JANUARY 1968 River of Ice On a trip to Alaska to take pictures for a Boeing Magazine story ("Gravel Gertie," December issue), staff photographer Ver- non Manion exercised his camera a few times on the flight. He snapped the accompanying photo- graph from an Alaska Airlines Model 727 on its way to arctic Kotzebue. What appears to be a river in the photograph is a moving glacier-solid ice oozing down the mountain in a lava-like flow but infinitely slower.

Hear the Wind Blow Enrique B. Santos, editor of The PALiner, em- ployee newspaper of Philippine Air Lines, explained to his readers how PAL had contributed to the an- tique airplane collection of the Smithsonian Institu- tion in 1946. Three unnamed antique aircraft were on display at the Oakland (California) Airport. The Smithsonian had bid for the planes but been turned down by their owners. Came the day when PAL began its first transpacific service, its DC-4 on the apron near the antique airplanes. "Then our pilots fired up the engines," wrote Santos, "increased power to taxi away and blew the three airplanes into pieces on the ramp." The owners were at last willing to sell the airplanes to the Smithsonian-piece by piece. "Thus, in a manner of speaking," concludes Santos, "did PAL make a contribution to the Smithsonian."

The Flying Sieve Master Sergeant Stephen N. Garlock, 22nd Air Force detachment at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, was looking at a group of posters commemorating the Air Force's 20th anniversary in September. He saw a picture of the B-17 Thunderbird, a plane on which he flew the Mannheim mission in 1944. He was a gunnery instructor checking out a new man in the squadron. The objective was to teach the new man gunnery under fire. The lesson was almost too good. When Thunderbird came home to Molesworth, Eng- land, Sergeant Garlock counted more than 200 flak holes in the plane. C3 SATURN HISlORY DOCUMENT In Vietnam University of Alabama Research Institute History of Science EI Technology Group old Stratoliners are

By KENNETH L. CALKINS pleasure airline based in Saigon. It was leased to Air Laos in 1960 and N APRIL, Boeing Magazine carried damaged on May 22, 1961, attempt- a small item in the page 2 "Brief- I ing a three-engine landing at Tan- ing," an item which asked readers to our Son-Nhut, Saigon. There were no for more information on three Mod- injuries and the plane is now used el 307s reportedly in service in as a source of parts for other Strat- South Vietnam. The readers re- eyes' oliners in Vietnam. sponded, among them John C. Greenaway of Air America, Bob Trans World's Comanche (C/n Cousens of Qantas, Keith Petrich 1996) also saw war duty as a (2-75 Old 307 in Vietnam is viewed from and then returned to civilian life of Pan American World Airways, under wing of Pan American 707. David Gauthier of Northwest Ori- as a TWA airliner. It too went ent Airlines and M. J. Hardy, air to Aigle Azur which leased it to transport journalist in Angmering, Air Laos. Later, the plane was England; Dennis Powell, aircraft owned by Compagmie Internation- historian of Nairobi, Kenya; Wilf ale de Transports Civil Aeriens G. White of Glasgow, Scotland; and (CITCA) and operated for the Philip G. Mack, Robert G. Struth, International Control Commission. David Anderson, Frank Manely The ICC was established by the and C. G. Robinson, all of Bming. Geneva Agreement of 1954 to mon- itor compliance of parties to that From them and from materials agreement. Comanche disappeared supplied by them, we've compiled on a flight from Vietiane, Laos, to a rather complete account of what Hanoi in October, 1965. has happened to the 10 Model 307 Stratoliners built by Boeing in The reason for the disappearance 1939 and 1940. is unknown but might be surmised from an account in Life magazine Boeing sold five of the original several months ago of a Vietiane- 10 planes to Transcontinental & to-Hanoi flight. Life writer Lee Western (now Trans World Air- Lockwood told about a recent trip lines), three to Pan American, one he made to Hanoi aboard a Model to Howard Hughes and one was lost 307 Stratoliner: on a company demonstration flight in 1939. "At Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, I picked up the Interna- J. M. G. Gradidge, writing in the tional Control Commission plane, British publication Air Pictorial in which flies every Friday and every February, 1966, and Robert H. other Tuesday to Hanoi. . . . The Scheppler, writing in the Journal ICC plane, piIoted by three French- of the American Aviation Historical men, was an ancient four-engine Society, Spring 1963, gave brief Boeing 307. We let down en route run-downs on the other nine planes. at Vietiane, Laos. The plane had to Rainbow (C/n 1995) was leave from here and arrive in Hanoi one of the Pan American planes. -exactly on schedule, flying within A Pan Am crew flew it for the U.S. a 20-mile corridor. Clearance for Army Air Forces during World War any deviation in flight plan must 2, returning it to Pan Am duty after be obtained several days in ad- the war. vance-from the North Vietna- From 1948 until 1951 Rainbow mese, the U. S. Air Force, the U. S. was owned by Airline Training, Inc., Navy, the Royal Laotian military and was then sold to Aerovias Ec- and the commands of the Pathet uatorianas, C. A. In 1957, it was Lao guerrilla forces, any of which purchased by Aigle Azur Extreme is quite likely to open fire on any , a privately owned French stray airplanes." Cherokee was a luxury ship in air transportarton

