Video: Russian Be-200 (Water Hog?) Is Extremely Versatile

 The Russian Beriev Be-200 built by Irkut is a pretty amazing and versatile flying machine. It's not everyday you run across an amphibious jet powered aircraft that can haul 72 passengers... ok actually, you pretty much never run across an amphibious jet powered aircraft that can carry 72 passengers. But in addition to being probably the most interesting ride you could have for taking off of the water and then cruising at 350 mph (with the option for landing on a runway), the Be-200 is also a fire-fighting beast. With the ability to scoop-load water at near takeoff speeds, it can rapidly deliver a tad over 26,000 pounds of water on a raging fire, and do it over and over.

 The Be-200 made a trip to the US last year in search of some western customers. Since its initial introduction in 2003, only 9 have been built. At about $40 million each, they aren't cheap, but they offer up a range of flexibility that you rarely find at any price point. And with the two turbofan engines mounted a bit like an A-10 Warthog, I'd have to think this is the biggest, meanest Water Hog on the planet : )

Radial (Retro) Rocket With Hot Paint Now Flying - Oh Yeah!

Hot Radial Rocket taildragger recently test flown (photo: Airborne Kustomz) 

(4 pix) 

 First flight: February 19, 2011.

 If you've been paying attention at all to AirPigz lately you should know I'm a pretty huge fan of the Radial Rocket. This homebuilt kit airplane is an excellent blending of today's technology with the emotion-inspiring shapes from the golden age of aviation. As I've said before, anytime you bolt a 360 hp radial on the front of a small taildragger, you've got my attention!

 This recently completed Rocket owned by Pete Malone from Missouri has a paint scheme that matches the awesome retro shapes... this my friends is exactly what General Aviation is missing: Passion! The paint was done by Airborne Kustomz out of Texas and you can check out some videos of the process at the Airborne Kustomz Radial Rocket page. I hear there's a good chance the airplane will be at Oshkosh this year too. That makes me happy.

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Video: Miniature Airport That's Really Miniatur (I Think)

 Here's another interesting video of an airport kinda like the awesome one from last week... except this one really is in miniature. It's miniature, but it's huge too. It's a new exhibit that's almost ready to open at the Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg, Germany, and just the airport part of the display covers over 1,600 square feet. The Wunderland is mostly a model train experience, but on a really massive and detailed scale. And as you can see from the fictitious Knuffingen Airport in this video, it's remarkably real looking.

 
 I love the way the camera pans around the airplanes as they taxi, takeoff and land - it's truly fabulous. The quality of the display and the video work is all top notch. So take a couple minutes and experience the daily operations of Knuffingen Airport!

A tiny portion of the Knuffingen Airport display at Germany's Miniatur Wunderland

Caption Contest #53 - Ends Wednesday 3.9.11 At 9PM EST

 There's just no end to weird aircraft and the sometimes even weirder people who fly them! This pic should make for some fun captioning... so put on your wacky cap and embark on a quest to fetch up a bacon sandwich at OSH11 by having the best thought to go with the pic above.

 As usual, 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 3-12-11. And hey, don't forget to smile : )

Mystery Vertical Fin Tip Identified: Britten-Norman Islander

1960's and 70's era Britten Norman Islander

 Originally I had cropped down a small portion of the wingtip of this Britten Norman Islander for the 3-5-11 NTP game, but I decided that the aileron counterbalance might make it too easy to identify. So I got kinda crazy by only showing the top of the vertical fin. Even then, it still only wound up taking well under 24 hours for @JimWay to issue forth the winning ID. Pretty amazing work I'd say! He's snagged a bacon sandwich at Oshkosh 2011 for his effort.

 I've always liked the Islanders. I remember back in the mid 70's there was a small commuter airline operating out of SFO that had some Piper Navajos, several Britten Norman Islanders, and even a Trislander. I got to ride on the Islanders several times and always really enjoyed it. I even rode that crazy looking Trislander once. They're just a good, hard working airplanes that keep going and going.

 Watch for more Name The Plane games to pop up from time to time. You can follow @NameThePlane on twitter to get a tweet when a new game goes up. It's the only game in the world that I know of that rewards excellent aircraft ID skills with bacon!

'Name The Plane' - ID Make And Model For Free Bacon! (3.5.11)

 Here's another Name The Plane game to see who can fetch up a bacon sandwich at Oshkosh 2011 by using their sharp aircraft ID skills. All you gotta do is be the first person to ID both MAKE and MODEL of this aircraft.

