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54-454: The term " RC-1 " may refer to: Boeing RC-1 , a concept aircraft for transporting oil and minerals RC-1, a remote control for the Canon EOS 100 camera. The first release candidate for a piece of software. [REDACTED] Topics referred to by the same term This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title formed as

108-573: A rigid fixture . These formers are then joined with lightweight longitudinal elements called stringers . These are in turn covered with a skin of sheet aluminum, attached by riveting or by bonding with special adhesives. The fixture is then disassembled and removed from the completed fuselage shell, which is then fitted out with wiring, controls, and interior equipment such as seats and luggage bins. Most modern large aircraft are built using this technique, but use several large sections constructed in this fashion which are then joined with fasteners to form

162-485: A design is intended to be "self jigging", not requiring a complete fixture for alignment. Early aircraft were constructed of wood frames covered in fabric. As monoplanes became popular, metal frames improved the strength, which eventually led to all-metal-structure aircraft, with metal covering for all its exterior surfaces - this was first pioneered in the second half of 1915 . Some modern aircraft are constructed with composite materials for major control surfaces, wings, or

216-472: A large warplane which uses this process). The logical evolution of this is the creation of fuselages using molded plywood, in which several sheets are laid with the grain in differing directions to give the monocoque type below. In this method, the exterior surface of the fuselage is also the primary structure. A typical early form of this (see the Lockheed Vega ) was built using molded plywood , where

270-495: A letter–number combination. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=RC-1&oldid=937430690 " Category : Letter–number combination disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Boeing RC-1 The basic design had

324-406: A new rail line, but it would also replace Churchill as a useful commercial port. The RC-1 would have eased these concerns; building an airport at Churchill was far less expensive than a new port and railway to connect it. The Project also considered unrelated projects, including huge fish farms in the prairies fed from enormous underground warm-water aquifers, and year-round "vegetable factories" in

378-447: A portion of the external load (i.e. from wings and empennage, and from discrete masses such as the engine) is taken by the surface covering. In addition, all the load from internal pressurization is carried (as skin tension ) by the external skin. The proportioning of loads between the components is a design choice dictated largely by the dimensions, strength, and elasticity of the components available for construction and whether or not

432-488: A rectangular wing spanning almost 500 feet (150 m), was powered by 12 Pratt & Whitney JT9D engines, and had 56 wheels in the main landing gear. A total of 2,300,000 pounds (1,000,000 kg) of cargo was carried in two under-wing pods and fuselage. The RC-1 would have been roughly twice the size and mass of the Antonov An-225 Mriya , the largest aircraft built, but would have carried about five times

486-548: A scratch pane near the passenger. Acrylic is susceptible to crazing  : a network of fine cracks appears but can be polished to restore optical transparency , removal and polishing typically undergo every 2–3 years for uncoated windows. " Flying wing " aircraft, such as the Northrop YB-49 Flying Wing and the Northrop B-2 Spirit bomber have no separate fuselage; instead what would be

540-445: Is composed of 4–6 panels, 35 kg (77 lb) each on an Airbus A320 . In its lifetime, an average aircraft goes through three or four windshields , and the market is shared evenly between OEM and higher margins aftermarket . Cabin windows, made from much lighter than glass stretched acrylic glass , consists of multiple panes: an outer one built to support four times the maximum cabin pressure, an inner one for redundancy and

594-469: Is prevalent in the series production of many modern sailplanes . The use of molded composites for fuselage structures is being extended to large passenger aircraft such as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner (using pressure-molding on female molds). This is the preferred method of constructing an all- aluminum fuselage. First, a series of formers in the shape of the fuselage cross sections are held in position on

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648-427: Is required for aircraft stability and maneuverability. This type of structure is still in use in many lightweight aircraft using welded steel tube trusses. A box truss fuselage structure can also be built out of wood—often covered with plywood. Simple box structures may be rounded by the addition of supported lightweight stringers, allowing the fabric covering to form a more aerodynamic shape, or one more pleasing to

702-643: The Arctic Ocean and Hudson's Bay year-round, and a new northern deepwater port to support these ships, referred to as "Northport". This led to considerable concern in the town of Churchill, Manitoba , at that time the only major port on Hudson's Bay. Churchill was connected south by the Hudson Bay Railway , but its port was too shallow to handle the deep-hulled icebreakers being considered. Northport, considered at either Chesterfield Inlet or even Repulse Bay , would have connected to Churchill via

756-616: The Boeing 747 , flying long multi-hour flights from the oil fields in Alaska to California. However, the sortie rates of commercial aircraft are based on customer preferences on what times they want to fly, not the actual ability of the aircraft. Assuming much shorter routes and 24-hour operation, sortie rates on the order of 18 to 20 flights a day seemed possible. This greatly reduced the number of aircraft that were needed to provide any particular level of service. With these two concepts, it appeared that existing cargo conversions of aircraft like

