Bruce J. Hinds and Richard Couch. (Photograph courtesy of Neil Corbett, Test and Research Pilots, Flight Test Engineers)
17 July 1989: The first Northrop B-2A Spirit, 82-1066, took off from Air Force Plant 42, Palmdale, California, on its first flight. The crew was Northrop Chief Test Pilot Bruce J. Hinds and Colonel Richard Couch, U.S. Air Force. The top secret “stealth bomber” prototype landed at Edwards Air Force Base 1 hour, 52 minutes later.
After completing the flight test program, -1066 was placed in storage until 1993, awaiting upgrade to the Block 10 operational configuration. In 2000 it was again upgraded to the Block 30 standard. It is now named Spirit of America and assigned to the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri.
Northrop B-2A Spirit, 82-1066, the first “stealth bomber,” during a test flight. (U.S. Air Force)
The Northrop B-2A Spirit is an advanced technology long-range heavy bomber. It can perform both tactical or strategic missions. It features extremely low radar observabilty. The bomber features the “flying wing” concept, pioneered by the Northrop XB-35 in 1946. In addition to its “stealthy” configuration, the B-2A is also highly aerodynamically efficient.
Northrop B-2A Spirit 82-1066 ready for its first flight. TDiA believes that the orange triangles on the prototype’s leading edges are radar reflectors.
The B-2A has a crew of two pilots. According to data released by the U.S. Air Force, the bomber is 69 feet (21.0 meters) long, with a wingspan of 172 feet (52.4 meters) and height of 17 feet (5.2 meters). Its empty weight is 160,000 pounds (72,575 kilograms), with a maximum takeoff weight is 336,500 pounds.
Three view diagram of a Northrop B-2A, with dimensions.
Th B-2A is powered by four General Electric F118-GE-100 turbofan engines. The F118 is a non-afterburning two-spool axial-flow turbofan with a single stage fan section, 11-stage compressor (2 low- and 9 high-pressure stages) and 3-stage turbine (1 high- and 2 low-pressure stages). It is rated at 19,000 pounds (84.5 kilonewtons) thrust. The F118-GE-100 is 100.5 inches (2.553 meters) long, 46.5 inches (1.181 meters) in diameter and weighs 3,200 pounds (1,451 kilograms).
The maximum speed of the B-2A is “high subsonic,” and its range is “intercontinental.” The service ceiling is 50,000 feet (15,240 meters).
The B-2A can carry a variety of conventional or thermonuclear bombs, including sixteen 2,000 pound (907 kilogram) bombs, or two GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators.
Northrop produced twenty-one B-2As between 1987 and 2000. The first operational bomber was delivered in 1993. One was destroyed when it crashed on takeoff at Anderson AFB, Guam, 23 February 2008.
Boeing test pilot Alvin M. “Tex” Johnston in the cockpit of of the 367–80. (LIFE Magazine)
15 July 1954: At 2:14 p.m., Boeing test pilots Alvin M. “Tex” Johnston and Richard L. “Dix” Loesch lifted off from Renton Field, south of Seattle, Washington, on the first flight of the Boeing 367–80, FAA registration N70700, a prototype military air tanker and commercial airliner.
At 130 miles per hour (209 kilometers per hour), the Boeing Model 367–80 (“Dash Eighty”) lifts off at Renton Municipal Airport on its first flight, 15 July 1954. (Boeing Images)
Tex Johnston wrote about the first flight of the “Dash Eighty” in his autobiography:
We completed our before-takeoff checklist, Dix worked the tower, and we were cleared for takeoff. I called the theodolite station: “Dash 80, Johnston, stand by, brake release on the count of three.” At full throttle, the four Pratt and Whitney engines at 100-percent power, tail-pipe temperatures and oil pressure on the money, I said, “One, two, three,” and released the brakes. The airplane leaped forward and accelerated rapidly. We obviously would be airborne by midfield. As airspeed passed the calculated V1 speed, I applied back elevator. The nose lifted off. Dix called 130 mph, and we were airborne.
