Jet-Age (Continued)
main cabin into compartments, varying the
ceiling heights, and varying the positions of
each group of four to eight seats.
Decor by experts like Dorothy Draper runs
to bright pastels in modern patterns calcu
lated to put the mind at ease. Each seat has
its own reading light, but subtle ceiling illu
mination alters imperceptibly to make cabin
conditions seem one with the world outside
at all times.
Perhaps the only jet phenomenon that can't
be duplicated altogether by lighting tricks is
the strange way night comes. It does not
"fall." It rises from the earth below, very
gradually, until at length it envelops the ship
speeding along six to ten miles up.
Nevertheless a jet's overhead illumination
is striking. If you take off in broad daylight,
that's how the cabin is lighted. At sunset or
dawn, the hidden fixtures give off a pleasant
rosy hue. As you turn away at last from the
window and fix your attention on refresh
ments or dinner, the cabin has a star-studded
midnight-blue glow. Your eyes are fully
adjusted and you can see everything plainly.
Warm, air-conditioned, and well-fed, you
drowse along among the planets at close to
the speed of sound.
Convair expects to make good its "world's
fastest jetliner" boast by cruising the 880 at
615 mph. Douglas rates the DC-8 for an
average 580 with a top speed of 590. Boeing
has five separate models of the 707, the two
for domestic traffic cruising at 591 mph and
the three intercontinental at 605.
Not exactly competitive but very much in
the picture as an executive aircraft and Air
Force trainer is Lockheed's twin JetStar, a
10-passenger craft that will cruise 10 miles
up at 630 mph. It recently crossed the nation
coast-to-coast twice in a record 14 hours
airborne. Top
speed; 686 mph.
The JetStar's
pair of powerful
turbojets are
mounted close
to the after part
of the fuselage
for an excep
tionally quiet
ride. This ship's
$l-million cost
seems cheap
against $5
million for a
707, DC-8, or 880, but greater capacity makes
the four-engine jetliner a bargain on com
mercial runs.
The Convair will take 80 to 84 passengers
on a luxury flight and up to 109 tourists. The
Douglas can seat 118 to 122 first class, 144
tourist, and has an astounding maximum
capacity of 176. But the Boeing overseas
commercial jets, which like their domestic
versions are designed for 131 first class, can
comfortably seat 180 people on one of the
planned week-end tourist round trips to
Paris or Honolulu.
But won't these massive jetliners be noisy?
If you mean noisy on the inside, be
cause of up to 180 people talking, the
answer is: no, not even then. Bulkheading
into compartments will dampen sound, for
one thing, and so will acoustical materials
used for cabin walls, floors, and ceiling.
If you mean noisy on the inside because of
those four big 12-foot jet engines, the answer
is still no. Acoustical engineers have made
certain that neither interior hubbub nor ex-
n LI -f .i:
solved with "mock-up" models.
terior engine whistle disturbs the luxurious
quiet of your jetliner voyage. Turbojet sound
will combine with air passing over the ship's
skin to make, at most, a soothing whisper.
Otherwise, there's deep-rug, library quiet.
If, however, you mean noisy on the outside,
new questions arise. To most of them, com
mercial jet makers have found the answers.
Noise suppression devices to muffle the roar
of jet engines on take-off, where most of the
problem focuses, now do their job so thor
oughly that four-engine jetliners can lift off
and pass over residential areas adjacent to
airports more quietly by several decibels
than even a DC-7 or Super-Constellation!
In the months ahead major airports
throughout the nation will be welcoming
their first jets. Initially these visits will be
test runs, with everybody's eyes and espe
cially ears very much on the alert. But
since all jetliners have been designed to
utilize existing airport facilities, with a mini
mum of fuss except for portable blast fences
to protect against jet exhausts, the advance
assurance is that, in general, the welcome
mat will be out.
Though it's known that the Convair 880,
for instance, can comfortably land, unload,
refuel, reload, turn around, and take off in
from 16 to 20 minutes at any of more than
150 large and medium-size airports, some
cities already have begun stretching their
welcome mat for jets they have yet to see.
New Orleans and Miami are pumping mil- -lions
in private funds and tax money into the
7,000- to 11,000-foot runways which the
speedier jets of day-after-tomorrow will un
doubtedly require. So are other big air
centers like Oklahoma City and Boston.
But for some reason, that doorway to the
Western air world, New York City, is all but
standing pat. The big town's powerful Port
Authority sees no reason at present to depart
from its 1951 prohibition against the landing
of scheduled jetliners at Idlewild. Our own
jets aren't even scheduled for testing at Idle
wild, and no additional facilities are planned
at any New York area airports if and when
large jets are allowed.
It may sound a little grim but things will
work out. They'll have to. Two years from
now a full third of all air travel will be by
jetliner, with 66 million of us flying 35 billion
passenger miles. Five years later, in 1965,
prop-driven transports will be flying their
last, even on the 300-mile runs which are
supposed to be rock-bottom minimum for
economical and profitable jet operation.
Into the commercial jets of the present
hour, airframe manufacturers have poured
fortunes for research and safety testing. Boe
ing alone, which already had extensive jet
bomber and tanker experience, spent $16
million developing the 707 prototype. Another
half-million went into an elaborate mockup
of this jetliner's cabin on the eighth floor of a
New York office building.
Convair has been spurred on by the fact
that it won't roll out the finished 880 until
December. The maiden flight will be two
months later. Even using the first three
Convair jets for CAA certification, "the
world's fastest jetliner" may have to wait
until late next year to do its stuff on the
world's airlines.
Douglas, on the other hand, put all its chips
on intensive lab work. This is a Douglas tradi
tion. They let the mathematics boys worry out
all the bugs as the ship developed. When the
DC-8 flew for the first time last May, its six
(Continued on page 11)
Family Weekly, October 12, 195
24
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