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See this locomotive in the video here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3oxDV2lg1s
Having just worked the "Cumbrian Mountaineer" over Shap, preserved London, Midland & Scottish Railway Princess Royal 6201 'Princess Elizabeth' readies itself for departure with empty stock bound for the adjacent sidings on what was her last railtour before overhaul.
The Princess Royal class were a set of 13 4-6-2 Pacific locomotives designed by William Stanier and built at Crewe Works between 1933 and 1935 to be the prime motive power on the West Coast Mainline between London Euston, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow, including the famous Royal Scot premier express service. At first, two prototypical locomotives were built in 1933, followed by 11 production locomotives in 1935. These were later complimented by a fleet of 38 Coronation Pacific locomotives built between 1937 and 1948, which later went on to be arguably the most power steam locomotives ever built for the British Railway network.
One of the original prototypes however was retained for use as a testbed for a new Turbine Locomotive project to help improve the efficiency of the engines, later being unofficially dubbed 'Turbomotive'. The engine was fitted with turbines instead of cylinders, with the forward turbine containing 18 rows of blading, resulting in an output of 2,400hp, corresponding to running at 62 mph (100 km/h). The turbine was designed to operate into a maximum back-pressure of 2 psi, allowing a conventional double blast-pipe to provide the boiler draught, and eliminating draught fans, which always seemed to give a disproportionate amount of trouble.
The reverse turbine had 4 rows of blades. It was engaged by a dog clutch, activated when the reverser lever being set to "0". This was originally steam-operated by a small piston and cylinder. This locomotive was later rebuilt as a conventional classmate in 1952, using new mainframes and a spare set of cylinders from one of the Coronation Pacifics, and was numbered 46202, later to be named 'Princess Anne'.
6201, LMS lot number 99, was built at Crewe for the sum of £11,675 (£685,000 today) and named Princess Elizabeth, after the then Duke of York’s eldest daughter, currently our Queen Elizabeth II, leaving the works on 3rd November 1933.
Throughout the years the Princess Royal's continued to ply their trade on the West Coast services, but the years of World War II took their toll on the fleet. The beautiful Crimson Lake was replaced by Wartime Black, and the prestige manner that these locomotives had been accustomed to was stripped away as the railways were rationalised as part of the war effort. Work hours increased, and maintenance turns reduced, meaning these engines were being forced to the very limit of their design to keep Britain moving.
With the end of the war in 1945 the workload began to decrease, but the railways had paid the price. The beauty and lavish luxury of the pre-war companies had been stripped and would never return, with all of Britain's main railway companies now almost bankrupt and working a fleet of very tired engines on a poorly maintained railway network. In 1948 the Labour Government nationalised these companies to create British Railways, hoping to modernise the network and rebuild the overworked system.
The Princess Royals and their more powerful sisters the Coronation Pacifics continued to work hard as the implementation of diesels gathered pace. Early diesels however were underpowered and suffered heavily from reliability issues, meaning on many occasions the steam locomotives that they intended to replace actually came to their rescue!
It was not all plain sailing though for the Princess Royals in the 1950's, as this decade was littered with many fatal accidents. On 21 September 1951, locomotive No.46207 Princess Arthur of Connaught was hauling an express passenger train that was derailed at Weedon, Northamptonshire due to a defective front bogie on the locomotive, resulting in the deaths of 15 people and the injury of 35.
This was followed a year later by what would turn out to be the worst rail accident in the whole of British history. On 8 October 1952, an express passenger train hauled by Coronation Class, 46242 'City of Glasgow' overran signals on a train from Perth to London Euston, striking the rear of a stopped Tring to Euston commuter train at Harrow and Wealdstone station in North London. The ensuing wreckage was then struck by a northbound Liverpool express, hauled by Jubilee Class 45637 'Windward Islands', and recently rebuilt ex-Turbomotive Princess Royal 46202 'Princess Anne', which had only entered service two months earlier. In the chaos that followed, a total of 112 people were killed and 340 were injured, with 46202 obliterated in the accident, the first and only member of the class to be lost in an accident.
The late 50's however began to see the end of these engines as good, reliable diesels began to be introduced to replace them, followed closely by electric traction on the West Coast Mainline out of Euston. In 1961 the first members of the class were withdrawn from service, including 6201, which was placed in store in March 1961, but returned to service in May of that year due to poor diesel reliability.