The next Model 307 off the Boe- a new wing and a luxuriously fur- from Bolling Field, Washington, ing assembly line after the Com- nished cabin, according to Dennis D.C., in March of 1942, the passen- manche was the Howard Hughes Powell, one of our correspondents ger list included General George Stratoliner (C/n 1997), purchased mentioned earlier. Marshall, General 13. H. Arnold, by that world-famous industrialist The fifth plane, Cherokee, (C/n General Dwight Eisenhower, Ad- for an around-the-world flight 1998) was one of the original five miral E. J. King and Admiral John which, because of World War 2, TWA planes. As C-75s working for H. Towers. was never made. Hughes sold the the Army Air Force Air Transport On one flight for the Army in plane in 1948 to Glenn McCarthy, Command, these five planes flew November, 1942, a Pan American Texas hotel magnate and oil man. 7% million miles in 45,000 airborne 307 was headed westward from Ice- The present owner is Joseph F. hours which included 9,000 trans- land when it was hit in the tail by MacCaughtry who has named it atlantic crossings. Famous passen- 20-mrn shell fire. The plane com- "The Flying Penthouse." gers who traveled by C-75 during pleted the flight without mishap. The plane received storm dam- the war included President Rome- It was determined later that the age while at Broward International velt, President Vargas of Brazil, Stratoliner probably had been mis- Airport, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Queen Wilhelmina of The Nether- taken for a German bomber by an in the winter of 1965. Hurricane lands, Madame Chiang-Kai-Shek, Allied freighter. Cleo almost broke the old bird's General Giraud, and General James Cherokee was another of the back but she has been repaired, has Doolittle. On one particular flight Stratoliners leased by Aigle Azure to Air Laos and later sold to CITCA years after that, the was op- This accounts for all 10 of the for operation for the International erated in the U. S. by Quaker City Stratoliners. Five of them are in Control Commission in Vietnam. At Airways. In 1958 the plane was flying shape, three on duty in Viet- this writing, it is still on duty there. modified by placing additional nam. Five are gone. But none of Another TWA Stratoliner, Zuni, tanks in the fuselage to increase them will ever quite be forgotten. (C/n 1999) followed the same its range. On October 5, 1958, the Captain Greenaway wrote last route as Cherokee and is now Comet caught fire on a test flight month that the "307s are a pleasure working for the ICC. The same is and was landed on a butte 15 miles to our eyes over here. They are true of the old TWA 307 Apache west of Madras, Oregon. The crew being well kept." (C/n 2000), which accounts for the was uninjured but could not con- "After discussing the aircraft three Stratoliners now in Vietnam. trol the fire. The plane was com- with the head of the CITCA main- Originally designed to carry 33 pas- pletely burned out. tenance department and some of sengers, the Vietnam Model 307s The 10th and last Model 307 was the mechanics," said Captain are equipped to carry 60 passen- also a Pan American plane, Clipper Greenaway, "it became very obvi- gers in the five-abreast seating, ac- (C/n 2003) . The ship ous that all of the people involved cording to Capt. J. R. Greenaway, was sold to an airplane chartering in the work on and flying of the an Air America pilot in South Viet- company and thence to a pilot planes are highly impressed with nam. The three planes make 18 training firm before it joined the their old beauties.. . . (The planes') flights a month to Hanoi via Phom Haitian Army Aviation Corps in appearance . . . is spotless, highly Penh and Vietiane and return. 1954. It was operated as an air- polished paint work always fresh. Navajo, still another TWA 307 liner by Cie. Haitienne de Trans- Their interiors are clean and neat. (C/n 2001), had a similar history ports Aerien until 1957 when it was The cockpits look like new, all to its sister ships until 1959. Aigle returned to the USA. equipment present and accounted Azur leased the plane to Airnautic In May, 1967, Robert Struth, for. It is most interesting to see that year and Mr. Gradidge tersely Boeing quality control supervisor the face of a disbelieving young reports it crashed December 29, stationed at Barksdale Air Force fighter pilot as the 307s trundle out 1962, on Monte Renosa, Corsica. Base, Louisiana, reported that the and take gracefully to the air Clipper Comet jC/n 2002), an Flying Cloud was being offered for among supersonic F-4s and new original Pan American 307, had a sale in Shreveport, Louisiana. The Boeing 707s." different history. Pan Am sold it asking price was $70,000. Struth in about 1950 to Aerovias Ecuato- wrote that the plane appeared to be That's about all anyone could rianas C. A., of Quito, Ecuador. It in fine shape. It last flew, accord- ask for-to know that the sturdv was the second Pan Am Stratoliner ing to its log book, on November old planes are being used and are purchased by the South American 27, 1966, giving it a total flight time being given the respect due the airline. In 1955 and for some two of 20,520 hours and 50 minutes. aged. 4

