Experimental Beechcraft Model 35 Bonanza NX80040, circa 1946. (Roger Bilstein Collection, San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives)
22 December 1945: Test pilot Vern Louis Carstens made the first flight of Beech Aircraft Corporation’s new Beechcraft Model 35 Bonanza. Five prototypes were built. The first two were used as static test articles. The third prototype, NX80150, serial number 3, was the first to fly.
“. . . Wichita residents and Beech employees “lined the runway” to watch the first flight of the Beechcraft Bonanza. “The town turned out and the plant all but shut down for the occasion,” said Vern L. Carstens, retired Beech Aircraft chief test pilot who made the historic flight. From the day of its first flight, the Beechcraft V-tailed Bonanza has set industry standards for high performance single engine aircraft. The Bonanza received its type certificate on March 25, 1947. . . .”
—The Salina Journal, Salina, Kansas, Sunday, 27 December 1970, at Page 25, Columns 1–7.
The first Bonanza to fly was the number three prototype, NX80150. (San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives)
On 26 October 1946, one of the Model 35 prototypes, possibly s/n 3, was destroyed:
During a dive test to determine the maximum dive velocity, a landing gear door buckled under the air loads, causing the door to be forced open. Air was then forced into the landing gear recess on the underside of the wing, and internal pressure built up to the point where the wing failed.
—Department of Transportation, Transportation Systems Center Beech V-Tail Bonanza Task Force Report, 1985.
Harry Lawrence Reiter Jr.
Harry Lawrence Reiter, Jr., Chief Flight Research Pilot for Beechcraft, was killed when the airplane broke up and crashed 15 miles east of Wichita. An observer, Robert King, was able to escape.
The registration for NX80150 was cancelled 18 May 1948.
The Beechcraft Model 35 Bonanza is a single-engine, four-place all-metal light civil airplane with retractable landing gear. The Bonanza has the distinctive V-tail with a 30° dihedral which combined the functions of a conventional vertical fin and rudder, and horizontal tail plane and elevators.
The Model 35 was 25 feet, 2 inches (7.671 meters) long with a wingspan of 32 feet, 10 inches (10.008 meters) and height of 6 feet, 6½ inches (1.994 meters). It had an empty weight of 1,458 pounds (661 kilograms) and gross weight of 2,550 pounds (1,157 kilograms.)
An early production Beechcraft Model 35 Bonanza, NC2703V, c/n D-79. (Beech Aircraft Corporation via Larry Westin)
The first flyable prototype, NX80150, was equipped with an air-cooled, normally aspirated 289.31-cubic-inch-displacement (4.741 liter) Lycoming O-290-A horizontally-opposed 4-cylinder engine, rated at 125 horsepower at 2,600 r.p.m., and 130 horsepower at 2,800 r.p.m (five minute limit).
Prototype number four, s/n 4, NX80040, and the following production models used a more powerful air-cooled, 471.24-cubic-inch-displacement (7.72 liter) Continental Motors, Inc., E185 horizontally-opposed 6-cylinder engine. This engine was rated at 165 horsepower at 2,050 r.p.m. The Bonanza used a two-bladed electrically-controlled variable-pitch R-100 propeller with a diameter of 7 feet, 4 inches (2.235 meters), made of laminated wood.
The “V-tail Bonanza” had a maximum speed of 184 miles per hour (296 kilometers per hour) at Sea Level, and a cruise speed of 175 miles per hour (282 kilometers per hour) at 10,000 feet (3,048 meters). Its service ceiling was 18,000 feet (5,486 meters). With full fuel, 40 gallons (151.4 liters), the airplane had a range of 750 miles (1,207 kilometers).
The Beechcraft 35 was in production from 1947 to 1982. More than 17,000 Model 35s and the similar Model 36 were built.
Beechcraft Model 35 Bonanza NX80040. (Hans Groenhoff Photographic Collection, Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum NASM-HGC-201)
Hélène Dutrieu (Library of Congress)Pierre Lafitte
22 December 1910: Hélène Dutrieu won the first Coupe Fémina by flying her Farman airplane 60.8 kilometers (37.8 miles) in 1 hour, 9 minutes at Étampes, about 48 kilometers (29 miles) southwest of Paris, France.
