Aircraft Quiz No.123.

DougRobertson

Name the United States of America's very first transport aircraft to use jet power. What exact date did it first fly? Needed is it's exact full designation. :

moxy

Hello Doug

Just to clarify, do you mean a transport aircraft powered purely by jet propulsion or does it include those transport aircraft that employed JATO. I was thinking of the first of the two Lockheed Constitutions that took off with a number of JATO engines due to the model being underpowered.

Rob

DougRobertson

Welcome Rob,

Nix on any JATO boost power. The aircraft I am thinking of had pure and only jet propulsion power.

Doug

moxy

I believe the following aeroplane fits the bill.

Chase XC-123A Avitruc, first flight 21st April 1951.

Cheers

Rob

DougRobertson

First, I apologize for the delay in answering.

You got it absolutely correct. The experimental aircraft, an XC-123A was America's first jet transport, flying first on April 21, 1951. One Boeing B-47 jet pod containing two turbojet engines was carried under each wing. Testing revealed an on-wing leading edge location was better for tactical operations. So, production versions of the C-123 were piston-powered.

The US Air Force did use auxiliary jet engines on modified C-123s for Arctic operations. Further experiments in 1966 and 1967 showed the value of similar-placement of similar auxiliaries on C-123s in the Vietnam Conflict (our US congress never did declare war on Vietnam so officially it was the Korean Conflict). I served in US Naval Aviation at that time. (Am 88 years old now as of last month).