1.
Republic F-84 Thunderjet
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The Republic F-84 Thunderjet was an American turbojet fighter-bomber aircraft. Originating as a 1944 United States Army Air Forces proposal for a day fighter, the aircraft was not considered fully operational until the 1949 F-84D model and the design matured only with the definitive F-84G introduced in 1951. In 1954, the straight-wing Thunderjet was joined by the swept-wing F-84F Thunderstreak fighter, the Thunderjet became the USAFs primary strike aircraft during the Korean War, flying 86,408 sorties and destroying 60% of all ground targets in the war as well as eight Soviet-built MiG fighters. Over half of the 7,524 F-84s produced served with NATO nations, the USAF Strategic Air Command had F-84 Thunderjets in service from 1948 through 1957. The F-84 was the first production aircraft to utilize inflight refueling and the first fighter capable of carrying a nuclear weapon. The F-84 nomenclature can be somewhat confusing, the straight-wing F-84A to F-84E and F-84G models were called the Thunderjet. The F-84F Thunderstreak and RF-84F Thunderflash were different airplanes with swept wings, the XF-84H Thunderscreech was an experimental turboprop version of the F-84F. The F-84F swept wing version was intended to be a variation of the normal Thunderjet with only a few different parts. Production delays on the F-84F resulted in order of the straight-wing version. In 1944, Republic Aviations chief designer, Alexander Kartveli, began working on a replacement for the P-47 Thunderbolt piston-engined fighter. The initial attempts to redesign the P-47 to accommodate a jet engine proved futile due to the large cross-section of the centrifugal compressor turbojets. Instead, Kartveli and his team designed a new aircraft with a streamlined fuselage largely occupied by an axial compressor turbojet engine, in addition, the new aircraft had to use the General Electric TG-180 axial turbojet which entered production as the Allison J35. On 11 November 1944, Republic received an order for three prototypes of the new XP-84—Model AP-23, the name Thunderjet was chosen to continue the Republic Aviation tradition started with the P-47 Thunderbolt while emphasizing the new method of propulsion. On 4 January 1945, even before the aircraft took to the air, meanwhile, wind tunnel testing by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics revealed longitudinal instability and stabilizer skin buckling at high speeds. The weight of the aircraft, a concern given the low thrust of early turbojets, was growing so quickly that the USAAF had to set a gross weight limit of 13,400 lb. The results of preliminary testing were incorporated into the third prototype, designated XP-84A. The first prototype XP-84 was transferred to Muroc Army Air Field where it flew for the first time on 28 February 1946 with Major Wallace A and it was joined by the second prototype in August, both aircraft flying with J35-GE-7 engines producing 3,745 lbf. In particular, the impact of wingtip tanks on aircraft handling was not thoroughly studied, after the creation of the United States Air Force by the National Security Act of 1947, the Pursuit designation was replaced with Fighter, and the P-84 became the F-84
2.
FICON project
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Earlier wingtip coupling experiments included Tip Tow, which were attempts at carrying fighters connected to the wingtips of bombers. Tom-Tom followed the FICON project afterwards, wingtip coupling experiments were evolved from the concept of adding extra floating panels to extend the effective wingspan of an aircraft, in the hope this would extend the range of the aircraft. This would theoretically act in the manner as the long narrow wings of a glider. The idea was tested at Wright Field in the late 1940s using a Douglas C-47A Skytrain and these tests showed the idea had promise, and Republic Aviation was awarded a contract to investigate further. Thus began the Tip Tow project, the Tip Tow aircraft consisted of a specially modified ETB-29A and two EF-84D. A number of flights were undertaken, with several successful cycles of attachment and detachment, using at first a single aircraft, the pilots of the F-84s maintained manual control when attached, with roll axis maintained by elevator movement rather than aileron movement. Engines on the F-84s were shut down in order to save fuel during the tow by the mother ship, Wing flexibility of the B-29 as well as wing-tip vortices caused concern, and the mechanisms for attachment required modifications. The first hookup of both F-84s with the B-29 occurred on the 10th flight on 15 September 