The Fémina Cup was established by Pierre Antoinne Baptiste René Lafitte, publisher of Fémina, a ladies’ magazine. A prize of ₣2,000 was awarded to the woman who had completed the longest flight of the year.
Mlle Dutrieu won the prize again the following year with a distance of 243.8 kilometers (151.5 miles) and duration of 2 hours, 58 minutes.
Hélène Dutrieu was just the fourth woman to become a licensed airplane pilot. She began training with a Santos-Dumont Damoiselle, in which she crashed on her first flight. After trying with another aircraft builder, she went to the Farman brothers, who loaned her one of their airplanes and taught her to fly it. She held Aéro-Club de Belgique certificate number 27, issued at the end of August 1910, and a few months later, 25 November, she also received certificate number 27 from the Aéro-Club de France.
Mlle Hélène Dutrieu with a Santos-Dumont Damoiselle, just before her first flight, 1908. (Unattributed)
Hélène Dutrieu was born 10 July 1877 at Tournai, Belgium, to Florent Dutrieu and Clothilde van Thieghem. She became a professional bicycle racer and at the age of 20, Mlle Dutrieu won the women’s cycling world championship and won again in 1898. She also won the Grand Prix d’Europe.
In addition to bicycle racing, Hélène Dutrieu raced motorcycles, cars and airplanes. For her athletic accomplishments, the King of Belgium awarded her the Cross of St. André with Diamonds, and in 1913, France made her a Chevalier de la légion d’honneur, the first woman so honored for aviation.
During World War I, Mlle Dutrieu served as an ambulance driver, and was assigned to supervise all ambulances at one hospital. Later she was director of the Campagne à Val-Grâce military hospital.
Mlle Ditrieu married a member of the French Assembly in 1922 and became a citizen of France. Mme Dutrieu-Mortier served as a vice president of the Aéro-Club de France.
Hélène Dutrieu-Mortier died at Paris, 27 June 1961 at the age of 83 years.
Hélène Dutrieu in her Farman airplane, 1911 (Unattributed)
Clipper Maid of the Seas, Pan American World Airways’ Boeing 747-121 N739PA, takes off at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) 12 March 1987. (Ted Quackenbush via Wikipedia)
21 December 1988: Pan American World Airways’ Flight 103 was a scheduled transatlantic passenger flight, originating at Flughafen Frankfurt am Main (FRA) with stopovers at London Heathrow Airport (LHR) and John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), with a final destination of Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW).
The first leg from Frankfurt to London was flown with a Boeing 727. The transatlantic segment of Flight 103 was flown by a Boeing 747-121, N739PA, named Clipper Maid of the Seas. It departed Heathrow at 1825 hours UTC, with 16 crewmembers and 243 passengers. The 747 climbed to the north and leveled off at at 31,000 feet (9,449 meters) at 1856 hours.
At approximately 1903, a time bomb which had been placed inside luggage carried in the airliner’s cargo hold detonated. Explosive decompression magnified the effects of the bomb. The airliner broke into five large sections and fell to the ground at the town of Lockerbie, Scotland.
The impact crater of Boeing 747 N739PA at Sherwood Crescent, Lockerbie. The wings and fuselage center section struck here, 49.5 seconds after the explosion. 200,000 pounds (91,000 kilograms) of jet fuel ignited, destroying many homes. (Martin Cleaver/syracuse.com)
All 259 persons on board the 747 were killed, as were another 11 persons on the ground.
The time bomb is believed to have been placed aboard the airliner by agents of the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, acting on orders of the Brotherly Leader and Guide to the Revolution of Libya, Muammar al-Gaddafi. One of these, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, was convicted of 270 counts of murder in a Scottish criminal court seated in The Netherlands. The defense twice appealed the case, but prior to a decision in the second appeal, al-Megrahi dropped his appeal and asked to be released from jail because it was believed that he would very soon die of cancer. The Scottish court did release him and he returned to Libya on 14 August 2009, on board Colonel Gadaffi’s personal aircraft. He reportedly died 20 May 2012.
Another suspect, Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi, believed to have been the bomb maker, was taken into custody by the United States, 11 December 2022. A trial is scheduled to begin 12 May 2025.