 Your answers must go in the 'comments' area in this post, and as always, please don't use the shotgun approach to answers - only put up truly educated guesses that you've arrived at via really thinking it thru.

 It'll be interesting to see how long this one goes on... it might be over quick, or it might be another unique flying machine that's difficult to correctly ID. So, do ya think you know it??

Caption Contest #52 Winner - Mother-In-Law Edition

 Usually a nice short caption is the most effective at making a powerful humorous punch with a wacky pic. And we had a really great one in this contest - "take me to your weeder!!", but in the end, there was just the right amount of whiny-wife attitude in the mother-in-law caption to pick up the most votes in the poll. So we say congrats to the mystery captioner simply known as 'airpigz lurker' - great job! Maybe the smell of a bacon sandwich at Oshkosh 2011 will draw you out of the shadows and into the light so I know who you are : )

 Thanx once again to everyone for throwing some fun captions in the ring, and to all who voted in the poll. It's a lot harder than it looks trying to pic the overall best captions for the poll, so if yours didn't make it, just hang in there. And remember, even if you never win a bacon sandwich, anyone can fetch up free bacon strips at one of the three official AirPigz evening 'bacon parties' that will take place at Camp Bacon (my campsite) at Oshkosh 2011. Watch for more details as the greatest aviation event on earth gets closer.

 More avgeek fun is scheduled for this next Monday morning as the caption contest continues - don't miss out on the fun!

Video Proof: Seatless Airliner Concept Extremely Popular!

 Ha! I just love writing fun titles for aviation posts! And this one is all very true... the people riding in this airliner without seats are clearly very happy. It's actually a really interesting study of human nature. Grown people acting like crazy kids simply because the force of gravity has been artificially removed. I guess it gives a shred of hope for humanity at a time when hope, apart from the Maker, is getting hard to find.

 The people at ZERO-G seem to be doing pretty well these days at keeping their 727 (known as G-Force One) busy with a combination of scientific, educational, and just pure joy-ride flights. It's open to almost anyone these days, but you do need s small suitcase full of cash as the rides start at $4,950 each. A bit pricey indeed, but compared with a $200,000 ride with Virgin Galactic in SpaceShipTwo, you'll get about the same amount of cumulative weightlessness (around 6 minutes) and save $195,050 in the process! However, G-Force One (aka vomit comet) doesn't get very close to space... and the weightlessness isn't as authentic as Virgin Galactic will provide once they get up and running.

 If you don't know how ZERO-G makes all this floatability happen, check out this well done graphic explanation from USA Today on zero g parabola flights. And if you're interested in picking an upcoming flight with ZERO-G Airlines, check out their reservations page and start packing that suitcase : )

The ZERO-G 727 used for serious and just pure fun weightless rides
 

Getting To Know Discovery’s Runt Cousin: The Air Force X-37B

Watch the X-37B (Atlas V) launch March 4, 2011 at ulalaunch.com
(launch period begins at 3:39pm EST)

Fast facts on the Boeing X-37B unmanned OTV (Orbital Test Vehicle)

(5 pix and 1 video)

 With the Space Shuttle program only one landing and two full flights away from retirement, and with the Constellation manned program effectively pulled over to the side of the road, we’re likely to see a lot more emphasis on unmanned space vehicles. It’s interesting that as unmanned aircraft are just now becoming a significant part of aviation, ‘unmanned’ space vehicles have been part of space exploration for decades. Sure, it’s a little different controlling a flying machine in the atmosphere with real people for traffic compared to coasting along in the vast expanse of space with no one around, but expanding our efforts in space with more emphasis on machines-only isn’t such a bad idea.

 Enter Boeing’s X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle operated by the U.S. Air Force. This very scaled down shuttle-like spacecraft is only a little over 29 feet long with a wingspan just short of 15 feet, but it’s still likely to be a pretty capable spaceplane. If only we really knew what it was being used for. That seems to be a bit of a mystery yet. And while it’s easy to imagine all kinds of shifty covert intentions, I must admit that I’m glad to know it exists and is operational in light of the fact that Shuttle is almost retired.

 This is also a very interesting time as the second ever space flight for the X-37B is scheduled to launch out of Cape Canaveral on top of an Atlas V rocket on March 4, 2011. It’s actually the first flight for this particular vehicle, OTV-2, the second airframe to be built. The timing seems to fuel some thoughts about the fact that both Shuttle Discovery and the X-37B will be in space at the same time. Coincidence? You decide.

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Video: Miniature Airliners... Or Is It Real? (Awesome!)

Awesome mind game from 1970sPlaneSpotter - love it!