Stratoliner (old TWA Apache) readies for flight to Hanoi from Saigon. To 12p000emplo yeap fh aApollo- 4 sion was a Six- year gasp

The Boeing team from New contractors and subcontractors and ing another several hundred engi- Orleans was ecstatic. The engineer- Dr. Von Braun's team of rocket ex- neering decisions. THE REST of the world it was , ing support group launched its perts at Huntsville, Alabama. The There were also some low points. Tothe launch of the nation's largest 2 chief, Walter Jerominski, into an NASA Huntsville group has al- Early in the program, a seemingly racket. To the 13,800 Boeing ern- , involuntary trajectory which ended ready proved its competence with simple manufacturing technique, ployees intimately associated with in a programmed splash-down in a the successful Saturn 1 program old-fashioned welding, created hav- ApolIo 4 i$ was a "siz-year-gasp"- i swimming pool. He emerged drip- and is overseeing the Saturn 5 work oc. The job was to weld together a 21h -minute culminat-ion of sh I ping but forgiving. at each step. Further, the first stage giant sheets of a new kind of alu- years of intensive, painstabg, pre- There were good reasons for such of 501-the name given the launch minum to make the biggest alumi- paratory work. an emotional outburst. Those rea- vehicle for the Apollo 4 mission-- num tanks ever constructed. As one When the first launch of a Saturn sons began in 1962 when Boeing was assembled by NASA employees problem of metal distortion or weld- 5 bmster mated to an Apollo cap- ' men first walked into the cavernous, at Huntsville. Still Boeing was an ing flaw was solved, another arose sub lifted off in November, amid 43-acre Michoud Assembly Facility intimate part of the first launch. to take its place. Problems prolif- lI unprecedented quantities of flame, 1 in New Orleans, where the bulk of Seventy per cent of the hardware erated faster than welders could smoke and noise, it released an I the Saturn first stages were to be for 501 was supplied by Boeing pour out metal. More than one man emotional flow almost as volumi- built. These men were embarking from the New Orleans plant. An in more than one department be- nous as Saturn's own 7% milIion on a job never before attempted. even higher percentage of the elec- gan to wonder if the job could be pounds of thrust, More than one "You stood there in that big empty tronic gear came from Boeing. And done at all. But the problems slowly Boeing man stood at the launch plant," one engineer recalled re- finally, the job of holding hands gave way. "We overwhelmed it," site with tears dgdown his cently, "and you suddenly realized with the first stage at Cape Ken- said one technician. cheeks. Walter Cronkite, the nor- that this was really a job." nedy, after it was delivered, fell There were others: parts that mally dehhed, urbane TV news- I The project, given to Boeing a to Boeing. That was a quick-step failed after they had operated per- man, lost objectivity for a moment ' few months before, was to do the effort of running down technical fectly in test for years on other and shauted '"Laok . . . at . . . that detail engineering and assembly of problems, making and carrying out programs and on other rockets; . , . rocket , . . go!"Hundreds gath- the biggest rocket stage in the world, engineering changes and mating equipment that should have worked ered at the Gape Kennedy, Florida, the first stage of the Saturn 5. It was the first stage with the rest of the perfectly but wouldn't; jobs that launch site-technicians, press, to be 33 feet in diameter, 138 feet rocket. Boeing had been given that