Speaker 1: Welcome to the I Can't Sleep Podcast. Why I help
Speaker 1: you drift off one fact at a time. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Benjamin Boster, and today's episode is about airliners. Before we
Speaker 1: get started on today's sponsored episode, I wanted to wish
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Speaker 1: An airliner is a type of airplane for transporting passengers
Speaker 1: and air cargo. Such aircraft are most often operated by airlines.
Speaker 1: The modern and most common variant of the airliner is
Speaker 1: a jet powered aircraft with a long, tube shaped fuselage.
Speaker 1: The largest of them are wide body jets, which are
Speaker 1: also called twin aisle because they generally have two separate
Speaker 1: aisles running from the front to the back of the
Speaker 1: passenger cabin. These are usually used for long haul flights
Speaker 1: between airline hubs and major cities. A smaller, more common
Speaker 1: class of airlines is the narrow body or single aisle.
Speaker 1: These are generally used for short to medium distance flights
Speaker 1: with fewer passengers than their wide body counterparts. Regional airliners
Speaker 1: typically seed fewer than one hundred passengers and may be
Speaker 1: powered by turbo fans or turbo prompts. These airliners are
Speaker 1: the non main line counterparts to the larger aircraft operated
Speaker 1: by the major carriers, legacy carriers, and flag carriers, and
Speaker 1: are used to feed traffic into the large airline hubs.
Speaker 1: These regional routes then form the spokes of a hub
Speaker 1: and spoke air transport model. The lightest aircraft are short haul,
Speaker 1: regional feeder airline type aircraft that carry a small number
Speaker 1: of passengers and are called commuter aircraft, commuter liners, feeder liners,
Speaker 1: and air taxis depending on their size, engines, how they
Speaker 1: are marketed, region of the world, and seating configurations. The
Speaker 1: Beachcraft nineteen hundred, for example, has only nineteen zeats. When
Speaker 1: the Wright Brothers made the world's first sustained heavier than
Speaker 1: air flight, they laid the foundation for what would become
Speaker 1: a major transport industry. Their flight, performed in the Right
Speaker 1: Flier during nineteen o three, was just eleven years before
Speaker 1: what is often defined as the world's first airliner by
Speaker 1: the nineteen sixties, airliners had expanded capabilities, making a significant
Speaker 1: impact on global society, economics, and politics. During nineteen thirteen,
Speaker 1: Igor Sikorski developed the first large multi engine airplane, the
Speaker 1: Rusky Vityats. This aircraft was subsequently refined into the more
Speaker 1: practical Ilia Muromats, being furnished with dual controls for a
Speaker 1: pilot and copilot, and a comfortable cabin was a lavatory
Speaker 1: cabin heating and lighting. This large four engine biplane was
Speaker 1: further adapted into an early bomber aircraft, preceding subsequent transport
Speaker 1: and bomber aircraft. It first flew on December tenth, nineteen thirteen,
Speaker 1: and took off for its first demonstration flight with sixteen
Speaker 1: passengers aboard on February twenty fifth, nineteen fourteen. However, it
Speaker 1: was never used as a commercial airline due to the
Speaker 1: onset of the First World War, which led to military
Speaker 1: applications being prioritized. In nineteen nineteen, shortly after the end
Speaker 1: of the First World War, large numbers of ex military
Speaker 1: aircraft flooded the market. One such aircraft was the French
Speaker 1: farm and Goliath, which had originally been designed as a
Speaker 1: long range and cheavy bomber. A number were converted for
Speaker 1: commercial use into passenger airliners starting in nineteen nineteen, being
Speaker 1: able to accommodate a maximum of fourteen seated passengers. Around
Speaker 1: sixty were built. Initially. Several publicity flights were made, including
Speaker 1: one on February eighth, nineteen nineteen, when the Goliath flew
Speaker 1: twelve passengers. Dozens of early airlines subsequently procured the type.