810-528: The French fuselé "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft 's main body section. It holds crew , passengers, or cargo . In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft the single engine is mounted on a pylon attached to the fuselage, which in turn is used as a floating hull . The fuselage also serves to position the control and stabilization surfaces in specific relationships to lifting surfaces , which

864-481: The Rutan VariEze ). An example of a larger molded plywood aircraft is the de Havilland Mosquito fighter/light bomber of World War II . No plywood-skin fuselage is truly monocoque , since stiffening elements are incorporated into the structure to carry concentrated loads that would otherwise buckle the thin skin. The use of molded fiberglass using negative ("female") molds (which give a nearly finished product)

918-418: The landing gear , the total amount of cargo that could be carried was dramatically increased. This allowed the gear to be placed on the wings as on traditional designs, instead of the complex fuselage-mounted systems normally found on heavy lifters. This led to a further modification by placing two sets of gear on either side of each cargo pod, for a total of eight sets of main landing gear, further spreading out

972-550: The $ 15 million required for a full design study. History, in the form of the 1973 oil crisis , ended these plans. The approximate doubling of jet fuel prices during the period from 1973 to 1974 rendered the RC-1 no longer competitive with a pipeline. No further work on the design appears to have been carried out. The Alaskan fields would ultimately be served by the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System . The RC-1

1026-403: The 747 would result in airlift prices just below the current price of crude. This was not particularly practical, but given the great improvements over initial concepts, further studies followed. The first of these considered adaptations of the existing 747F freighters, removing the jet fuel from the wings due to the short range (relying instead on tanks in the fuselage and tail). With the load on

1080-639: The Arctic. With these changes in place, Boeing was once again ready to present the new RC-1 design to the developers of the Prudhoe Bay oil fields . By this time several successful attempts had been made by the SS ; Manhattan to force transit of the Northwest Passage in 1969 and 1970, but the "icebreaker tanker" was considered too risky to consider for continuous operations. In 1972 Boeing

1134-644: The Great Plains Project to study economic development of the Canadian west and north. The Project was tasked with considering only "big picture" developments, ones that were just within the capabilities of existing technology. As part of this project, the known mineral and potential oil and gas deposits in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago were considered for development. Shipping the products proved to be an enormous problem;

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1188-437: The Great Plains Project, was the use of methane for fuel instead of jet fuel. Due to aerodynamic control considerations, the fuselage of the RC-1 had to be very large, yet carried almost nothing. This left enormous room for fuel tankage, and the use of methane, hydrogen, or other lightweight fuels was a natural consideration. As the Canadian group was also interested in using the RC-1 to haul liquified natural gas , using this as

1242-556: The advantage of being made almost entirely of wood. A similar construction using aluminum alloy was used in the Vickers Warwick with less material than would be required for other structural types. The geodesic structure is also redundant and so can survive localized damage without catastrophic failure. A fabric covering over the structure completed the aerodynamic shell (see the Vickers Wellington for an example of

1296-437: The aircraft flew the return flight, taking a set of now-emptied pods from a previous aircraft with it. As they explored the concept, it became clear that the offline loading greatly improved turnaround times for any cargo, including oil. Further, custom pods allowed them to ship any sort of cargo on the same aircraft. This led to the question as to where these pods should be located. An obvious solution would be to load them into

1350-419: The aircraft for mating. To achieve the required sortie rate needed to make the "flying pipeline" concept work, Boeing designed an airport around the aircraft. This featured three parallel runways that would operate at the same time. Aircraft landed on the two outer runways, and then taxied along large operational aprons at either end of the runways. Here they dropped their cargo pods and picked up empty ones for

1404-445: The aircraft to return to for another load more rapidly than if it flew all the way to California, meaning that a single aircraft could deliver more cargo in a given time. This had been noticed in the earlier studies, but the full impact had not been appreciated. This led naturally to the second issue, involving the sortie rate of the aircraft. In the initial calculations they had assumed similar sortie rates as commercial aircraft like

1458-405: The aircraft's huge fuselage. However, this would require the nose or tail to open, adding some complexity. It was noticed early on that it could be loaded much faster if the cargo was placed under the wings instead; the cargo containers could be driven up to either side of the aircraft at the same time. As soon as this was considered another major advantage became clear; by locating the pods closer to

1512-422: The airlift concept. It was noticed early on that two important factors had not been fully considered earlier. One was that an aircraft flying from Alaska to California would be flying right over some of the best developed shipping lanes available. By offloading as early as possible to some other mode of transport—tankers or pipelines—the amount of fuel burned would be greatly reduced. More importantly, this freed

1566-636: The complete fuselage. As the accuracy of the final product is determined largely by the costly fixture, this form is suitable for series production, where many identical aircraft are to be produced. Early examples of this type include the Douglas Aircraft DC-2 and DC-3 civil aircraft and the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress . Most metal light aircraft are constructed using this process. Both monocoque and semi-monocoque are referred to as "stressed skin" structures as all or

