“The Santos-Dumont airplane in full flight at Bagatelle, October 23, 1906. (This photograph, unfortunately too retouched, is to our knowledge, the only one which appears to have actually been taken that day during the aerial journey.)” (Cliché Branger/L’Aerophile, October 1906, at Page 246)
23 October 1906: At 4:45 p.m., Albert Santos-Dumont climbed into his airplane, N° 14 bis, at the Château de Bagatelle, Paris, France. Starting its Antoinette engine, it began rolling and quickly balanced on its two wheels. Passed an estimated 30 km/h and travelled approximately 100 meters on the ground before becoming airborne. for a while the height above the ground was minimal. The airplane gradually climbed, remaining perfectly balanced longitudinally. Lateral balance was also good. The airplane began to drift to the right, then more so to the left. Fearing this might become more pronounced, Santos-Dumont cut of the ignition and his airplane slowly descended. On touchdown, the wheels and rudder were damaged.
14 bis
N° 14 bis powered by a Antoinette 50 ch liquid-cooled V-8 engine two-bladed propeller by Léon Levavasseur, steel with aluminum airfoils. 2 meters in diameter, pitch 1 meter, 8 kg. Thrust: 146 kg.
took off and flew between 50 and 100 meters (164–328 feet) at an altitude of 3–5 meters (10–16 feet).
Unlike Wright Brothers flights, Santos-Dumont made his flights before the public. Flight was certified by
Sources vary as to the dimensions of the airplane. The Smithsonian reports that dimensions taken from the Official List of Records of the Aero Club of France Span 40 feet, length 33 feet, surface 860 sq feet, weight 352 pounds Antoinette 24 h.p.
direct-fuel-injected liquid-cooled 105mm x 105 mm, 50 ch (49.3 h.p.) @ 1,400 r.p.m. 132# (60 kg) 7.27 liters (443.86 cubic inches)
Jane’s All The World Aircraft 1913: L: 31’10”, WS: 38’9″, wt: 661 pounds. pronoucned dihedral. canard, three-bay (Hargrave’s cells) boxkite/biplane, box elevators forward. standining in a wicker basket.
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SpaceX Flight 20 liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, 01:29:00 UTC, 22 December 2015. (SpaceX)
21 Dec. 2015: At 8:29:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (01:29:00 22 December, UTC) the SpaceX Falcon 9 two-stage liquid-fueled rocket, production number 21, lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station ¹ on the east coast of Florida. This mission, Flight 20, was to place 11 Orbcomm-OG2 communications satellites into Earth orbit.
This was the first flight of Falcon 9 Full Thrust Version.²
The first stage booster, B1019, fired its nine Merlin 1D engines for 2 minutes, 20 seconds, then shut down. The first and second stages separated. The single second stage engine ignited 15 seconds later and fired for eight minutes.
The 11 satellites were placed “within a fraction of a degree in inclination and 5 km (3.1) mi) in altitude of the intended orbit.”
A long exposure photograph of SpaceX Flight 20 launch and landing at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, 21 December 2015. (SpaceX)
Three minutes after launch, the first stage executed a 30 second “boostback” maneuver to reverse its direction of flight, heading it back toward Cape Canaveral. Five minutes later, three engines were ignited for a 20 second reentry burn.
At approximately 9 minutes after liftoff, a single engine, the center engine, performed a 32 second landing burn.
Booster 1019 performed a vertical landing near the center of Cape Canaveral’s Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at approximately 8:38:45 p.m., EST (01:38:45 UTC).
This was the first successful vertical landing of a rocket booster during an orbital space launch mission.
Falcon 9 booster B1019 touches down at Cape Canaveral, 21 December 2015. (SpaceX)SpaceX Falcon 9 Booster B1019 landing, 8:38:45 p.m., EST, 21 December 2015. (SpaceX)
After landing, there was a small fire near the booster’s base, lasting approximately 30 seconds.
B1019 was later moved to Space Launch Complex 39A where it was static fired for evaluation, 15 January 2016. One of the nine engines experienced thrust fluctuations, believed to be a result of debris ingestion.
In August 2016, B1019 was placed on permanent display in front of the SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
Falcon 9 booster B1019 at Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1), Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, at sunrise, 22 December 2015. (SpaceX)
Booster 1019 is a first stage booster for the Falcon 9 orbital launch vehicle. It is 40.9 meters (134.19 feet) long and 3.66 meters (12.01 meters) in diameter. Its empty mass is 27.2 metric tons (59,966 pounds). It carried 411 Metric tons (906,100 pounds) of propellant. Its total mass at launch was 438.2 metric tons (966,066 pounds).
The booster was powered by nine SpaceX Merlin 1D rocket engines. These burned a mixture of liquid oxygen and RP-1, a highly refined form of kerosene. These gave a total Sea Level thrust of 694 metric tons (6,806 kilonewtons/1,530,008 pounds of thrust), and 757 metric tons (7,424 kilonewtons/1,668,899 pounds of thrust) in vacuum.³
A crane places SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage booster B1019 on display at the SpaceX headquarters at Crenshaw Boulevard and Jack Northrop Avenue, Hawthorne, California, 20 August 2016. (Gene Blevins/LA DailyNews)
¹ Cape Canaveral Air Force Station was renamed Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) 9 December 2020
² This Falcon 9 variant was originally called Falcon 9 Upgrade, then Falcon 9 v1.1 Full Thrust, but finally Falcon 9 v1.2 (this is the name filed with FAA). It is also known as Block 3.