Speaker 1: One high profile flight made on August eleventh, nineteen nineteen,
Speaker 1: involved in f sixty, flying eight passengers and a ton
Speaker 1: of supplies from Paris. Another important airliner built in nineteen
Speaker 1: nineteen was the Airco DH DOT sixteen A, redesigned Airco
Speaker 1: DH DOT nine A, was a wider fuselage to accommodate
Speaker 1: an enclosed cabin seating four passengers plus pilot in an
Speaker 1: open cockpit. In March nineteen nineteen, the prototype first blew
Speaker 1: at Hendon Aerodrome. Nine aircraft were built, all but one
Speaker 1: being delivered to the Nasson Airline Aircraft Transport and Travel,
Speaker 1: which used the first aircraft for pleasure flying, and on
Speaker 1: August twenty fifth, nineteen nineteen, it inaugurated the first scheduled
Speaker 1: international airline service from London to Paris. One aircraft, YFT,
Speaker 1: was sold to the river Plate Aviation Company in Argentina
Speaker 1: to operate a cross river service between Buenos Aires and Montevideo. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: the competing Vickers converted its successful First World War arabomber,
Speaker 1: the Vickers Vimmy, into a civilian version, the Vimmy Commercial.
Speaker 1: It was redesigned with a larger diameter fuselage and first
Speaker 1: flew from the Joyscreen Airfield in Kent on the thirteenth
Speaker 1: of April nineteen nineteen. The world's first all metal transport
Speaker 1: aircraft was the Junkers F thirteen, which also made the
Speaker 1: first flight in nineteen nineteen. Junkers marketed the aircraft towards
Speaker 1: business travelers and commercial operators, and European entrepreneurs bought examples
Speaker 1: for their private use and business troops. Over three hundred
Speaker 1: Junkers F thirteens were built between nineteen nineteen and nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty two. The Dutch Fokker Company produced the Fokker F two,
Speaker 1: then the enlarged F three. These were used by the
Speaker 1: Dutch airline KLM, including on its Amsterdam London service in
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty one. A relatively reliable aircraft for the area.
Speaker 1: The Fokkers were flying to destinations across Europe, including Bremen, Brussels,
Speaker 1: Hamburg and Paris. The Hanley Page Company in Britain produced
Speaker 1: the Hanley Page Type W, its first civil transport aircraft.
Speaker 1: It housed two crew in an open cockpit and fifteen
Speaker 1: passengers in an enclosed cabin, powered by two four hundred
Speaker 1: fifty horse power Napier Lion engines. The prototype first blew
Speaker 1: on December fourth, nineteen nineteen. Shortly after it was displayed
Speaker 1: at the nineteen nineteen Paris Air Show, it was ordered
Speaker 1: by the Belgian firm Sabena. A further ten type ws
Speaker 1: were produced under license in Belgium by s A. BCA.
Speaker 1: In nineteen twenty one, the Air Ministry ordered three aircraft
Speaker 1: built as the W eight B for use by Hanley
Speaker 1: Page Transport and later by Imperial Airways on services to
Speaker 1: Paris and Brussels. In France, the Bleriotspad S thirty three
Speaker 1: was introduced during the early nineteen twenties. It was commercially successful,
Speaker 1: initially serving the Paris London route and later on continental routes.
Speaker 1: The enclosed cabin could carry four passengers, with an extra
Speaker 1: seat in the cockpit It was further developed into the
Speaker 1: Bleriotspad S forty six. Throughout the nineteen twenties, companies in
Speaker 1: Britain and France were at the forefront of the civil
Speaker 1: airliner industry. By nineteen twenty one, the capacity of airliners
Speaker 1: needed to be increased to achieve more favorable economics. The
Speaker 1: English company de Haveland built the ten passenger d H
Speaker 1: twenty nine monoplane while starting work on the design of
Speaker 1: the d H thirty two, an eight seater biplane with
Speaker 1: a more economical but less powerful Rule Royce Eagle engine
Speaker 1: for more capacity. DH thirty two development was replaced by
Speaker 1: the DH thirty four biplane, accommodating ten passengers. A commercially
Speaker 1: successful aircraft, Daimler Airway ordered a batch of nine. The
Speaker 1: Ford Trimotor had two engines mounted on the wings and
Speaker 1: one in the nose, and a slab sided body. It
Speaker 1: carried eight passengers and was produced from nineteen twenty five
Speaker 1: to nineteen thirty three. It was an important early airliner
Speaker 1: in America. It was used by the predecessors to Transworld
Speaker 1: airlines and by other airlines long after production ceased. The
Speaker 1: Trimotor helped to popularize numerous aspects of modern aviation infrastructure,
Speaker 1: including paved runways, passenger terminals, hangars, air mail and radio navigation.
