Looking Back: July 1922
A World War I flying ace envisioned a monstrous airliner that would fly in "but a very few years."
by July 1922
JULY 1922
World War I flying ace and frequent Popular Science contributor Eddie Rickenbacker
envisioned a monstrous airliner that would fly in “but a very few years.” With a boat-like fuselage that let it alight on land and water, Rickenbacker’s concept looks slightly like the Boeing Model 314 Clipper, the flying boat that made the first scheduled trans-Atlantic flight in 1939. The Clipper’s 74 seats converted into 40 bunks–but there was no observation deck. The 300-foot wingspan of the giant would have dwarfed the Clipper’s 152 feet.
Rickenbacker called for engines of 1,000 hp each. Today, each of the Pratt & Whitney PW4098 jet engines on the Boeing 777-300 airliner develops the equivalent of 78,400 hp (see “American Muscle”.)