EVOLUTION OF AIRCRAFT DESIGN - Three Airplanes Considered Flops That Ultimately Led To Success!

[@maxsmodels]

Another great one Mike. Cool subject matter.

[@yetiatlarge555]

Thank you Max, appreciate your channel

[@tombrown1898]

Welcome, Melissa! My first awareness of the DC-4E came from an enlarged B&W photo of the plane flying over New York City. Looking closely, I saw that it was a Douglas DC-4. That didn't compute, so off to Google! That failed prototype had an afterlife for the record books. There's a short video of that lovely bird in motion on the Web, accompanied by Kay Starr singing "Love With a Capital You," which has an interesting story, itself.

[@707liner8]

Great video and terrific supporting images, top notch.

[@disabldfirefiter]

My first flight was on a DC9, the day I left for Air Force basic training. It flew from Manchester, NH to Boston, then to San Antonio via Atlanta. That was a B707. (1972) I became an Air Force firefighter stationed at SAC bases Loring AFB, Maine, and Andersen AFB, Guam. Watching this video, there were at least two pictures showing Crash Fire Rescue trucks protecting the aircraft. I suggest an episode about the crash equipment that protected the aircraft. In Air Force terms, they were called "Aerospace Vehicle Firefighting Vehicle" back in the 70s. We called them crash trucks or crash rigs. A good place to see the military history is at Fire Trucks At War.

[@raynus1160]

Great, GREAT subject matter Mike - thanks for making my Sunday morning!

[@SCSuperheavy114]

Another great subject Mike! I Love the Douglas commercial evolution story as my mother was a flight attendant on a DC-4! Keep ‘em coming!

[@Duececoupe]

Great video Mike and a hearty welcome Melissa! 👋🏼 That Douglas DC-4E is a beauty! 😍🥰😎 I've never been much of an airliner fan myself, but....when it comes to the DC-3 and her later sisters, the Constellation, the Stratocruiser and the likes, I'm right in there! I imagine it's because they're prop aircraft, jets may be all good and fast, but you can't just beat the sound of a radial or inline engine!

[@Airsally]

That was a fun one . Think of all the planes that were tested at Edwards back in the day, and continues now. A slower pace now but still a very special place. I spent 30+ years working there and miss that place. Thanks for all you and your team do. Great w a y to start a week.

[@TJRohyans]

I started my USAF career turning wrenches on the B-52H and then went to the (then new) B-2A. Hard for me to believe that the B-2 is being retired and the B-52 keeps on going! Not hard to see the lineage of many of these aircraft. Great episode.

[@fromaggiovagiola9128]

Great Episode. A couple weeks ago think I saw that DC-8 flying over the Port of LA. It looked like it took off from Long Beach. It headed north.

[@alanpareis734]

As always,I enjoyed this one. I would like to know more about the XF 91’ engineering features. I will check the catalogue to see if you did one before I became a subscriber. Thanks again.

[@johnplaninac9980]

Wow your team has grown, a great addition. Another great video Great work.

[@roderickcampbell2105]

Really fine video. It's always eye opening to see features on current cutting edge aircraft that date back many decades. Great photographs and great art. Thanks. I did sign up for the new channel feature.

[@bertg.6056]

Another outstanding presentation, Mike!

[@Monkey_Spunk]

This is the best thing I ever saw.

[@chuck9987]

It's amazing how much the technology of the times has shaped the development of aircraft technology. The engineers seemed to get the edge on airframe development while power plant and aircraft control seems to have lagged behind sometimes seriously so. I was surprised about the problems with the gruman swing wing prototypes power plant. The F-111 and early F-14 suffered similar issues with the TF-30 almost 15 years later. Great video. Thanks for sharing.

[@yetiatlarge555]

Great comment, agreed on where the early advances were. Thank you!

[@newdefsys]

My first flight was on a Boeing 727 and, as a 4y/o boy, I was crushed it wasn't a 707.

