|
Swearingen Metro II
The Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner (previously the Swearingen Metro and later Fairchild Aerospace Metro) is a 19-seat, pressurized, twin-turboprop airliner first produced by Swearingen Aircraft and later by Fairchild Aircraft at a plant in San Antonio, Texas. Design The Metroliner was an evolution of the Swearingen Merlin turboprop-powered business aircraft. Ed Swearingen, a Texas fixed-base operator, started the developments that led to the Metro through gradual modifications to the Beechcraft Twin Bonanza and Queen Air business aircraft, which he dubbed Excalibur. A new fuselage (but with a similar nose) and vertical fin were then developed, married to salvaged and rebuilt ( wet) Queen Air wings and horizontal tails, and Twin Bonanza landing gear; this became the SA26 Merlin, more or less a pressurized Excalibur. Through successive models (the SA26-T Merlin IIA and SA26-AT Merlin IIB) the engines were changed to Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6, then Garrett TPE331 turbopro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Regional Airliner
A regional airliner, commuter airliner or feeder liner is a small airliner that is designed to fly up to 100 passengers on short-haul flights, usually feeding larger carriers' airline hubs from small markets. This class of airliners is typically flown by the regional airlines that are either contracted by or subsidiaries of the larger airlines. Regional airliners are used for short trips between smaller towns or from a larger city to a smaller city. Feeder liner, commuter, and local service are all alternative terms for the same class of flight operations. History To keep short routes economical, airlines preferred using second hand aircraft than costlier new aircraft. Older aircraft were put into short haul service as they were replaced by new longer-range designs. Post-war era Propeller aircraft of larger airlines were transferred to smaller airlines. Examples included the De Havilland Dragon Rapide biplane and the Douglas DC-3s, in large surplus after the war, which the a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beechcraft Queen Air
The Beechcraft Queen Air is a twin-engined light aircraft produced by Beechcraft in numerous versions from 1960 to 1978. Based upon the Twin Bonanza, with which it shared key components such as wings, engines, and tail surfaces, it had a larger fuselage, and served as the basis for the highly successful King Air series of turboprop aircraft. Its primary uses have been as a private aircraft, utility, and small commuter airliner. Production ran for 17 years. Design and development With the company's popular Twin Bonanza reaching its limits of development, Beechcraft decided to develop a design based on it but with a larger fuselage and new tail. The result was the Beech 65, the first of the Queen Air series, a twin-engined nine-seat low-wing cantilever cabin monoplane with retractable tricycle landing gear. It was initially powered by two Lycoming IGSO-480 six-cylinder, horizontally opposed piston engines. Early in development the United States Army, which had been a cus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
JATO
JATO (acronym for jet-assisted take-off) is a type of assisted take-off for helping overloaded aircraft into the air by providing additional thrust in the form of small rockets. The term ''JATO'' is used interchangeably with the (more specific) term RATO, for ''rocket-assisted take-off'' (or, in Royal Air Force, RAF parlance, RATOG, for ''rocket-assisted take-off gear''). Early experiments and World War II In 1927 the Soviet research and development laboratory Gas Dynamics Laboratory developed solid-propellant rockets to assist aircraft take-off and in 1931 the world's first successful use of rockets to assist take-off of aircraft were carried out on a :ru:У-1, U-1, the Soviet Union military aircraft designation systems, Soviet designation for a Avro 504 trainer, which achieved about one hundred successful assisted takeoffs. Successful assisted takeoffs were also achieved on the Tupolev TB-1. and Tupolev TB-3 Heavy Bombers. The official test of the Tupolev TB-1 in 1933 shorten ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Propeller (aircraft)
In aeronautics, an aircraft propeller, also called an airscrew,Beaumont, R.A.; ''Aeronautical Engineering'', Odhams, 1942, Chapter 13, "Airscrews". converts rotary motion from an engine or other power source into a swirling slipstream which pushes the propeller forwards or backwards. It comprises a rotating power-driven hub, to which are attached several radial airfoil-section blades such that the whole assembly rotates about a longitudinal axis. The blade pitch may be fixed, manually variable to a few set positions, or of the automatically variable "constant-speed" type. The propeller attaches to the power source's driveshaft either directly or through reduction gearing. Propellers can be made from wood, metal or composite materials. Propellers are most suitable for use at subsonic airspeeds generally below about , although supersonic speeds were achieved in the McDonnell XF-88B experimental propeller-equipped aircraft. Supersonic tip-speeds are used in some aircraft like the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flight Attendant
A flight attendant is a member of the aircrew whose primary responsibility is ensure the safety of passengers in the cabin of an aircraft across all stages of flight. Their secondary duty is to see to the comfort of passengers. Flight attendants are also known as a steward () or stewardess (), or air host () or air hostess () and are collectively referred to as cabin crew. History The role of a flight attendant derives from that of similar positions on passenger ships or Passenger railroad car, passenger trains, but has more direct involvement with passengers because of the confined quarters on aircraft. Additionally, the job of a flight attendant revolves around safety to a much greater extent than those of similar staff on other forms of transportation. Flight attendants on board a flight collectively form a ''cabin crew'', as distinguished from Aircraft pilot, pilots and Flight engineer, engineers in the cockpit. The German Heinrich Kubis was the world's first flight a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beechcraft Model 99
