fave passenger jets

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cfz2882

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Looking over a couple aircraft clocks i bought on ebay a few years back,i started to think about the planes the clocks were originally installed in and checked out the planes on youtube; One clock,made in 1974,electronic controlled analog dial came from a lockheed L1011. The other much more advanced with incandescent digital displays inset into the 12hr analog dial,was made in 1982 and came from a 747.Looking over the youtube comments,some of these older airliners were real faves with pilots,aircraft buffs,and passengers.Distinctive sound of certain planes and engines was also commented on. The only jet i have flown on was a DC10-
was cool to see little vortexes form and travel around the edge of the jet intake at takeoff :) Anyone have any special faves among the classic passenger jets?
 
Never been up in one but my favourite would have to be Concorde, as I was heavily involved in the brake technology of that particular aircraft. It was the first plane to have carbon fibre brake discs but by the time I joined Dunlop Aerospace in 1987 the carbon-carbon composites had improved considerably. We needed to make a new batch of Concorde discs but the furnace operating conditions had changed in the interim, to make higher spec. materials for aircraft such as the B757. I was given the project of working out how to make the original grade of Concorde composite using the current furnaces, temperatures, pressures etc. It would not have been possible to upgrade the Concorde brakes without extensive rig and flight testing, which would be too expensive.
 
From an aesthetic standpoint I've always loved the Boeing 727, so pretty and sleek with the engines at the tail. I remember flying on some of these as a child and the noise level in the rear of the plane was not nice, which is probably a big reason most passenger jets have the engines on the wings. I was reminded of this recently on a flight from LA to Seattle in a Bombardier CRJ (Canadair Regional Jet) which is the second smallest jet I've been on - a Cessna Citation is the smallest but that's not an airliner. The CRJ was also noisy in the tail due to the engines there, though I think better than the 727.

 

To be honest I think the biggest difference from a passenger's standpoint is how the airline has configured the plane. For a short flight of 3 hours or less I can put up without almost anything except screaming children, but on longer flights it's nice to have a little footroom. I am much too cheap to fly anything but coach so am at the airline's mercy on this point!

 

My favorite airliner of all time has got to be the gorgeous Lockheed Constellation, but that's not a jet. There was one in flying condition here in SoCal - I occasionally caught a glimpse from a distance when it was based at the Camarillo airport.  The Connie was actually a prewar design finanaced by Howard Hughes but didn't enter non-military production until after WWII, when it was the largest and fastest airliner around for a few years. In the early '50s DeHavilland in England brought out the first passenger jet, the Comet, another real beauty. Due to a structural problem with the wings a few broke up in flight, giving jet power a bad rap even though the failure had nothing to do with the engines. I don't know if any are left; I've only seen photos but it was very pretty.
 
727 test crash

a couple weeks ago,i watched a progam on tv where a surplus 727 was outfitted with cameras,dummies,and test gear then crashed in the mexican desert to see what would happen- forward section of fuselage broke off and though there was no major fire(as was hoped by the outfit crashing the plane)one of the 3 engines remained running after the crash and had to be stopped by spraying water into the engine.
Sadly the 1978 vintage plane looked to be in good shape to me and worked fine...
 
After a 37 year flying career my favorites are:

DC-10 - Large aircraft handled like a small jet. Great to fly, if it didn't bite
you first. By 1980 all the bugs had been worked out of it.

727 - all models. A true pilots plane. A little underpowered in some situations
and it expected you to know what you are doing! Absolutely no automation.

DC9-14 to -32. These handled like little sports cars. Very crisp handling can
almost land on a dime. The MD-80 series don't handle the same.

747-200 Rather boring. Probably due to the fact that they were used mostly on the
super long haul Asian routes. But sometimes you could get them domestic.

Two I wish I could have flown but never got the chance:

Lockheed Electra - I've flown as a passenger on a few, but never got around to
flying one.

L-1011 TriStar - I really wish I could have flown one. I've deadheaded in the
cockpit on a few with TWA and all the pilots just loved them.
According to them it handled like a dream and had plenty of
power to spare.
 
I have to agree with Hydralique. The propeller-driven Lockheed Constellation and the Boeing 727 get my votes for the sleekest, best-looking passenger aircraft in aviation history. From what I've read, apparently the 727's had odd approach and landing characteristics that caused a few crashes until pilots learned to fly them strictly by the book. But I've always thought there was nothing prettier than watching a 727 on climbout and approach.
 
Due to a structural problem with the wings a few broke up in

There were several issues with the comets....the biggest being the shape and size of the windows - large and square. This leads to fatigue around the corners which in turn, lead to cracks and then structural failure.