[@lancerevell5979]

My first flight was on a Douglas DC-9 in 1976, as I flew from Tallahassee, Fl. to Lackland AFB/San Antonio, Texas for Airforce bootcamp. Our local airport at that time wasn't really able to land B707s, but Nixon's Airforce One did slip in and out once. B727s were common along with the DC-9. Later the second longer runway was built. Still no Jumbos though! 😊

[@rieger.design]

OK. I have to mention the elephant in the room: Why is the canopy of the F11F Tiger opened in mid-flight? That was common with slow prop planes.

[@Ensign_Cthulhu]

If you balked the CV approach and landing and went into the water, you were absolutely screwed if your canopy jammed. Having it open for landing was a thing that persisted well into the jet age.

[@michaelmartinez1345]

Such an interesting presentation !!! I was not aware of the DC-4E being dis-assembled while in Japan, and using that engineering as their blueprints for their later military Nakajima aircraft in WW-2... They simply said it crashed into the ocean, when it actually safely landed where it was dis-assembled specifically to hide, what would otherwise be Patent infringement in places that honored intellectual property standards...

[@randytaylor1258]

A wonderful window on aviation development. Thanks, Mike@

[@desertduck10]

Hello Melissa! Looking forward to more fun and plane facts. Mike..you forgot one of the Grumman Cats in this review. The " Tiger Cat". We'll let you slide on this one 😂 Great channel!

[@stevecausey545]

I just love your channel. Never heard of the DC4E...she's pretty...that pic over Santa Monica was stellar

[@DrivermanO]

Wasn't there a Tigercat after the Bearcat? The F7F?

[@Ensign_Cthulhu]

The Tigercat was a twin-engined aircraft, and not a success.

[@chrismartin3197]

@@Ensign_Cthulhunot a success? It wasn’t bad - especially land based with the Marines. (May not have seen as much carrier use as intended)

[@lancerevell5979]

It saw use in Korea as a photo-recon aircraft. Later widely used as a civilian water-bomber for fire-fighting.

[@DrivermanO]

@@Ensign_Cthulhu well, they built over 400 of them, it stayed in service until 1954, was used extensively in Korea as a night fighter. And I know perfectly well it was twin engined, but nobody mentioned just single engined Grumman planes! So all your comment is pretty much wrong!

[@Ensign_Cthulhu]

@@chrismartin3197 Okay, was a bit harsh and lacked context.

[@Seminal_Ideas]

The F14 Tomcat surely must be one of the most elegant designs from any manufacturer. It's flowing lines and perfectly proportioned form are a joy to behold. Grumman weriat the top of their game at this point in my opinion.

[@sergioleone3583]

And to think a beast like the Jaguar is in its lineage.

[@maximilliancunningham6091]

Thanks!

[@KaiWipfler]

Regarding the Jaguar. I can highly recommend Corky Meyer‘s test pilot autobiography which has a hilarious and hair-raising chapter about this plane. Here is a part of it, text recognition not perfect on glossy paper: next thing I remember was that the buffeting had greatly eased and I was down to 200 mph. I gingerly advanced the power to land at Edwards as soon as possible. The chase pilot, my old friend Captain Zeke Hopkins, thought that I was a dead duck since he could see me rolling around in the cockpit for about 20 seconds while he was trying to rouse me on the radio. I let him know all was well after the buffeting eased up. I knew from my previous lift-off experience that the horizontal tail went wild from the disturbed canopy-open airflow when approaching below 160-mph takeoff and landing speeds. Consequently I knew that I had to put the aircraft on the lakebed very fast, flying at least 200 mph. Just before landing, Zeke called me to say that the ejection seat face curtain was fully extended and flapping on the back of the fiberglass section of the canopy frame, a fact I confirmed by a glance in my rear-view mirror. I reached back, grabbed the rubber handle on the curtain, and put it between my teeth, thinking to myself, what a B movie this has become! As the face curtain was fully extended, I suspected the seat was "hot" (ready for ejection) but I also thought that there might be a check device on the canopy that should prevent ejection until the canopy frame itself had been jettisoned. I was not all that sure, however, that it would be effective with the canopy glass gone. After touching down and slowing to 100 mph, I hurriedly unbuckled, scrambled out of the cockpit, and straddled the front fuselage, hanging on to the windshield, facing aft. I had managed to get back on the ground, and I had no taste for ejecting with a seat, which needed 5,000 feet altitude for a safe ejection. Several miles later the XF10F-1 Jaguar came to a standstill on the dry lakebed after completing a wide circle.