As more diesels were delivered, in October of the same year 6201 was again placed into storage at Carlisle Kingmoor. However, again in January 1962 6201 was returned to traffic to cover for diesel failures and continued to work until September 1962 where it was once again placed into storage. It was subsequently withdrawn by BR in October 1962 and purchased by Roger Bell. The last of the locomotives to be withdrawn was class premier and original prototype number 62000 'The Princess Royal', which was withdrawn in November 1962 and subsequently scrapped. In all, only two locomotives were preserved, number 6203 'Princess Margaret Rose' and 6201 'Princess Elizabeth'.
46201 was bought by the then Princess Elizabeth Locomotive Society straight from BR service when withdrawn in 1962. Initially kept at the Dowty Railway Preservation Society's premises at Ashchurch in Gloucestershire, and then subsequently at the Bulmers Railway Centre in Hereford. When the Bulmers Centre closed in the 1990s, the loco moved to the East Lancashire Railway. Since April 2009 it has been based at the Crewe Heritage Centre. On 3 June 2012, Princess Elizabeth's whistle signalled the start of the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant while the locomotive was standing on Battersea Railway Bridge. The Queen was made aware of the locomotive and waved to the crew on the footplate. On 11 July 2012 Princess Elizabeth hauled the Royal Train from Newport to Hereford and again from Worcester to Oxford as part of the Diamond Jubilee Tour. 6201 was withdrawn from service in July 2012 for a piston and valve examination at the Tyseley Locomotive Works and after repairs, she returned to service on 17 November hauling the "Cumbrian Mountaineer" from Carnforth to Carlisle. She was withdrawn for overhaul at the end of December 2012 having completed her longest period of operation in preservation.
Bladerunner and HMS Archer with Tower Bridge in the background during trials in the river Thames. Picture: POA(Phot) Owen Cooban
Today the UK’s Maritime Autonomy Surface Testbed (MAST), an unmanned surface vessel (USV) based on the innovative BLADERUNNER hull shape, has undergone trials in the Tidal Thames.
MAST is being developed by Portchester-based ASV Ltd, under research funding from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), providing a testbed to host a range of new technologies which allows the Ministry of Defence to test and evolve tactics for employing maritime autonomous systems.
The 32ft MAST is one of over 40 Autonomous Systems taking part in Unmanned Warrior 2016 this autumn, off West Wales and NW Scotland and the Western Isles.
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A Florida East Coast locomotive pulls into the rail yard at NASA's Kennedy Space Center carrying an electronic testbed version of a U.S. Navy Trident D5 submarine-launched ballistic missile. The inert missile will be used to evaluate the new interactive test facility at the Naval Ordnance Test Unit, or NOTU, located at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station adjacent to the space center. The space center, which has transformed into a multi-user spaceport servicing numerous launch vehicles, spacecraft and companies, retains numerous transportation hubs including the railway system that connects the center to the Florida mainland and the rest of the Florida East Coast railroad network. Photo credit: Bill White
Raytheon Company "Voodoo One" 727-223 (N289MT) Experimental Testbed aircraft departing LAX from Runway 25R. (03/16/16)
Another rare vehicle in the Reading Buses fleet, Alexander Dennis E40D hybrid 232 (SN16 OGT) was new in 2013 as an AD/BAE Systems testbed vehicle for the Euro 6 regulations. It remained unregistered until three years later, when it passed to the municipal for use in the generic all-routes fleet, and is pictured in Tilehurst on 25 January 2018.
(The following is a completely fictional history!)
By 1982, the deficiences of the SA-77C Wildfire program were rapidly becoming apparent, and so the FIRAF began looking at a replacement. To preserve the FIR’s self-sufficiency and desire for armament sources beyond the United States, Minister of Defense Akela Canis authorized Intelani Aeronautics to begin designing a replacement for the Wildfire in strict secrecy. Emphasis was placed on affordability and manueverability above all other aspects of the new design. Like the SA-77C, it would be a pure fighter rather than a multirole aircraft.
The design team decided to start from scratch, and numerous ideas were put on the table. This included a license-built, simplified F-16A (based on the unsuccessful F-16/79 proposal), resurrecting the Northrop YF-17 Cobra (which had provided the prototype for the F/A-18 Hornet), and essentially a scaled-down version of the Wildfire with variable-sweep wings. The proposal that was liked the most was to design something that would be “radical and practicable,” and centered around the research being made by Grumman Aerospace on forward-swept wing designs. The forward swept wing (FSW) would offer unparalleled (at the time) manueverability, excellent low-speed handling characteristics, and high-Alpha capability.
