it was about seventeenth-century shipbuilding.

Image courtesy Arthur Bentely/Flying Wing Films

But therein lies the fascinating part: this relatively unknown aircraft had the potential to change history. The Nazis planned to have an atomic bomb by 1946 and wanted to use it to strike America. Based on the 2-29's design, the Horten brothers developed the 18, an aircraft that would have six jet engines across its 142-foot wingspan (a 757's wingspan is only 124 feet). The 18 would presumably have been Germany's Enola Gay; the documentary's only farfetched moment is when it depicts a mushroom cloud erupting next to the Statue of Liberty.

The team finally takes the model to Northrop's radar cross-section test range in Tejon, California. Propped up on a five-story tall pole, the model is rotated while exposed to the same type of radar used by Britain during World War II.

The test range of the Ho 229 in Tejon, California

The results (spoiler alert!) are scary. From the time most Luftwaffe planes appeared on British radar they could reach their target in 19 minutes. The 2-29, aided by its speed and stealth, could reach its target in only 8 minutes. "It would have been a game changer," one Northrop engineer says. The 2-29 would have permitted just 2.5 minutes to respond.

While the documentary's conclusion that the 2-29 pre-dated modern stealth capabilities by three decades is fascinating, equally so is the insight to so-called black programs and the people who work on them. "After 28 years working in the dark, it's nice to spend one day in the light," one engineer says of his time working on the 2-29 model. At the classified radar base, a man who tows the 2-29 model out of its hangar says without the slightest bit of laughter, "I've moved a lot of stuff, but I've never moved a German stealth fighter."

Presumably the "stuff" he has moved is top-secret and highly classified, the pride of the most sophisticated engineering programs in the world, the same programs that were thought to develop stealth technology.

"Hitler's Stealth Fighter" airs Sunday, June 28, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on the National Geographic Channel in the US.

Supersonic Flyby

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 03:11 GMT

A U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor aircraft executes a supersonic flyby over the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) while under way in the Gulf of Alaska June 22, 2009. Stennis is participating in Alaska's largest military training exercise Northern Edge 2009, a joint exercise that focuses on detecting and tracking units at sea, in the air and on land.

(DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Josue L. Escobosa, U.S. Navy/Released)

Continental reveals LiveTV equipage figures

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 02:16 GMT

Well, well, well. Finally! Continental Airlines is getting a little more public about its equipage of LiveTV's LTV3 product and why the heck not? The carrier is kicking things up a serious notch with this 80-channel system. So what if it is being provided by a JetBlue subidiary and is better than the system in place on JetBlue's aircraft? JetBlue and Continental are able to roll like that. It says something about JetBlue's confidence in its own excellent product.

Continental reveals that some 10 Boeing 737-900ERs have been equipped to date. This link will take you to the carrier's web page on the matter, and check out the graph below.

We're still in the dark about Continental's connectivity plans, although one commenter to this blog seems to think Continental is going with Aircell's Gogo solution (which would make lots of sense). Aircell is not commenting and Continental could not be immediately reached for comment.

Photo of Note: The Front Page - June 27, 2007

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 00:00 GMT

The 25th, 26th and 27th of June 2007 were three days that will forever remain vividly embedded in my memory. I went to sleep on the 25th having just posted this message to the two-month old experiment called FlightBlogger:

Update 3 - June 25, 2007 - 10:25pm

Sources inside Boeing say, "There is not much left to do before moving to paint shop. All doors are installed. All slats, ailerons, flaps, and spoilers are installed. They are working on access doors on the wing." Another source says, "Most everything that will be "seen" is on the airplane, save for a few odds and ends."

According to the schedule Dreamliner One will head to the paint shop after 10:00pm PDT (1:00am EDT). The airplane movement from assembly shop to paint shop usually occurs after dark to minimize the distraction of the drivers on the freeway below the bridge.

Mike Bair said today, "The aircraft will be structurally complete at rollout but will still have systems, ducting, wiring and similar work to be done before first flight. When those tasks are completed, it will be powered up and proceed to ground test before it flies."

I woke the next morning to find out what had come from the post the night before. A day later, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer ran Charles Conklin's photos on the front page of the paper. It was perhaps the first moment that I realized anyone was actually reading what I was writing. What a two years it has been.

IAE's chief Beatty stays positive

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:57 GMT

I'm finally feeling normal again after the Paris air show last week. I had the chance to sit down with International Aero Engines chief executive John Beatty who agreed to give his assessment of the industry's resilience to survive the downturn. Take a look for yourself.

A broad look at the QANTAS/Jetstar 787 cancellation and deferral

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:47 GMT

The news came early this morning in Sydney, that Australia's largest airline, Qantas had made significant changes to its 787 order, deferring the 15 787-8s it was supposed to receive starting in mid-2010 for Jetstar, while canceling 15 additional 787-9s scheduled for delivery in 2014 and 2015.

