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Beyond the Carrier Deck: A Glimpse at the Boeing 777X Folding Wingtip
That's no Navy jet: As part of a periodic series of factory floor live broadcasts, Boeing gave a glimpse at the now "completed" 777X static test airframe (theaircurrent.com) Más...
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Good to see this proven technology making its way into airliners. It increases ease of access by ground service vehicles to parked jets and improves maneuvering in congested ramp areas. About time!
All things considered, this is a technology that's been tested under pretty harsh conditions, and maybe saves a lot of perfectly good terminals from expensive reconstruction.
I tried to think of any other large folding-wing aircraft, and the biggest I can think of is the E-2C, which is a big plane compared to other birds found on a carrier, but (aside from that huge dome) is about the size of a commuter jet, no?
Any bigger birds tried the folding thing, or pull it off successfully?
I tried to think of any other large folding-wing aircraft, and the biggest I can think of is the E-2C, which is a big plane compared to other birds found on a carrier, but (aside from that huge dome) is about the size of a commuter jet, no?
Any bigger birds tried the folding thing, or pull it off successfully?
The largest jets with folding wings that I know of are the RA-5C (53' wingspan X 76' long) and the A-3 (72' wingspan X 75'long).
I look at this massive bird and can't help thinking that this is a lot of time and effort (maybe even weight) to get just 12 extra feet at the wing tip. Obviously, it was an engineered solution, but it looks so minuscule compared to the huge wings.
Yea it seems like a lot of hassle for a comparatively small segment. But added together it's 24 feet of savings. That sounds like a decent amount.
