Normally I would have posted something very patriotic early this morning. But this last two and a half years of politics, deficits, and continued economic failure have me wondering if this once great nation can really survive. And while I blame the current administration in Washington for America's biggest problems, I also feel that the last 50 years (maybe 100 years) have been orchestrated to specifically weaken the United States.
I'm frustrated and I'm concerned. And most of all, I'm pretty sure most people in America aren't even close to being prepared for what might be right around the corner. I'm not really all doom-and-gloom, but c'mon, we've allowed the leaders of this nation to dig a hole so deep that there's really no practical way out. But don't think I'm giving up. In fact, I haven't really begun to take a stand yet. I can say I'm definitely getting closer to that point tho.
So, to represent my frustration and concern, I put together this graphic of just a small part of the glorious flag of the United States of America. It stands for a country that isn't really whole anymore. It stands for the desperate need we all have to look closely at what makes up the USA. And it stands for the amazing beauty of what the stars and stripes really mean... man's greatest attempt to honor God by putting in place a government that truly acknowledges the liberty (freedom) that mankind so desperately desires. Not the freedom to do wrong... but the freedom to do what's right.
Me at 9 years old in the co-pilot seat of the Tri-Motor N8407 at Oshkosh 1970
Yep, that's really me as a 9 year old looking right at home in the right seat of N8407, the 4-AT Ford Tri-Motor that all these years later is owned and operated by the EAA. But this was 1970, the very first year for Oshkosh (after moving the EAA convention from Rockford, IL) and the airplane was owned by Dale Glenn. His last name was painted on the side of the airplane, but the pilot for OSH70 was Chuck LeMaster. Chuck had been associated with the airplane for years, but I'm pretty sure he was just acting as pilot at this time.
It was a big deal for me because my dad and I would get to know Chuck really well over the next 10 years. Not only did Chuck let this little 9 year old wrap his hands around the wheel while I went for a ride in the co-pilot seat there at Oshkosh, but in the years that followed, I had some amazing opportunities in the 5-AT Ford Tri-Motor N414H, and in N7501V, one of only two modernized tri-motors called the Bushmaster 2000. Chuck owned and operated those two aircraft as barnstormers in the 1970's. Chuck had also owned a Boeing 247 that was at Oshkosh way back in the day.
Chuck was so good to me. The very first entry in my first logbook is for 2.0 hours of dual received from him in N414H in July 1976 - when we flew from Dayton, OH to Oshkosh! To say I have been blessed over the years would be a pretty massive understatement! I was just 15 at the time, but I actually had already accumulated a boatload of hours in the 7KCAB Citabria that my dad owned. He taught me how to fly it when I was just 13.
I'll go into much more detail about the tri-motor opportunities I had back in the 70's and early 80's later, but for now I'm just really excited to have found this pic from the very first year that Oshkosh took place. As we're now into July and OSH11 is drawing very near, I'm starting to get all tingly inside! I think I'll make some plans to go for a ride in good ole N8407 this year at Oshkosh... and maybe, if I buy the co-pilot's seat, the pilot will let me put my hands on the wheel again : )
I label this video righteous not so much because the Eurocopter X3 is an interesting and impressive demonstrator of a unique hybrid technology, but because the camera used actually makes propellers and rotors that are spinning look like propellers and rotors that are spinning! I am so sick and tired of seeing air-movers that are either disconnected, wildly mis-shaped, flickering, standing still, or otherwise looking anything different than beautiful spinning discs of lift or thrust.
Beyond the camera's imaging correctness, it's a really sweet video of the X3 in flight. Enjoy.
Unbelievable emergency from 1964... and they landed it without any further damage!
You may have seen this incredible picture before, but do you know what caused this B-52 to lose almost all of its vertical fin and rudder? Below is the explanation from the Boeing website, and at bottom is video of the occurrence, including the landing approach!
January 10, 1964, started out as a typical day for the flight test group at Boeing's Wichita plant. Pilot Chuck Fisher took off in a B-52H with a three-man Boeing crew, flying a low-level profile to obtain structural data.
Over Colorado, cruising 500 feet above the mountainous terrain, the B-52 encountered some turbulence. Fisher climbed to 14,300 feet looking for smoother air.
At this point the typical day ended.The bomber flew into clear-air turbulence. It felt as if the plane had been placed in a giant high-speed elevator, shoved up and down, and hit by a heavy blow on its right side.
Fisher told the crew to prepare to abandon the plane. He slowed the aircraft and dropped to about 5,000 feet to make it easier to bail out.
But then Fisher regained some control. He climbed slowly to 16,000 feet to put some safety room between the plane and the ground. He informed Wichita about what was happening. Although control was difficult, Fisher said he believed he could get the plane back in one piece.
Response to the situation at Wichita, and elsewhere, was immediate. An emergency control center was set up in the office of Wichita's director of flight test. Key Boeing engineers and other specialists were summoned to provide their expertise. Federal Aviation Administration air traffic control centers at Denver and Kansas City cleared the air around the troubled plane. A Strategic Air Command B-52 in the area maintained radio contact with the crew of the Wichita B-52.
As Fisher got closer to Wichita, a Boeing chase plane flew up to meet him and to visually report the damage. When Dale Felix, flying an F-100 fighter, came alongside Fisher's B-52, he couldn't believe what he saw: The B-52's vertical tail was gone.
Felix broke the news to Fisher and those gathered in the control center. There was no panic. Everyone on the plane and in the control center knew they could be called upon at any time for just such a situation.
In the emergency control center, the engineers began making calculations and suggesting the best way to get the plane down safely.
The Air Force was also lending assistance. A B-52, just taking off for a routine flight, was used to test the various flight configurations suggested by the specialists before Fisher had to try them.
