Lockheed Jetstar - grandfather of all business jets

hello aviation fans sky here and today we are going to take a new path for the channel let's take a look at business aviation this breed of luxury and expensive workhorses or maybe just toys was born as you could guess along with other jet airplanes today we'll look at one of the first representatives of this class rocket jet star is a business jet developed by locked it in the late 1950s just start is in fact the first serial business jet that gave a start to a rapid growth of this type of aircraft and at the same time remained one of the best models in the class for quite a long time let's get acquainted the L 329 4l 1329 project was deployed inside locket in the early 1950s while in aeration industry one after another first appeared the military jets followed by civilian airliners not having sufficient resources to create a full-fledged commercial airliner as did for example Boeing and Douglas Lockheed set their sights on creating a small plane that could carry only a few people but also have the flight performance of big brothers the civilian sector was potentially fairly profitable but jets were still quite an exotic concept and there was a risk that such an aircraft would not find demand however the government structures especially the military at that time were grasping at everything new in the industry with great enthusiasm it was the military who are originally expected to become the main customer in the mid-1950s the Air Force initiated the utility transport experimental the utx program within which they wanted to receive a fleet of small jets capable of carrying cargo and passengers as well as performing various special tasks the main participants were lock hit with their jet star McDonnell with their model 119 and also North American with their Sabre liner the simplest option turned out to be the Sabre liner a fairly light twin-engine airplane accommodating up to 7 passengers North American decided not to rush into adventures and created exactly what the military want with minimal risk moreover saving money and applying some solutions already tested on their own jet fighters the famous f-86 sabre the company emphasized this kinship even the names were similar the McDonnell aircraft unlike the competitor had a rather bold design a low-wing aircraft with four engines suspended under the wing of an aircraft this small quite avant-garde but also quite interesting lockheed decided to look for middle ground to take some risks but without showing off too much jet star had a more classic design with engines in the rear fuselage section a small swing and a cruciform tail in general layout it was similar to the recently created french Sudama tian Caravelle that was showing quite a decent performance by 1957 at the Lockheed plant in Burbank were assembled two prototypes equipped with a pair of British Bristol Siddeley Orpheus turbojet engines at that time these engines had just appeared and seemed like a real miracle later becoming the basis of power plants of various aircraft in September 1957 the jet star prototype equipped with these engines made its maiden flight the first prototype even by today's standards seems to be quite an ordinary business jet the second one was more unusual its feature was an increased range achieved by integrating two fuel tanks into the wing something like an optional long-range version for the future operations being very pleased with the British engines lockheed wanted to continue buying them for their aircraft but the military the main customer demanded that the power plant has to be American the attempt to set up production of the orpheus in the United States failed Bristol Siddeley offered either direct sales or a very small localization which did not suit the buyers as a result the engines had to be changed which cost a lot of difficulties and the need to redesign the plane lot had performed re-engining and installed the Pratt Whitney JT 12 engines the problem was that that JT 12th was significantly less powerful than the Orpheus the British were providing more than 20 kilonewtons of thrust while the Americans couldn't even reach 15 killing you the only dimension say Berliner was equipped with these engines but it is worth noting the Lockheed model was heavier more than twice as heavy two murders were not nearly enough it was possible to try the three engine scheme but it required a serious review of the design and its prospects were vague there were no machines like the Boeing 707 Hawker Siddeley Trident or 254 yet as a result the engineers chose the four engine scheme the revision of a number of elements and the installation of two more engines in addition to the row of the already existing to such a scheme was of course a compromise but was considered promising it was later implemented on large aircraft for example the Vickers vc10 and lll 62 the plane became larger and heavier but in terms of economics and flight performance the gesture was quite good for the 1960s also four engines proved to be useful in the market the reliability of jet engines of that time was not encouraging buyers were afraid of disasters in case of their failure besides the twin-engine aircraft had limitations in flight and this plane had four brand-new motors should be cool in 1959 the work was completed series versions began to fly as early as 1969 eclis after a while Orpheus came to America nonetheless and was produced by the Curtiss Wright corporation under the index TG 37 even more ironic was the fact that after all this time of torturing the Aviators the military in the end severely restricted the utx program Congress decided that the Air Force budgets were too big and demanded to reduce some of the costs the military chose the simplest North American project as the winner of the tender the Lockheed model also received orders but only for 16 planes