OSHKOSH! The Spirit Of Aviation

 This is a long EAA video at a little over 17 minutes, but it's also a nearly perfect video that shouldn't be missed.  If you've never been to Oshkosh, you need to see it, and if Oshkosh has been part of your life for years, you'll want to see it.

 I was only 9 years old when the first Oshkosh took place in 1970, but I was there, as I have been over 30 times in all.  It's like no place on earth.  Not just because it's the biggest aviation event in the world, but because of the people. Special people.

 People from all over the world coming together with a common ‘goodness' that honestly isn't all that common these days.  It's the kind of goodness and integrity that I thought was the foundation of the USA, but it seems to be lost or forgotten from sea to shining sea.

 But Oshkosh still has it.  I hope it always will.  

 If you're looking for something special, something out of the ordinary... if you're looking for the best there is: welcome to Oshkosh.

Caption Contest #18 Has A Winner!

 Twitter follower @SirHogarth, who just also happens to be the focus of a nifty little RV-6 video we put together a few weeks back, has just won Caption Contest #18.

 I was pretty sure when I saw this one come thru that it would win... Great job!

 That's another $20 AirPigz funny money earned, all while having a really good time (I think).

 Watch for the next chance to have some fun with the Caption Contest as it makes a low pass down the runway on Monday, May 18, 2009. 

Supersonic Economy? Aerion SBJ Is Moving Forward

 Sure, the global economy is pretty icky right now, but the forward thinkers are setting their sights on the day when things are back in place.  Once things are back in place, the power-players are gonna want to get to those places asap.  Enter the Aerion Supersonic Business Jet.

 Reno, Nevada based Aerion Corporation has about 50 orders for the projected $80 million SST.  And unlike the cramped Lear 23 which kinda invented biz jet travel in the early 1960's, the Aerion is designed to bring both increased speed AND comfort.

 The SBJ cabin layouts range from 8 to 12 passengers with 6.2' cabin height, 6.5' cabin width and a completely flat floor.  Looks like a pretty nice place to spend 2 or 3 hours.

 The Aerion will be able to cruise at M.98 where sonic booms aren't allowed (like over the U.S.) and M1.1 where the boom is allowed but can't reach the ground. The best speeds are out over the water where the SBJ will have a max cruise speed of M1.6.

 The company has a lot of hurdles to clear to bring this dream to reality, but thus far they are committed to that goal. They also are seeing enough interest in the idea to believe that the partners and the support needed will all come thru.

 So, while we have a very subsonic global economy going on these days, I like the fact that both a company and potential customers are thinking ahead enough to be serious about putting a Supersonic Business Jet in the sky!

 

Check out AerionCorp.com for loads more info (all pictures: Aerion Corp.)

Time To Lean Into Caption Contest #18 - Ends Tuesday 5-12-09 At 9PM EDT

 There's lots going on at AirPigz world headquarters these days, including some very successful tests of the live shop cam for Project VP.

 More on that later, but now it's time to open up your mind (but it might be a good idea to keep your mouth closed!) and come up with a great caption for this pic of The Human Fly.

 Once the dust has settled, and the bugs are washed off, the winner will fly away with $20 in AirPigz funny money!

 The Rules:

1) Max of 3 submissions per person

2) Submissions go in 'comments'

3) Game ends Tuesday at 9pm EDT

4) Keep it clean!

 Then, Anyone who wants to cast their vote will be able to after the poll goes up around an hour after the 9pm Tuesday submission deadline.

 We'll vote for 24 hours, til 9pm EDT on Wednesday. Then the winner will be posted Thursday morning.

Frenchman Nicolas Ivanoff Wins Red Bull San Diego - HD Video Review

Video includes bird strike on Hannes Arch's horizontal stab

Caption Contest #17 Winner Finally Posted!

 Running a blog-based game on a rigid schedule seems like it should be pretty easy.  Yeah, well whatever.  It seems like there's always some pesky glitch or gremlin chasing me down and making it a lot harder than it ought to be.

 But like they say in Seattle these days... better late than never!  So, I can finally confirm that Caption Contest #17 was won by avid twitter follower @MontanaOne (once again).

 We'll add another $20 AirPigz funny money to her previous winnings and then set our sights on game #18 coming up on Monday Morning May 11th (if the gremilns will allow).

 I thought this inflatable airplane woulda been a little easier to come up with funny captions, but it seemed to be a bit of a challenge.  So, I'll try extra hard to find one for next week that just flat out rocks : ) 

Unbelievable Sound And Power Of The Moki 400 Radial Engine!

 The Moki 400 just might be the coolest gasoline powerplant I've ever seen!  It's a 400cc five-cylinder radial engine that appears to be made in Hungary.  It makes 23 hp power while weighing just over 20 pounds, and it has a sound that literally will fry your brain - it's awesome beyond your imagination!  So far, I've only seen the engine used on model airplanes. 

 I found the video at the top several months ago, and I wanted to post it here, but it's not really the best 'video' quality.  The 'audio' on the other hand is simply stunning.  So I figured since I haven't found an updated vid that could compare on the sound, I better just share it with y'all.

 The Gee Bee R3 airplane and the pilot are pretty fabulous too, but that engine just blows me away.  After watching the vid about two times, I was already dreaming up a radical little full-scale design in my head that would be freaky cool with two Moki 400's mounted as pushers (kind of a Cri-Cri eater).  

 I have a bit of a funny habit of putting my dreamy airplanes down on paper even tho none of them have ever been built.  Leave me a comment if you wanna see the "MY9 Stinger".  

 And the video below is of the same model as the one above but with better video quality.  But if perfect radial engines sounds are your thing, you'll probably like the top video best : )

The W8 Should Be Over Soon - 787 Scheduled To Fly In June!