First, lets examine the changes:

Jetstar's first 15 787s will now be 787-9s, not 787-8s and will arrive in mid-2013.
The 15 deferred 787-8s will be put into domestic operations starting in the 4th quarter of 2014 over the following 12 months.
The remaining 20 787-9 will be for Qantas and Jetstar operations, with the first deliveries in the 4th quarter of 2015 through 2017.
Total firm order stands at 50 787s, down from 65, with options for 50 more

Qantas cited the volatile economic climate as the reason for the significant shift in its order, and noted that the latest delay in first flight had no bearing on the decision. The deferral negotiation was first announced on April 14th when the airline delayed its A380 deliveries.

Though the cancellation of 15 787-9s is very significant for the 787 program, lowering the total orderbook to 840 units from 56 customers, the disclosure of the revised plans for the aircraft is perhaps the more significant story.

Qantas was originally allocated three aircraft - LN21/24/27 - in the early 787-8 production run. That number was later increased to five with LN22 and LN29 reallocated to the Australian carrier after Delta/Northwest disclosed it was retooling its delivery schedule. These early 787s would have benefited from the second blockpoint weight improvements that are planned for LN20.

Of the first 30 787s being built, 24 are production standard aircraft. Since 2007, seven of 12 787 launch customers have deferred their deliveries of the block of the first 30 aircraft. The five airlines are Delta/Northwest, Air China, Shanghai, China Eastern, Grand China Air, China Southern and now Qantas.

The question becomes which customers backfills the 15 open spots on the 2010 787 delivery calendar. Just last week, Pat Shanahan, vice president of airplane programs at Boeing affirmed that early demand for 787s continued unabated despite the economic downturn. As a result, Boeing maintains its goals for its production pace even with the latest delay in first flight and the uncertainty of the overall schedule.

Long Enough legs?
Before today's order shift, one source very familiar with the airline's planning says that a configuration of up to 330 passengers was being considered for the Jetstar 787-8s to connect Australia to Europe. The source adds that the 787-8 would have been able to perform that mission, but not without two intermediate fuel stops, a reality that likely played into the airline's decision making. The increasing empty weight of the -8 and resulting reduced performance at these high loads would have economically prohibited the high density European routes with the 787-8.

The switch by Qantas to the 787-9 is a further "feather in the cap" for the first 787 derivative, which will benefit from what is learned during flight test on the 787-8 its first years in service with a longer range. Though, the deployment of the -8 beginning toward the end of 2014 on only domestic operations as a 767-300ER replacement within Australia speaks volumes about how the airline perceives the future performance of the airplane and timelines for weight reduction.

AirAsia X Factor
The Jetstar competitive landscape is also crucial to understanding the motivation of the airline. Kuala Lumpur-based Air Asia X has had bold plans to expand its low-cost, long-haul network to the US and to Europe.

Australia Aviation blogger and journalist Ben Sandilands captured the competition:

And AirAsia and Jetstar are competing new model trans border low fare airline franchises. The business models are identical, and not yet fully proven, just like the jets they have chosen for future long haul operations.
Both have international divisions, with AirAsia X the Malaysia based brand's long haul subsidiary already flying A330s to Kuala Lumpur from the Gold Coast, Melbourne and Perth, with Sydney expected to be confirmed soon.
Their international ambitions also overlap on the 'kangaroo routes' between Australia and Europe, where the originally promised, repeatedly promised, long range capabilities of the 787-8 would allow Qantas to re-enter markets such as Amsterdam, Rome and Manchester and expand the network into new ones.
Those promises turned to dust. The Qantas strategy for Jetstar, at least as far as timing is concerned, has been usurped by AirAsia X, and to say that senior management has been embarrassed and very unhappy with the situation is an understatement that quickly cost Boeing $292 million in cash compensation.

At the Paris Air Show last week, AirAsia announced a firm order for 10 A350-900 aircraft seating 400 in a two-class layout with a 10-abreast economy seating. First deliveries of the aircraft are due to take place in the first quarter of 2016. Before the delays stalled the program, Jetstar's first 787-8s were to arrive in August 2008, later revised to June 2010.

AirAsia launched service to London-Stansted on March 11th of this year using an A340-300, after detailing its expansion last October. Had the 787-8 arrived in Jetstar's fleet on time in 2008, the airline would've had a low cost carrier with access to the the European market ahead of AirAsia, however the change of forture for the 787 program has given the Malaysian carrier a lead into Europe.

For Jetstar, selecting the larger -9 to launch service to the US and Europe against AirAsia's A350 XWB will pit the larger 787 against its composite rival, with a more equivalent ability to pack its planes in a high capacity configuration.

A little light reading from Inmarsat

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 08:53 GMT

Ladies and gentlemen,

I don't pretend to understand all of this airplane and connectivity stuff (if I did, you aeronautical engineers would have far too much fun at my expense). But I'd like to think I can smell a story. That's why I'm posting the following link.

Thu_AM-Inmarsat_Colledge.pdf

It will take you to a wonderful presentation about the evolution of Inmarsat safety services and how SwiftBroadband will eventually support these services. Inmarsat aeronautical product and safety services manager Gary Colledge gave this speech at the firm's recent aeronautical conference in Vancouver.

Quite handily, it includes LOTS OF DIAGRAMS - such as the one below on separation standard trials - or pretty pictures, if you will :)