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Template:Infobox Aircraft

The Boeing Model 247 was the first modern passenger airliner. The airliner incorporated many revolutionary features, such as all-metal (anodized aluminum) semi-monocoque construction, a fully cantilevered wing, and retractable landing gear. While initial examples had speed-ring engine cowlings and fixed-pitch propellers, the Model 247 soon incorporated NACA cowlings and variable pitch propellers.

Other advanced features included control-surface trim tabs, an autopilot, and deicing boots for the wings and tail. The Boeing 247 first flew on 8 February 1933, and entered service later that year. Subsequently, engines and airframes became larger, and four-engine designs emerged, but no significant changes to this basic formula appeared until cabin pressurization and high-altitude flight were introduced in the early 1940s with the first pressurized airliner, the Boeing 307 Stratoliner.

Design and development

Boeing had eclipsed other aviation manufacturers by introducing a host of aerodynamic and technical features into a commercial airliner. This advanced design which was a progression from earlier Boeing Monomail (Models 200, 221, 221A) and B-9 bomber designs, combined speed and safety. The Boeing 247 was faster than the premier fighter aircraft of its day, the Boeing P-12, which was an open-cockpit biplane. In addition, it was the first twin-engine passenger transport that could fly on one engine. Its combination of features set the standard for the Douglas DC-3 and other airliners before World War II and was ordered "off the drawing board". Originally planned as a 14-passenger airliner powered by Pratt & Whitney R-1690 Hornets, the preliminary review of the design concept by United Airline's pilots had resulted in a re-design to a smaller, less capable design configuration. Nonetheless, the Boeing 247 was a remarkable achievement and was the company's showcase exhibit at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair.

As the Boeing 247 emerged from its test and development phase, the company further showcased its capabilities by entering a long-distance air race in 1934, the MacRobertson Race from England to Australia. During the 1930s, aircraft designs were often proven in air races and other aerial contests. A modified Boeing Model 247D was entered, flown by Col. Roscoe Turner and Clyde Pangborn. The 247, race number "57," was essentially a production model but all airliner furnishings were stripped out to accommodate additional fuel tanks mounted in the fuselage. The MacRobertson Race attracted aircraft entries from all over the globe including prototypes as well as established production types with the gruelling course considered an excellent proving ground as well as an opportunity to gain worldwide attention. Turner and Pangborn came in second place in the transport section (and third overall), behind the Boeing 247's eventual rival, the new Douglas DC-2.

Winner of 1934 Collier Trophy for excellence in aviation design, the first Boeing 247 production orders were earmarked for Boeing Air Transport.

Operational history

The Boeing 247s were capable of crossing the United States from east to west eight hours faster than their predecessors, such as the Ford Trimotor and Curtiss Condor. Entering service on 22 May 1933, a Boeing Air Transport 247D set a cross-country record pace of 19 1/2 hours on its San Francisco to New York inaugural flight.

Due to the initial demand from U.S. air carriers, Boeing had sold the first 60 247s off the production line at a unit price of $65,000 to its affiliated airline, Boeing Air Transport, part of the United Aircraft and Transport Corporation (UATC). TWA (Transcontinental & Western Air) also ordered the 247 but UATC declined the order, which resulted in TWA President Jack Frye setting out the requirements for a new airliner and funding Donald Douglas, Sr. to design and build the Douglas DC-1 prototype. Douglas eventually developed the design into the historic and enormously successful DC-3 line.

Although the Boeing design had been the first to enter series production, the 247 proved to have some serious design deficiencies. Air carriers considered its limited capacity a drawback since it only carried ten passengers, in five rows with a seat on each side of the aisle, as well as a flight attendant. Compared to the more capacious DC-2 and later DC-3, the passenger load was too few to make it a commercially viable airliner. Another feature that influenced passenger comfort was that the 247's wing's main spar ran right through the cabin in order to provide structural integrity, which necessitated some passengers to step over the large hump in the middle of the aisle to reach their seats. The Lockheed L-10 Electra had a similar configuration and while it was a much more compact design, the Electra managed to carry the same number of passengers at a slightly better overall performance, and more importantly, at a lower cost-per-mile.

Seventy-five 247s were built; by contrast, Douglas produced over 10,000 DC-3s, including wartime production of C-47, while the rival Lockheed Electra "family" was eventually to reach over 3,000 in its various civilian and military variants. Boeing Air Transport bought 60 examples, United Aircraft Corp., ten, four went to Lufthansa, and one a private owner in China. While the industry primarily standardized on Boeing's competitors, many of United's aircraft were later purchased by Western Air Express at "bargain basement prices".