Prototype 787 looking good as the first flight appears to be just around the corner
Photo: FlightBlogger

 Boeing is finally getting a good grip on the 787 program, a firm enough grip in fact to lead us to believe that the Dreamliner actually stands a pretty good chance of a first-flight sometime in June.  It'll sure be nice to start thinking that the airplane "flies like a dream" instead of just being one!

 The 787 first tickled our toes as the 7E7 around 2003.  The first designs that were taken seriously looked a lot like the one below.  It was kinda 'sharky' and definitely somewhat unusual looking.  It certainly attracted a ton of attention in those early days.

 Seems that a lot of that 7E7 ‘coolness' might just have been marketing hype tho.  The ‘E' was dropped around 2005 when the airplane became the 787.  Along with the name change, the design had morphed over time to look a lot like most any other large twin-jet.

 But that's not to say that it doesn't have some very unique features.  One that really stands out for me is the nose shape.  You get a little feel for the smooth, blended design of the cockpit glass in the pic above.  The side profile is pretty much a continuous flowing curve rather than the more common design of having the glass interrupt a smooth nose shape.

 You can find a lot more pix and some great coverage of the 787 program as it nears first-flight by checking out Jon Ostrower's FlightBlogger.  If you haven't been following the Dreamliner closely, now is the time to start paying attention.  Things are about to get very interesting!

 And if you're a down on Boeing these days because of the delays, I ask you to show me the composite wide-body airliner that you've built! : )

The 'sharky shape' we saw in early 7E7 designs a few years back

Blow Up Some Fun With Caption Contest #17 - Ends Tuesday 5-5-09 At 9PM EDT

 Sun-n-Fun kinda messed up the Caption Contest schedule, but we're back up and running now.  And, I'll have a SNF recap post coming soon with pix and video : )

 I thought it might be fun to see what ideas pop up from an inflatable flying machine... so here ya go!  Remember, I'll pick 5 finalists from all the submissions, then we'll vote for the winner who'll fly away with $20 in AirPigz funny money.

 The Rules: 

1) Max of 3 submissions per person

2) Submissions go in 'comments'

3) Game ends Tuesday at 9pm EDT

4) Keep it clean!

 Then, Anyone who wants to cast their vote will be able to after the poll goes up around an hour after the 9pm Tuesday submission deadline.

 We'll vote for 24 hours, til 9pm EDT on Wednesday. Then the winner will be posted Thursday morning.

'Project VP' Needs Your Help! Simple Poll Question Below

 I'm ready to actually start the building process on my updated and revised version of the old Volksplane that I call AirPigz "Project VP".  If you saw my initial post about the concept, you already know some of the ideas that go into making this extremely simple and affordable aircraft design a little more relevant to the world today.

 I'm confident this airplane is a great example of how we can get more people into the air without having them spend a lot of money or time building. And while the idea behind "kit" airplanes is great, this seems like a perfect time for us to encourage people to consider building an airplane the old fashioned way, from plans only.

 Typically "plans only" builds take a lot longer tho since you have to fabricate all the components yourself. That's where the genius of the original Volksplane comes in.  Built mostly from wood and utilizing several time saving ideas, the VP is about as easy as airplane building gets.  And while I think the basic VP is a tad on the homely side, my updated styling changes seem to make this a really cute little airplane!

 The basic idea here is to use Project VP to accomplish two specific goals.  First, to encourage people on several ways to get in the air affordably.  I plan to do a video update regularly of the build process to show what it's like.  This should help take much of the mystery out of the process for people who are overwhelmed by the thought of building an airplane.

 Second, I plan to build it in time to have it up on the flightline at Oshkosh 09.  The cool AirPigz paint scheme should attract a lot of attention, and this will help put AirPigz on the map!

 I've put a lot of work into the project already, but there's one important part that's missing for me.  It's been the hardest year of my life financially, and I've started AirPigz while being as close to going under as you can get. Fortunately, things are now getting better in my regular life, but I've got a pretty deep pit to crawl out of.

 There's only one way Project VP is going to become a reality... I need sponsors.  So I've come up with an idea on how you can get behind this unique, grass-roots idea. 

Project VP "sponsor" T-Shirt design concept... still need to add color to the airplane. 

  If you like AirPigz and the Project VP concept, then you might want to consider becoming an official "sponsor". The graphic above shows what I have in mind for very special, limited edition T-Shirt.  It's obviously not complete just yet, but will be soon.  It'll be a top quality shirt with at least 6 colors of ink. The shirt will be available for $50, which is a lot for a shirt, but in reality you're purchase is not about the shirt, but about supporting the airplane.

   Before I finalize the shirt design, and before I start making lots of sawdust fly on the airplane, I need to see if there's enough support out there to reach the goal of having the airplane built and up at Oshkosh 2009.  Since I have access to an airworthy VW engine I only need to raise enough money to cover the airframe, which should be under $3,000.

 Project VP, and my request for "sponsors" isn't a gimmick.  It's a genuine idea designed to help spark more interest in flying and to put a lot of attention on the idea that people can get into the air without spending a lot of money on an airplane.

 My opportunity to work my tail off communicating that message thru AirPigz.com just happens to coincide with a tremendous lack of financial resources in my life right now.  Your support will make all the difference.

 The poll below is just to get a general idea of where the idea stands right now.  If the potential for support looks encouraging, I'll have the details worked out soon about how you get on an official list for a shirt.  I hope you'll consider joining me in trying to encourage people to get out of their dreams and into the air!

Would you buy a special limited-edition AirPigz sponsor T-Shirt for 50 dollars to help make Project VP a reality for Oshkosh 2009?
	Sure, I'd definitely consider it!
	No, I probably wouldn't consider it.
pollcode.com free polls