Extra Fuel

I recently visited Air Force 1/2, as LBJ affectionately called his Lockheed Jetstar dolled out as a little Air force One. In searching history, I became aware that it came out as a two engine jet, that made too much noise and had a small range. Lockheed made it a four jet and added fuel to the wings in a unique way, made it a fine plane for LBJ as well as Elvis Presley (Hound Dog II).
I had the thought that we might use that method to add cruise range to the 12! It would be very easy to add, CG could be precisely controlled by position, and what the heck, would look like the big boys. Comments anyone?
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Don,

With ideas like this you should be in Congress! :-D

Rich

Perfect for your AF 1

Don,
You are building Air Force 1 anyway, might as well add the wing tanks! If I was building a 12 and had the ability to check the weight stresses on the wing, I may go for them anyway to keep the fuel out of the cabin. One thing for sure, they would look way cool!

Have fun Don, you are an inspiration to many of us builders who wish they were experimenters!

Actually, Don - the first two airplanes were twins, the next 202 were quads. Number 2 was converted to four engines, leaving only the Prototype as a Twin. It went on to fly for 25 years as Kelly Johnson's personal airplane.

I have that airplane now at the Museum facility in Everett -KPAE - where I hope to make it airworthy for one last flight to the main Museum at KBFI (doing the same with the 727 Prototype.)

http://www.rbogash.com/jetstar.html

There were actually three different configurations of those slipper tanks used on the Jetstar. Kelly invented all of them and holds the patents on them. He was a big fan of external fuel, and also holds the patents on tip tanks - a wide assortment of them - first used on the P-80 /T-33 and later on the XF-90, F-94, Super G Constellation, C-130, etc.

The slipper tanks were readily removable and you could fly with or without them, although I think in practice, they stayed on. Slipper tanks were also adopted by deHavilland on some versions of their Comet airliner, and the Vickers Viscount also had some airplanes with slipper tanks.

The twin wasn't suffering at all for noise or range - it was the superior configuration - witness essentially all of the biz jets out there these days, as well as most airliners. The original engines were Bristol Orpheus made in the UK. There was a USAF requirement for all American made, so Bristol was working a license agreement with Allison to build the engines in the U.S. The agreement never got made, and Lockheed evaluated two alternate engines and finally settled on the PWA JT12 - which had only 3000 lbs of thrust - and they needed four. Late in the production run, they switched to fan engines with many airplanes retrofitted.

Only four of the Orpheus engines were ever built - one blew on take-off from Burbank, leaving three remaining - we have all three here.

My website section on the Jetstar will tell you all that and lots more!

Bob Bogash
N737G

Thanks for all the links and information Bob! What I stated was not necessarily fact, just gleaned from internet sources - especially that the prototype was too loud and thirsty! I had wondered about the prototype - nice to know it is in good hands.
My thoughts looking over the one at the LBJ Texas white house was it was a mighty good looking plane to be scrapping out. It was claimed by LBJ museum only days from being chopped up for scrap.

Hmmmm, I was wondering if you had taken a trip to Dayton, Don. And not told us about it. The picture you posted was taken in the Annex Hangar at the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton.

Behind the Jetstar you can see 2-6000 - the VC-137C (Boeing 707-320B) that took Kennedy to Dallas in Nov 1963. The aft bulkhead has a big piece sawed out - they did that to fit his casket on board, and left it that way. To the right is Roosevelt/Truman's C-54 - The Sacred Cow

The airplane at the LBJ Museum looks similar to the Dayton airplane - I'm really glad they saved it as I'm a big Jetstar fan (I have way too many favorites, doggone it.

Lockheed won the competition for the Light Jet Transport over North American and McDonnell, but then the USAF gave the Production Contract a month later to North American for the Sabreliner. Nobody could figure out how you could Win, and then Lose. So Lockheed offered the airplane for civil sales - the first BizJet. It was some small satisfaction - maybe - when USAF eventually had to come back and buy a small number of Jetstars (16) for VIP use as the Sabreliner was unsuitable. It was the VC-140 in USAF service.

Bob Bogash
N737G

I have been to Dayton for sure, here is the one I just discovered in Texas at the LBJ Ranch. A twin to it is in Georgia, but they would not part with it for the LBJ ranch, so LBJ Museum had to get a junker one from Davis Monthan. No insides yet even. As I recall this is one of the four (12492), but NOT the one LBJ normally used.
At my EAA meeting Sunday, an ex TWA pilot friend informed me that TWA had some modified to minic their airliners controls, and used them for training pilots for bigger jets.
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I see your point. Offering something we don't need, to be paid for with money we don't have, to solve a problem that don't even exist.

RFSchaller said:

Don,

With ideas like this you should be in Congress! :-D

Rich

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Spoken like a three term congressman, Don!

DonFromTX said:

At my EAA meeting Sunday, an ex TWA pilot friend informed me that TWA had some modified to minic their airliners controls, and used them for training pilots for bigger jets.

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FYI Don, during about the same time period as TWA Eastern Airlines also operated a JetStar for executive use and some limited pilot training.
I worked on one during college. One mighty fine machine, as were all Lockheeds.

George

<Nobody could figure out how you could Win, and then Lose.>
Bob, happens all the time as you (and anyone who has been in business with the government) knows.
My recollection from an early 1980's BBC TV documentary and also from a 1950'ish Northrop test engineer is that a certain congressman from Texas (initials Lyndon Baines Johnson) finagled changing an award to Consolidated Voltaire for the B-36 rather than Northrop's YB-49. Ironically, the B-36 had a very short life, while the YB-49 was reincarnated as the B-2 (from Northrop). My Northrop acquaintance in the Nevada desert was still "spitting mad" as he told me the story 3 decades later.
Always enjoy your stories and recollections!
Dave