All issues with Comets were addressed and the last 2 Comet4 fuselages from the 1960s were modified for Navy work as the Hawker Siddley Nimrod which last flew in June 2011...

Not bad service for an airframe designed in the 1940's
 
Aircraft maintenance schedules are driven by three things, hours(actual hours of operation), calender(the simple passage of time), and cycles(each take off and landing), with cycles being the big killer. Every time an aircraft gets airborne and pressurizes, the fuselage between the fore and aft pressure bulkheads is stressed as it actually inflates slightly. Each inflation and subsequent deflation is considered one cycle, and every pressurized aircraft is certified for a certain number of cycles. Once it goes beyond that, inspection schedules can increase dramatically which drives up maintenance costs for the operator. Hawaiian Airlines has run into this problem with their fleet do to their constant island hopping. They've ended up with a fleet of relatively low time aircraft with very high cycles, and had some spectacular(though rare) structural failures as a result. I guess the point is that even though an aircraft may have been very well maintained and look fantastic, it may in fact be beyond its useful service life and be sent off to the scrap yard.

I know a few people that claim to have worked on that Conny out of Camarillo, and they've all said that the aircraft no longer flies pressurized, which is why it's been able to keep going for so many years. Of course that would also limit its maximum altitude unless the pilots were on oxygen. But I agree with Hydralique about its looks. That's one beautiful aircraft, and there's just something truly grand about the sound of radial engines. My dad worked at Lockheed in the 1950's and installed the big mast antennas on every Super Constellation made. He still remembers them fondly.
 
favourites

My favourite looking airliner would be the Vickers VC-10 beautiful sleek lines, as a few other have commented aswell my all time favourite would be a Lockheed Constellation, i remember seeing a very neglected Indian Airforce Constellation sitting on its own at Delhi Airport looking very sad, i was in a L-1011 Tristar then.

My Aunt was PA to one of the top bods at Rolls Royce and flew with him on one of Concordes inaugral flights

To me the most iconic passenger jet has to be the Boeing 747 unmistakable where ever you see one, designed by engineers and pilots a true credit to Boeing (as are all their early jets)

electron1100++11-11-2012-15-21-9.jpg
 
Hard-pick...

I'd have to say the original 747-100 or the SP. Never flown one (and certainly not now), but that slow, full power climbouts are just stunning (Seen them on YouTube).

I also have interest in the L-1011/DC-10 - who died before their time, not to mentione the unbreakable DC-9, still soldiering in Delta's fleet. Apparently, they have the highest dispatch reliability of ANY aircraft flying with Delta. Doesn't that just PROVE what we've been saying: They don't build 'em like they used to. I have a real soft spot for the DC-9, MD-80, MD-90 and especially MD-95 (B717).

There is a beautiful 747 vide on YouTube, featuring the Late, great, Pan-Am (Almost 21 years to the day now) and "Clipper Ocean Pearl"

 
My favorites are the DC-10 and the 747-8. Big beautiful planes, especially the 747. And on the Military side, my favorite is of course the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy.

strongenough78++11-11-2012-16-51-56.jpg
 
The deal with the 727 was that at 40 degrees of flaps the 727 could drop like a rock. This had it's purposes, like flying into airports that are surrounded by mountains. But in normal use, all you would use was 30 degrees of flaps, that's all you needed. Early on some airlines went as far as to modify their 727's so no more than 30 degrees of flaps could be selected. Also when you select 40 degrees of flaps on a 727 it feels like someone hit the brake pedal quite hard and fuel burn would increase dramatically. This setting also became useful when the 727 was equipped with skis so it could land on artic runways in cargo duty.

If you see a photo of a 727 coming in for landing you can see all the wing devices, slats, flaps, vortex generators, etc. And on hot days at high elevation airports the 727 does like to use a lot of runway real estate. At some airports the aircraft could be weight restricted for departure.

You fly all large aircraft "by the numbers" because you can't feel the aircraft like you can a small general aviation aircraft. There have been a few crashes in jet types because the airspeed indicator went inop and the pilots couldn't judge the speed of the aircraft and stalled it.

whirlcool++11-11-2012-18-09-22.jpg
 
Lockheed Super Constellation

I think this was the plane used in the movie, "Aviator".[this post was last edited: 11/11/2012-20:37]

Save-A-Connie Super Constellation Flight

An article written by Michael S. Prophet describing his flight on Save-A-Connies Super Constellation from Kansas city to New York to celebrate TWA's 75th anniversary.
www.conniesurvivors.com

beekeyknee++11-11-2012-19-11-49.jpg
 

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