With the permission of Canis, IA contacted Grumman and offered to partner with them in the design of a testbed for the FSW design, which would become the X-29, in August 1983. The X-29 had already begun design work funded by DARPA, and Intelani Aeronautics’ involvement in the design was officially “observer only,” and the fact that much of the research funding came from IA was kept secret.
In the interests of speed and cost, the X-29 prototypes were adapted from existing F-5A Freedom Fighter airframes, retaining the forward fuselage and nose landing gear of the type, with main landing gear and control surface actuators of the F-16A. IA, with a better knowledge of composites than Grumman, provided the wings. The X-29 first flew in December 1984.
By this time, the Third World War had begun, and a crash program was started to design a military version of the X-29, designated XF-31 Stingray. The second X-29 was designed with a strengthened wing to simulate the addition of hardpoints and first flew in March 1985. By this time, the third X-29 prototype was already being reworked into the first XF-31.
Though the X-29 performed well in all respects, Intelani Aeronautics made some improvements to the design. The wing was made slightly larger with more area, while the forward fuselage was made slightly longer and deeper to accommodate the APG-65 radar of the F-16A. A gatling gun setup similar to that of the F/A-18 was proposed, but ultimately rejected in favor of two M39A2 20mm cannon; this was because the F-5 fuselage that the XF-31 was adapted was easily fitted with the M39s and FIRAF pilots were already more used to the cannon armament of the SA-77C and A-4ES. The analog cockpit of the X-29/F-5A was revised to include three multifunction displays, and, taking advantage of combat reports from Europe, an undernose Television Camera System (TCS), adapted from the F-14A+ Tomcat, was added underneath the nose. Because of weight distribution, the decision was made to place the TCS behind the forward landing gear rather than in front of it.
Wingtip and underwing fuselage hardpoints were added (the fuselage being too narrow for an underfuselage hardpoint), with the inner pylons “plumbed” for drop tanks. Though the XF-31 was cleared for unguided rocket pods and bombs, and software included for air-to-ground missions, the Stingray was meant to be a pure fighter first and foremost. For the same reason, the canopy was revised as a bubble canopy and the rear fuselage slightly cut down from the X-29, giving better all-around visibility, though not as good as the F-16’s.
The most radical change to the X-29 design was the rear fuselage. While it retained the long rear-leading edge extensions (RLEX) of the X-29, a forked twin-tail configuration was adapted for better handling. It was also planned to equip the XF-31 with two engines instead of one, but in the interests of speed the X-29’s single F404 powerplant was retained. The “canoe” that the X-29’s tail was mounted on was retained and used to hold a Holly Stinger ECM suite, essentially equipping the Stingray with internal ECM equivalent to the ALQ-119 pods used over wartime Europe. It was also a “no-frills” aircraft, designed to be built purely for the air superiority role in a hurry at a reasonable price; indeed, the flyaway cost of the Stingray was only $6.2 million per aircraft, half that of the F-16. Because of the speed required to get the aircraft into production, no two-seat conversion trainer F-31 was built.
For all the design changes, the XF-31 first flew in May 1985. Again, it was found to be generally a good design, and not as difficult to fly as first thought; the forward swept wing made it virtually impossible to stall, and it was found to be controllable even at an angle of attack of 67 degrees. The heavier nose and twin tails caused some airflow problems, and so the canards were raised a foot higher than those on the XF-31 and made fully controllable; pilots could angle the canards completely down and drop their airspeed precipitously, though this made the Stingray very difficult to control. Strakes were added to the nose (similar to that of the IAI Kfir) to improve longitudinal stability.
Production of the standard F-31A was already begun before testing of the XF-31 prototype was complete, and the first production aircraft was rolled out in August 1985. This was done without a formal ceremony to keep the design secret, and the first three F-31As were intended purely for research; these were flown against captured MiG-21s and MiG-23s to develop tactics. Instrumental in this development was Akela Canis Jr., the top-ranked intelani ace, who test-flew the Stingray in October 1985 and proclaimed the design “superb.” The formal announcement of the F-31A was made in November, by which time six were already in Europe with the 51st Fighter Squadron.