1950, the longest flight with all connected was on 20 October 1950, and lasted for 2h 40min. All of these flights were accomplished with manual control of the F-84 aircraft, Republic received an additional contract to continue the experiments by incorporating an automatic flight control system. Meanwhile, as the modifications proceeded, additional test flights were made, on 24 April 1953, the left-hand F-84 hooked up and the automatic system was activated. The F-84 immediately flipped over onto the wing of the B-29, in parallel, a similar configuration, called Tom-Tom, was being developed using JRB-36F 49-2707, which was previously used in the early FICON trials and two RF-84F. The aircraft were attached wingtip-to-wingtip using articulated arms and clamps, although several successful hookups were performed by Convair pilots Doc Witchell, Beryl Erickson, and Raymond Fitzgerald in 1956, turbulence and vortices continued to present a major problem. On 23 September 1956, RF-84F 51-1849, piloted by Beryl Erickson, was torn away from the right wing tip of the JRB-36F. All aircraft landed safely but the concept was deemed too dangerous, developments in the area of inflight refueling at the time promised a much safer way of extending the range of the fighters and Project Tom-Tom was canceled. Although the experimental McDonnell XF-85 Goblin escort fighter proved to be a failure, instead of escort, the focus had shifted to a strike role with a Convair B-36 Peacemaker carrying a Republic F-84 Thunderjet fighter. The plan was for the bomber with superior range to arrive in the vicinity of the target and deploy a faster. The F-84 would then return to the mothership and be carried home, the hook would link the fighter to the trapeze which would hold the aircraft in the bomb bay during flight, lower it for deployment, and raise it back in after the mission. Due to the size of the fighter, only the cockpit, the spine, and the tailfin actually fit inside the GRB-36
3.
Composite aircraft
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A composite aircraft is made up of multiple component craft. It takes off and flies initially as a aircraft, with the components able to separate in flight. Typically the larger aircraft acts as an aircraft or mother ship. The first composite aircraft flew in 1916, during World War I, experiments continued into the jet age, with large aircraft carrying fully capable parasite fighters or reconnaissance drones, though none entered service. A composite configuration is usually adopted to provide improved performance or operational flexibility for one of the components, thus it need not be compromised by the requirements for takeoff, climb and initial cruise, but may be optimised for the later stages of the mission. In another form the larger carrier aircraft conducts the main operational mission, a third variant comprises a small piloted jockey component coupled with a larger unpiloted component. This arrangement is used as an attack aircraft in which the larger component is loaded with explosives. The slip wing component may or may not be powered and/or manned, during and after World War I, a number of efforts were made to develop airship-plane composites, in which one or more aeroplanes were carried by an airship. The first British effort, undertaken in 1916 with a non-rigid SS class airship, was aimed at the anti-Zeppelin role, the airship was to provide fast climb to altitude, while a B. E. 2c aeroplane would provide the speed and manoeurvability to attack the Zeppelin. It ended in disaster when the attachment point released prematurely. Both crew were killed in the ensuing disaster, by 1918 larger rigid airships were available and a Sopwith Camel was successfully released by HMA23 in July 1918, but the armistice halted work. The idea was revived in 1925 when the airship R33 was used to launch and then recapture a DH53 Hummingbird light monoplane aircraft and, in 1926. The first parasite fighter was a German Albatros D. III which flew from Zeppelin L35 in January 26,1918. The LZ129 Hindenburg later conducted trials using parasite aircraft in the days before it crashed at Lakehurst, in 1923 the TC-3 and TC-7 non-rigid airships launched and recovered a Sperry Messenger biplane. Then in 1930, the US Navy fitted the USS Los Angeles with a designed to release. Successful trials with a glider and a led to the construction of the Akron and Macon airships as airborne aircraft carriers. During the 1940s a variety of plans were studied. These plans were abandoned due to weight/lift ratio of the dirigible, in parallel with early airship activity, efforts also went into carrying a fighter plane aloft on top of a second aeroplane
4.
