A Short History of the Jet Airliner Quiz

Answer: De Havilland DH 106 Comet

The first Comet 1 prototype flew on 27 July 1949 making it the first jet airliner to fly (though "jet airliner" as a term was not used at this time). On 2 May 1952, BOAC flew the first jet airliner flight from London to Johannesburg in five stops with a total travel time of 21 hr 20 minutes which was half as fast again as the fastest piston types such as the Douglas DC6 took to cover this route. Looking remarkably like a contemporary jet airliner of the 21st century and being about the size of a Boeing 737-100, the plane carried four in the cockpit (two pilots. a navigator and an engineer).

The original BOAC configuration was 9 rows of four passengers seats with a 45 inch pitch. (Contemporary economy class is typically 29 to 32 inches [74 to 81 cm]).

The Comets can be differentiated from other subsequent jet airliner by their four engines "buried" in the wings and its square windows. These windows were the source of of two fatal crashes in 1954 when Comets started falling apart in mid-air. Metal fatigue near the window joins were responsible and all airliners were grounded.

More prototypes were developed. A new model needed to be developed. The new Comet 4 first flew on 27 April 1958 and received its airworthy certificate five months later. A total of 114 were delivered with the last Comet 4 being retired in 1997. The other planes mentioned were all early jet airliners though the Avro C102 Jetliner from Canada never made it to production.

Answer: Boeing 707

The Boeing 707 was not the first jet airliner but it was considered the first jet to be commercially successful. First flown commercially in 1958, by Pan-Am, its fuselage was the basis of subsequent 720, 727, 737, and 757 models. It was distinguished by four podded turbojets that hung below the wings.

It was a narrow body plane designed for trans-Atlantic flights. It was considerably faster than that of its slightly earlier British counterpart, the Comet but the Douglas (later McDonnell Douglas) DC-8 was a strong competitor when released a year later.

Whilst the 707 was a narrow body jet it could still seat six abreast comfortably. A total of 865 planes were produced between 1957 and 1979. The Tupolev Tu-104 was an early Russian jet airliner that whilst the sixth type to fly, it was the second to be used in regular service, being introduced in 1956.

Answer: Douglas DC9

The first generation jet airliners had four engines, so to build a smaller plane one motor was dropped: An engine was added to each wing or rear fuselage and the third was built into the base of the tail-fin. Because of this engine placement, many of the variants had a T-tail so the horizontal fins, normally on the rear of the fuselage, were out of the way of airflow from the jet engines (The engines themselves changed from turbojets to the more efficient turbofans). The most common planes of the time were Boeing 727, Tupolev Tu-154 and Hawker Siddeley HS 121 Trident, as well as the larger Douglas DC10 and Lockheed TriStar which came slightly later and were wide body jets. The large volume seller, Douglas DC-9 (pictured) was the main exception. While this jet airliner retained the T tail-fin configuration, it only had two engines, one mounted either side of the fuselage. This model morphed into the later McDonnell Douglas 80 series. When McDonnell Douglas was taken over by Boeing in August 1997, Boeing continued the development of this model to give the airline a 100 seat jet airliner, a notable omission in its model range at the time This was the Boeing 717.

Other second generation jet airliners included the British Aircraft Corporation One-Eleven and the French Sud Aviation Caravelle (which was the first second generation plane to fly), both of which had twin engines.

While the tri-engined group of airliners had significant fuel inefficiencies over the the quad-engined models, this type of plane gave way to the twin engined models that came online a few years later.

Answer: Boeing 737

McDonnell Douglas DC-10 (McDonnell Aircraft Corporation, a mainly military aircraft supplier and Douglas Aircraft Company merged in 1967) and the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar (pictured), were perhaps too close in design. Both planes were long haul tri-jets that could carry 350 passengers. The TriStar was technologically more advanced but it took longer to get on the market. the two models split the market forcing both to be unable to compete with Boeing and the new Airbus company.

In 1967, Airbus were a consortium of British, French and German Aircraft manufacturers, that banded together to compete with Boeing and Douglas (The British withdrew early in the negotiation process). The plans were to build a 300 seat, wide-body twin-engined jet airliner. The plans were down-scaled to produce a 250 seat plane which first flew in 1972 and brought into service with Air France in 1974. This established Airbus as a major player in the global airline manufacturing industry.

The Boeing 737 is a narrow body airliner.

Answer: True

The Jumbo Jet, the Boeing 747, revolutionised air travel. Whilst the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC8 brought long range air travel to the average citizen, the introduction of the 747 with cost efficiencies from carrying more people per flight meant that the cost of long distance air travel was more affordable for the man in the street. The plane could carry up to 660 passengers in a one class configuration (3-4-3 on the lower deck, 2-3-2 on the upper) but the planes were more likely to be fitted out with a three class or two class configuration where the passenger numbers were 416 and 524 respectively.