The Stingray saw its first combat in December, and pilots reported that Soviet pilots were obviously stunned by the radical design being operational. These combat trials also revealed a number of small technical problems, mainly with the guns and TCS system; it also showed the Stingray’s Achilles heel, though one that had been anticipated: the design was very short-ranged compared to other fighters, and was not truly suited for all-weather operations over Europe. Nonetheless, the design was a huge leap forward over the SA-77C and A-4ES, and was placed in full production with priority over all other weapons for the FIR armed forces.
Akela Canis Jr. lobbied hard for his 1st Fighter Squadron to be reequipped with Stingrays, and got his wish in February 1986. Pairing the most manueverable fighter then in existence with some of the best-trained fighter pilots in the world proved to be a deadly combination, and “Polar” would go on to score an incredible 420 aerial kills in the Stingray between February 1986 and May 1987. Canis, in his memoirs, attributed this high number to a number of factors: the Stingray’s sudden appearance caught the Soviets by surprise and did not give them enough time to develop counter-tactics; the marked decrease in Soviet pilot quality by summer 1986, which meant poorly-trained pilots were going up against hardened veterans; the Stingray’s unmatched capability in the short-range turning dogfight—up to that point one of the Soviets’ best tactics against large, less manueverable fighters like the Wildfire, F-4, and F-15. This, in Canis’ words, gave Polar the “perfect storm” they needed to achieve a murderous kill ratio, fully ten percent of all NATO kills of the war.
The heavy use of composites in the Stingray also made it a very resilient aircraft; Canis returned to base with an entire wingtip missing, while Matthew White, another Polar ace, collided with a flagpole on a strafing mission and managed to return home despite a huge rent in the lower fuselage.
The Stingray proved wildly popular, and by the end of the war, four squadrons were equipped with them. It was thought that as many as twenty squadrons might be reequipped with Stingrays, but postwar cuts and the F-31A’s shortcomings proved to limit their numbers. While the Stingray had proven to be arguably the best fighter of the Third World War, it was nonetheless hampered by a lack of range and lack of multirole capability.
F-31As were committed to Operation Desert Shield/Storm, using oversize ferry tanks to improve their range. Once more, put into an environment where they excelled, the Stingray reigned supreme, scoring 32 kills, nearly half of all Coalition aerial victories of the war.
Though outnumbered by F-15s and F-16s in FIRAF service, the F-31C Stingray remains an important part of the FIRAF and a much-sought after assignment. 72 Stingrays are in service with the FIRAF. These aircraft are slated to be replaced beginning in 2015, possibly by F-32A Mantas or F-35A Lightnings.
Completely made-up history aside, I got the idea of equipping my literary characters and fantasy air force with FSW fighters from my childhood, when one of my favorite toys was the GI Joe X-30 Conquest. Dad and I collaborated on the F-31 design, with Dad using the 1/48 scale Hasegawa X-29 kit. He used F-18 tails for the twin tails of the Stingray design, moved the canards to the top of the intakes, added the guns to the nose, and some assorted bumps and such for ECM. (There is a TCS taken from a F-14B kit, but it can't be seen from this angle.) Then hardpoints were added under the wings and on the wingtips, with two drop tanks, two AIM-120 AMRAAMs, and two AIM-9L Sidewinders. Most decals were taken from a F-16 sheet, with JASDF hinomarus used for the "Free Intelani Air Force" roundels; a F-15 sheet supplied both the bear and the blue/white starburst for the tail logo (the bear is from a JASDF F-15 unit, while the starburst is from the 318th FIS from McChord AFB, WA). The whole thing was painted in F-16 style camouflage.
The end result was a great looking kitbash, and it was our favorite collaboration. I ran the design by some aviation designers, and they said it was a viable design--though the tails should be moved down to the ends of the RLEXs, as the split tail doesn't offer any benefits to aerodynamics as placed. I was interested to see that the Iranian F-5 Shahegh variant uses a similar tail configuration...
This little guy has been on my shelf for about 5 months, finally decided to show it to the world! An upgrade to Ragnar Skallagrim's custom Hussar the "Huginn".
The experimental Wight pack is an attempt by Valhallan Industries to testbed a concept. Have a frame reap the benefits of the wonder element aurachalcum without having to replace critical frame systems as it is costly and time consuming.
In this example, the Huginn is outfitted with small aura generators which allow it to power a new thruster array, a pair of fire linked pulse vulcans, and some additional missiles. Most notably is the Huginn's new Variable Response Beam Emission Weapon System (VRBEWS for short). This "swiss army knife" weapon has multiple configurations for quick adaptability to tactical needs. A rifle for long range combat, a beam saber for CQC, and a variety of polearm type weapons.
