Mustard

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From drawing board to Mach 2, the Concorde's development story is marked by a series of challenges. In this extra supplemental video, we look at some of the less known stories behind Concorde's development Concorde was the world’s most iconic airliner and one of the most technically ambitious projects in aviation history. Billions were spent on its development over a span of more than a decade. When the Concorde program was launched, it was to be the next giant leap forward in air travel. Many believed that mass supersonic commercial air travel would be commonplace by the end of the 1970s. But British Airways and Air France were ultimately the only airlines to put Concordes into service, taking delivery of just a handful of aircraft each. The two airlines would eventually turn a profit by branding Concorde as an ultra-exclusive way to travel. Ticket prices were set as high as $12,000 for a London to New York round trip for the elite few who could afford the price of flying supersonic. While the prospect of mass supersonic travel never arrived, Concorde earned a legacy as an engineering marvel and symbol of pride for the British and French until it's retirement in 2003.

Perhaps the most unusual of the many MiG-25 spin-off ideas proposed in the 1960's, the Ye-155 design would turn the fearsome Soviet interceptor into a VIP business jet. Preliminary design work started in 1963 and continued well into 1965. As a project internally funded by the MiG Design Bureau, as much of the MiG-25's original design was to remain intact as possible. The fuselage forward of the engines would be all-new, being much longer and wider to accommodate a flight deck and passenger cabin with a single row that would fit five to seven seats. The cabin would be accessed via an entry door on the port side immediately aft of the cockpit. The cabin could also be converted into a cargo hold by removing the seats. The wider fuselage necessitated an increase in the fuel load in order to extend the range to 3,000-3,500km (1,875-2,178 miles) at a cruise speed of Mach 2.35. A relatively short range, limited utility and large amount of design work still needed all conspired against the Foxbat Business Jet and the project was abandoned in 1965.

It’s been called the ugliest aircraft ever built, a flying barrel, or a man-made bumblebee. But in many ways, the Stipa-Caproni was a revolutionary plane, ahead of its time. It’s hollow, barrel-shaped fuselage with the engine and propeller completely enclosed made it more efficient than other aircraft of the era. The design promised to open a new chapter in aviation that would allow for the development of enormous airliners, decades ahead of their time. Some even claim that the Stipa-Caprinio helped inspire the modern turbofan engine. But despite the Stipa-Caproni forward thinking design, it's contribution to aviation has since been largely forgotten.

The F-117 Nighthawk would be unlike any aircraft ever built. A plane that would trade speed and maneuverability for a new kind of advantage. By the early 1970’s, sophisticated air defense systems were posing a huge threat to NATO aircraft. During the Vietnam War, thousands of American aircraft were lost to radar guided anti-aircraft guns and surface-to-air missiles. In 1973, the Israeli Air Force lost over one hundred aircraft in a matter of days during the Yom Kippur war. Military planners worried that if war were to break out in Central Europe, NATO aircraft would be up against a nearly impenetrable Soviet air defense network. By some estimates, NATO air forces would be depleted within a week. In 1974, the United States Department of Defense (DARPA) requested that leading aircraft manufacturers explore the possibility of designing an aircraft that could slip through air defenses by evading radar, infrared and acoustic spectrums of detection. Lockheed, although not initially invited by DARPA to explore stealth aircraft technologies, would soon make a major breakthrough. An engineer at Lockheed had stumbled across the groundbreaking research of a Soviet mathematician named Pyotr Ufimstsev. Ufimstesv's research demonstrated that the strength of a radar return from an object is related to its edge configuration, not just its size. It meant that, with the right shape, a large object could be made to appear tiny on radar. Incorporating the research into sophisticated computer software, Lockheed's engineers could now design an aircraft that would be virtually invisible to radar. But calculating the radar return of curved surfaces like those found on aircraft, would require more computing power than was available at the time. To get around this limitation, Lockheed's engineers would use a technique called faceting, where the ordinarily smooth surfaces of an aircraft would be broken up into a series of flat surfaces. It would mean that the radically shaped F-11

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A ‘genius ahead of his time’ reads the inscription on Robert Bartini’s tombstone at the Vvedenskoye Cemetery just outside of Moscow. Today, the Italian-born Soviet aircraft designer is celebrated for his extensive contribution to the development of numerous successful and experimental aircraft projects. Many of Bartini’s concepts were truly wondrous. Some were unquestionably bizarre. Perhaps his most ambitious concept was for a 5000 ton flying ground effect aircraft carrier. Designed to carry a crew of 430 and up to 25 combat aircraft at 600 km/h, Bartini’s ground effect aircraft carrier would have been the largest object to ever fly. Onboard, it’s crew of 430 sailors and 25 combat aircraft would travel at speeds of 600 km/h. While a ground effect aircraft carrier’s speed and tactical mobility could give the Soviet Union an enormous tactical advantage, it was a concept so fantastical, it could have only ever existed in the eccentric mind of Bartini

The Mikoyan MiG-31 is a supersonic interceptor and successor to the infamous MiG-25. Developed during the Cold War as a true home-defense interceptor, the MiG-31 shares only a superficial appearance to the MiG-31. Dubbed ’Super Foxbat’ by defecting MiG-25 Soviet pilot Viktor Belenko, the MiG-31 is essentially the full realization of what the MiG-25 was intended to be. Whereas MiG-25’s design was about brute force, the MiG-31 employed the state-of-the-art by way of sophisticated avionics, engines, and weapons systems. MiG-31 remains one of the fastest combat jets to enter service, and the first combat aircraft in the world to use a phased array radar, offering superior situational awareness.

In 1955 the Soviet Union learned that the Americans were developing a long-range supersonic bomber and immediately scrambled to develop an equivalent. The Myasishchev M-50 (NATO Codename Bounder) would end up as one of most fearsome looking aircraft ever built, but looks can be deceiving. In an effort to match Americans, the Soviets ended up producing an embarrassing failure, one that they would keep hidden for decades.

It was once one of Britain’s most anticipated projects - a new form of surface transport that would combine newly invented hovercraft technology with the linear induction motor. In an era when trains seemed stuck to speeds below 220km/h, the Track Hovercraft promised to connect Britain’s cities at nearly 500 km/h. But despite all of the promise it once held, the Tracked Hovercraft's development would eventually be overshadowed by technological leaps elsewhere.

The most sophisticated and expensive aircraft ever produced, the B-2 Spirit can strike any adversary, anywhere in the world, with near impunity. Even after three decades, the B-2 is still shrouded in mystery.

January 16, 1991 marked the start of the Gulf War, an armed campaign waged by a 39-country coalition in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. Within hours, coalition forces began to dismantle Iraq's air defense network and military communications infrastructure.

In 1969 Lockheed produced a highly conceptual study to determine the uses and capabilities of the largest aircraft technically feasible using 1960’s era technology. The result was the CL-1201, a nuclear-powered aircraft with a truly enormous 1,120 foot wingspan and a weight about fifteen times heavier than the next largest aircraft in existence. Although Lockheed’s concept is now widely known by aviation enthusiast, the original report is nowhere to be found, having either been lost or destroyed. Currently, the best source of information is a paper published for the 1982 AIAA 2nd International Very Large Vehicles Conference which references several aspects of the original report.