Useful airplanes

 

The utility of any object is directly related to the usefulness it provides performing a specific task.  The utility of a hammer is great when used to build a house, however its utility is nil repairing a watch.  This same logic applies to the use of aircraft.

When designers put pen to paper (or today boot up their computers) to design a new aircraft, the performance parameters and intended use of the aircraft are of primary consideration.  If an aircraft is designed to carry hundreds of people over thousands of miles the engines must have sufficient power to lift this heavy load.  Wings must be designed to support the maximum gross weight plus additional strength to protect against deformation in the event that loads in excess of the gross weight are encountered during maneuvering or turbulent conditions.

 

Some aircraft are designed as cargo or people carriers. These aircraft have large cargo holds or cabins.  Doors are made large enough to allow entry and exit of cargo in an efficient manner. Large passenger aircraft usually are pressurized to allow passengers to breathe without the use of oxygen masks at higher altitudes.  Cargo aircraft have anchor points and nylon netting inside to  secure cargo.

Not all passenger aircraft need to carry hundreds of people. Many airlines use smaller commuter aircraft on their feeder routes or between smaller cities.  Many corporations and companies have business jets and turboprop aircraft to move executives and other workers to job sites or to meetings.  These aircraft are designed to carry from six to thirty people over distances of about 1200 miles.

Other private aircraft are designed for personal transportation and recreational use.  These private aircraft may have one to ten seats and can be as sophisticated as some airliners. 

 

Certainly the most ubiquitous of all private aircraft is the Cessna 172. With four seats and enough baggage space for a family, this aircraft will cruise at about 125 mph over a distance of nearly 700 miles.

The utility of many aircraft can be enhanced with the use of floats or skis to allow operation in water or on snow. In Alaska many aircraft are equipped with “tundra tires,” large under-inflated tires allowing the aircraft to operate into and out of unimproved landing strips and even riverbeds.

Easily the most useful aspect of an aircraft is its ability to shrink distances.  The vacationer using his aircraft to travel hundreds of miles has much more time to relax at his destination than does the traveler who has driven for two days.  The businessman who has important appointments in cities hundreds of miles apart can conduct his business without the waiting and congestion of airport terminals, and still be home for dinner that evening.  The accident victim who is being transported from a remote accident site to a hospital by helicopter realizes a direct benefit during the first “golden hour” after the accident.

 

The mission requirements of an aircraft are reflected in its design.  An obvious example is the B-2 Stealth Bomber.  The B-2’s mission is to penetrate hostile air defenses and deliver its weapons load on target.  The shape and materials used in the B-2 are designed to thwart detection by enemy air defense radar.

 It even seems that the Cessna 172 has been curiously capable of performing the air defense penetration portion of the mission of the B-2 bomber.  More than two decades ago, a 19-year-old German student pilot by the name of Mathias Rust successfully flew a Cessna 172 from Germany to Finland, where he refueled at an airport in Helsinki; he then flew to Estonia and on into the old Soviet Union, evading that country’s air defenses and  landing at Vasilevski Spusk next to Red Square near the Kremlin in Moscow, where — after being greeted warmly by curious onlookers — he was apprehended by local police. The incident was profoundly embarrassing for the USSR’s air defense community, which had spotted his aircraft several times during his flight through its air space and had scrambled fighters to intercept it, only to lose track of it amidst radar clutter.