1620-581: The ends of the two outer runways for takeoff. This would reduce sortie rates. Likewise, at the loading end of the route, the aircraft would land downwind, load, and takeoff upwind. Empty weight was 985,000 pounds (447,000 kg), almost twice that of the Antonov An-225 , the largest and heaviest aircraft to be built, at 285,000 kilograms (628,000 lb). Data from Taylor, 1973 General characteristics Performance Fuselage The fuselage ( / ˈ f juː z əl ɑː ʒ / ; from

1674-641: The entire fuselage such as the Boeing 787. On the 787, it makes possible higher pressurization levels and larger windows for passenger comfort as well as lower weight to reduce operating costs. The Boeing 787 weighs 1,500 lb (680 kg) less than if it were an all-aluminum assembly. Cockpit windshields on the Airbus A320 must withstand bird strikes up to 350 kn (650 km/h) and are made of chemically strengthened glass . They are usually composed of three layers or plies, of glass or plastic :

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1728-452: The era. The fuselage was large and roughly the size of a wide-body airliner (although relative to the length, it appeared to be a narrow-body design), with a T-tail at the end. The dozen engines were distributed evenly along the wings, with each side having four engines on the outer sections, and two between the cargo pods and fuselage. To lower runway loads, the aircraft used a massive landing gear arrangement with 56 wheels. The majority of

1782-402: The eye. Geodesic structural elements were used by Barnes Wallis for British Vickers between the wars and into World War II to form the whole of the fuselage, including its aerodynamic shape. In this type of construction multiple flat strip stringers are wound about the formers in opposite spiral directions, forming a basket-like appearance. This proved to be light, strong, and rigid and had

1836-413: The fuel for the aircraft (natural gas is mostly methane) was an obvious choice. Methane burns much cleaner than jet fuel, and would greatly extend the engine life while also reducing the need for maintenance. It would also eliminate the need to fly fuel to the northern sites, they could simply generate their fuel in-place. In order to match the capacity and economics of a 48-inch (1.2 m) oil pipeline,

1890-497: The fuselage is a thickened portion of the wing structure. Conversely, there have been a small number of aircraft designs which have no separate wing, but use the fuselage to generate lift. Examples include National Aeronautics and Space Administration 's experimental lifting body designs and the Vought XF5U-1 Flying Flapjack . A blended wing body can be considered a mixture of the above. It carries

1944-634: The inner two are 8 mm (0.3 in.) thick each and are structural, while the outer ply, about 3 mm thick, is a barrier against foreign object damage and abrasion , with often a hydrophobic coating. It must prevent fogging inside the cabin and de-ice from −50 °C (−58 °F). This was previously done with thin wires similar to a rear car window but is now accomplished with a transparent, nanometers-thick coating of indium tin oxide sitting between plies, electrically conductive and thus transmitting heat. Curved glass improves aerodynamics but sight criteria also needs larger panes. A cockpit windshield

1998-420: The layers of plywood are formed over a "plug" or within a mold . A later form of this structure uses fiberglass cloth impregnated with polyester or epoxy resin as the skin, instead of plywood. A simple form of this used in some amateur-built aircraft uses rigid expanded foam plastic as the core, with a fiberglass covering, eliminating the necessity of fabricating molds, but requiring more effort in finishing (see

2052-434: The loads. Using this many landing gear on a swept wing would produce considerable problems when the aircraft tried to turn on the ground. It was possible to use steerable landing gear legs for this, but only at the cost of added complexity. An easier solution was to simply use a straight wing so the landing gear were in a line. However, this would limit the design to slower speeds below about Mach 0.7 (see wave drag ). This

2106-416: The low-speed lift was likewise greatly increased. Further, the rectangular planform allowed the twin wing spars to be single pieces, and all of the engines, landing gear and cargo could be attached directly to the spar. With a swept wing this would place considerable torque loads on the point where the wings met the fuselage. In most other aspects the design was relatively similar to other cargo aircraft of

2160-497: The payload. The RC-1 was designed in the early 1970s. The rapid increase in jet fuel prices after 1973 caused the project to become uneconomical. The RC-1 concept traces its history to an informal question asked of Boeing engineer Marvin Taylor. A friend who worked in the oil exploration business asked Taylor about the possibility of airlifting crude oil out of the newly discovered Alaska North Slope fields to refineries in

2214-410: The pods was accomplished on a set of parallel railway tracks, two tracks on either side of the aircraft. The front and back halves of the pods were positioned at the end of the tracks on loaders, with the pods below the line of the wings. The aircraft would taxi into position between the rails, and the loaders would then raise the pods into position for locking onto the spars. They would then drive towards