The photo shows the first Qantas 747 now housed, disabled, at Longreach airport in western Queensland. This town is the spiritual home of Qantas. There was some nervousness about its final landing there as the runway was both too narrow and too short. Visitors approaching the town from the south do not recognise the red tail which dominates the flat skyline and U.S. Visible from 40 km out from the town.

Answer: Great Britain and France

The Concorde was a joint venture by Sud Aviation (later Aerospatiale) and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). It flew commercially between 1976 and 2003 with a total of 20 being built. (The Soviets also had a supersonic airline Tupolev Tu-144, which, while developed about the same time, only flew passengers between 1977 and 1978).

The Concorde could fly at just over Mach 2 or 215% faster than other commercial jet airliners. British Airways and Air France were the only two airlines that flew the Concorde.

Despite the appeal of supersonic transport and the willingness for passengers to pay a premium to fly at such fast speeds, the design of the aircraft meant that passenger comfort was compromised and the aircraft could only seat 114 (on average) in a 2-2 configuration in rather cramped confines.

The Concorde, ironically, was the last commercial airliner that required a third officer - the flight engineer. There were many distinct design features that made the Concorde iconic, perhaps the most noticeable was the delta wing design and the droop nose for landing.

The 9/11 bombings caused a downturn in aircraft boardings, the cancellation of its maintenance program by Airbus and its first crash in 2001, caused the supersonic program to cease in 2003.

Answer: Boeing 737 and Airbus 320 family

The Boeing 737 was a short to medium-range twin-jet narrow-body airliner which was originally developed as a smaller, lower-cost twin-engine airliner derived from the 707 and 727 to supplement the model range in 1967. The original capacity was 85 passengers (but at six abreast - competitors were at five abreast) but soon after launch, United Airlines ordered 40 as long as extra seating could be added. A 1.02m section was added behind the wing and a 0.91m section in front of the wing. This was designated the 200 series (the original series retrospectively was known as the 100 series). This modular approach resulted in longer variants being available (300, 400 and 500 Series). This increased capacity to 188 passenger for a 400 series the largest variant. By this time the 737 seating capacity was almost the same as the other narrow body Boeing airliner, the 757. In 1997 the Next Generation (600, 700, 800, 900 Series) was introduced to start replacing the now 20+ year old 737 "Classics" and to compete better with the Airbus A320 family. With the introduction of the first 737-900ER in 2006, seating for 220 passengers was possible and this plane met the capacity of the now discontinued Boeing 757 and was able to compete directly with the Airbus A321.

After the success of the Airbus A300 wide body series, Airbus concentrated on a narrow body jet airliner that would compete head on with the Boeing 737. In 1988, Air France launched the A320 which could carry 150 passengers. The stretched version, the 321, was launched in 1994 and could carry 200 passengers (in two classes). Shorter version, the A319 in 1996 and the even shorter A318, launched in 2003 could carry 124 and 107 passengers respectively in a 2 class setting configuration.

Answer: Bombardier Dash 8

With the advent of the hub and spoke system of flying, where aircraft would fly to major hubs, especially in the US, Australia and Canada, and then larger planes would fly between hubs, meant there was a need for smaller "regional" jets to act as feeder planes.

These routes were the province of the turboprop but the regional jet airliner (50-100 seats) had efficiencies over these turboprops. The major manufacturers were Canada's Bombardier Canadair Regional Jet and Brazil's Embraer ERJ family. Both featured twin rear fuselage mounted engines and four (2-2) abreast seating. Different variants seated up to 100 passengers.These two companies' success resulted in the demise of the Fokker 100, the Dutch company's last remaining model.

This 100 seat jet was squeezed by the smaller 737s/A320 models on one side and the regional jets on the other.

The CRJ/ERJ also resulted in killing off the BAe 146 line, and the Fairchild Dornier series. Turboprops still have a place on short routes. The 2001 photo shows a Bombardier Dash 8-200 which flew between Cairns and Thursday Island in Australia which was replaced by a Dash 8-Q400 in 2009.

Answer: The A380 can fly 50% as far again as the 747

The main obvious difference between the two jet airliners is that the Airbus has a double deck that runs the entire length of the plane as opposed to the 747 where the upper deck is only a fraction of the length of its length. this translates to about 40% more space in the A380.

This means that seating arrangements of the two planes in a respective three class/2 class/1 class configuration are: A380 525/635/853; 747 416/524/660. Both have similar ranges. The airbus at 8500 nautical miles, the 747 150 miles less. Both cruise around Mach 0.85-0.855. Runways needed to be lengthened at some airport and terminal facilities needed to be modified to allow the larger plane to utilise these airports.

Answer: Yes

The premise of the 787 Dreamliner was to be 20% more fuel efficient than its predecessor, the 767 though the 767 continued to be manufactured after the 787 was released. Some of the ways it achieved this was through use of composite materials in its construction including carbon fibre, titanium and aluminium instead of steel.

The efficiencies allow longer ranges than normal. A Dreamliner could fly non-stop, Perth to London, or Seattle to Dhaka.