Boeing delivered N739PA to Pan American 15 February 1970. The airliner was originally named Clipper Morning Light. At the time of the bombing, it had accumulated 72,464 total flight hours.
The forward section of Clipper Maid of the Seas, near the village of Tundergarth, Scotland.
The 747-100 series was the first version of the Boeing 747 to be built. It was operated by a flight crew of three and was designed to carry 366 to 452 passengers. It is 231 feet, 10.2 inches (70.668 meters) long with a wingspan of 195 feet, 8 inches (59.639 meters) and overall height of 63 feet, 5 inches (19.329 meters). The interior cabin width is 20 feet (6.096 meters), giving it the name “wide body.” Its empty weight is 370,816 pounds (168,199 kilograms) and the Maximum Takeoff Weight (MTOW) is 735,000 pounds (333,390 kilograms).
The 747-100 is powered by four Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7A high-bypass ratio turbofan engines. The JT9D is a two-spool, axial-flow turbofan engine with a single-stage fan section, 14-stage compressor (11 high- and 3 low-pressure stages) and 6-stage turbine (2 high- and 4 low-pressure stages). The engine is rated at 46,950 pounds of thrust (208.844 kilonewtons), or 48,570 pounds (216.050 kilonewtons) with water injection (2½-minute limit). This engine has a maximum diameter of 7 feet, 11.6 inches (2.428 meters), is 12 feet, 10.2 inches (3.917 meters) long and weighs 8,850 pounds (4,014 kilograms).
The 747-100 has a cruise speed of 0.84 Mach (555 miles per hour, 893 kilometers per hour) at 35,000 feet (10,668 meters). The maximum certificated operating speed is 0.92 Mach. The airliner’s maximum range is 6,100 miles (9,817 kilometers).
The Boeing 747 has been in production for 51 years. 1,568 have been delivered as of 7 December 2021. 205 of these were the 747-100 series. The U.S. Air Force has selected the Boeing 747-8 as the next presidential transport aircraft.
Grumman F-14A-1-GR Tomcat Bu. No. 157980, just before its first flight, Calverton, Long Island, New York, 21 December 1970. (Northrop Grumman Corporation)
21 December 1970: At the Grumman Aerospace Corporation plant, Calverton, Long Island, New York, Chief Test Pilot Robert Kenneth Smyth and Project Test Pilot William Howard Miller took off on the very first flight of the F-14A-1-GR Tomcat, Bu. No. 157980.
The F-14 is a long-range fleet defense interceptor designed to operate from the United States Navy’s aircraft carriers. It is a two-place, twin-engine Mach 2+ fighter. The most notable feature are its variable geometry wings (“swing wings”), similar to those of the General Dynamics F-111.
A Grumman F-14A Tomcat during test flight. (U.S. Navy)
The Grumman F-14A Tomcat (Grumman has a long history of naming its fighter aircraft after various cats, e.g., Wildcat, Hellcat, Tigercat, Panther, Cougar, Tiger) is 62 feet, 8 inches (19.101 meters) long with its wingspan varying from 33 feet, 3 inches (10.135 meters) when swept fully aft (overswept), and 64 feet, 1 inches (19.510 meters) when fully extended. The airplane has an overall height of 16 feet, 0 inches (4.879 meters). It has an empty weight of 38,188 pounds (17,322 kilograms) and maximum takeoff weight of 72,566 pounds (32,915 kilograms).
The fighter was initially powered by two Pratt & Whitney JTF10A (TF30-P-412A) afterburning turbofan engines. The JTF10A is a two-spool axial-flow engine. It has a 3-stage fan section, 13-stage compressor section (6 low- and 7 high-pressure stages) and 4-stage turbine (1 high- and 3 low-pressure stages). The engine has a Maximum Continuous Power rating of 10,800 pounds of thrust (48.041 kilonewtons) at 14,300 r.p.m. (N2); Intermediate Power, 12,350 pounds (54.936 kilonewtons) at 14,800 r.p.m. (45-minute limit); and a Maximum Power of 20,900 pounds (92.968 kilonewtons) at 14,780 r.p.m., with afterburner (45-minute limit). The engine is 18 feet, 7.59 inches (5.679 meters) long, 4 feet, 2.5 inches (1.283 meters) in diameter, and weighs 3,971 pounds (1,801 kilograms).