seemed simple but weren't. VIPs and viewers-stood, cheered'. tall. It would hold a half million gal- job several years before. It was In the end, after excruciating re- and bellowed encouragement. lons of propellant and would have to called "systems engineering and in- examination and renewed technical Apollo &the. name given to both lift six million pounds from the pad. tegration''-a Boeing responsibility effort, the problems were whittled Buried in spaces between tanks in launch and missjon-went beauti- which has since been expanded to away. By the time the Saturn 5 the structure would be 77 miles of fully. Not m%ly was it a success, cover all the Apollo, from first stage was ready to go on November 9, wire, 44,000 electrical connections, to the top of the tower. nothing had been left to chance but the wards of National Aero- ia hundreds of feet of tubing-almost The first launch was climactic and nothing was unresolved. nawCics and Space Administration's three quarters of a million parts, but there were other high points in The launch was scheduled for 7 D"T2 Wernher van Braun, director of each of which had to perform its the program. The first test firing of a.m., Eastern Standard Time (6 a.m. Marshall Space Flight Center, it function perfectly. a complete stage at Huntsville in in New Orleans and Huntsville, 4 was a "te,xtM flight9',-perfect in Saturn's success was not a Boe- 1965 was an occasion for shouts a.m. in Seattle). When most of the almost every detail, ing exclusive. There were other and joy. It went perfectly, justify- on-site viewers arrived, the sky was *rzs>. ,-3c> , . + - +- --. ," -< :\,:%: - .>-a .- .3' 3; c ;,;;- ., . ,.- -.-.

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1 dark and the Saturn 5, 363 feet tall, looked like a giant icicle, parts of it covered with frost from the ultra-cold propellants. Virtually everyone expected holds in the countdown. "There always are holds," one rocket-launch veteran newsman pointed out. But the countdown on 501, which had been going on for a number of hours, clicked off to zero without stopping and the six-million- pound racket lifted off slowly, very slowly. It took one second to climb 7 inches, another 10 seconds to clear the mobile launch tower. Then it climbed away, trailing a jagged tail of flame at least twice its own length. Even- tually it reached an altitude of 39 miles and a s'peed of 5,200 miles per hour before the first stage separated and tumbled into the sea. The second- and third-stage rockets pushed the Apollo capsule farther and faster into space. The capsule was recovered later. It was spectacular, but even more spectacu- lar to the engineers were some of the test results. The first stage flew to within a mile of its appointed location in space, just over one second from being perfectly on time and within 30 miles an hour of its anticipated speed - incredi'ble accuracy. The engineering data-information radioed 'back to Earth by the rocket's telemetry - indicated that almost all systems and sub- systems had performed better than anyone had hoped. Many of them performed exactly between acceptable limits. The only major miss was the estimate of the temperature around the heat shield at the base of the stage. The engineers had estimated it. at 1,000 de- grees Fahrenheit and it reached only half of that - the right way to be wrong. The biggest question created by the launch was, as one engineer put it, "What areowe going to do for an encore?" The answer: Make the 502 perform &@das well. -C*

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Design improvements on the SST put Wings on the nose