Speaker 1: Pan M opened up transoceanic service in the late nineteen
Speaker 1: twenties and early nineteen thirties based on a series of
Speaker 1: large seaplanes, the Sikorski S thirty eight through Sikorski S
Speaker 1: forty two. By the nineteen thirties, the airliner industry had
Speaker 1: matured and large, consolidated national airlines were established, with regular
Speaker 1: international services that spanned the globe, including Imperial Airways in Britain,
Speaker 1: Lufthansa and Germany KLM and the Netherlands and United Airlines
Speaker 1: in America. Multi engined aircraft were now capable of transporting
Speaker 1: dozens of passengers and comfort. During the nineteen thirties, the
Speaker 1: British to Havelean Dragon emerged as a short haul, low
Speaker 1: capacity airliner. Its relatively simple design could carry six passengers
Speaker 1: each with forty pounds of luggage on the London Paris
Speaker 1: route on a fuel consumption of thirteen gallons per hour.
Speaker 1: The DH E four Dragon entered worldwide service during early
Speaker 1: August nineteen thirty four. One performed the first non stop
Speaker 1: flight between the Canadian mainland and Britain in thirty hours
Speaker 1: fifty five minutes, although the intended destination had originally been
Speaker 1: baggedad in Iraq. British production of the Dragon ended in
Speaker 1: favor of the de Havevelan Dragon Rapid, a faster and
Speaker 1: more comfortable successor. By November nineteen thirty four, series production
Speaker 1: of the Dragon Rapid had commenced to have Land invested
Speaker 1: into advanced features, including elongated rear windows, cabin heating, thickened
Speaker 1: wing tips, and a strengthened air frame for a higher
Speaker 1: gross weight of fifty five hundred pounds. Later aircraft were
Speaker 1: amongst the first airliners to be fitted with flaps for
Speaker 1: improved lighting performance, along with downwards facing recognition light and
Speaker 1: metal propellers, which were often retrofitted to older aircraft. It
Speaker 1: was also used in military roles. Civil Dragon Rapids were
Speaker 1: impressed into military service during the Second World War. Metal
Speaker 1: airliners came into service in the nineteen thirties in the
Speaker 1: United States. The Boeing two forty seven and the fourteen
Speaker 1: passenger Douglas d C two flew during the first half
Speaker 1: of the decade, while the more powerful, faster twenty one
Speaker 1: to thirty two passenger Douglas d C three first appeared
Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty five. D C threes were produced in
Speaker 1: quantity for the Second World War and were sold as
Speaker 1: surplus afterward, becoming widespread within the commercial sector. It was
Speaker 1: one of the first airliners to be profitable without the
Speaker 1: support of postal or government subsidies. Long haul flights were
Speaker 1: expanded during the nineteen thirties as Pan American Airways and
Speaker 1: Imperial Airways competed on transatlantic travel using fleet of flying
Speaker 1: boats such as the British Short Empire and the American
Speaker 1: Boeing three fourteen. Imperial Airways ordered for twenty eight Empire
Speaker 1: flying boats was viewed by some as a bold gamble.