³ Metric tons (tonnes, or t) are from a NASA Falcon 9 v1.2 Data Sheet at https://sma.nasa.gov/LaunchVehicle/assets/spacex-falcon-9-v1.2-data-sheet.pdf
Lockheed M-21 with D-21 in position for takeoff. (Central Intelligence Agency)
22 December 1964: At Groom Lake, Nevada, a Lockheed M-21, a special two-place variant of the Central Intelligence Agency’s A-12 Oxcart Mach 3 reconnaissance aircraft, took off for the first time while carrying a D-21 drone. The pilot was William C. Park, Jr., Lockheed’s Chief Engineering Test Pilot.
Lockheed M-21 60-6940 in flight, carrying a D-21 drone. (The Museum of Flight)
Two M-21s were built, Article 134, 60-6940, and Article 135, 60-6941. Article 135 was struck by its drone during an air launch off the coast of California, 30 July 1966, and both aircraft were destroyed. Bill Park escaped, but the Launch Control Officer, Ray Torick, was killed.
Lockheed M-21 60-6940 is on display at The Museum of Flight, Seattle, Washington.
Lockheed M-21 60-6940 (Article 134) in flight, carrying a D-21 reconnaissance drone. (Central Intelligence Agency)
Bill Park has the distinction of having bailed out of four Lockheed aircraft and living to tell about it: the first XF-104 prototype, 56-7786, when its tail came off at 12,500 feet (3,810 meters), 11 July 1957; an A-12, 60-6939, when the flight controls locked on approach to Groom Lake at only 200 feet (61 meters), 9 July 1964; the M-21; and the first Have Blue stealth technology demonstrator, 1001, at 10,000 feet (3,048 meters), 4 May 1978.
A Lockheed M-21 with a D-21 drone. (Central Intelligence Agency)
The first Lockheed SR-71A, 61-7950, takes off for the first time at Air Force Plant 42, Palmdale, California. An F-104 Starfighter follows as chase. (Lockheed Martin)
22 December 1964: Lockheed test pilot Robert J. “Bob” Gilliland made a solo first flight of the first SR-71A, 61-7950, at Air Force Plant 42, Palmdale, California. The “Blackbird” flew higher than 45,000 feet (13,716 meters) and more than 1,000 miles per hour (1,609 kilometers per hour) before landing at Edwards Air Force Base, 22 miles (35 kilometers) northeast, to begin the flight test program.
Bob Gilliland made the first flight of many of the Lockheed SR-71s. It is reported that he has logged more flight time in excess of Mach 3 than any other pilot.
Blackbird test pilot Robert J. Gilliland, with a Lockheed SR-71A. Gilliland is wearing an S901J full-pressure suit made by “Northeast Manufacturing” (the David Clark Co.) (Lockheed Martin)
The SR-71A Blackbird is a Mach 3+ strategic reconnaissance aircraft designed and built by Lockheed’s famous (but Top Secret) “Skunk Works” for the United States Air Force. It was developed from the Central Intelligence Agency’s A-12 Oxcart program.
The SR-71A is a two-place aircraft, operated by a Pilot and a Reconnaissance Systems Officer (“RSO”). It uses electronic and optical sensors. The fuselage has a somewhat flattened aspect with chines leading forward from the wings to the nose. The wings are a modified delta, with integral engine nacelles. Two vertical stabilizers are mounted at the aft end of the engine nacelles and cant inward toward the aircraft centerline.
The SR-71A is 107 feet, 5 inches (32.741 meters) long with a wingspan of 55 feet, 7 inches (16.942 meters), and overall height of 18 feet, 6 inches (5.639 meters). Its empty weight is 67,500 pounds (30,620 kilograms) and maximum takeoff weight is 172,000 pounds (78,020 kilograms).
Lockheed SR-71A 61-7950 in flight. (U.S. Air Force)
The Blackbird is powered by two Pratt & Whitney JT11D-20 (J58-P-4) turbo-ramjet engines, rated at 25,000 pounds of thrust (111.21 kilonewtons) and 34,000 pounds of thrust (151.24 kilonewtons) with afterburner. The exhaust gas temperature is approximately 3,400 °F. (1,870 °C.). The J58 is a single-spool, axial-flow engine which uses a 9-stage compressor section and 2-stage turbine. The J58 is 17 feet, 10 inches (7.436 meters) long and 4 feet, 9 inches (1.448 meters) in diameter. It weighs approximately 6,000 pounds (2,722 kilograms).
The SR-71A has a maximum speed of Mach 3.3 at 80,000 feet (24,384 meters)—2,199 miles per hour (3,539 kilometers per hour). Its maximum rate of climb is 11,810 feet per minute (60 meters per second), and the service ceiling is 85,000 feet (25,908 meters). The Blackbird’s maximum unrefueled range is 3,680 miles (5,925 kilometers).
Lockheed built 32 SR-71As. They entered service with the 4200th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing (later redesignated the 9th SRW) in 1966 and were initially retired in 1989. Several were reactivated in 1995, but finally retired in 1999.
Lockheed SR-71A-LO 61-7950 was lost to fire during a brake system test at Edwards AFB, 10 January 1967. (Lockheed Martin via habu.org)