AST MONTH Boeing released a list of design improvements on the 1,800-mile-an-hour supersonic transport. LThe most apparent change is the addition of a canard near the nose. This pair of small wings gives the plane, which has been lengthened 12 feet to 318 feet over all, improved longitudinal (pitch) control. The added length decreases drag. The prototype design is of a 675,000-pound, fueled and loaded airplane whose weight, distributed on 16 main gear wheels and the two-wheel nose gear, exerts no more runway pressure per tire than that of today's long-range subsonic jetliners. Another change involves the plane's nose which, in the earlier design, had been double-hinged so it could be lowered during takeoff and landing to provide better pilot vision. The new nose is single-hinged and incorporates a movable visor for the cockpit windshield. The simpler design reduces structural weight without loss of pilot vision

-- Latest T design is 12 feet longer. By FRED MAXWELL Today, hardware for nearly all of have "played together" satisfactor- flow patterns, and missile flight small. Two of these SRAM-loaded at or less than the agreed price. If Project Manager, SRAM Program the SRAM weapon system exists ily. The navigation system concept control loads. pylons have been flown in tests on the costs go over the agreed price, and is being tested. For example, has been proved. In December, the project began the big bomber but no pylon mis- Boeing must pay a portion of the T HAS been a little more than a Boeing crews are "road testing" all Next, the missile's guidance and systems integration tests in which siles have been released. That's the overrun. year since Boeing was awarded I of the hardware and computer pro- control system will be plugged in several separately designed and de- next step. That has made quite a differ- the SRAM missile contract. This grams needed for navigating a and the complete navigation and veloped missile systems are oper- Another fair-sized SRAM article ence. For example, SRAM engi- is a good time to evaluate the prog- SRAM-armed B-52 bomber to the guidance package flight tested at ated together to see if they inter- is a rotary launcher for the B-52 neers have redesigned some system ress. For those who have forgotten, point of missile launch. A standard the Air Force's Holloman Test Cen- fere or conflict in any way with bomb bay. A kind of Gatling gun SRAM stands for Short-Range At- elements, at considerable added truck van equipped with a master ter near Alamogordo, New Mexico. each other. This month, a test crew loaded with SRAM missiles, a tack Missile. A strategic weapon cost, to make them cheaper to man- computer, an inertial measurement All of the other missile subsys- at Wichita will launch dummy mis- launcher has been installed in a ufacture. These redesign efforts with a nuclear warhead and super- siles from a B-52 pylon-a wing- B-52. On December 6, a dummy sonic speed, SRAM will be used to platform, and aircraft signal-condi- tems have been undergoing rigor- have reduced Boeing contract earn- tioning and switching units is "fly- ous testing: impact tests of the mounted strut which will carry sev- missile was launched from a high ings during design and develop- arm the FB-111 and late-model eral missiles. altitude over the Smoky Hill Bomb- B-52 aircraft, giving such aircraft ing" SRAM missions on highways nose section and fuze, ground fir- ment but will result in more eco- ing range near Salina, Kansas. The nomical production costs. the ability to "stand off" from their near the company's Seattle (Wash- ings to test motor propellant, insu- Most SRAM hardware is small, ington) headquarters. In these tests, lation, igniter and nozzle; wind- but not all of it is, and the B-52 drop test confirmed wind-tunnel One difference between the targets while the missiles penetrate findings on the aerodynamics of the enemy defenses. the units have been hooked up and tunnel tests of fins, aerodynamic pylon is an example of the not-so- SRAM program and others in Boe- SRAM shape. Pylons, rotary ing experience is the amount and launcher and dummy missiles were timeliness of progress and problem all built by Boeing's Missile and information given to the customer. Did / hear you ask Information Systems Division in The SRAM reporting system is Seattle. The B-52 was modified giving the Air Force more costs, and the SRAM flight test per- schedules and engineering informa- How is SRAM doing? formed by the company's Wichita tion, and giving it to them more (Kansas) Division. quickly, than any other military During the next few months, the weapon system development pro- SRAM program's subsystems will gram Boeing has had. Most plan- stand Air Force inspections called ning and status information on "critical design reviews7'-wording SRAM is sent electronically to the which means just what it says. ASD System Project Office in Day- So there's where we stand on ton. It appears in the office's control SRAM after the first year: a cre- room on a screen, much like a home scendo of development and early television set, in the form of num- flight tests. It's a good record and bers, graphs and mathematical sym- at least part of it can be credited bols. The same information, stored to the stringent terms of the U. S. in computer electronic memory Air Force's "total package" contract banks, is available to the Boeing -Boeing's first experience with program people in Seattle. This such a contract. The "total pack- has been a significant step forward age," as the name implies, covers in management visibility for the a product from drawing board to customer. battlefield readiness, including the But back to the question asked prices charged for the finished prod- in the title of this article - "How uct. It spells out both the govern- is SRAM doing?' Very well, and ment's and the contractor's respon- thanks for asking. 4 sibilities and incorporates rigorous conditions and guarantees. The customer is the Air Force's Aero- nautical Systems Division (ASD) , Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Drawing of FB-111 releasing SRAM Dayton, Ohio. The SRAM contract, offering several options from which the Air Force will later choose, is based on firm prices. They were set after a spirited competition among bid- ding companies. These fixed prices represent tough targets for any de- velopment contractor. However, the contract includes an incentive ar- rangement where Boeing can earn a profit for producing the missile Dummy- missile was drop-tested last month in Kansas. Aircraft dolly is lifted off floor on cushion of slippery air.