As high gusty winds rolled into Wichita, the decision was made to divert the B-52 to Blytheville Air Force Base in Northeastern Arkansas.
Boeing specialists from the emergency control center took off in a KC-135 and accompanied Fisher to Blytheville, serving as an airborne control center.
Six hours after the incident first occurred, Fisher and his crew brought in the damaged B-52 for a safe landing.
"I'm very proud of this crew and this airplane," Fisher said. "Also we had a lot people helping us, and we're very thankful for that."
The B-52, Fisher said, "Is the finest airplane I ever flew."
Click the pic to see it over at flickr - or click this link to see it there in the largest size
'QuickPic' is a new feature I'm trying out where I post an interesting aviation pic for you to check out from a random account over at flickr.com. There won't be a lot of info from me - just enough to set you on a journey to find out more if you're intrigued with the pic.
From flickr.com/photos/kd85/: This pic is of an airplane I just learned about last night. @RunwayGirl posted a quick video challenge on twitter to ID the airplane she was sitting in at the recent Paris Air Show. You could only see a bit of the aircraft, but it had some very distinctive features that I figured would make it quick to research. It took me an hour (much longer than I expected) to figure out it was the Polish built EM-11C Orka. I admit I'd never heard of it, but I really like the thinking behind the design.
So, click the pic above to see it over at flickr... or click the link under the pic to see it in the original really large size. QuickPic images will also lead you to the flickr account of people with lots of other interesting pix to check out. Give it a try... and I hope you enjoy : )
As an added bonus, check out the Orka video below to learn more about this unique composite twin pusher with a couple Lycoming IO-360's and outer wing panels that fold to make it easier to hangar. (I hope you like piano music) - and here's the manufacturer website: marganski.com.pl
Here's an article by my friend Elliot Seguin, a project engineer and flight test engineer at Scaled Composites. It's on the Brazilian CEA-308 aircraft and the world records it set in December 2010 in the class for internal combustion powered landplane with a takeoff weight of 661 pounds or less. The article was originally written for the Scaled employee newsletter.
This good looking little airplane may be the most exciting thing to happen in record setting in the last few years. This one off homebuilt recently took the time to climb to 3000m as well as the 3km, 15km, and 100km speed records for its weight class. It was built by students of the Center for the study of Aeronautical Engineering at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, directed by Professor Paulo Iscold.
The CEA-308, Pilot Gúnar Armin, and Professor Paulo Iscold
The design phase started in 1999 as Paulo’s undergraduate project. The construction of the design started in 2000 and used wood and steel for the fuselage with white foam formed in between bulkheads and stringers which was carved to shape and covered with fiberglass. The wing is built-up wood ribs and a wood spar; like the fuselage the spaces between the wood parts were filled with white foam which was carved to shape and covered with fiberglass.
Early CEA-308 2 cycle engine installation - records were set with the Jabiru engine
Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh in 1929 - from Shorpy.com (click pic for hi-res)
I'm thinking this will become a regular feature: helping you to find amazing historic aviation-related images from the massive Shorpy.com database of hi-def images showcasing life on earth (predominately between 1850 and 1950). I find it really interesting seeing Charles Lindbergh and his pilot wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh in this photo from 1929. This would be two years after his historic Spirit of St. Louis flight, and was actually not long after the two were married. It's also just a couple years before they would experience the tragic kidnapping and murder of their first son Charles A. Lindbergh, III.
I admit that I didn't really enjoy history way back in the days of my schooling, but it's absolutely fascinating to me these days. And while I've just barely understood some of the very winding road that was Charles Lindbergh's life, I can tell from doing a little research here that I must take the time someday to really try to understand it. There's so much intriguing stuff to absorb... and some of it tells about the man himself, but a lot of it really shows the state of the American culture in the 30's and 40's and the reality of politics, power and human nature.
Be sure to click the pic above to see it in hi-def over at Shorpy's. It'll feel like your right there with these two interesting people and the Lockheed Vega behind them. This is history.
This winning caption from Folker Krentz is especially funny to me because the reference to Mr Sikorsky is actually out of place since this is really the Bell Model 30 helicopter. No worries tho, and there's no doubt it's a better caption using Sikorsky instead of Bell. So, it's a bacon sandwich at OSH11 for the winner! And, the amazing Oshkosh event will be here pretty soon (yay!) - so we'll probably only have one more caption contest before I'll have to start stocking up on the magical meat candy that will make so many people happy during the world's greatest aviation event. Details on the official AirPigz Bacon Parties at Oshkosh 2011 will be posted soon.
The caption picture this time around is pretty amazing. This is the third prototype of the Bell Model 30, and as you can see, it was a pretty impressive performer. My research indicates it was probably powered by a 160 hp Franklin engine, and it may have had solid-wood main and tail rotor blades like the first Model 30 did. And there's a total of seven people off the ground in this picture! Amazing stuff for 1945. The third version of the Model 30 was such a good flying machine that it soon morphed into the iconic Bell 47 introduced in 1946.
I also hope the insurance company for Bell Helicopters never saw what the guys were doing to test load carrying capacity!
I love opportunities like this to see things you normally don't get to see. The occasional FLIR images in this Flightglobal video of the 787 landing at the Paris Air Show give you an interesting view of the mostly carbon fiber structure of the 787. I like seeing the areas where the fuselage sections are joined... and the toasty brakes at the end are sweet too.
Here's a little more info on the Farmers Airship that will be coming to Oshkosh this year. My previous post on the Zeppelin NT went into a lot of detail on the airship itself, and it has lots of info on the rides that will be available for purchase during Oshkosh... but a few minutes of video can really tell you a lot about how cool this unique flying machine is. This is definitely gonna be one the highlights of OSH11 for me!
Monday, July 4, 2011 at 06:17PM 