Air launch
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Air launching is the practice of releasing a rocket, missile, parasite aircraft or other aircraft payload from a mother ship or launch aircraft. The payload craft or missile is often tucked under the wing of the mother ship. It may also be stored within a bay, beneath the main fuselage or even on the back of the carrier aircraft. One of the earliest uses of air launching used an airship as a carrier and these planes would connect to their mothership through a trapeze-like rig, mounted to the top of the upper wing, that attached to a hook dangling from the bottom of the dirigible above. Fighters could be launched and retrieved this way, giving the airship the speed and striking power of fixed-wing craft, while giving the fighters the range. With advances in technology, especially in range, the value of a dirigible mothership was reduced. The parasite fighter concept was revived several times, in an attempt to solve the problem of how to protect bombers from fighter attack. Air launch is used for rocket-powered craft, allowing them to conserve their fuel until lifted to altitude by a larger aircraft. The B-29, B-50, and B-52 have all served in the role for research programs such as the Bell X-1. In the 1960s the SR-71 aircraft was used to launch the Lockheed D-21/M-21 drone to speeds of up to Mach 3, however, this added a degree of difficulty due to the shock wave pattern around an aircraft at supersonic speeds. After three successful tests, the resulted in a collision with the carrier aircraft, in which both craft were destroyed and one crew member drowned. These aircraft were used throughout the Space Shuttle Program to transport the shuttles across long distances. The Pegasus launch vehicle became the first air-launched orbital rocket when it was launched on April 5,1990 by the private company Orbital Sciences Corp. from a NASA-owned B-52 Stratofortress and it has flown more than 40 times since, launched mostly from the companys own Lockheed L-1011. Building on its success, Orbital Sciences is developing the Pegasus II launcher that will drop from a launch aircraft called the Roc. Capacity to low-earth orbit is projected to be 13,500 pounds In the early 2000s, recently, the air launch method has gained popularity with commercial launch providers. The Ansari X-Prize $10 Million purse was won by a led by Burt Rutans Scaled Composites. AirLaunch LLC developed QuickReach small satellite launch system that validated the concept by dropping a test payload in-flight from the bay of an unmodified C-17 aircraft. Archived from the original on 24 July 2011
5.
Mother ship
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A mother ship, mothership or mother-ship is a large vehicle that leads, serves, or carries other smaller vehicles. A mother ship may be a ship, aircraft, or spacecraft. Examples include bombers converted to experimental aircraft to altitudes where they can conduct their research. A mother ship may also be used to smaller craft. A smaller vessel serving or caring for larger craft is called a tender. The term mother ship dates back to the 19th-century whaling trade when small, fast ships were used to chase, the dead meat from several boats was then brought back to the larger, slower ship for processing and storage until the return to land. This model enabled a far more efficient method of whaling, though whaling is much lower-scale than in earlier days, the single large storage ship model is still used extensively by fishermen. Such ships are known today as factory ships, in many languages, such as Chinese, Finnish and Japanese, the word mother ship refers to an aircraft carrier, see 母艦. During World War II, the German Type XIV submarine or Milchkuh was a type of large submarine used to resupply the U-boats, mother ships can carry small submersibles and submarines to an area of ocean to be explored. Somalian pirates use mother ships to extend the reach of their attacking speed boats into the Indian Ocean, in aviation, motherships have been used in the airborne aircraft carrier, air launch and captive carry roles. Some large long-range aircraft act as motherships to parasite aircraft, a mothership may also form the larger component of a composite aircraft. During the age of the airships, the United States built two rigid airships, USS Akron and USS Macon, with onboard hangars able to house a number of Curtiss F9C Sparrowhawk biplane fighters. These airborne aircraft carriers operated successfully for several years and these airships utilized an internal hangar bay using a trapeze to hold the aircraft. In the air launch role, a carrier aircraft or mother ship carries a smaller payload aircraft to a launch point. During World War II the Japanese Mitsubishi G4M bomber was used to carry the rocket-powered Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka aircraft, used for kamikaze attacks, germany also planned a jet-carrying bomber, called the Daimler-Benz Project C. In the USA, NASA has used converted bombers as launch platforms for experimental aircraft, notable among these was the use during the 1960s of a modified Boeing B-52 Stratofortress for the repeated launching of the North American X-15. In a captive carry arrangement the payload craft, such as a rocket, missile, aeroplane or spaceplane, does not separate from the carrier aircraft. Notable examples include, A pair of modified Boeing 747s known as the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, were used by NASA to transport the Space Shuttle orbiter, the Soviet Union developed and used the Antonov An-225 Mriya to ferry the Buran spacecraft
6.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
7.