The 247s remained in airline service until World War II, when several were converted into C-73 transports and trainers. No. 121 Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) Squadron operated seven Model 247D aircraft as medium transports during the early part of the war. Some 247s were still flying in the late 1960s, converted either into cargo transports or personal business aircraft.

The Turner/Pangborn Boeing 247D still exists. Originally flown on 5 September 1934, it was leased from United for the 1934 MacRobertson Race and returned to United where it served in regular airline service until 1937. Subsequently, the 247D was sold to the Union Electric Company of St. Louis for use as an executive transport. The Air Safety Board purchased the aircraft in 1939 and it remained in use for 14 years before it was donated to the National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC. Displayed today with two sets of markings, the left side is marked as NR257Y, in Colonel Turner's 1934 MacRobertson Race colors while the right side is painted in United Airlines livery, as NC13369.

Incidents and accidents

On 10 October 1933, a United Airlines Boeing 247 was the victim of the first proven case of sabotage of a commercial airliner. The aircraft, en route from Cleveland to Chicago, was destroyed by a nitroglycerin-based explosive device over Chesterton, Indiana.

On 12 January 1937, a Western Air Express Boeing 247 flight from Salt Lake City to Burbank crashed near Newhall, California, killing Martin Johnson of Martin and Osa Johnson fame (photographers, explorers, marketers, naturalists and authors).

Operators

Civil operators

 China

• Private owner operated one aircraft.

 Colombia

• SCADTA operated ten aircraft.

 Germany

• Lufthansa operated four aircraft.

 United States

• Boeing Air Transport (later United Air Lines) operated 60 aircraft.
• United Aircraft Corporation operated ten aircraft.
• Western Airlines received some of ex-United Aircraft Corporation aircraft.

Military operators

 Canada

• Royal Canadian Air Force

 United Kingdom

• Royal Air Force

 United States

• United States Army Air Corps

Survivors

c/n 1699, CF-JRQ

Exhibited in Canada Aviation Museum, Ottawa. Donated to the museum in 1967 by California Standard Oil of Calgary, Alberta.

c/n 1722, N18E

Exhibited in the National Museum of Science and Industry, Wroughton, UK

c/n 1729, N13347

Still airworthy, exhibited in the Museum of Flight, Paine Field, Snohomish County, Washington, USA.

c/n 1953, NC13369 / NR257Y

Exhibited in the Hall of Air Transportation at the National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC, USA, with United Air Lines colors and registration as NC13369 on its right fuselage and wing and as NR257Y with MacRobertson Race markings on its left side.

Specifications (Boeing 247D)

General characteristics Performance

References

Notes

1. Boeing 247.
2. Van Der Linden 1991.
3. Bryan 1979, p. 110. The main landing gear did not fully retract but rather a portion of the wheels extended below the nacelles, typical of designs of the time, as a means of providing a measure of safety in forced landings. The tail wheel was not retractable.
4. ^ Gould 1995, p. 14.
5. Serling 1992, p. 19.
6. Serling 1992, p. 20.
7. Serling 1992, p. 22.
8. ^ Boeing Company 1969, p. 35.
9. ^ Boeing Model 247- USA
10. Bryan 1979, p. 109.
11. Serling 1992, p. 21.
12. Serling 1992, p. 23.
13. RCAF Boeing 247D
14. ^ NASM Boeing 247D
15. "Seven die as plane crashes in flames". New York Times, 11 October 1933, p. 1.
16. Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum
17. Boeing 247D: Canada Aviation Museum Collection

Bibliography

• Boeing Company. Pedigree of Champions: Boeing Since 1916, Third Edition. Seattle, WA: The Boeing Company, 1969. No ISBN. WorldCat.
• Bowers, Peter M. Boeing aircraft since 1916. London: Putnam Aeronautical Books, 1989. ISBN 0-85177-804-6.
• Bryan, C.D.B. The National Air and Space Museum. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1979. ISBN 0-8109-0666-X.
• Gould, William. Boeing (Business in Action). Bath, Avon, UK: Cherrytree Books, 1995. ISBN 0-7451-5178-7.
• Serling, Robert J. Legend & Legacy: The Story of Boeing and its People. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992. ISBN 0-31205-890-X.
• Van Der Linden, F. Robert. The Boeing 247: The First Modern Airliner. Seattle, WA: University of Washington, 1991. ISBN 0-29597-094-4.

External links

• Gallery: Boeing 247 Images, including two of the interior and one of the retracted main gear
• Boeing Model 247: First modern airliner

See also

Related development

• Boeing 307

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era

• Douglas DC-2
• Junkers Ju 52
• Lockheed Model 10 Electra

Template:Boeing Airliners

• Boeing aircraft
• Low wing aircraft
• Multiple engine aircraft
• United States airliners 1930-1939