Ragnar's pilot testing of these new applications has proven quite successful. Though there are no plans to mass produce the costly prototype equipment. Valhallan Industries is quick at work to streamline the technology.
Honeywell is committed to developing cutting edge technologies and products for its commercial, defense and business aviation products, so they invested in a new Boeing 757 aircraft test platform for developing new engines and APUs, avionics, flight controls and radar technologies. By utilizing a 757 especially configured as a flying testbed, Honeywell is flight testing a tool chest of new technologies for future use and retrofit opportunities to better serve their global customers.
1983 - Delivered to Eastern Airlines (N504EA)
1991 - Withdrawn from use and stored at McCarran Field, Las Vegas, Nevada
1994 - Bought by Airfleet Credit Corporation
1995 - Leased to Airtours
1995 - Registered to Airtours International (G-JALC)
1997 - During climb after take-off from London/Gatwick the left main gear hydraulic downlock hose failed and the left system fluid was lost. The aircraft returned to the airport for an overweight landing. An inadequate briefing was conducted for the approach, and on touchdown the left dump spoilers did not deploy automatically and were not manually deployed. Inadequate rudder was applied to keep the aircraft straight on the runway, and it veered off the right side onto the grass. After stopping smoke was seen from the left main wheels (hydraulic fluid deposited on brake units). The aircraft was evacuated, on board nine crew and 184 passengers.
1999 - Aborted take-off at Glasgow while operating flight AIH975 to Tenerife due to engine problems, towed back to stand for investigation while the brakes cooled off.
2005 - Registered to Parkhead Leasing & Sales Ltd.
2005 - Bought by Honeywell International Inc. (N757HW)
2008 - Arrived in Phoenix with red cheatline and small 'Honeywell' titles
This Lincoln MKZ is an open connected and automated vehicle research platform, or open CAV, at the University of Michigan. It is an open testbed for academic and industry researchers to rapidly test self-driving and connected vehicle technologies at Mcity, a world-class proving ground for advanced mobility vehicles operated by U-M's Mobility Transformation Center. The Lincoln will be joined by two Kia Souls equipped as open CAVs in coming months.
Photo: Joseph Xu/Michigan Engineering Multimedia Content Producer, University of Michigan
Mechanical Engineer Michael Guerrero works on the Robot Brain Surgeon testbed in the NeuroEngineering Group at the Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California. Principal investigator Dr. Robert W. Mah states that potentially the simple robot will be able to feel brain structures better than any human surgeon, making slow, very precise movements during an operation. The brain surgery robot that may give surgeons finer control of surgical instruments during delicate brain operations is still under development.
Credit: NASA
Image Number: ACD97-0063-2
Date: June 2, 1997
The ubiquitous Hercules has been around now for some 60 years and here two very different examples sit side by side outside the Marshalls Aerospace facility at Teversham Airport.
Behind is a relatively new C-130J-30 model of the Royal Danish Air Force, B-537 - in for some attention there.
The J model is a much different animal to the original 'Herc', featuring 'glass' cockpit, 6 bladed props and it flies higher, faster and further and is currently replacing older models of the same design with Air Arms around the world.
The other Hercules airframe looking somewhat forlorn has a much richer history being the former military airframe, XV208.
Delivered to the Royal Air Force back in the late 1960's, she served around the globe in the standard transport mode until being identified for use with the Royal Air Force Meteorological Flight.
Under this regime, the nose radar was repositioned into a special pod mounted above the cockpit and a huge 22 foot long probe was added to the nose to allow readings to be taken where the airflow was completely undisturbed by the airframe.
Inside, a specialist fit science lab was installed where the meteorologists and scientists would monitor and gather weather data from a number of on-board sensors and along with a similarly modified Canberra for hi-altitude work, '208' performed this task from her Farnborough base.
When the RAE moved out of Farnborough she relocated to Boscombe Down and when the 'Met Flight' was eventually disbanded, she languished there with her future uncertain.
Then, after several years she was re-furbished and flown to Cambridge where her specialist equipment was removed along with the nose-mounted 'Barbers Pole' and her radar re-installed in the nose.
As such she then became the Airbus A-400M Atlas engine testbed with one of this new transport's engine and huge 8 bladed propellor installed.
Once that test programme had been fully completed she was finally withdrawn from service and with all her engines and the outer wings removed she now sits awaiting the ultimate fate.