Bristol Scout
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Like similar fast, light aircraft of the period it was used by the RNAS and the RFC as a scout, or fast reconnaissance type. Single-seat fighters continued to be called scouts in British usage into the early 1920s.3 seaplane, the design was initially given the works number SN. The wing section was one designed by Coanda which had used for the wings of the Bristol Coanda Biplanes. It was powered by an 80 hp Gnome Lambda rotary engine enclosed in a cowling that had no open frontal area and it had a rectangular balanced rudder with no fixed fin and split elevators attached to a non-lifting horizontal stabiliser. The fixed horizontal tail surfaces were outlined in steel tube with wooden ribs, the first flight was made at Larkhill on 23 February 1914 by Busteed and it was then exhibited at the March 1914 Aero Show at Olympia in London. These were rigged with a dihedral of 1 3⁄4°. Other changes included a larger rudder, a new open-fronted cowling with six external stiffening ribs distributed in symmetrically uneven angles around the cowls sides and fabric panel-covered wheels. It was evaluated by the British military on 14 May 1914 at Farnborough, when, flown by Busteed, by this time two more examples were under construction and the prototype was sold to Lord Carbery for £400 without its engine. Carbury managed to land alongside a ship and escaped but the aircraft was lost, completed shortly after the outbreak of war in August 1914, they were requisitioned by the War Office. Given Royal Flying Corps serial numbers 644 and 648, one was allocated to No.3 Squadron, number 644 was damaged beyond repair on 12 November 1914 in a crash landing. Impressed by the performance of the aircraft, the War Office ordered twelve examples on 5 November and these began with the arming of the second Scout B, RFC number 648, with two rifles, one each side, aimed outwards and forwards to clear the propeller arc. The type of bullet-deflecting wedges that Roland Garros had tried on his Morane-Saulnier Type N monoplane were also tried on one of the RFCs last Scout Cs, an RNAS Scout was the first landplane to be flown from a ship, when Flt. Lt. H. F. Towler flew No.1255 from the deck of the seaplane carrier HMS Vindex on 3 November 1915. Lt. C. T. Freeman flew a Scout from the deck of Vindex and attacked Zeppelin L17 with Ranken Darts. None of the darts did any damage to the Zeppelin, and since Freemans aircraft could not land on the Vindex and was too far from land for a safe return, six other Scouts, late Scout Cs and early Scout Ds, were also fitted with the same combination. Types using this all had the gun mounted on the port side of the fuselage.2 single-seat Pusher configuration fighter. A small number of Bristol Scouts were sent to the Middle East in 1916, others served in Macedonia and with the RNAS in the Eastern Mediterranean. The last known Bristol Scout in military service was the former RNAS Scout D No.8978 in Australia, once the Bristol Scouts were no longer required for frontline service they were reallocated to training units, although many were retained by senior officers as personal runabouts
8.
Felixstowe Porte Baby
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The Felixstowe Porte Baby was a British reconnaissance flying boat of the First World War, first flying in 1915. The Porte Baby was designed by John Cyril Porte RN at the air station, Felixstowe where the prototype was also built, ten more were made by May, Harden. Between November 1915 and 1918 it was the largest flying boat built, the aircraft was an unequal-span, three-bay biplane of wood-and-fabric construction, the hull being mounted below the lower wing. The engines, normally three Rolls-Royce Eagles, were mounted between the wings, two in tractor configuration and the one in pusher. The two pilots were in a cockpit, the three gunners had open stations armed with machine guns. The production Porte Babies were used to fly patrols over the North Sea from Felixstowe, RNAS Killingholme, Houton Bay, Orkney and Catfirth, the Porte Baby remained in service in October 1918. United Kingdom Royal Naval Air Service Royal Air Force Data from The Felixstowe Flying-Boats, the Felixstowe Flying-Boats, Historic Military Aircraft No.11 Part 1. The Felixstowe Flying-Boats, Historic Military Aircraft No.11 Part 2, the Felixstowe Flying-Boats, Historic Military Aircraft No.11 Part 3. British Aircraft Directory accessed 1 February 2007, photographs taken at Felixstowe and Lowerstoft on YouTube including Porte Baby aircraft at RNAS Felixstowe
9.