The Boeing Model 367–80 (“Dash Eighty”) takes of from Renton Field on its first flight, 15 July 1954. (Boeing Images)
Eyeballing the airspeed, I continued to increase the climb angle to avoid exceeding the flap-down placard limit of 225 mph. We were at 1,200 feet as we climbed past end of the runway. Dix commented, “Is this thing going to climb straight up?” Over Lake Washington, I throttled back to climb power, sure that the spectators had never before witnessed takeoff performance and climb attitude like that. . . .
—Tex Johnston: Jet-Age Test Pilot, by A.M. “Tex” Johnston and Charles Barton. Smithsonian Books, Washington, D.C., Chapter 15, Pages 542–543.
The prototype Boeing 367-80, N70700, climbs out at Renton Field, 15 July 1954. (Boeing Images)
For the next 2 hours, 24 minutes they performed high- and low-speed handling tests before landing at Boeing Field, Seattle. When Johnston was asked how the “Dash 80” flew, he replied, “She flew like a bird, only faster.”
Boeing had risked $16,000,000 in a private venture to build the Dash 80 in order to demonstrate its capabilities to potential civilian and military customers, while rivals Douglas and Lockheed were marketing their own un-built jet airliners. Put into production as the U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker air refueling tanker and C-135 Stratolifter transport, a civil variant was also produced as the Boeing 707, the first successful jet airliner. Though they look very similar, the 707 is structurally different than the KC-135 and has a wider fuselage.
Boeing Aircraft Co. President Bill Allen talks to test pilots Tex Johnston and Dix Loesch after first flight of the Model-367-80 prototype. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
The Boeing 707-320B Stratoliner airframe was used for the military E-3A Sentry AWACS command-and-control aircraft, the E-6 Mercury airborne command post, and other versions for reconnaissance, weather, and communications.
820 of the C-135 series and 1,010 Model 707 aircraft were built from 1957–1979.
Boeing Model 367-80 (“Dash Eighty”) in flight. (Joe Parke/Wikipedia)
The prototype Boeing Model 367-80 was operated by a pilot, co-pilot and flight engineer. The airplane’s wing was mounted low on the fuselage and the engine nacelles were mounted on pylons under the wing, as they were on Boeing’s B-47 Stratojet and B-52 Stratofortress. The wings and tail surfaces were swept to 35°. The Dash 80 was 127 feet 10 inches (38.964 meters) long with a wingspan of 129 feet, 8 inches (39.522 meters) and overall height of 38 feet (11.582 meters). Its empty weight was 92,100 pounds (41,775.9 kilograms) and loaded weight was 190,000 pounds (86,182.6 kilograms).
Boeing 367-80 N70700, photographed during its first flight, 15 July 1954. (The Boeing Company)In tanker configuration, the Boeing 367-80 refuels a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress. The chase plane is a Lockheed T-33A Shooting Star. (U.S. Air Force)
N70700 was powered by four Pratt & Whitney Turbo Wasp JT3C engines. This engine is a civil variant of the military J57 series. It is a two-spool, axial-flow turbojet engine with a 16-stage compressor and 2-stage turbine. The JT3C-6 (used in the first production 707s) was rated at 11,200 pounds of thrust (49.82 kilonewtons), and 13,500 pounds (60.05 kilonewtons) with water/methanol injection). The JT3C is 11 feet, 6.6 inches (3.520 meters) long, 3 feet, 2.9 inches (0.988 meters) in diameter, and weighs 4,235 pounds (1,921 kilograms).
These gave the 367-80 a cruise speed of 550 miles per hour (885 kilometers per hour) and a maximum speed of 0.84 Mach (582 miles per hour, 937 kilometers per hour) at 25,000 feet (7,620 meters). The service ceiling was 43,000 feet (13,106 meters). Its range was 3,530 miles (5,681 kilometers).