One man can tow forward section of United Air Lines Model 727. By RICK KIEFER effects machine, air bearing or air Before the system was put into use, flotation, it operates on the principle two cranes and a crew of 30 moved IR PRESSURE has long been a that if you force enough air down- the fore and aft fuselage sections A servant to man. Negative air ward against a dense surface, the through 24 line positions. Now the pressure vacuums his rug, pulls ci- air will carry anything riding on its cranes are required only three times der through his straw and holds on back. Water flotation works the during the subassembly sequence; his toupee. Positive air pressure same way, but manufacturing is a a three-man crew with air pads rounds out his auto tires, blows out little messy in a swimming pool. makes all other moves unaided. his birthday candles and fills his Consumer products have adapted Boeing plans to move whole dinghy sail. the air flotation principle to wheel- Model 747 airplanes at the Everett, Boeing long has used air pressure, less, powered lawn mowers and to Washington, plant on air bearings. both negative and positive, for such refrigerators made airborne and mo- The 231-foot-long superjets, weigh- jobs as holding sheet metal in place bile by pressure from the blower ing up to 150 tons as they near the (vacuum chucks) and powering air end of a vacuum cleaner. doorway at the end of the line, motors (on drills and rivet guns). make molehills of the sleek Model In Boeing's Renton, Washington, Air also has figured rather promi- 727 body sections. Each 747 in as- plant, workers use an air pallet or nently as the medium in which most sembly will rest on five 8- by %foot pad which slithers across the floor air pads, one under each landing Boeing products are borne aloft. on a cushion of air, carrying loads Recently, Boeing manufacturing gear. The pads will lift the plane up to 57,000 pounds. The procedure shops have found still another trans- one thousandth of an inch. Because is simple if somewhat complex in portation use for air. They move of the 747's weight, considerably the telling. The airplane section sits mountains with it. more push than one man can muster on an air pad. When it is time to is needed to move the superjet In this case, the mountains are move the section to another position hulls. In fact, it will take two stand- body sections of the Model 727 and, along the line, the pad is connected soon, whole Model 747s. For the ard tow tractors. by hose to the shop's compressed In addition to saving time and past year, body sections of the air supply. Trailing its hose, the Model 727 triiet airliner have been money, the use of the air pads un- pad lifts the airplane section some der the 747 will save factory space. moved through factory final assem- 18 to 20 thousandths of an inch off bly on pads of air. One man, exert- Instead of canting the airplane as- the floor. With a little push, the sembly line positions so that each ing 57 pounds of pull or push, can whole unit swishes as far as its plane's nose is pointed toward the move the rear section of a 727 tether is long. factory door, the giant jetliners can fuselage across the floor. The air bearing has proved to be be placed side by side, pointed op- Call it air-cushion vehicle, ground- a time, money and energy saver. posite ways with wings of neigh- boring airplanes nestled into one another. This cozy arrangement is not possible when a plane has to be pulled on its wheels, nose-first, out of one position and jockeyed into Air pads give the factory its own another position. But it is possible when each plane simply is "flown" Flying carpet sideways on air pads. Assembly-line moves are not the only potential use for the air bear- ing on the 747. Studies are under Whole 747 airplane will be moved via air pads under all wheels. way to determine how the air cushion might move cargo in and out of the world's largest airliner. Food-preparation galleys, mounted on air pads, also could be moved in and out of the 490-passenger air- craft, saving many hours in turn- around time at airports. It is possible to adapt air flota- tion to almost any ground-moving job. Right now it is practical only where ample amounts of compressed air are readily available. Such is the case in Boeing factories, giving that company perhaps the only air- planes in industry that fly before they ever leave the factory. 4

