The Amazing Thunderbirds T-33 (RC) Built By Graeme Mears Flies!

Gorgeous 110" wingspan RC T-33 recently made its first flight - and it flies great!

 Here's a quick update from Graeme Mears' facebook page concerning the first flights of the turbine powered RC T-33 project he recently completed:

Here are a couple of pictures of the T-33 at Florida Jets taken by David Hart. We only got two flights on during the event as the weather did not fully co-operate. The model was awarded "Critics Choice" and "Best Craftsmanship" trophies. Ali is very please with how it flies.. apparent by how he rang-it-out after only two patterns the first flight.

 To see the other picture, go here on Graeme's facebook page (scroll to the bottom of the gallery), and to see the other posts I've done about the project, check out:

Wow - Thunderbirds T-33 Jet Built From Scratch! (Sorta)

Stunning Thunderbirds T-33 (RC) - First Flight Coming Soon!

Video: Powered Hang Gliding - The Perfect Way To Fly Cheap?

 
 My mind is being twisted really hard this morning... I found the video above and of course enjoyed it immensely with its great overhead view of flying a hang glider at higher altitudes over the broken clouds of Greece. But it clearly must have been powered, so I looked a little deeper and learned of the power pack that some of these guys use that's mounted just behind your feet. You can see how all this works in the other video below from youtuber kmaro1973 - it's an unusual arrangement to be sure, but it seems to work very well.

 What I find most interesting about all this is that there seems to be several advantages of this style of flying machine over other lightweight and relatively inexpensive concepts like traditional ultralights and paramotors. These powered hang gliders have very low drag due to very minimal structure (not requiring much in the way of draggy support cables) and a sleek dual surface wing along with no normal undercarriage and no pilot sitting in an upright position making all kinds of drag. The horsepower required can be very low (15hp) which helps keep the cost down both initially and for fuel. Compared to the paramotor you have less drag with the prone pilot position and from not having a massive collection of suspension lines being drug thru the air. Best of all, the powered hang glider gives you a real flying-like-a-bird flight experience!

 For someone like me who lives in the flatlands and has a very minimal budget for flying (but a desire for an awesome flying experience) the powered hang glider appears to be a fascinating answer. It folds down to transport on top of your car, stores in a small space and looks amazingly fun to fly. It would even encourage a guy to lose a few pounds and stay in shape for the foot launching! My eyes are just opening to this form of flying, so I'll do more research on the state of the art and report back later... but for now I hope you enjoy these great videos.

Screenshot from the video below showing the propeller behind the prone pilot's feet

Caption Contest #70 - Ends Wednesday 3.7.12 At 9PM EST

 First, I'll say it was interesting to see that a little over 60% of the votes in the two-seat taildragger RG 'poll' have gone to the ever-popular Globe Swift... thanx to everyone who voted so far. And now it's time for another Caption Contest. When I saw this pic of a Luscombe with 29 or 30 gals sitting on the wing, I couldn't help but think there's gotta be some good captions for this.

 Keep in mind rule #4 below and keep your captions clean. And remember that the winner will be rewarded with a bacon sandwich at OSH12!

So, you've got til Wednesday evening at 9pm EST to submit your clever/funny/cool captions. Then, I’ll pick the best 5 and put ’em in a poll for everyone to vote on for all day Thursday and Friday so we can find the winner. 

 The Rules: 

1) Max of 3 submissions per person

2) Submissions go in the 'comments' area 

3) Game ends Wednesday at 9pm EST 

4) Keep it clean!

 Then, anyone can cast their vote starting Thursday morning and running thru til 9pm EST Friday. The winner will be posted Saturday morning 3-10-12. So c'mon, get off your duff and play the game!

Poll: Which Vintage Two-Seat Taildragger RG Trips Your Trigger?

Early 1950's all-metal Meyers 145... a poor man's P-51? (photo: edcoatescollection)

 Way back in the day, a two seat taildragger with retractable landing gear was not too hard to find. While only 22 of the Meyers 125/145 were built, a whopping 1,521 Globe/Tempco Swifts were built and several hundred of the pre-war Culver Cadet were built. These affordable, fairly fast and economical little beasts were pretty popular thru the 50's 60's and 70's. They're not so common today, but they're still around putting smiles on the folks who fly them.