A sad end to a very capable Old Lady!
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c/n 01-04? At the MAKS Airshow at Zhukovsky Airport, Moscow, Russia. Avionics testbed aircraft. 335 was its Paris Airshow code.
Warren and I toured the National Ignition Facility (nuclear fusion testbed) nestled in the Lawrence Livermore National Labs today, the origin of the hydrogen bomb and some serious spook activity these days. I had to leave all electronics behind and get weighed before entering — strangely disarming. The guards were festooned with body gear that I had never seen before, all in black.
On the left is Ed Moses, the mastermind of this massive project to save the Earth. He is confident that they will achieve ignition and net energy gain in 2010. The long-term goal is a 100-300x fusion energy multiple on laser energy input.
The sights put sci-fi movies to shame. 192 lasers 100x as powerful as any predecessor converge to ignite a pellet of solid hydrogen, which collapses to helium, as in the sun, releasing a massive amount of energy (neutrons and x-rays)… with a nod to E=MC^2.
For 20 nanoseconds, the lasers deliver 500x the power of the entire U.S. power grid. The pellet reaches 3 million degrees Celsius.
They even rely on perfect crystals – grown to the size of oil barrels – for non-linear optics (harmonic frequency shifting from infrared). The rectangular lenses are huge, and atomically smooth on the surface, and precisely thick to 1/100th the wavelength of light.
Oh, and to watch it, they built an x-ray camera clicking at an impressive 50 billion fps.
Each of the 48 quad-pack lasers looks like scaled up versions of the fiber optic transceivers used in telecom networks. It was like a Lost in Space episode where we were shrunk to circuit-size midgets left to marvel at the world we had created.
The DOD requested a large door on the side of the target chamber so they can test their satellites for exothermic events (e.g., if North Korea set off a nuke in space, it could have dramatic effect).
While I winced several times that I didn’t have my 16mm lens with me, they gave me a great photo book of the project.
After the loss of the CX-HLS USAF contract to Lockheed in 1965 (in what would become the C-5 Galaxy), Boeing, in conjunction with Pan American Airways, began studying a large passenger aircraft twice the size of the 707-320 and loosely based on the CX-HLS proposal. Various fuselage designs were considered until it was settled on a wide, single-deck type. However, concern that the proposed 747 would soon be superseded by supersonic airliners and would be relegated to hauling freight led Boeing to move the cockpit above the main fuselage, creating the 747’s distinctive bulge. The 747 was also the first airliner to use high-bypass turbofans and had a much higher emphasis on redundant systems. An entirely new plant at Renton, WA, USA had to be built just to assemble the huge aircraft, and it had to be done quickly, as Boeing had promised the design to Pan Am in only four years. Development was relatively smooth and the 747-100 first flew in February 1969, entering revenue service in January 1970.
Because of the energy crisis of the early 1970s, sales of the behemoth 747 were at first slow, but then picked up with the introduction of the heavier and more powerful 747-200. After that, the 747 was every bit as successful as its predecessors. Later variants include the 747-300 (with a stretched upper deck), the 747-400 (with more fuel efficiency and range due to winglets, and a two-man “glass” cockpit), and the 747-800 (which is longer, more economic, and and quieter than earlier 747 variants). The 747, often referred to simply as the “jumbo jet,” is credited with bringing mass aerial transport finally within the reach of all but the most poor people.
I was not expecting to see a 747 at the Pima Air and Space Museum, much less an old 747-100. Nonetheless, here is N747GE, parked at one of the outlying hangars on what I presume is museum property (given the other aircraft around the hangar).
N747GE was built as the 25th 747 to come off the production line, and delivered to Pan American as N744PA. It served with Pan Am until the airline's demise in 1991, and was sold to General Electric in 1992. GE needed an engine testbed, so N747GE had most of the interior removed, the left wing strengthened to carry larger engines, and the tail strengthened as well. From 1992 until 2017, it tested most of the new engines fitted to airliners, including the 777, 787, the 747-8, the A380, 737MAX, and A320neo.
By 2010, N747GE was starting to get long in the tooth, so a former Japan Air Lines 747-400 was acquired by GE to supplement and eventually replace the older 747-100. In 2017, N747GE was finally retired--the oldest 747 still flying at the time.
