The Westland Welkin was a British twin-engine heavy fighter from the Westland Aircraft Company, designed to fight at extremely high altitudes, in the stratosphere; the word welkin meaning "the vault of heaven" or the upper atmosphere. First conceived in 1940, the plane was built in response to the arrival of modified Junkers Ju 86P bombers flying reconnaissance missions that suggested the Luftwaffe might attempt to re-open the bombing of England from high altitude. Construction was from 1942 to 1943. The threat never materialised; consequently, Westland produced only a small number of Welkins and few of these flew.
The Junkers Ju 388Störtebeker is a World War II German Luftwaffe multi-role aircraft based on the Ju 88 airframe by way of the Ju 188. It differed from its predecessors in being intended for high altitude operation, with design features such as a pressurized cockpit for its crew. The Ju 388 was introduced very late in the war, and production problems along with the deteriorating war conditions meant that few were built.
The Junkers F 13 was the world's first all-metal transport aircraft, developed in Germany at the end of World War I. It was an advanced cantilever-wing monoplane, with enclosed accommodation for four passengers, and a two seat open-air cockpit. 322 planes of the type were manufactured, which was exceptionally large number for a commercial airliner of the era, and were operated all over the globe. It accounted for over a third of air traffic in the early 1920s. It was in production for thirteen years and in commercial service for more than thirty. There were many versions including floatplanes for water landing, skis, mailplane, and different engines. Several survived in various states of repair in museums, and a replica of the type was put back in production in the 2010s;taking flight once again nearly a century after it first flew.
The Junkers EF 61 was a German prototype twin-engined high-altitude bomber aircraft of the 1930s. Only two examples were built, but it provided valuable information on pressure cabins which aided the design of later pressurised aircraft.
The Junkers Ju 86 was a German monoplane bomber and civilian airliner designed in the early 1930s, and employed by various air forces on both sides during World War II. The civilian model Ju 86B could carry ten passengers. Two were delivered to Swissair and five to Deutsche Luft Hansa. In addition a single civilian Ju 86Z was delivered to Sweden's AB Aerotransport.
The Jumo 222 was a German high-power multiple-bank in-line piston aircraft engine from Junkers, designed under the management of Ferdinand Brandner of the Junkers Motorenwerke.
In aeronautics, a descent is any time period during air travel where an aircraft decreases altitude, and is the opposite of an ascent or climb.
Cabin pressurization is a process in which conditioned air is pumped into the cabin of an aircraft or spacecraft in order to create a safe and comfortable environment for humans flying at high altitudes. For aircraft, this air is usually bled off from the gas turbine engines at the compressor stage, and for spacecraft, it is carried in high-pressure, often cryogenic, tanks. The air is cooled, humidified, and mixed with recirculated air by one or more environmental control systems before it is distributed to the cabin.
The Heinkel He 118 was a prototype German monoplane dive bomber design that lost out to the Junkers Ju 87 Stuka in the 1930s, and was never ordered by the Luftwaffe.
The Boeing Model 307 Stratoliner is an American stressed-skin four-engine low-wing tailwheel monoplane airliner derived from the B-17 Flying Fortress bomber, which entered commercial service in July 1940. It was the first airliner in revenue service with a pressurized cabin, which with supercharged engines, allowed it to cruise above the weather. As such it represented a major advance over contemporaries, with a cruising speed of 220 mph (350 km/h) at 20,000 ft (6,100 m) compared to the Douglas DC-3s 160 mph (260 km/h), at 8,000 ft (2,400 m) then in service. When it entered commercial service it had a crew of five to six, including two pilots, a flight engineer, two flight attendants and an optional navigator, and had a capacity for 33 passengers, which later modifications increased, first to 38, and eventually to 60.
The Junkers W 34 was a German-built, single-engine, passenger and transport aircraft. Developed in the 1920s, it was taken into service in 1926. The passenger version could take a pilot and five passengers.
The Henschel Hs 130 was a German high-altitude reconnaissance and bomber aircraft developed in World War II. It suffered from various mechanical faults and was never used operationally, only existing as prototype airframes.
The Dornier Do 317 was a prototype German medium bomber of World War II.
The Junkers G 24 was a German three-engine, all-metal low-wing monoplane passenger aircraft manufactured by Junkers from 1925. Junkers F 24 was the designation for single-engine versions of the same aircraft.
The Bristol Type 138 High Altitude Monoplane was a British high-altitude single-engine, low-wing monoplane research aircraft developed and produced by the Bristol Aeroplane Company during the 1930s. It set nine world altitude records, with the maximum altitude achieved being 53,937 ft (16,440 m) on 30 June 1937, during a 2¼-hour flight.
The Caproni Ca.161 was an aircraft built in Italy in 1936, in an attempt to set a new world altitude record. It was a conventional biplane with two-bay, staggered wings of equal span, based on Caproni's Ca.113 design. The pressure-suited pilot was accommodated in an open cockpit.
The Junkers Ju 160 was a German single-engine, low-wing six-seat passenger transport aircraft developed from the Ju 60 and targeted at the same fast airliner market as the Heinkel He 70 and the Lockheed Model 9 Orion. The Deutsche Lufthansa fleet of 21 aircraft began operations in 1935 and continued until the start of World War II.
The Lockheed XC-35 is a twin-engine, experimental pressurized airplane. It was the second American aircraft to feature cabin pressurization. It was initially described as a "supercharged cabins" by the Army. The XC-35 was a development of the Lockheed Model 10 Electra that was designed to meet a 1935 request by the United States Army Air Corps for an aircraft with a pressurized cabin.
The BOK-1, , was an experimental high-altitude aircraft designed and built in the USSR from 1934.
The Mikoyan-Gurevich I-220 was a prototype high-altitude fighter aircraft built in the Soviet Union during World War II. Originally developed to counter the threat of German high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, a total of seven prototypes were built and tested across five variants. By 1944, the threat of German high-altitude aircraft had subsided, and production of the I-220 and its variants was seen as unnecessary.