American Airlines’ Boeing 707-123 Astrojet N7501A, Flagship Michigan. (American Airlines)
Boeing continued to use the 367–80 for testing, finally retiring it 22 January 1970. At that time, its logbook showed 2,346 hours, 46 minutes of flight time (TTAF). It was flown to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Tucson, Arizona, and placed in storage. In 1990, Boeing returned it to flyable condition and flew it back it to Renton where a total restoration was completed. Many of those who had worked on the Dash 80, including Tex Johnston, were aboard.
The Dash 80 sat in the Arizona desert for twenty years. (Goleta Air and Space Museum)
The pioneering airplane was presented to the Smithsonian Institution and is on display at the National Air and Space Museum, Steven V. Udvar-Hazy Center. The Boeing 367-80 was designated an International Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
820 of the C-135 series and 1,010 Model 707 aircraft were built from 1957–1979.
The Boeing Model 367-80 is on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Chantilly, Virginia. (Photo by Dane Penland, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution)
Major General Vladimir Sergeyevich Ilyushin, Hero of the Soviet Union
14 July 1959: At Podmoskovnoe, USSR, famed Soviet test pilot Vladimir Sergeyevich Ilyushin flew the Sukhoi T-43-1, a prototype of the Su-9 interceptor, to a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) World Record for Altitude of 28,852 meters (94,659 feet).¹
Vladimir Sergeyevich Ilyushin was the son of Sergey Ilyushin, the Soviet aircraft designer. He made the first flights of many Sukhoi fighters. A Hero of the Soviet Union, he retired with the rank of major general.
Sukhoi T-43-1Vladimir Sergeyevich Ilyushin, wearing flight suit and helmet, with a Sukhoi Su-9 in the background.
The Sukhoi T-43-1 was the prototype for the Su-9 all-weather interceptor, a single-place, single-engine Mach 2+ fighter. It was built from the first pre-production Sukhoi T-3, with a new nose section and enlarged rear fuselage to accommodate a larger engine.
The production Su-9 is similar in appearance to the Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-21, but is much larger and heavier. It is 17.37 meters (56.99 feet) long with a wingspan of 8.43 meters (27.66 feet) and overall height of 4.88 meters (16.01 feet). The interceptor’s empty weight is 8,620 kilograms (19,004 pounds), and the maximum takeoff weight is 13,500 kilograms (29,762 pounds).
Sukhoi T-43-12 prototype.
Both the T-43-1 prototype and the production Su-9 are powered by a Lyulka AL-7 nine-stage axial flow turbojet engine which produces 22,050 pounds of thrust with afterburner.
The Su-9 has a maximum speed of Mach 2.0 (2,135 kilometers per hour, 1,327 miles per hour). The service ceiling is 16,760 meters (54,987 feet) and range is 1,125 kilometers (699 miles).
The T-43-1 later set FAI records for sustained altitude and speed over a measured course.
Sukhoi Su-9, right front quarterSukhoi Su-9, right profile
2 July 1990: At 10:20 p.m., Pacific Daylight Time, Anatoly Demyanovich Grishchenko, Honored Test Pilot of the Soviet Union, and test pilot at the M.M. Gromov Flight Research Institute, Zhukovsky, Russia, died at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.
For four days in April 1986, Anatoly Grischenko and Mil Design Bureau Chief Test Pilot Gurgen Karapetyan flew a Mil Mi-26 helicopter dropping loads of sand and wet cement on the wreckage of Reactor Number 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near Pripyat, Ukraine, which had been destroyed by an explosion. A mixture of sand, lead, clay and boron was dropped directly on the exposed reactor core. Carrying 15 ton loads suspended from an 200 meter (656 feet) cable, they made repeated trips while flying through the radioactive gases released from the plant. (Radiation measurements taken at 200 meters above the reactor exceeded 500 roentgens per hour.)
A Mil Mi-26 flies over Chernobyl complex, April 1986.
Grischenko suffered from radiation poisoning and later, leukemia. Four years later, Grischenko, along with his wife Galina, were brought to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, in Seattle, Washington, for medical treatment, on 11 April 1990. He underwent chemotherapy and radiation treatments to destroy his own bone marrow. A 42-year-old woman from France had donated her marrow, which was flown directly to Seattle by British Airways.