[@GustavoMonasterio]

Excellent video as usual, and I am glad to know Melissa is onboard. I have two daughters, but none of them are interested in aviation, unfortunately. One is a psychologist and the other ine is in college studying to be a journalist. Anyway, I have chosen my favourite topic already. By any chance, will you be around Wichita, KS next week? I will be in training at Flightsafety there. If you do, the beer is on me! 🍻

[@alexandrec9372]

Mais um excelente vídeo, obrigado por compartilhar

[@jimpern]

It's ironic that I took my first plane flight a year before you did, but mine was on an Eastern DC-8. I never did fly on a piston-powered airliner. (My only piston-powered flights were in a Piper Cherokee Six and a Bell 47 helicopter!)

[@auntbarbara5576]

Hi Mr M! Thank you :) (I was expecting to see L10-11 and MD-11 on this list 😉)

[@randischwarz5072]

Hi Melissa and Mike, great video but I think you missed an important connection. You have a section of the video where you begin with the Grumman Wildcat, but failed to mention the last of the Navy's biplane fighters like the F3F, F2F that morphed into the Wildcat. The Wildcat at first still had the pilot operated landing gear, before hydraulics.

[@andrewcox4386]

Interesting to note the DC4Es square windows. I have to wonder whether this with a pressurised cabin would have saved the Comet a decade later.

[@maximilliancunningham6091]

McDonnell Stiletto & The F-104. I've always found it a bit strange that Kelly Johnson, was inspired by that.

[@glennweaver3014]

Spectacular, Mike. I thoroughly enjoyed all the content of this well presented video. And yes, I am a lifelong Sky King fan.

[@celebratingaviationwithmik9782]

Thanks Glenn!

[@keithtarrier4558]

Cool!

[@SkyhawkSteve]

The Grumman XF10F was a bold step, and certainly a good research aircraft. The very unusual horizontal stabilizer was discussed in one of Hank Caruso's drawings. Apparently the small airfoil at the front of the hor. stab. acted as a canard to control the pitch of the hor stab. Or maybe it could be considered a very large trim tab? IIRC, the end result was that it was not as responsive as directly controlling the hor stab position, as you mentioned, causing pilot induced oscillations. I guess you never know for sure until you try!

[@lancerevell5979]

Atlantis has repopped the old Revell Grumman F11F-1 Tiger kit. Unfortunately it's the earlier short-nose variant, and is an odd scale. Of course Lindberg's ancient 1/48 kit is still available too. Both come with Blue Angels decals, though Lindberg does have an issue with operational Gray/White scheme and Navy decals.

[@jwrappuhn71]

Excellent.

[@maximilliancunningham6091]

I've heard that the B-21 is significantly smaller, than the B-2. A future topic ?

[@alantoon5708]

Another good example would be the P-47. Its' predecessors were at best only semi successful. But look what they led to..

[@HootOwl513]

So who came up with the Triple Tail first? Douglas designers or Kelly Johnson with the Constellation?

[@mpetersen6]

I could be wrong but I thought the triple tail was the need to get the aircraft out of the factory.

[@HootOwl513]

@@mpetersen6 And park it in a normal hangar. True. The B-52 had a fold-down vertical stabilizer for the same reason.

[@appaho9tel]

Is it accurate to say the C 47 'changed the world?' Convair built more 240s than Doug made C 47.

[@UniversalChallenge4454]

start youtube membership program

[@toomanyhobbies2011]

Good luck with the paywall, sure hope it doesn't impact your free programs.

[@celebratingaviationwithmik9782]

These new programs will supplement the channel. All regular programming will stay the same. Thanks for watching!

[@hartvanmeter214]

Melissa is a lot cuter than you, Mike.😂😂 Let her speak sometimes.