 I thought it might be fun to see which one of the three trips your trigger the most. It might be all about looks... or maybe you like the performance or the efficiency of one over the others... or maybe you've experienced one of the three at some point in your life and you just can't stop thinking it's awesome. Whatever the case, vote in the poll at the bottom of the post to let your opinion be known.

 The all-metal Globe/Tempco Swift introduced right after World War II (photo: wiki)

The dashing all-wood prototype Culver Cadet from the late 1930's (photo: culvercadet)

It's easy for me to pick my winner - if you've been paying attention in the last year, you probably already know which one I voted for... now it's your turn : )

Video: Marvelous RC Cam Fun Over Germany - Must See!

 It used to be that really great RC videos meant you just watched a really cool model do its thing, but the days of small HD cameras have opened up the experience to put all of us in the pilot's seat. The challenge however is to make a video compelling enough to be worth watching.

 Well here's one from youtuber muethenmetz (aka crazy horst) that's worth way more than the almost 8 minutes is takes to watch it all. With multiple camera views on a simple little Graupner 'Rookie' electric airplane, this video mixes excellent video quality with a great sense of humor and loads of awesome views over Germany. I've rated this as an absolute 'must see' and the screenshots below help to show you why. Watch this video! : )

Screenshot of rear facing cam showing a launch from an elevated balcony in town

Sreenshot from front facing cam over a beautiful German building on a foggy day
 

Screenshot approaching hot air balloon with the RC pilot in the basket!

Screnshot of the big 'catch' at the end of the video - great stuff!

Video Proof - Crazy People Have Been Around Since The 70's!

 I actually think the motorcycle with the hang glider wing is pretty cool and not all that crazy. It seems stable and he's able to get just enough weight-shift control for a bit of a flare for landing... it's the hang glider with four people in side-by-side trapeze style seating at the every end of the video that's crazy! And I think we now know a little more about the pic I used in Caption Contest #58 too.

 Of course crazy people have been around since the beginning of time, we just see more of them these days since video cams are everywhere. Beware of the video cam!

Video screenshot showing four very crazy people on one hang glider!

Video: Paper Airplane Geeks Rejoice - New Distance World Record!

 Hey... designing, building and then throwing a paper airplane 226 feet 10 inches is a pretty big deal! That's what John Collins and Joe Ayoob have done as a team just last Sunday (February 26, 2012) in a hangar at McClellan Air Force Base outside of Sacramento California. As the video shows, that's a honkin' long way to throw a paper airplane! The team is expecting the feat to earn them a Guinness World Record as they have shattered the old record of 207 feet 4 inches set back in September 2003.

 For more details on the team and this new record-setting effort, check out this ESPN article. Then, to celebrate, I suggest you build the official 'perfect paper airplane' from AirPigz! Click the pic below to go to my dedicated post that I put up just weeks after the original launch of AirPigz way back in 2008. In that post you'll be able to print a pdf pattern (with awesome AirPigz graphics) and watch the video I made that shows you how to fold this incredibly great looking paper airplane.

Click the pic to for pattern and video instructions for the AirPigz Perfect Paper Airplane!

 I'm guessing the AirPigz paper airplane won't give the record any serious challenge, but carefully and properly built, this is one great flying piece of paper! C'mon, give it a try : )

CoolPix: F-35A 2Fer As Eglin Flight Operations Begin

F-35A #AF-07 In 33rd Fighter Wing paint over Edwards Air Force Base in California

(click pix for hi-res)

 I admit that I spend more time dreaming about making wheel landings in 1940's era taildraggers on beautiful grass runways than I do about the details of where the F-35 program is, but that doesn't mean that I don't pay some attention to what's up with the JSF. So, here are two CoolPix images of F-35A's wearing 33rd Fighter Wing paint for you to drool over as the 33rd FW begins their first full day after having been approved for flight operations yesterday. Here are the details as released by the U.S. Air Force:

2/28/2012 - WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AFNS) -- Officials at the Aeronautical Systems Center here issued a Military Flight Release today that will allow the F-35A Lightning II fighter to begin initial operations at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.

This decision was reached after an airworthiness board conducted an assessment that evaluated potential risks and the corresponding mitigation actions to conduct unmonitored flights.

Flying the Air Force variant of the joint strike fighter will increase pilot and maintainer familiarity with the aircraft, exercise the logistics infrastructure and continue to develop aircraft maturity. These initial F-35A flights will be limited, scripted, conducted within the restrictions and stipulations of the MFR and flown by qualified pilots, officials said.