Flying boat
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A flying boat is a fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water, that usually has no type of landing gear to allow operation on land. It differs from a floatplane as it uses a purpose-designed fuselage which can float, Flying boats may be stabilized by under-wing floats or by wing-like projections from the fuselage. Flying boats were some of the largest aircraft of the first half of the 20th century and their advantage lay in using water instead of expensive land-based runways, making them the basis for international airlines in the interwar period. They were also used for maritime patrol and air-sea rescue. Their use gradually trailed off after World War II, partially because of the investments in airports during the war. In the 21st century, flying boats maintain a few uses, such as dropping water on forest fires, air transport around archipelagos. Many modern seaplane variants, whether float or flying boat types, are convertible amphibious aircraft where either landing gear or flotation modes may be used to land, on 6 June 1905 Gabriel Voisin took off and landed on the River Seine with a towed kite glider on floats. The first of his flights was 150 yards. He later built a powered floatplane in partnership with Louis Blériot, other pioneers also attempted to attach floats to aircraft in Britain, Australia, France and the USA. On 28 March 1910 Frenchman Henri Fabre successfully flew the first successful powered seaplane, the Gnome Omega-powered hydravion, fabres first successful take off and landing by a powered seaplane inspired other aviators and he designed floats for several other flyers. The first hydro-aeroplane competition was held in Monaco in March 1912, featuring aircraft using floats from Fabre, Curtiss, Tellier and this led to the first scheduled seaplane passenger services at Aix-les-Bains, using a five-seat Sanchez-Besa from 1 August 1912. The French Navy ordered its first floatplane in 1912, in 1911-12 François Denhaut constructed the first seaplane with a fuselage forming a hull, using various designs to give hydrodynamic lift at take-off. Its first successful flight was on 13 April 1912, throughout 1910 and 1911 American pioneering aviator Glenn Curtiss developed his floatplane into the successful Curtiss Model D land-plane, which used a larger central float and sponsons. Combining floats with wheels, he made the first amphibian flights in February 1911 and was awarded the first Collier Trophy for US flight achievement, from 1912 his experiments with a hulled seaplane resulted in the 1913 Model E and Model F, which he called flying-boats. In February 1911 the United States Navy took delivery of the Curtiss Model E, in Britain, Captain Edward Wakefield and Oscar Gnosspelius began to explore the feasibility of flight from water in 1908. They decided to use of Lake Windermere in the Lake District. Meanwhile, Wakefield ordered a similar to the design of the 1910 Fabre Hydravion. By November 1911, both Gnosspelier and Wakefield had aircraft capable of flight from water and awaited suitable weather conditions, gnosspeliers flight was short-lived as the aircraft crashed into the lake
10.
Bomber
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A bomber is a combat aircraft designed to attack ground and sea targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry, firing torpedoes or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. In 1912, during the First Balkan War, Bulgarian Air Force pilot Christo Toprakchiev suggested the use of aircraft to drop bombs on Turkish positions, captain Simeon Petrov developed the idea and created several prototypes by adapting different types of grenades and increasing their payload. This is deemed to be the first use of an aircraft as a bomber, the first heavier-than-air aircraft purposely designed for bombing were the Italian Caproni Ca 30 and British Bristol T. B.8, both of 1913. The Bristol T. B.8 was an early British single engined biplane built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company, under the command of Charles Rumney Samson, a bombing attack on German gun batteries at Middelkerke, Belgium was executed on 25 November 1914. The dirigible, or airship, was developed in the early 20th century, early airships were prone to disaster, but slowly the airship became more dependable, with a more rigid structure and stronger skin. Prior to the outbreak of war, Zeppelins, a larger and these were the first long range, strategic bombers. Although the German air arm was strong, with a total of 123 airships by the end of the war, they were vulnerable to attack and engine failure, German airships inflicted little damage on all 51 raids, with 557 Britons killed and 1,358 injured. The German Navy lost 53 of its 73 airships, and the German Army lost 26 of its 50 ships, the Caproni Ca 30 was built by Gianni Caproni in Italy. It was a biplane with three 67 kW Gnome rotary engines and first flew in October 1914. Test flights revealed power to be insufficient and the engine layout unworkable, the improved design was bought by the Italian Army and it was delivered in quantity from August 1915. Bombing raids and interdiction operations were carried out by French. Sustained attacks with a view to interrupting the enemys railway communications, in conjunction with the main operations of the Allied Armies. The most important bombers used in World War I were the French Breguet 14, British de Havilland DH-4, German Albatros C. III, the Russian Sikorsky Ilya Muromets, was the first four-engine bomber to equip a dedicated strategic bombing unit during World War I. This heavy bomber was unrivaled in the stages of the war. With engine power as a limitation, combined with the desire for accuracy and other operational factors. By the start of the war included, dive bomber — specially strengthened for vertical diving attacks for greater accuracy. Light bomber, medium bomber and heavy bomber — subjective definitions based on size, torpedo bomber — specialized aircraft armed with torpedoes. Ground attack aircraft — aircraft used against targets on a such as troop or tank concentrations