Speaker 1: At the time, flying boats were the only practical means
Speaker 1: of building aircraft of such size and weight, as land
Speaker 1: based aircraft would have unfeasibly poor field performance. One Boeing
Speaker 1: three fourteen registration NC one eight six oh two became
Speaker 1: the first commercial plane to circumnavigate the globe during December
Speaker 1: nineteen forty one and January nineteen forty two. In the
Speaker 1: United Kingdom, the Brabazon Committee was formed in nineteen forty
Speaker 1: two under John Moore Brabazon first Baron Brabezon of Tara
Speaker 1: to forecast advances in aviation technology and the air transport
Speaker 1: needs of the post war British Empire in South Asia,
Speaker 1: Africa and the Near and Far East and Commonwealth, Australia, Canada,
Speaker 1: New Zealand. For British use. Multi engine aircraft types were
Speaker 1: allegedly split between the US for military transport aircraft and
Speaker 1: the UK for heavy bombers. That such a policy was
Speaker 1: suggested or implemented have been disputed, at least by Sir
Speaker 1: Peter Mayfield. British aircraft manufacturers were tied up to fulfill
Speaker 1: military requirements and had no free capacity to address other
Speaker 1: matters through the war. The committee final report pushed four
Speaker 1: designs for the state owned airlines British Overseas Airways Corporation
Speaker 1: and later British European Airways, three piston powered aircraft of
Speaker 1: varying sizes and a jet powered one hundred seat design
Speaker 1: at the request of Jeoffrey to Haveland, involved in the
Speaker 1: first jet fighter's development. After a brief contest, the Type
Speaker 1: one design was given to the Bristol Airplane Company, building
Speaker 1: a one hundred ton bomber submission. This evolved into the
Speaker 1: Bristol Brabazon, but this project folded in nineteen fifty one
Speaker 1: as BOAC lost interest and the first aircraft needed a
Speaker 1: costly wing redesign to accommodate the Bristol Proteus engine. The
Speaker 1: Type two was split between the Havevelin Dove and air
Speaker 1: Speed Ambassador conveyed tentional piston designs, and the Vickers model
Speaker 1: powered by newly developed turboprops. First flown in nineteen forty eight,
Speaker 1: the VC two Viceroy was the first turboprop designed to
Speaker 1: enter service, a commercial success, with four hundred and forty
Speaker 1: five Viscounts built. The Type three requirement led to the
Speaker 1: conventional Avrod Tutor and the more ambitious Bristol Britannia, although
Speaker 1: both aircraft suffered protracted developments. Was the latter entering service
Speaker 1: with BOAC in February nineteen fifty seven. Over seven years
Speaker 1: following its order, the jet powered Type four became the
Speaker 1: d Havelin Comet in nineteen forty nine. It featured an
Speaker 1: aerodynamically clean design with four de Havelin Ghost turbojet engines
Speaker 1: buried in the wings, a pressure fuselage and large square windows.
Speaker 1: On a second nineteen fifty two, the Comet took off
Speaker 1: on the world's first jet liner flight carrying fair paying passengers,
Speaker 1: and simultaneously inaugurated scheduled service between London and Johannesburg. However,
Speaker 1: roughly one year after introduction, three Comets broke up mid
Speaker 1: flight due to air frame metal fatigue, not well understood
Speaker 1: of the time. The Comet was grounded and tested to
Speaker 1: discover the cause, while rival manufacturers heated the lessons learned
Speaker 1: while developing their own aircraft. The improved Comet two and
Speaker 1: the prototype Comet three culminated in the redesigned Comet four series,
Speaker 1: which debuted in nineteen fifty eight and had a productive
Speaker 1: career over thirty years, but sales never fully recovered. By
Speaker 1: the nineteen sixties, the UK had lost the airliner market
Speaker 1: to the US due to the Comma disaster, and a
Speaker 1: smaller domestic market not regained by later designs like the
Speaker 1: BAC one eleven, Vickers VZ ten and Hawker Hidley Trident.
Speaker 1: The Stack Committee was formed to consider supersonic designs and
Speaker 1: worked with Bristol to create the Bristol two twenty three,
Speaker 1: a one hundred passenger transatlantic airliner. The effort was later
Speaker 1: merged with similar efforts in France to create the Concord
Speaker 1: supersonic airliner to share the cost. The first badge of
Speaker 1: the Douglas DC fours went to the US Army and
Speaker 1: Air Forces and was named the C fifty four Skymaster.
Speaker 1: Some ex military DC sixes were later converted into airliners,
Speaker 1: with both passenger and cargo versions flooding the market shortly
Speaker 1: after the war's end. Douglas also developed a pressurized version
Speaker 1: of the DC four, which it designated the Douglas DC six.
