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Bomber Aircraft

Flight News On Military Aircrafts,Fleet Modernization The B787 Dreamliner Nightmare

The Air war with Japan during World War 11 forced United States Army Air Force planners to realize that they were going to need long range fighter escorts to fly to Japan with the B-29 bombers. In October 1943, the North American Aircraft design team began work on improving the design of the P-51 Mustang.

Since the P-51 was a good long range escort fighter, it made sense that two of them joined would make an even better long range escort fighter. The F-82 was designed with a range exceeding 2000 nautical miles without refueling, from the outlying Pacific Islands of the Solomon or Philippines to Japan; a distance beyond the range of the P-38 Lighting and conventional P-51 Mustangs.

Later, however, the US Marines Island hopping enabled them to capture islands close enough to the Japanese homeland such as lwo Jima, and Okinawa, that enabled the conventional P-51 Mustangs to fulfill this role.

The F-82 was too late for the war in any case. Its first flight was on June 15,1945,less than two month before Japans surrender, and well before the first production units were operational .By the time it was introduced in 1946,the post war role of the 273 that were manufactured had changed to that of night-fighting.

The idea for the Twin Mustang was not a real stretch; snap two P-51s together with a piece of straight wing. As any aircraft designer can testify , a single airframe modification almost always leads to additional modifications, and the proposed F-82 was no exceptional .In reality, the extra fuel needed for the long range missions led to stretching the fuselage 145 metres behind the cockpit for the extra fuel tanks.

The additional weight meant that the wings had to be stronger, and the extra weight and power meant larger control surfaces were needed. In the end, the p-82 was virtually a new airframe, leading it to have little in common with its smaller sister, the P-51 Mustang.

The straight wing between the two fuselage housed the same six, 50 calibre machine guns as the single engine Mustang, but provided a much more concentrated fire. The outer wings were also strengthened to allow hard points for carrying additional fuel, or 25-five-inch rockets, or 4000 lb (1814 kg) of bomb ordinance.

Two vertical tails were pulled from the XP-51(an earlier design), and configured with large dorsal fillets to add stability in case of engine failure. The aircraft retained its standard P-51 landing gear, and both wheels retracted into the bays under each fuselage section.

The North America F-82 Twin Mustang was the last American piston-engine fighter ordered into production by the United States Air Force. The F-82  went into front line service with strategic Air Command (SAC) in 1948.They were soon replaced by jet fighters , so the Twin Mustangs were sent to Air Defense Command units in 1949.Radar-equipped F-82s were used extensively by the Air Defense Command replacing the P-61 Black Widow night fighter.

Korea War

By early 1950, after only two years of service, the F-82 were put on to reserve status, but the outbreak of the Korean War, in June 1950, saved it from the inevitable next step-retirement or the scrap yard, at least for a while.

The USAFs 68th Fighter Squadron was based in Japan, with its F82 Twin Mustangs. At the time, the F-82was the only aircraft available in the Pacific that could cover all of Korea from bases in Japan. This was an advantage given that North Korea rapidly overran almost all of South Korea, including the US air bases.

The first three North Korean aircraft destroyed by US forces were shot down by F-82s, the first being a North-Korean Yak-11 downed over Gimpo.The last F-82 Twin Mustangs were retired in 1953.

B787 Dream liners Nightmare

While the investigation into the incident onboard 787 Dream liner ZA002 continues, Boeing flew two other aircraft, ZA001 and ZA005, back to Seattle from Rapid City, S.D, and Victorville, Calif.with FAA approval.

ZA001 was undergoing refueling in South Dakota when the incident on ZA001 occurred and the company decided to forgo additional flights .ZA005 was on remote deployment for testing in California.

The team investigating the incident in Laredo has developed a detailed understanding of the ZA002 incident. Data's sow that the total duration of the incident was less than 90 seconds. The fire lasted less than 30 seconds and the airplane was flown in a configuration that could have been sustained for the time required to return to an airport suitable for landing from any point in a typical 787 mission profile.

The team in Texas has completed inspection of ZA002 and has begun installing a new power panel and new insulation material. The team also is repairing minor structural damage that occurred during the vent.

The incident on ZA002 demonstrated many aspects of the safety and redundancy in the 787 design, which ensure that if events such as these occur, the aircraft can continue safe flight and landing.

At the time of writing, no decision had been reached on when flight testing of the 787s will resume. Before that decision can be made, Boeing says it must complete the investigation and assess whether any design changes are necessary. Until that time, the company cannot comment on the potential impact on the overall programme schedule.

It may be recalled that a failure in the P100 panel led to a fire involving an insulation blanket. The insulation self-extinguished once the fault in the P100 panel cleared.

The P100 panel on ZA002 has been removed and a replacement unit was shipped to Laredo. The insulation material near the unit also has been removed.

Damage to the ZA002 P100 panel is significant .Initial inspections; however, do not show extensive damage to the surrounding structure or other systems.

TheP100 panel is one of several power panels in the aft electronics bay. It receives power from the left engine and distributes it to an array of systems. In the event of a failure of the P100 panel, back-up power sources-including power from the right engine, the Ram Air Turbine, the auxiliary power unit or the battery-are designed to automatically engage to ensure that those systems needed for continued safe operations are powered .The backup systems engaged during the incident and the crew retained positive control of the aircraft at all times and had the information it needed to perform a safe landing.

The latest as this edition was going to press, Boeing announced that it was developing minor design changes to power distribution panels on the 787 and updates to the systems software that manages and protects power distribution on the airplane. These changes come as the result of what has been learned from the investigation of a recent onboard electrical fire on a test airplane, ZA002, in Laredo, Texas.

Engineers have determined that fault began as either a short circuit or an electrical arc in the P100 power distribution panel, most likely caused by the presence of foreign debris.

The design changes will improve the protection within the panel .Software changes also will be implemented to further improve fault protection.

The 787 team is now assessing the time required to complete the design changes and software updates that are being developed. A revised 787 programme schedule is expected to be finalized in the next few weeks.

 

About the Author

Anthony Juma is the Editor and Senior Aviation Director at Wings Over Africa Aviation. 
This is an Air Charter Company that specializes on Flight News On Military Aircrafts and The B787 Dream liner Nightmare. The website has guided thousands of travelers to achieve their dream holiday. For more information and guidance, visit the site at http:// / www.wingsoverafrica-aviation.com/index.php/services/charter-flights.html

What year was the Water Bomber Aircraft?

What year was the Water Bomber Aircraft invented and by whom.

Aerial firefighting began right after the Second World War, using converted freighters and bombers left over from the war. The year would have been around 1946 or 1947.

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