The first Grumman F-14A Tomcat, 21 December 1970. (U.S. Naval Institute)
Cruise speed for the F-14A is 497 knots (572 miles per hour/920 kilometers per hour). It has a maximum speed of 805 knots (926 miles per hour (1,491 kilometers per hour) at Sea Level (Mach 1.22) and 1,314 knots (1,512 miles per hour/2,434 kilometers per hour) at 38,000 feet (11,582 meters) (Mach 2.29). The airplane’s service ceiling is 41,000 feet (12,497 meters), and its combat ceiling is 57,600 feet (17,556 meters) at 1,030 knots (1,185 miles per hour/1,907 kilometers per hour), Mach 1.80. The Tomcat has a combat radius of 741 nautical miles (853 statute miles/1,372 kilometers), and its maximum ferry range is 1,840 nautical miles (2,117 miles/3,407 kilometers).
The Tomcat is armed with one 20 mm General Electric M61A1 Vulcan six-barrel Gatling gun with 676 rounds of ammunition. It can carry a combination of Hughes AIM-54A Phoenix long range air-to-air missiles, as well as AIM 7E Sparrow and AIM 9H Sidewinders. The F-14 has the capability of simultaneously engaging six independent targets with the Phoenix missile. The AIM-54A is a radar-guided Mach 5 missile with a range of 115 statute miles (185 kilometers). It has a 135 pound (61.2 kilograms) proximity-fused blast fragmentation warhead.
The Grumman F-14 was in production from 1970 until 1991, in three variants, the F-14A, F-14B and F-14D. A total of 712 Tomcats were built. The fighter remained in service with the United States Navy until 2006. 79 F-14As were provided to the Imperial Iranian Air Force, prior to the Islamic revolt. An unknown number of these remain in service with the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force.
Grumman Chief Test Pilot Robert Kenneth Smyth. (Northrop Grumman Corporation)
Apollo 8 (AS-503) launches from LC-39A at 12:51:00 UTC, 21 December 1968. (NASA)
21 December 1968: At 12:51:00.7 UTC, Apollo 8 lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida. Aboard were Mission Commander, Colonel Frank Frederick Borman II, United States Air Force; Command Module Pilot, Captain James Arthur Lovell, Jr., United States Navy; and Lunar Module Pilot, Major William A. Anders, U.S. Air Force.
Apollo 8 crew is photographed posing on a Kennedy Space Center (KSC) simulator in their full-pressure suits, 22 November 1968. From left to right are: James A. Lovell Jr., William A. Anders, and Frank Borman. (NASA)
The center engine of the S-IC first stage shut down at 00:02.05.9, and the remaining four F-1 engines shut down at 00:02:33.8. First stage separation took place at 00:02:34.5.
The five Rocketdyne J-2 engines of the S-II second stage fired at 00:02.35.2. The launch escape tower was jettisoned at 00:03:08.6. The engine shut down at 00:08:44.0.and the second stage was jettisoned at 00:08:44.9.
The single J-2 of the S-IVB third stage ignited at 00:08:45.0, and cut off at 11:25.0. At 00:11:35.0, the Apollo 8 Command and Service Module, the Lunar Module test article, and the S-IVB third stage was injected into a nearly-circular 98 nautical miles × 103 nautical miles (113 statute miles × 119 statute miles/181 × 191 kilometers) Earth orbit.
Apollo 8 Trans Lunar Injection burn, 21 December 1968. (David Le Conte, Joe Coldwell, Bill Perry/Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory)
The S-IVB’s J-2 engine was restarted for Trans Lunar Injection (TLI) at 02:50:37.1, and cut off at 02:55:55.5. The spacecraft reached an initial trans-lunar coast velocity of 24,593 miles per hour (39,579 kilometers per hour). Apollo 8 was on its way to The Moon.
Apollo 8 was the second manned mission of the Apollo program. It was the first manned spacecraft to leave Earth orbit, travel to and orbit the Moon, then return to Earth.
