Jet Airliner - Second Generation

Second Generation

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.