History | International Aviation HQ

15Jan

By Christopher HarrowNo Comments

History

What Was The First Fighter Jet?

Heinkel He 178 Caproni Campini C.C.2 Heinkel He 280 Gloster E.28/39 Bell P-59 Airacomet Messerschmitt Me 262 Gloster Meteor Heinkel He 162 Which Was The First Fighter Jet?

15Dec

By Christopher HarrowNo Comments

History

How Rollin King Made Southwest Airlines Into The Giant it is Today!

Though overshadowed by his more famous friend and co-founder, Herb Kelleher, without Rollin King Southwest Airlines would've never come to be. After all, he's the one who had the idea to found it in the first place! (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Early Life Rollin White King was born on April 10 1931 in Cleveland, Ohio as the only child born to Griffin and Elizabeth King. Growing up at the height of the Great Depression, a young Rollin watched as his parents struggled to make ends meet, instilling in him a drive to succeed through hard work. Attending Shaker Heights High School, the nearest high school to his family's home in the Shaker Heights suburb of Cleveland, Rollin excelled in all his studies, but particularly in English where h...

1Dec

By Alexander Pask1 Comment

History

How The Wright Brothers Failed…

By all accounts, the Wright Brothers succeeded where seemingly everybody else failed: They performed the first powered flight of a heavier-than-air aircraft. But they were also colossal failures, namely how they failed to monopolize the aviation industry. At one point, they had a monopoly on the industry and were by all accounts the kings of aviation. Yet within a few years, this monopoly had disappeared and the Wright Brothers were quickly overtaken in terms of wealth and size by other aircraft manufacturers. When Wright Aeronautical merged with Curtiss Aeroplane & Motor Company in 1929 to form Curtiss-Wright (which still exists today), not only were they the smaller of the two main firms in the merger, they had the humiliation of putting the Wright name last. As for...

How Charles Rolls Helped Found a British Icon!

6Nov

By Salomón Marco1 Comment

History

How Charles Rolls Helped Found a British Icon!

Famous for being one half of Rolls-Royce, an icon of British industry that survives to this day, Charles Rolls wasn't just a co-founder of a motor giant that eventually dabbled in aviation, he was a pioneer of aviation who paid the ultimate price. The twelfth person to die in the pursuit of furthering aviation, and the first Briton. A car salesman who amassed a large fortune, Charles provided Henry Royce with the money needed to found Rolls-Royce, initially as a luxury car manufacturer. Since then, the company that bears his name has gone to become not only an icon, but has also gotten into the aircraft engine manufacturing business, whilst Charles Rolls has gone down in the history books as a pioneer of British aviation. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).p...

27Oct

By Charles YongzhengNo Comments

History

How Sir Freddie Laker Shook up The Airline Industry

Before Michael O'Leary and Richard Branson were shaking up the airline industry, there was Sir Freddie Laker, whose Laker Airways was the first real challenger to the monopoly British Airways had enjoyed on British air travel since the 1940's. Despite (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Early Life Frederick Albert Laker was born on August 6 1922 in Canterbury in Southern England. His father Early Ventures Aviation Traders Air Charter Channel Air Bridge Laker Airways Skytrain Death Legacy

How Bill Lear Created The Modern Business Jet

16Oct

By Christopher HarrowNo Comments

History

How Bill Lear Created The Modern Business Jet

Remembered for being the man behind the famed Learjet, Bill Lear did much more than just build the first modern business jet: he also built radios, cassette players, battery eliminators and much more! A high school dropout and former Navy seaman who came from a broken home, Bill had a reputation for being difficult to work with and hard on his employees, constantly pushing them to push beyond the boundaries of modern technology, almost as if he had something to prove. But beneath his rough exterior was a great sense of humor, which could make even his most serious employees cry with laughter. His sense of humor even extended to the names of his children, such as his third daughter who was called Crystal Shanda Lear! (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); ...

Why Sir Barnes Wallis Was The Most Important Aerospace Engineer to Have Ever Lived!

25Sep

By Alexander PaskNo Comments

History

Why Sir Barnes Wallis Was The Most Important Aerospace Engineer to Have Ever Lived!

Though most famous for his "Bouncing Bomb" that was used during the Dambusters raid (Operation Chastise), Barnes Wallis was behind much more - from airship designs, to bombs, to engine designs - a lot of which he's isn't remembered for! If you add all this up, there's a pretty strong argument that Barnes Wallis is the most influential aerospace engineer ever, perhaps only rivalled by the Wright Brothers. Without him, the Allies (and Britain in particular) may have actually lost WWII, or at least been devastated by it even more than they were in our timeline, and Britain's postwar dominance would've almost certainly been even shorter... (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Early Life Barnes Neville Wallis was born on September 26 1887 in the town...

Remembering North American Aviation: An Aviation Pioneer… Until it Wasn’t…

4Sep

By Charles YongzhengNo Comments

History

Remembering North American Aviation: An Aviation Pioneer… Until it Wasn’t…

Famous for being the company behind the P-51 Mustang, North American Aviation was one of the largest and most respected aircraft manufacturers in the world at its height. Yet a minor blunder by one of its subsidiaries brought everything down. Aside from its famous aircraft - the P-51, F-86, X-15 - North American Aviation also designed the Saturn V rocket, the Space Shuttle orbiter and the command and service module (CSM) for the Apollo Project. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Background In 1916, Canadian-born university lecturer-turned-investment advisor, Clement Melville Keys, was asked by Glenn Curtiss (a friend of one of his former students) to help restructure his financially troubled company. Duly helping to restructure the Curtiss Ae...

Remembering McDonnell Douglas: The Last Great American Aerospace Giant

1Sep

By Charles YongzhengNo Comments

History

Remembering McDonnell Douglas: The Last Great American Aerospace Giant

Today, Boeing is an aviation giant with almost no competition. Yet before their 1997 merger, Boeing's main competitor was the famed McDonnell Douglas, with the two companies often embroiled in a game of cat and mouse to produce the best aircraft possible. Indeed, even after their merger, Boeing had so much respect for the aircraft their former rivals built, that many of the pre-merger aircraft - both civil and military alike - kept their McDonnel Douglas designations, only with newer variants holding Boeing ones. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Pre-McDonnell Douglas: Douglas Aircraft Having been interested in aviation since he was a teenager, Don Douglas chose to pursue a career in aviation, eventually becoming the chief engineer at the Glenn ...

William E. Boeing: How The Son of an Immigrant Became The King of Aviation

14Aug

By Christopher Harrow3 Comments

History

William E. Boeing: How The Son of an Immigrant Became The King of Aviation

William E. Boeing has one of those name where he needs no introduction. A titan in his heyday, Boeing at one point controlled not only the multibillion dollar aerospace giant behind the 737 and 747, but also United Airlines and United Technologies too. But this was not to last however, Boeing's enterprises got so big and he got so powerful that he eventually caught the attention of the federal government, who tore his empire down to the ground in 1934 and caused William to leave the aviation business all together... (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Early Life A scion of a wealthy family from the town of Hohenlimburg (now a neighborhood in the city of Hagen, Germany) Wilhelm Böing joined the Prussian Army in 1866 and served in the Austro-Prussia...