Given its immaculate appearance and the fact that museum visitors can't get close to it, I assumed that N747GE was still operational, but that is no longer the case. It will be donated for display at Pima, where it will be welcome alongside the museum's 727, 737, 777 and 787.
ex Thunderbird Aviation Douglas ERA-3B Skywarrior 142668/ N163TB heads a line-up of similar
ex test-bed airframes including TA-3B Skywarrior 144856/N160TB named 'Rebbeca'.
These 'Whales' as they were known were ex United States Navy and subsequently operated by Hughes and Thunderbird and here they were all sitting in the desert sun awaiting their fate at Mojave Airport, Ca
18th October 1996
Sad to think most eventually succumbed to the scrapman!
35mm transparency scanned with a Plustek 7600i Ai film and neg scanner, photo-shop and then Neat Image
I love tweaking these two. They're great basic frames, and a good testbed for ideas. I recently rebuilt their legs and backpacks, and designed new, more size-appropriate weapons for them.
Had to go across to Dodworth Coop yesterday to get something for dinner and checking Realtime trains saw that the second prototype sprinter unit was working the Huddersfield to Sheffield service and as it's 39 years since I got a photo of it decided that it would be a good opportunity.
Left view taken on 1st October 1985 shows the unit as built waiting departure from Derby with the 1525 to Crewe, the right hand view shows the same unit depating from Dodworth on the 24th January 2024 with 2B19 the 1412 Huddersfield to Sheffield.
Two prototype 150 units were built at York in 1984 150001 was fitted with Cummins engines and Voith hydraulic transmission, and 150002 was fitted with Perkins (Rolls-Royce) engines and a fully automatic gearbox, 150002 proved to be the worse of the two for reliability, and was chosen for use as the testbed for the Class 158, being re-geared to a maximum speed of 90 mph (140 km/h) and fitted with Cummins engines and Voith transmission been reduced to a Two-Car reclassified and renumbered 154001 later becoming 154002 the third car was re-installed shortly before the unit was converted to a standard Class 150 in 1992 and given it's original number again, after service with Centro and GWR it found it's way to Northern and is still gouing strong after nearly 40 years.
Copyright © Keith Long - All rights reserved.
Airbus A220-300
[Bombardier Aerospace 'CSeries' CS300 (BD-500-1A11)]
MSN 55002
C-FFDO [Airbus S.A.S. livery]
C Series Aircraft Limited Partnership (CSALP)
Copyright © 2018 A380spotter. All rights reserved.
Through the viewfinder (rangefinder?) of the RF testbed - lo and behold, it works! Getting the vertical alignment right is a challenge, though. The rangefinder spot is usually in the center, but the camera was skewed off to the side in this photo.
c/n 17608/122. At Mojave. Used as an engine testbed. Leased from International Air Leases. New to Pan Am as N730PA in 1960. Converted to a freighter in 1970 and to Donaldson International Airways as G-AYXR in 1971. To British Midland Airways in 1975 and leased to a number of airlines. To International Air Leases as N37681 in 1980. To General Electric in 1983 and used as an engine testbed. Reregistered as N707GE in 1990. Scrapped at Mojave in 2003.
The Boeing YAL-1 Airborne Laser Testbed, (formerly Airborne Laser) weapons system now sits decommissioned at the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz. The YAL-1 was primarily designed as a missile defense system to destroy tactical ballistic missiles with an airborne laser system. (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Bennie J. Davis III)
F-18A "NASA 853" landing after a research flight at Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards AFB, Calif.
C-FETB - Boeing B-720-023B - Pratt & Whitney Canada Inc.
at CFB Trenton Airbase (YTR) on display within the National Air Force Museum
c/n 18.024 - built in 1960 for American Airlines -
operated by MEA between 1971 and 1985 as OD-AFQ -
operated by Pratt & Whitney Canada as a flying engine testbed between 1986 and 2010.
C-FETB was the 720 flying test bed operated by Pratt & Whitney Canada until 2010.
It was equipped to test a variety of engines, for example:
A large turbofan could take the place of the inside / inner engine underneath the right/starboard wing.
A small turbofan could be mounted on the right/starboard side of the forward fuselage.
A turboprop could be mounted in the nose.