Speaker 1: Rival company Lockheed produced the Constellation, a triple tailed aircraft,
Speaker 1: was a wider fuselage than the DC four. The Boying
Speaker 1: three seventy seven Strato Cruiser was based on the C
Speaker 1: ninety seven Strato freighter military transport. It had a double
Speaker 1: deck and a pressurized fuselage. Convert produced the Converre two forty,
Speaker 1: a forty person pressurized airplane five hundred and sixty six
Speaker 1: examples flew. Convoy later developed the Convert three forty, which
Speaker 1: was slightly larger and could accommodate between forty four and
Speaker 1: fifty two passengers, of which three hundred eleven were produced.
Speaker 1: The firm also commenced work on the Conver thirty seven,
Speaker 1: a relatively large double deck airliner that would have served
Speaker 1: trans continental routes. However, the project was abandoned due to
Speaker 1: a lack of customer demand and its high development costs.
Speaker 1: Rival planes included the Martin two zero two and Martin
Speaker 1: four zero four, but the two zero two had safety
Speaker 1: concerns and was unpressurized, while the four zero four only
Speaker 1: sold around one hundred units. During the post war years,
Speaker 1: engines became much larger and more powerful, and safety features
Speaker 1: such as dicing, navigation, and weather information were added to
Speaker 1: the planes. American planes were allegedly more comfortable and had
Speaker 1: superior flight decks than those produced in Europe. The most
Speaker 1: common airliners are the narrow body aircraft or single aisles.
Speaker 1: The earliest jet airliners were narrow bodies. The initial d
Speaker 1: haveavelin comet, the Boeing seven oh seven and its competitor,
Speaker 1: the Douglas DC eight. They were followed by smaller models,
Speaker 1: the Douglas DC nine and its MD eighty MD ninety
Speaker 1: Boeing seven seventeen derivatives, the Boying seven twenty seven, seven
Speaker 1: thirty seven and seven fifty s seven Using the seven
Speaker 1: oh seven cabin cross section or the TUPELEV two one
Speaker 1: fifty four, Illusin IL eighteen and the Ilyuschin L sixty two.
Speaker 1: Currently produced narrowbody airliners include the air Bus A two twenty,
Speaker 1: A three twenty family, Boeing seven thirty seven, Embryer e
Speaker 1: jet family, and Comacs seven nine one nine. Generally used
Speaker 1: for medium hall flights with one hundred to two hundred
Speaker 1: and forty passengers. They could be joined by the indevelopment
Speaker 1: earcud MC twenty one. The larger wide body aircraft or
Speaker 1: twin aisle, as they have two separate aisles in the cabin,
Speaker 1: are used for long haul flights. The first was the
Speaker 1: Boeing seven forty seven quad jet, followed by the tri jets,
Speaker 1: the Lockheed L ten eleven and the Douglas DC ten
Speaker 1: then its MD eleven stretch. Then other quad jets were introduced,
Speaker 1: the Ilyutian IL eighty six and IL ninety six, the
Speaker 1: Airbus A three forty and the double deck A three eighty.
Speaker 1: Twin jets were also put into service, the Airbus A
Speaker 1: three hundred, A three ten, A three thirty, and A
Speaker 1: three fifty. The seven sixty seven, seven seven seven and
Speaker 1: seven eighty seven regional airliners seat fewer than one hundred passengers.
Speaker 1: These smaller aircraft are often used to feed traffic at
Speaker 1: large airline hubs to a larger aircraft operated by the
Speaker 1: major mainline carerris, legacy carriers or flag carriers, often sharing
Speaker 1: the same livery currently produced turboprop regional airliners include the
Speaker 1: dash AID series and the ATR forty two seventy two.
Speaker 1: Light aircraft can be used as small commuter airliners or
Speaker 1: as air taxis. Twin turboprops carrying up to nineteen passengers
Speaker 1: include the Beachcraft nineteen hundred, jet Stream thirty one, DHC
Speaker 1: six twin Otter and embryor EMB ten Bandrante. Smaller airliners
Speaker 1: include the single engine turboprops like the Cesna Caravan and
Speaker 1: Palladis PC twelve or twin piston powered aircraft made by Cessna, Piper, Britten,
Speaker 1: Norman and Beachcraft. They often lack lavatories, stand up cabins,
Speaker 1: pressurization galleys, overhead storage bins, reclining seeds, or a flight
Speaker 1: attendant