New machine laminates aluminum skins.

Wichita handles a sticky situation by making An investment in bonds

By DARRELL BARTEE amount of sandwich work to be the bond - are squeezed out under done on Boeing jetliners. the uniform and adjustable pressure N INGENIOUS array of powered Wichita's new laminating ma- of the roller. Afterward, the lami- A rollers, wheeling across an out- chine can roll the adhesive on the nated skins are carried away by an size work table, has stepped up the largest of the flat skins for the overhead crane to an autoclave - a quality and speed of sandwich-mak- Model 737 twinjet in just 15 min- pressurized oven - for curing. ing at Boeing's Wichita Division. In utes, replacing hours of tedious If the particular job requires it, these sandwiches, the slices of bread handwork. The bottom sheet of the an operator's walkway can be at- are sheets of aluminum and the sandwich is held to the "bed" or tached across the laminating ma- peanut butter is glue or -more work table by vacuum. One of a chine's work table. The walkway accurately - adhesive. series of rollers on a turret, which and the roller rack are raised and A Boeing-invented machine ap- rides the length of the 30-foot table lowered by air cylinders. The bed plies strips of adhesive on a flat on side rails, feeds out a strip of is large enough (10 feet by 30 feet) piece of airplane skin, places adhesive in seconds. Another roller to accommodate several small skins automatically peels off the ad- another aluminum sheet on top and at one time. hesive's paper backing. If the alumi- The laminating machine is squeezes the sandwich flat. The num sheet is wider than the ad- mounted on wheels so that it can be sheets are then ready for the oven hesive strip, the rollers make more moved between locations in the where the two skins are permanent- than one pass. metal-bonding shop. In appearance, ly bonded together by heat and Then the top skin of the sand- the machine is remindful of a large pressure. The process increases skin wich is positioned over the adhesive flat-bed printing press. While it may strength while adding less weight to and a rubber-covered roller applies not be able to print the news, the the structure than do other fasten- a 900-pound pressure. Tiny air bub- Boeing laminating machine is mak- ing techniques. There is a massive bles - voids which would weaken ing news in metal bonding. + The most memorable vacations have a plane beginning.

Worlds first family of lets 707 . 720 . 727 - 737 . 747 Fly Boe~ngwith Aerolineas Argentinas Air Asla Air Congo, Air France Air India Air Jamaica Air Madagascar, A~rliftInternational, Alaska, All Nip~on.Amencan, American Flyers Ansert ANA. Avianoa. BQAC, BWIA. Braniff, China Air Condor, Continental Eastern, El Al Ethiopian, Flying Tiger, Frontier> Iceianda~r,Iran Air. ' - ' ' Insh. JAL. LAN Chile, LuPthansa, MEA, Malaysia-Singapore Mexicana. National Northeast Northwest Olymp~c PIA, PSA Paciflc, Pan American, Piedmont Qantas Sabena Saud~Arab~an, r South African, S~uthern4ir Transpprt. Standatd. TAA. TAP TWA Transa~r, United Varig Warda~fCanada Western World Fly Boeing later with Alital~a Braathens Britannia Br~tlshEagle, 5.-,' Caleclonian. Canadmn Pacific. Delta. KLM, Kuwa~tLeke Central. NAG-New Zealand. Nordair, Northern Consolidated Pacific Western, SAS, Saturn, Seaboard World,TIA, Un~tedArab, W~enAir Alaska 5" r- - . b&aY&,-=<;- ...---%'. , -*,r , , j