The following engine types were tested on C-FETB:
- the International Aero Engines (IAE) V2500 turbofan
- the Pratt & Whitney Canada JT15D turbofan
- the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW300 turbofan
- the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW500 turbofan
- the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW600 turbofan
- the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 turboprop
- the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW100 turboprop
One of 154 model 720s manufactured by Boeing between 1959 and 1967, C-FETB was the single remaining operational 720 in the world. On May 9, 2012, the aircraft made its final flight, traveling from Saint-Hubert to CFB Trenton – the last flight ever of a 720. "FETB" as in "Flying Experimental Test Bed"
Eager to preserve this historically significant test bed, Pratt & Whitney Canada (PWC) and the Canada Aviation and Space Museum (CASM) came to an agreement that saw the 720 went on indefinite loan to the National Air Force Museum of Canada, in Trenton, Ontario.
Unfortunately the red colour is fading away quickly during the harsh Canadian conditions
The F-101 Voodoo was originally built as an escort fighter for USAF strategic bombers. Unfortunately for the Voodoo, the jet bombers coming on the line for the USAF--the B-47, B-52, and B-58--didn't require escorts. The F-101 was a good aircraft without a mission. The USAF began building the F-101A as a low-level strike fighter, because if there was one thing the Voodoo had, it was high speed at all altitudes. This led the USAF to consider: would the F-101 make a good tactical reconnaissance aircraft?
In response, McDonnell rebuilt two of the YF-101A prototypes as RF-101A testbeds. This replaced the fighter nose with a more "chisel" design that contained six cameras instead of radar and cannon. The RF-101A turned out to be a superb reconnaissance aircraft, and entered production on a limited basis. Further variants were developed from later Voodoo versions, namely the purpose-built RF-101C, which entered service in 1958.
The RF-101 gave the USAF its first supersonic reconnaissance aircraft, and largely replaced the RF-84F Thunderflash and RT-33A Shooting Star. Pilots liked its speed and responsiveness; it was capable of genuine aerobatics in the hands of a good pilot. RF-101s would first be used by the Republic of China Air Force (Taiwan), either flown by ROCAF or CIA pilots, over the Chinese mainland; the USAF's first combat usage would be the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The RF-101's dash speed was such that it was tough to intercept, though not impossible.
This was found to be true over Vietnam as well, where the RF-101 was the backbone of USAF tactical reconnaissance until the later years of the war. The Voodoo's speed at altitude made it impervious to flak, and even the MiG-21 could not keep up with it. However, the RF-101s often had to get down low to "get the pictures," and that meant that barrage flak could bring down Voodoos. SAMs were also a threat at higher altitudes. After losses began to mount, the RF-101s were camouflaged, which helped some, but also slightly lowered their top speed. 39 RF-101s were lost over Vietnam.
With the age of the aircraft beginning to tell, the Voodoo was gradually relegated to second-line units, replaced by the RF-4C Phantom II. Some soldiered on in Air National Guard units, but all the RF-101s were gone by 1979. A handful remain in museums.
Gila Bend, Arizona is the only place in the world where two RF-101s are on display, and both aircraft have remarkably similar histories. This is 56-0130, which entered service in 1965 with the 66th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing at RAF Upper Heyford, UK. In 1969, it was reassigned to the 363rd TRW at Shaw AFB, South Carolina, where the USAF began concentrating its remaining RF-101Cs before retiring them from active duty. It finished its career with the 188th TRG (Arkansas ANG) at Fort Smith, but only flew with that unit for less than a year before it was retired for good in 1970. It made its way to MASDC at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona in 1976, and was then donated to the town of Gila Bend for display. Why it and its "stablemate," 56-0112, ended up at Gila Bend is unknown, as the small USAF auxiliary field at the town never flew RF-101s.
Nonetheless, it is good to see that a few of these unique aircraft remain. 56-0130 is displayed on the south side of the airport entrance--Gila Bend's airport is tiny (there was no one there the day I visited in June 2020). The Arizona sun has faded some of its markings and it lacks engines (which would've been removed at MASDC), but otherwise, the dry air has preserved 56-0130 better than most.
Shortly after taking this picture, a F-16 from Tucson came over at high altitude. We watched him do some runs over the nearby Goldwater Air Force Range before he headed for home.
Honeywell Internationals 757 Test bed seen about to land on runway 8 at Sky Harbor. I took this photo from a parking lot at the end of runway 26. I got so lucky because I got to see British Airways flight 289 land from here, then right after this beautiful plane came on by. But because of British was still on the runway, the Honeywell aircraft had to abort the landing and went back around which is when I took this photo.
Honeywell International Boeing 757-225
N757HW // Cn 22194 // Ln 5
Former Airlines: Eastern Air Lines (N504EA); Airtours International Airways (G-JALC); MyTravel (G-JALC).