Grischenko received the marrow transplant during a 7-hour procedure on 27 April—4 years and 1 day after his first flight over Chernobyl— but shortly thereafter, he contracted a lung infection.
On 12 June 1990, exploratory surgery was performed to find the cause of the infection. His condition worsened and he was placed on a respirator, but he died on the evening of 2 July 1990.
On the Fourth of July, Independence Day, the most important holiday in America, national flags in the city of Seattle were lowered to half-mast to honor the memory of the heroic, self-sacrificing test pilot from Zhukovsky.
His remains were returned to Russia and buried at the Bykovskoe Memorial Cemetery, Zhukovsky, Russia.
Following his death, the Flight Safety Foundation honored Grishchenko with the FSF Heroism Award, symbolized by the Graviner Sword.¹
On 27 February 1995, Anatoly Demyanovich Grishchenko was posthumously awarded the Gold Star of Hero of the Russian Federation by President Boris Yeltsin.
Award of Hero of the Russian Federation.Анатолий Демьянович Грищенко (Anatoly Demyanovich Grishchenko) Memorial at Bykovskoe Memorial Cemetery, Zhukvsky, Russia.
Анатолий Демьянович Грищенко (Anatoly Demyanovich Grishchenko) was born in Leningrad, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, 24 August 1937. His father was there attending the S.M. Kirov Military Medical Academy. On completion of his course of studies, the family returned to the Ukraine, where they were caught up in the Nazi invasion. He grew up in Lutsk, Lyubomi and Kovel, towns in Volyn Oblast, Ukraine.
Grishchenko began flying at the Central and Egoryevsky flying clubs in 1955. In 1959, he graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute. From 1959 to 1965, he was an engineer at the M.M. Gromov Flight Research Institute. He graduated from the Fedotov Test Pilot School in 1966. Grishchenko served as a test pilot at Gromov until 1987, and as an instructor at Fedotov.
Anatoly Grishchenko married Galina Melekhina. They would have two sons.
Mil Mi-26 dropping sand mixture at Chernobyl, 1987.
The OKB Mil Design Bureau’s Mi-26 is the world’s largest helicopter. It is a twin-engine, single main rotor/tail rotor helicopter with fixed tricycle landing gear. It is normally operated by two pilots, a navigator, flight engineer and flight technician, and can carry as many as 90 passengers.
The Mi-26 has an overall length with rotors turning of 40.025 meters (131 feet, 3.8 inches) and height of 8.145 meters (26 feet, 8.7 inches). The main rotor has a diameter of 32.00 meters (104 feet, 11.8 inches). The helicopter has an empty weight of 28,200 kiograms (62,170 pounds) and maximum takeoff weight of 56,000 kilograms (123,459 pounds).
The eight-blade fully-articulated main rotor system turns clockwise at 132 r.p.m. (the advancing blade is on the left). A five-blade tail rotor is mounted on the right side of a pylon in a pusher configuration. The tail rotor turns clockwise as seen from the helicopter’s left side (the advancing blade is below the axis of rotation).
Power is supplied by two Lotarev D-136 turboshaft engines producing 8,500 kW (11,399 shaft horsepower), each.
The cruise speed of the Mi-26 is 255 kilometers per hour (158 miles per hour) and maximum speed is 295 kilometers per hour (183 miles per hour). The hover ceiling, out of ground effect (HOGE), is 1,800 meters (5,905 feet), and the service ceiling is 4,600 meters (15,092 feet), though on 2 February 1982, test pilot Gurgen Karapetyan, who flew with Grishchenko at Chernobyl, flew an Mi-26 to 6,400 meters (20,997 feet) carrying a 10,000 kilogram (22,046 pound) payload.² The maximum payload is 20,000 kilograms (44,092 pounds). The helicopter’s range, carrying an 18,000 kilogram (39,683 pounds) payload is 670 kilometers (416 miles).