The Beechcraft Model 99 is a civilian aircraft produced by American manufacturer Beechcraft. It is also known as the Beech 99 Airliner and the Commuter 99. The 99 is a twin-engine, unpressurized, 15 to 17 passenger seat turboprop aircraft, derived from the earlier Beechcraft King Air and Queen Air. It uses the wings of the Queen Air, the engines and nacelles of the King Air, and sub-systems from both, with a specifically designed nose structure. Design and development Designed in the 1960s as a replacement for the Beechcraft Model 18, it first flew in July 1966. It received type certification on May 2, 1968, and 62 aircraft were delivered by the end of the year. In 1984, the Beechcraft 1900, a pressurized 19-passenger airplane, was introduced as the follow-on aircraft. Production ended in early 1987 with 239 airframes completed. Nearly half the Beech 99s in airline service are now operated as freighters by Ameriflight. Variants * : Twin-engined Commuter and cargo transport ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Empennage
The empennage ( or ), also known as the tail or tail assembly, is a structure at the rear of an aircraft that provides stability during flight, in a way similar to the feathers on an arrow.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', p. 194. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 1997. Aviation Publishers Co. Limited, ''From the Ground Up'', p. 10 (27th revised edition) The term derives from the French language verb which means " to feather an arrow". Most aircraft feature an empennage incorporating vertical and horizontal stabilising surfaces which stabilise the flight dynamics of yaw and pitch, as well as housing control surfaces. In spite of effective control surfaces, many early aircraft that lacked a stabilising empennage were virtually unflyable. Even so-called "tailless aircraft" usually have a tail fin (usually a vertical stabiliser). Heavier-than-air aircraft without any kind of empennage (such as the Northrop B-2) are rare, and generally use specially ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Garrett AiResearch TPE-331
The Honeywell TPE331 (military designation: T76) is a turboprop engine. It was designed in the 1950s by Garrett AiResearch, and produced since 1999 by successor Honeywell Aerospace. The engine's power output ranges from . Design and development Garrett AiResearch designed the TPE331 from scratch in 1959 for the military. “Designed as a 575-horsepower engine it was not a scaled-down version of a larger engine, as competitors were offering.” The TPE331 originated in 1961 as a gas turbine (the "331") to power helicopters. It first went into production in 1963. More than 700 had been shipped by the end of 1973. It was designed to be both a turboshaft (TSE331) and a turboprop (TPE331), but the turboshaft version never went into production. The first engine was produced in 1963, installed on the Aero Commander in 1964 and put into production on the Aero Commander Turbo Commander in June 1965. Performance The 715 shp TPE331-6 used in the Beechcraft King Air B100 have a 400-hr. f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6
The Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 is a turboprop aircraft engine produced by Pratt & Whitney Canada. Its design was started in 1958, it first ran in February 1960, first flew on 30 May 1961, entered service in 1964, and has been continuously updated since. The PT6 consists of two basic sections: a gas generator with accessory gearbox, and a free-power turbine with reduction gearbox. In aircraft, the engine is often mounted "backwards," with the intake at the rear and the exhaust at the front, so that the turbine is directly connected to the propeller. Many variants of the PT6 have been produced, not only as turboprops but also as turboshaft engines for helicopters, land vehicles, hovercraft, and boats; as auxiliary power units; and for industrial uses. By November 2015, 51,000 had been produced, which had logged 400 million flight hours from 1963 to 2016. It is known for its reliability, with an in-flight shutdown rate of 1 per 651,126 hours in 2016. The PT6A turboprop engine c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Landing Gear
Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft that is used for taxiing, takeoff or landing. For aircraft, it is generally needed for all three of these. It was also formerly called ''alighting gear'' by some manufacturers, such as the Glenn L. Martin Company. For aircraft, Stinton makes the terminology distinction ''undercarriage (British) = landing gear (US)''. For aircraft, the landing gear supports the craft when it is not flying, allowing it to take off, land, and taxi without damage. Wheeled landing gear is the most common, with skis or Seaplane, floats needed to operate from snow/ice/water and skids for vertical operation on land. Retractable undercarriages fold away during flight, which reduces drag (physics), drag, allowing for faster airspeeds. Landing gear must be strong enough to support the aircraft and its design affects the weight, balance and performance. It often comprises three wheels, or wheel-sets, giving a tripod effect. Some unusual land ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horizontal Stabilizer
A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabilizer, is a small lifting surface located on the tail ( empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplanes. Not all fixed-wing aircraft have tailplanes. Canards, tailless and flying wing aircraft have no separate tailplane, while in V-tail aircraft the vertical stabilizer, rudder, and the tail-plane and elevator are combined to form two diagonal surfaces in a V layout. The function of the tailplane is to provide stability and control. In particular, the tailplane helps adjust for changes in position of the centre of pressure or centre of gravity caused by changes in speed and attitude, fuel consumption, or dropping cargo or payload. Tailplane types The tailplane comprises the tail-mounted fixed horizontal stabilizer and movable elevator. Besides its planform, it is characterised by: *Number of tailplanes - from 0 ( tailless or canard) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
