Word: fastly
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...early jet planes were hurried improvisations (Lockheed wrapped the famed P-80 around a jet engine in 141 frantic days) which did not begin to utilize the new engine's capabilities. Even later airframe designs have not kept up with the fast-growing muscles of the engine. Britain's first turbojet flew successfully in 1941. Designed by Britain's Air Commodore Frank Whittle,* it developed only 850 Ibs. of propulsive thrust. Now engines with 5,000 Ibs. of thrust are available, and soon there will be bruisers with 8,000-10.000 Ibs. No one thinks that even...
Gargantuan Thirst. Only one present type of airplane, the fast, short-range fighter, is well adapted to the jet engine, whose great failing is its gargantuan thirst for fuel. Consumption varies with speed, altitude and other factors, but a fair figure for the big jets flying at low altitudes is 1,000 gallons of kerosene an hour. This means one gallon every 3.6 seconds. Fighters and interceptors justify this drain, but for bombers and commercial airliners, jet engines still use too much fuel...
...planes are pushed by the reaction of the blast of hot gas shooting out the tail pipe. The present problem is that this blast is speeding much too fast-at about 1,300 m.p.h. Even when the plane is flying at 600 m.p.h., the blast is shooting backward in still air at 700 (1,300 minus 600) m.p.h. The engine is still wasting too much energy merely stirring up the air. To approach the normal propulsive efficiency of a propeller plane, a jet plane would have to fly faster than sound. But one arresting compensation-for the jets-is that...
...happen. The smooth airflow breaks into turbulence as hard shock waves jump around on the wing (see cut). The drag increases enormously; the wing's lift drops. The buffeting from the irregular airflow may be strong enough to tear the wing apart. This sometimes happens when a fast subsonic airplane dives too rapidly. The results are hard on the pilot-"as is well known," the training manuals say, "to many ghosts...
...some speeds, thinks the NACA, the most efficient airplane may be shaped like an arrowhead. For others, it may have short, broad "stub" wings. They do not stop at "moderate" speeds such as Mach 1.5, but think boldly about speeds two or three times as fast. Obstacles do not discourage them. At Mach 4, they calculate, air friction will heat the leading edge (perhaps the whole body) of an airplane to about 1,200° F. This is red hot, and above the softening point of ordinary structural metals. "But," say the NACA men, "wings can be cooled artificially...