A widebody jet airliner, the Boeing 777

Cutaway of an Airbus A300 jet airliner showing cabin and cargo deck

A jet airliner is an airliner that is powered by jet engines. This term is sometimes contracted to jetliner or jet.

First generation jet airliner travel was relativity noisy and fuel inefficient compared to airliner flying today. These inefficiencies were later addressed by the invention of turboprop and turbofan engines.

Early history[link]

Nene test-bed Lancastrian demonstrating in 1954 on the two jets with the two inner Merlins feathered

The first airliners with turbojet propulsion were experimental conversions of the Avro Lancastrian piston engined airliner, which were flown with several types of early jet engine, including the de Havilland Ghost and the Rolls-Royce Nene, however these retained the two inboard piston engines, the jets being housed in the outboard nacelles and these aircraft were therefore of 'mixed' propulsion. The first airliner with full jet power was the Nene-powered Vickers VC.1 Viking G-AJPH, which first flew on 6 April 1948.

The early jet airliners possessed much lower levels of noise and vibration than contemporary piston-engined ones, so much so that in 1947, after piloting a jet powered aircraft for the first time, Wing Commander Maurice A. Smith, then-Editor of Flight magazine, stated; "Piloting a jet aircraft has confirmed one opinion I had formed after flying as a passenger in the Lancastrian jet test beds, that few, if any, having flown in a jet-propelled transport, will wish to revert to the noise, vibration and attendant fatigue of an airscrew-propelled piston-engined aircraft"^[1]

First generation[link]

The first purpose-built jet airliner was the British de Havilland Comet which first flew in 1949 and entered service in 1952. Also developed in 1949 was the Avro Canada Jetliner, and although it never reached production, the term jetliner caught on as a generic term for all passenger jet aircraft.

These first jet airliners were followed some years later by the Sud Aviation Caravelle, Tupolev Tu-104 (2nd in service), Boeing 707, Douglas DC-8, and Convair 880. National prestige was attached to developing prototypes and bringing these first generation designs into service. There was also a strong nationalism in purchasing policy, such that the Boeing and Douglas products became closely associated with Pan Am, while BOAC ordered British made Comets.

These two airlines with strong nautical traditions of command hierarchy rank and chain of command, retained from their days of operations with flying boats, were undoubtably quick to capitalize upon, with the help of advertising agencies, the linkings of the "speed of jets" with the safety and secure "luxury of ocean liners" among public perception.

Aeroflot used Soviet Tupolevs, while Air France introduced French Caravelles. Commercial realities dictated exceptions, however, as few airlines could risk missing out on a superior product: American airlines ordered the pioneering Comet (but later cancelled when the Comet ran into fatigue problems), Canadian, British and European airlines could not ignore the better operating economics of the Boeing 707 and the DC-8, while some American airlines ordered the Caravelle.

DH.106 Comet 1 of BOAC at London Heathrow on 2 June 1953

Boeing became the most successful of the early manufacturers. The KC-135 Stratotanker and military versions of the 707 remain operational, mostly as tankers or freighters. The basic configuration of the Boeing, Convair and Douglas aircraft jet airliner designs, with widely spaced podded engines under slung on pylons beneath a swept wing, proved to be the most common arrangement and was most easily compatible with the large-diameter high-bypass turbofan engines that subsequently prevailed for reasons of quietness and fuel efficiency.

The de Havilland and Tupolev designs had engines incorporated within the wings next to the fuselage, a concept that endured only within military designs while the Caravelle pioneered engines mounted either side of the rear fuselage.

Second generation[link]

Tupolev Tu-154M

In the 1960s, when jet airliners were powered by slim, low-bypass engines, many aircraft used the rear-engined, T-tail configuration, such as the BAC One-Eleven, Douglas DC-9 twinjets; Boeing 727, Hawker Siddeley Trident, Tupolev Tu-154 trijets; and the paired multi-engined Ilyushin Il-62, and Vickers VC10 whose engines were mounted upon the aft fuselage. This engine arrangement survives into the 21st century on numerous twin engined Douglas DC-9 derivatives plus newer short haul and range turbofan powered regional aircraft such as the "regional jet airliners" built by Bombardier, Embraer and, until recently, Fokker. However other "jetliner" developments, such as the concept of rocket assisted takeoffs RATO, and the briefly mentioned water-injection as used and tested upon first generation passenger jets, as well as trailing edge mounted powerplants, afterburners also known as reheat used upon supersonic jetliners (SSTs) such as Concorde and the Tupolev Tu-144, likewise have been relegated to the past.

For business jets, the rear-engined universal configuration pioneered by the turbojet-powered early Learjet 23, North American Sabreliner, and Lockheed JetStar is common practice on smaller bizjet aircraft as the wing is too close to the ground to accommodate underslung engines. This is as opposed to early generation jet airliners, whose design engineers slung jet engines on the rear to increase wing lift performance and at the same time reduce cabin noise of the lower bypass "turbojet" engines.

Present day[link]

An Airbus A340-600 on final approach. Notice the fourth undercarriage under the fuselage belly.

Airliner descriptions are commonly broken down into the distinctions of the generally long-haul civilian passenger jumbo and, widebody jet airliners, and short-haul civilian passenger "jet" airliners. Among some of these categories included among the short-haul civilian passenger "jets" are both longer and shorter ranged "narrow-body jet and regional jet types".

