Wasn't it Wien and United that kept Engineers in 737-200s into the 70s and 80s respectively?

 

Tell us your story.

The X-15 program was amazing, but, what was even more amazing was that Kelly Johnson was telling them in three years operational fighters would exceed the performance of the X-15. Everyone thought Johnson was nuts. Of course, only Johnson and a few others knew about the then secret A-12 / SR-71. (not that the A-12 got close to the X-15's absolute altitude and speed, but from 70,000 to 85,000 it operated at a higher IAS)

My favorite X-15 stories had to be the flights where they lost their APUs and lost telemetry at Mach 3+ ... the pilots sometimes diverted ... but to where? The Air Force could only fly around looking for their pilot and aircraft.

The thermodynamisist who worked for Johnson has been out in Reno for the last 15 to 20 years making those things the fastest prop driven aircraft on the planet by removing cooling drag.

Again, these people tend to be explorers, not historians. I hope someone gets that guy's life's story down while it is possible.

 

Huh?

Flying the Concorde for who?

Braniff had a few Concorde pilots running around who ended up with other airlines in the US.

The highest time F14 driver in the World is a Captain at Delta. He worked production flight test for Grumman and used to take off and intercept the Concorde coming across the Atlantic to test the F14's.

 

We're talking about Joe Patroni. See pictures above.

 

The 737-800 needs a flight engineer to manage the temp controls.

The MD88 requires more engineers than the space shuttle to keep it running. American & Delta home schools their engineers and calls them First Officers. A good FO knows how to open bleed valves as skillfully as any FE ever managed the mixture and turbosupercharger on a 2800. Ground telemetry is analysed by TRACON; course and attitude corrections are then radio'd to those intrepid test pilots who fly that thing on the ragged edge of controlled flight until it's limited endurance is exhausted and it is recovered. Then the tiles and turbomuffleadiator bearings are lubed and it is sent back on a return trajectory. Like the X-15, the aerodynamic flight controls lose effectiveness near apogee and shock waves do unexpected things. Neither aircraft has brakes, but skids well.

There's a reason McDonnell Douglas' corporate emblem was a lawn dart. Have you seen our unit patch?

 

I don't know about Wien, but United certainly did, and I believe Western also had 737 S/Os.

 

Would that be Hollywood? If it is, great guy.

 

I think Wien ended up going on strike over it in the late 70s.

 

You know the guy. Looks remarkably like George Kennedy. Only guy to ever fly a Concorde inverted while firing a flare gun out the side window at mach 2 to decoy the missle chasing him.

See?



They made a movie about it. Maybe you've seen it?

 

He must have trained in the MD88. Skillz