although the Sabre liner had one it didn't get the desired contract the delivers were limited to just a couple of hundred planes although initially it was planned to purchase almost 1500 and while the mcdonnell 119 was very cool it turned out to be too exotic and in fact never saw the series production such a turn was a problem for lot head to invest so much time and effort the sake of a dozen and a half delivered machines was offensive however they did end up with a plane on their hands which moreover was pretty good and since the state doesn't want to buy let's just sell it to the private sector the risks of entering the commercial aviation were still quite high but the plane was already made in the end Lockette came to the civilian market the decision that technically made Jetstar the world's first commercially available business jet let's take a closer look at it being the first business jet created back in the 1950s the jet star however can be considered quite a typical aircraft of this class by modern standards although containing a number of exotic solutions the aircraft has a classic design with a low small sweep wing and engines located in the rear of the fuselage the horizontal tail unit is located above the fuselage not to interfere with the engines and it is cruciform not t-shaped which is more calm the swept wing is equipped with slats and flaps which allows it to maintain a fairly low minimum speed during takeoffs and landings also the aircraft received an aerodynamic break located at the bottom of the fuselage the aircraft's landing gear has a classic three leg design to reduce weight and save some space each leg was initially equipped with one wheel however several incidents showed the weakness of this solution and the bogies eventually became to wield the power plant of the series aircraft was represented by four pratt whitney JT 12 turbo jets these engines were fairly good and easy to maintain but like all motors of that time were not very fuel-efficient the problem of increased fuel consumption was solved by increasing his stock the jet star received additional fuel tanks integrated into the wing this was enough for flights over distances of more than 4,000 kilometers or 2,200 miles not global travel of course but for domestic flights it is pretty good in the 1970s the need to improve the efficiency of the power plant mainly the economic efficiency coupled with more strict regulations for noise in the environment required another remoter ization in addition the world conquered by the turbofan engines the latest squeak of fashion the updated jet start to model received garrett tfe731 turbofan engines and the fuel tanks were redesigned so that the upper surfaces of the wing would not be interrupted by them the plane was very good improved aerodynamics increased by 10% engine thrust as well as the modernized onboard systems allowed to increase passenger comfort and to gain weight with a takeoff weight of just over 20 tons or forty four and a half thousand pounds it could accommodate eight to ten passengers plus two pilots and a flight attendant at the same time the aircraft was able to reach speeds of up to five hundred and forty-seven miles per hour or 883 kilometers per hour and flyed 2600 miles or for the 800 kilometers Lockheed was producing the jet star - since 1976 until 1979 about 40 aircraft of this model saw the sky in total until 1980 two hundred and two aircraft were released the first two prototypes were assembled at logit plant in Burbank California however it was decided to launch the series production at the site in Georgia curiously the first prototype back in the 60s after certification continued to be used as a Lockheed corporate transport in particular flying around the vice-president of advanced development projects kelly johnson a guy with a very interesting biography he was the initiator of the jet star project and before that he led the f-104 starfighter program he was the first head of the skunk wars division and one of the fathers of many of their birds including the u2 and sr-71 the main initial customer the US Air Force in the end but only 16 planes of the c1 40 modification which were used to transport military command as well as to provide communications and participate in various aerial tests this aircraft continued to be actually operated up until the early 1990s greater demand came from the commercial market where the jet stars were used as corporate and personal transport the planes were loved by many American celebrities of the time Frank Sinatra was flying and Elvis Presley bought this planes twice at different times just stars were operated in the parks of several Airlines and government structures of the USA Canada and Mexico as well as in several countries of Asia and the Middle East during the 1960s and 70s the Lockheed Jetstar was considered one of the best business jets which due to its mast and decent internal volumes was classified as a medium-sized aircraft and was very comfortable nevertheless the rapid development of aviation technology the emergence of many models of competitors as well as the obsolescence of the concept of a four-engine aircraft of this size made the jet star irrelevant in the 1980s they slowly began to leave the market now of course most of these aircraft are decommissioned recycled or transferred to museums but some just are to machines occasionally appear in the sky reminding the bystanders who is one of the ancestors of the modern flying limos this is where we stopped today like the video and subscribe to the channel our story is only beginning fast flights and soft landings to you [Music] you

Channel: Skyships Eng

Views: 259,849

Rating: 4.9207397 out of 5

Keywords: Lockheed, Jetstar, Lockheed Jetstar, Lockheed L-1329, Lockheed business jet, business jet, L-1329

Id: 5gkAlDxgXTw

Length: 12min 23sec (743 seconds)

Published: Fri May 03 2019