See also[link]

• Airliner
• Aviation
• Business jet
• Freight aircraft
• Jet aircraft
• Wide-body aircraft

References[link]

1. ^ http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1947/1947%20-%202080.html

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (March 2009)

Bob Rivers is a well-known American rock and roll radio on air personality in the Pacific Northwest as well as a prolific producer of parody songs, most famous for his Christmas song parodies.

Rivers' most recent radio program, The Bob Rivers Show with Bob, Spike and Joe, is broadcast on Seattle oldies station KJR-FM after a previous iteration was aired on another local Seattle radio station KZOK-FM, ending in 2010.

Previously, between late 1989 and August 2000, the show aired on Seattle, Washington Active Rock radio station KISW-FM under the title Bob Rivers Twisted Radio. The Bob Rivers Show was also simulcast on Portland, Oregon "1980s Rock Hits" radio station KVMX (now KXJM) "Mix 107.5" from 20 March 2006 until 5 October 2006, when the station dropped the morning show and switched to a Rhythmic Adult Contemporary format under the new branding "Movin' 107.5".

[edit] WAAF Bob and Zip

Bob Rivers spent almost 6 years at WAAF in Worcester, Massachusetts (in the Boston market), as part of their successful Bob and Zip morning show with fellow on air personality Peter "Zip" Zipfel.

During his tenure with WAAF, Rivers started producing parody and novelty songs, both for the station and for the KATZ/Newcity "American Comedy Network", a radio syndication service that provided comedy material to local U.S. and Canadian radio stations. One of the first parodies he produced was "Breakin' Up Is Hard On You", about the lawsuit and the resulting Bell System divestiture, the court ordered split up of U.S. telecommunications company AT&T's Bell System. The song was sung to the tune of Neil Sedaka's #1, 1962 hit "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do" and peaked at #69 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop music chart. He followed it up with "Just a Big Ego," a parody of David Lee Roth's version of "Just a Gigolo." It went on to be included on Volume 2 of The Rhino Brothers Present the World's Worst Records and had a music video produced by Steve Rotfeld for Bob Uecker's Wacky World of Sports.

In 1987, Rivers released Twisted Christmas, which contained the Christmas music radio hit "Twelve Pains of Christmas", a parody of the holiday standard "The Twelve Days of Christmas." "Twisted Christmas" was certified a gold record by the RIAA.

WIYY "98 Rock"[link]

In the spring of 1988, at Baltimore radio station "98 Rock" WIYY-FM, as a lead morning show personality between 1987 and 1989, Bob Rivers gained national attention for an 11-day, on-the-air marathon during a Baltimore Orioles losing streak. He vowed to remain on the air until the Orioles won a game. He kept his vow and became a local celebrity among Orioles fans for his pledge.

During his time at 98 Rock, he and WIYY radio collaborated with Sheffield Recording Studios to continue his campaign of 'Twisted Tunes.'

[edit] KISW Twisted Radio

After arriving at KISW in Seattle in 1989, Rivers released a second album of humorous holiday-themed music in 1993 entitled I Am Santa Claus (the title track was a parody of Black Sabbath's song "Iron Man").^[1] Since then, three other Christmas-themed albums have been released, including: More Twisted Christmas (1997); Chipmunks Roasting On an Open Fire (2000); and White Trash Christmas (2002).

Bob Rivers and his Twisted Radio show have also produced a countless number of regular, non-holiday parodies covering anything from pop culture to politicians, to the various sports teams and players in the Seattle area. These "Twisted Tunes" can be heard for free on his website. CD compilation albums are also available.

[edit] KZOK The Bob Rivers Show

In 2001, the cast and show moved to KZOK where it played through September 30, 2010.

KJR-FM[link]

On January 2, 2011, It was publicly announced that the show would return to the air on April 1, 2011 on KJR-FM.^[2]

The Bob Rivers Show cast at 95.7 FM includes Spike O'Neill, "Downtown" Joe Bryant, newswoman Jodi Brothers, director Arik Korman and producers Luciana Bosio, and Pedro Bartes.

Plane theft[link]

In 2009, Bob Rivers' Cessna 182 was stolen from the airport at which it was based by Colton Harris-Moore, who flew it to Yakima, Washington, landing the plane excessively hard and then fleeing the scene. The Cessna was declared a write-off by Rivers' insurance. Rivers publicly condemned the theft and decried Harris-Moore's legend status, stating, "I'm not a fan of the media frenzy because I don't like the whole cult hero thing, but if keeping it alive helps solve it, then I think it's worth it."

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

Compilations[link]

Film appearances[link]

• Bob Rivers appeared as an extra in two Star Trek: Enterprise episodes. The first being "Zero Hour" along with KZOK contest winner Amy Ulen, filmed April 29, 2004.^[3] The other episode was the series finale in 2005, "These Are the Voyages..."^[4]

References[link]

1. ^ Delinski, Bernie (December 24, 1993). "From twisted to traditional, Christmas music sells big". TimesDaily: p. 3B. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=UU4eAAAAIBAJ&sjid=TscEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2844,3915091&dq=santa-claus+bob-rivers&hl=en. Retrieved February 26, 2010. 
2. ^ "Bob Rivers Show to return to Seattle airwaves". The Seattle Times. January 3, 2011. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/entertainment/2013835442_bobrivers04.html. 
3. ^ former STARTREK.COM : Article
4. ^ The Bob Rivers Show: Contact Us

External links[link]

• Bob Rivers / Twisted Tunes website
• 95.7 FM website