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2268-406: The return flight. Two such transfer stations were located at either end, in order to maintain the required sortie rate. The aircraft weight was so reduced after unloading that a downwind takeoff was trivially accomplished, saving the time and fuel needed to taxi to the upwind end of the middle runway. In cases of very high winds, the center runway would be used as a taxiway to return the aircraft to

2322-433: The same basic system to haul ore instead of oil. This provided the impetus to develop the ultimate RC-1 concept. To carry ore, which couldn't simply be pumped into tanks in the aircraft, the team started considering using drop-off pods that would be loaded "offline" at the sides of the airports. The pods would then be hauled to the aircraft for flight to a railhead. There, they would be dropped off and emptied onto trains while

2376-572: The same being considered for the Alaska Pipeline and Mackenzie Valley Pipeline , the system required 50 aircraft (about 15 of those being spares) each carrying about 8,000 barrels of oil and flying 24 hours a day. The aircraft were estimated to cost $ 72 million each (equivalent to $ 398 million in 2023 dollars), and fly for between 1 and 1½ cents per ton-mile. The Project was delighted by the RC-1 proposal, and several well-publicized stories about it followed. They were particularly interested in

2430-420: The sea lanes were ice-free for only a few months a year, and building a railhead to even the closest suitable shore point would still require hundreds of miles of rail to be laid over tundra . A pipeline would have to cross both land and water, and was likewise considered extremely difficult to build. The Project team became aware of Boeing's work with the 747F, and contacted them about the possibility of using

2484-452: The south. Taylor's back-of-the-envelope calculations demonstrated such a system would cost many times the market price of the oil. A series of injunctions against the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System imposed in April 1970 created the possibility that the oil from these fields would be stranded. Among a variety of potential solutions being offered, Boeing started a much more serious evaluation of

2538-495: The two spars. The cylinders were mated to aerodynamic fairings while being prepared on the ground, depending on whether they were going to be on the front or rear of the wing. The wing itself had a "plug" section that locked on onto the pods. When combined on the wing the result was a single streamlined pod about 150 feet (46 m) long, about the same length as a 707 . The pods could carry approximately 2,000 barrels of oil or 500,000 pounds (230,000 kg) of other cargo. Loading

2592-535: The way that it allowed them to have market flexibility; the RC-1 could reach pipelines in Cochrane, Ontario , any one of the existing pipe heads in Alberta , or any point between. If market demands changed, they could simply ship the gas to a different location, thereby avoiding the cycling of prices seen between the various points on the pipeline network. The Project also studied tankers and freighters able to drive

2646-419: The wheels were located on eight legs with six wheels each, four to a side spread along the underside of the wings to distribute the loads. The nose gear used a single leg with eight wheels, itself the size of a 747's main gear. Fully deployed, the gear required a 400 feet (120 m) wide runway, but if the aircraft was unloaded, the outer gear could be raised to allow landings on existing commercial runways. This

2700-425: The wings reduced, cargo could be carried along the spans or in the wing tanks. With these changes, in mid-summer 1970 Boeing presented a plan that could deliver oil for $ 1.50 to $ 2.00 a barrel (equivalent to $ 9.08 to $ 12.11 in 2023 dollars). The oil companies were not interested. At the time, a barrel sold for about $ 3 (equivalent to $ 18.17 in 2023 dollars). In 1970 Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau started

2754-481: Was able to offer the RC-1 as a replacement, allowing trans-shipment to any suitable port, railhead or pipeline. In these latest studies, costs were between 86 cents and $ 1.02 per barrel. By this point Boeing had invested about $ 500,000 of their own money in the RC-1 study series. With interest from both Canada and the US, the Great Plains Project was confident they would be able to gather a group of companies willing to fund

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2808-456: Was perfectly acceptable for short-haul role, where the cruise times were so short that added speed would have little actual effect on round-trip times. By limiting themselves to speeds not much greater than propeller transports, the engineers were free to select a wing designed solely for low-speed high-lift performance. The result looked much more like the wing from a 1930s airliner than a modern jet aircraft. A final consideration, especially for

2862-427: Was primarily intended for short-haul flights, between 500 and 1,000 miles (800 and 1,610 km), with rapid turnaround at the ends. This reduced the need for high cruising speeds. The low-speed concept allowed the design to dispense with several features normally found on jet aircraft, notably the sweptback wing . By using a conventional rectangular wing, the high-speed drag was greatly increased (see wave drag ) but

2916-439: Was useful for ferrying and service flights. Cargo was carried in wing-mounted pods, each consisting of a cylinder 26 feet (7.9 m) in diameter and about the same length as a semi-trailer . This size was selected to allow them to carry standard 8 by 8 feet (2.4 by 2.4 m) cargo containers in a 2-by-2 arrangement, the same as the 747F. Each aircraft would carry four such pods, two on either side, one each in front and behind

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