The Mi-26 first flew in 1977. Production began in 1980. The helicopter remains in service with both military and civil operators.
Mil Mi-26 RF-95572, 04 Yellow, photographed in June 2013. (Alex Beltyukov via Wikipedia)
¹ The Graviner Sword, produced by Wilkinson Sword Ltd., is a 4.2-foot (1.3-meter) Scottish highland clan broadsword, modeled after a 15th-century two-handed battle sword.
Bell 525 Relentless N525TA makes its first flight, 1 July 2015. (Bell Helicopter)
1 July 2015: Bell Helicopter’s new medium transport helicopter, the Model 525 Relentless, N525TA, made its first flight at Bell’s assembly plant in Amarillo, Texas. Test pilots Troy Caudill and Jeff Greenwood were in the cockpit.
The Bell 525 is the first helicopter to use fly-by-wire flight controls. Side stick controllers replace the customary cyclic and collective controls. For the first time for Bell, the 525 uses a five blade main rotor and four blade tail rotor.
Bell 525 Relentless prototype, N525TA.
The helicopter is designed to be operated by two pilots and carry up to 18 passengers. It is powered by two General Electric CT7-2F1 turboshaft engines, each rated at 1,714 shaft horsepower, maximum continuous power, and 1,979 shaft horsepower for takeoff.
N525TA during a test flight.
The Model 525 is the largest helicopter built by Bell. It has an overall length of 64.81 feet (19.75 meters) with rotors turning. The fully-articulated main rotor has a diameter of 54.50 feet (16.62 meters) and rotates counter-clockwise, as seen from above. (The advancing blade is on the helicopter’s right.) The mast tilts forward 5°. The four bladed tail rotor is mounted on the left side of a pylon and rotates clockwise when viewed from the helicopter’s left side. (The advancing blade is below the axis of rotation.) It has a diameter of 10 feet (3.05 meters). The pylon is canted to the left at 15°. The 525 Relentless has a maximum gross weight of 20,000 pounds (9,072 kilograms).
The Model 525 has a maximum cruise speed of 160 knots (184 miles per hour/296 kilometers per hour), and maximum range of 580 nautical miles (1,074 kilometers). At its maximum gross weight the helicopter can hover in ground effect (HIGE) at 10,700 feet (3,261 meters), and out of ground effect (HOGE) at 8,100 feet (2,469 meters).
The prototype Bell 525 Relentless, N525TA, in cruise flight. (Bell Helicopter)
N525TA was destroyed during a test flight approximately 30 miles south of Arlington, Texas, 11:48 a.m., 6 July 2016. While conducting a test to determine never exceed speed (VNE) for single-engine flight, the 525 was flying 185 knots (213 miles per hour/343 kilometers per hour) at 1,975 feet (602 meters), the main rotor blades “departed their normal plane of rotation” and struck the nose and tail. The two test pilots on board, Jason Cori Grogan and Erik Allan Boyce, were killed. Both were majors in the United States Marine Corps Reserve, assigned to HMLA 773. Each pilot was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the Probable Cause was:
A severe vibration of the helicopter that led to the crew’s inability to maintain sufficient rotor rotation speed (Nr), leading to excessive main rotor blade flapping, subsequent main rotor blade contact with the tail boom, and the resultant in-flight breakup. Contributing to the severity and sustainment of the vibration, which was not predicted during development, were (1) the collective biomechanical feedback and (2) the attitude and heading reference system response, both of which occurred due to the lack of protections in the flight control laws against the sustainment and growth of adverse feedback loops when the 6-hertz airframe vibration initiated. Contributing to the crew’s inability to maintain sufficient Nr in the severe vibration environment were (1) the lack of an automated safeguard in the modified one-engine-inoperative software used during flight testing to exit at a critical Nr threshold and (2) the lack of distinct and unambiguous cues for low Nr.
There are currently three 525s undergoing flight testing. The Federal Aviation Administration certified the Bell 525’s CT7 engines in March 2019.
The number three Bell 525 Relentless prototype, N525BN, first flew 22 April 2016.
