Word: planes
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Aeronautical Engineer Richard Whitcomb literally changed the shape of modern aviation when he designed the "Coke bottle" fuselage - a narrow-waisted plane body that helps high-speed jets to slip through the sound barrier into supersonic flight. Now, 18 years later, Whitcomb has done it again. He has de veloped a radically new wing that will allow subsonic jets to fly faster, more smoothly and more efficiently...
...source of the trouble was the upper surface of the conventional wing, which has a convex curve to provide lift.* When the plane reaches about 80% of the speed of sound, however, the velocity of the air flowing over the upper side of the wing reaches the sonic barrier. A shock wave forms about half way back from the wing's leading edge, disturbing the airflow and increasing drag-the resistance of air to the plane's passage...
...huge Boeing 747 jets, which are faster, quieter, bigger and potentially much more profitable than the 707s and DC-8s. In the first test flight last week, a 747 cruised for more than one hour and then made a smooth landing near Boeing's Everett, Wash., plant. "This plane is ridiculously easy to fly," said Test Pilot Jack Waddell. "It's a pilot's dream...
...passenger's dream as well. Gone is the claustrophobic feeling of riding in a cigar tube. The plane's fuselage is 231 feet long and as tall as a two-story building; the interior cabin is almost twice as wide as that of the Boeing 707 (see diagram). Each airline will be free to deck out the passenger cabin as it pleases. In most versions, seats will be 10% wider than those in the current jets. In economy class, there will be rows of nine seats separated by two aisles to form a two-four-three seating pattern...
...Although the chief of the Nigerian government personally guaranteed our plane safe conduct into Biafra, our mission was bombed every day of our visit," Mayer said. "Naturally this lack of trust-worthiness makes any kind of negotiations very difficult," he added...