Stratoliner Engine - National Air and Space Museum
by Darin Volpe
Title
Stratoliner Engine - National Air and Space Museum
Artist
Darin Volpe
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
One of four Wright GR-1820-G102A radial engines on the last surviving Boeing 307 Stratoliner, located at the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.
The Boeing 307 Stratoliner was based on the B-17 Flying Fortress bomber and was the first airliner with a pressurized fuselage. It first flew in 1938 and could carry 33 passengers at 20,000 feet, an altitude that allowed the Stratoliner to fly above most bad weather. Ten were built, the prototype, eight that went to TWA and Pan American Airways, and a modified version owned by Howard Hughes.
The Boeing Company is an American aerospace company. It began in 1910 when William E. Boeing purchased a shipyard in Seattle, Washington, which became his first airplane factory. He incorporated in 1916 as "Pacific Aero Products Co." and it became the "Boeing Airplane Company" in 1917. After the 1997 merger with McDonnell Douglas they began operating under the name "The Boeing Company." Aside from commercial and military aircraft, the company also builds rockets, spacecraft, and satellites.
Pan American World Airways was the largest international air carrier in the United states from 1927 until 1991. It started transporting mail and passengers between Key West, Florida, and Havana, Cuba, becoming the United States' first international airline. By the early 1930s it served most major Latin American cities. In 1935 Pan Am began trans-Pacific service to the Philippines, and in 1939 it would begin trans-Atlantic service. After World War II Pan Am replaced its flying boats for land-based aircraft. It was the first to fly a double-deck airplane in 1947, the first U.S. Airline to offer jet service with the Boeing 707 in 1958, and the first to fly the Boeing 747 in 1970. By 1985 the company was losing money and began selling routes and assets. The company finally declared bankruptcy in 1991, ending almost 65 years of service.
The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center is part of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, located at Washington Dulles Airport just outside Washington DC. The center is large enough to house items that are unable to fit inside the National Air and Space Museum's building on the National Mall in Washington DC.
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September 10th, 2016
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