"The Air Force, Joint Strike Fighter Program Office and other stakeholders have painstakingly followed established risk acceptance and mitigation processes to ensure the F-35A is ready," said Gen. Donald Hoffman, the commander of Air Force Materiel Command, the parent organization of ASC. "This is an important step for the F-35A and we are confident the team has diligently balanced the scope of initial operations with system maturity."

The assessment was conducted with airworthiness engineering subject matter experts within ASC and was fully coordinated with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program Office, Air Education and Training Command and other expert participants. The Air Force is confident the aircraft is ready to fly in a safe and efficient manner, Hoffman said. (Courtesy of 88th Air Base Wing Public Affairs.)

33rd Fighter Wing Mission: The 33rd Fighter Wing is a joint graduate flying and maintenance training wing for the F-35A, B, and C, organized under Air Education and Training Command's 19th Air Force. It is an associate unit at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., an Air Force Materiel Command base.

F-35A #AF-08 in 33rd Fighter Wing paint near Eglin Air Force Base in Florida

Ultra Cool 360 Panoramic Of The Shuttle Discovery Cockpit

Click the pic to go to the 360 panoramic of Discovery's cockpit (tilt, pan and zoom)

 
 So here we are living in the vacuum of no active NASA manned spacecraft program for the first time since Alan Shepard was the first American in space over 50 years ago. The private ventures that have the goal of manned spaceflight may well succeed, in time, but the lack of a direct NASA manned program says a lot of about the state of America. You can point to NASA mismanagement as part of the issue, but I believe ultimately it's a result of the massive and overriding weakening of the financial condition of the nation... and that's not NASA management's fault, that's the fault of the politicians in Washington who spend more than they take in and seem to have no real understanding of how wealth is generated. They seem to think our individuals pockets are a bottomless pit rather than realizing that it's 'productivity' that generates the wealth that can in turn be taxed. Until we put productivity ahead of spending, it's only going to get worse. I'm hopin' for real some serious change in Washington in November 2012, if you get my drift.

 Ok, enough with the frustrating stuff... the point of this post is an excellent 360 panoramic experience that you can have in the cockpit of Shuttle Discovery. Click the pic above or click here to open a new window with the panoramic image that can be tilted, panned and zoomed (controls are centered at the bottom of the image in the panoramic) - it's an amazing look at the complex front office of the Shuttle. 

 Discovery's last flight (STS-133) landed at the Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center on March 9, 2011. This panoramic image was captured during the decommission process in the months that followed, which means it's a pretty recent look at Discovery's cockpit. So take a few minutes and poke around inside one of the most amazing cockpits on Earth... or in space!

CoolPix: Lean & Mean North American X-15 (1961)

(click pic for hi-res)

 I was born the same year this photo was taken of the #3 North American X-15 sitting on a dry lakebed, and I gotta say it was pretty cool growing up with the X-15 program still operational. This image seems to say it all when it comes to how cool the X-15 is. It's lean, mean and so secure in what it's designed to do that it didn't even need wheels on the main gear! It's part Batman and part astronaut all rolled into one.

 This is the #3 aircraft (the last one built) - and tragically, it's the only one totally lost in the program. On November 15, 1967 Michael James Adams lost his life when the X-15 went out of control and broke apart. Accident details from his wiki entry: Adams' seventh X-15 flight, flight 3-65-97, took place on 15 November 1967. He reached a peak altitude of 266,000 feet (81 km); the nose of the aircraft was off heading by 15 degrees to the right. While descending, at 230,000 feet (70 km) the aircraft encountered rapidly increasing aerodynamic pressure which impinged on the airframe, causing the X-15 to enter a violent Mach 5 spin. As the X-15 neared 65,000 feet, it was diving at Mach 3.93 and experiencing more than 15-g vertically (positive and negative), and 8-g laterally, which inevitably exceeded the design limits of the aircraft. The aircraft broke up 10 minutes and 35 seconds after launch, killing Adams. The United States Air Force posthumously awarded him astronaut Wings for his last flight.

 The other two X-15's remain today with #1 at the National Air & Space Museum and #2 at the Air Force Museum. The X-15 represents brave men courageously exploring the boundary of earth... and the risks that came with it.