The Saturn V rocket was a three-stage, liquid-fueled heavy launch vehicle. Fully assembled with the Apollo Command and Service Module, it stood 363 feet, 0.15 inches (110.64621 meters) tall, from the tip of the escape tower to the bottom of the F-1 engines. The first and second stages were 33 feet, 0.2 inches (10.089 meters) in diameter. Fully loaded and fueled the rocket weighed approximately 6,200,000 pounds (2,948,350 kilograms).¹ It could lift a payload of 260,000 pounds (117,934 kilograms) to Low Earth Orbit.
AS-503, the Apollo 8/Saturn V, 17 December 1968. (NASA)
The first stage was designated S-IC. It was designed to lift the entire rocket to an altitude of 220,000 feet (67,056 meters) and accelerate to a speed of more than 5,100 miles per hour (8,280 kilometers per hour). The S-IC stage was built by Boeing at the Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans, Louisiana. It was 138 feet (42.062 meters) tall and had an empty weight of 290,000 pounds (131,542 kilograms). Fully fueled with 203,400 gallons (770,000 liters) of RP-1 and 318,065 gallons (1,204,000 liters) of liquid oxygen, the stage weighed 5,100,000 pounds (2,131,322 kilograms). It was propelled by five Rocketdyne F-1 engines, producing 1,522,000 pounds of thrust (6770.19 kilonewtons), each, for a total of 7,610,000 pounds of thrust at Sea Level (33,851 kilonewtons).² These engines were ignited 6.50 seconds prior to Range Zero and the outer four burned for 161.74 seconds. The center engine was shut down after 135.24 seconds to reduce the rate of acceleration. The F-1 engines were built by the Rocketdyne Division of North American Aviation at Canoga Park, California.
Apollo 8/AS-503. The Saturn V’s five Rocketdyne F-1 engines build thrust just prior to hold down release. (NASA)
The S-II second stage was built by North American Aviation at Seal Beach, California. It was 81 feet, 7 inches (24.87 meters) tall and had the same diameter as the first stage. The second stage weighed 80,000 pounds (36,000 kilograms) empty and 1,060,000 pounds loaded. The propellant for the S-II was liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The stage was powered by five Rocketdyne J-2 engines, also built at Canoga Park. Each engine produced 232,250 pounds of thrust (1,022.01 kilonewtons), and combined, 1,161,250 pounds of thrust (5,165.5 kilonewtons).³
The Saturn V third stage was designated S-IVB. It was built by Douglas Aircraft Company at Huntington Beach, California. The S-IVB was 58 feet, 7 inches (17.86 meters) tall with a diameter of 21 feet, 8 inches (6.604 meters). It had a dry weight of 23,000 pounds (10,000 kilograms) and fully fueled weighed 262,000 pounds. The third stage had one J-2 engine and also used liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen for propellant. The S-IVB would place the Command and Service Module into Low Earth Orbit, then, when all was ready, the J-2 would be restarted for the Trans Lunar Injection.
Eighteen Saturn V rockets were built. Until the SpaceX Starship, still being tested, they were the most powerful machines ever built by man.
AS-503 clearing the gantry, 21 December 1968. “A yaw motion is discernible by the leaning of the stack away from the tower. The vehicle is programmed to fly this 1.25° yaw maneuver, beginning one second into the flight, in case a gust of wind comes up that might gust the vehicle into the umbilical tower, or an access arm fails to retract.” (NASA)
¹ The AS-503 total vehicle mass at First Stage Ignition (T –6.585 seconds) was 6,221,823 pounds (2,833,171 kilograms).
² Post-flight analysis gave the total average thrust of AS-503’s S-IC stage as 7,726,936 pounds of thrust (34,371,122 Newtons).
³ Post-flight analysis gave the total average thrust of AS-503’s S-II stage as 1,143,578 pounds of thrust (5,086,888 Newtons).
⁴ Post-flight analysis gave the average total thrust of AS-503’s S-IVB stage as 203,053 pounds of thrust (903,225 Newtons) during the first burn; 201,530 pounds (896,450 Newtons) during the second burn.
The first flyable prototype, NX80150, was equipped with an air-cooled, normally aspirated 289.31-cubic-inch-displacement (4.741 liter) Lycoming O-290-A horizontally-opposed 4-cylinder engine, rated at 125 horsepower at 2,600 r.p.m., and 130 horsepower at 2,800 r.p.m (five minute limit).
