Message From Virgin Galactic: Have A Nice Day!

Pictures from the awesome Virgin Galactic flickr page

(click pic for hi-res) 'Have A Nice Day' where SpaceShipTwo attaches to WhiteKnightTwo

 As Virgin Galactic continues to have success with the free flights of SpaceShipTwo, I thought it would be fun to take a nice close look at the area on the mothership (WhiteKnightTwo) where the space craft attaches... mostly because it says Have A Nice Day!

 I find these kinds of details to be a very important connection to the reality of the human element - largely because no matter how complicated or challenging the tasks we seek to achieve, we're really all just human beings. It was really ccool to see that VG had this fab pic posted on their flickr page, and I figured you might enjoy seeing it! Be sure to click it to make it big so you can check out the details.

 (click pic for hi-res) Virgin Galactic SS2 and WK2 over Spaceport America - Oct 2010

 And this view of SpaceShipTwo attached to WhiteKnightTwo from back in October 2010, when the runway at Spaceport America in New Mexico was officially dedicated, gives an awesome view of these two very unique flying machines. According to the SS2 test summary page at Scaled Composites, 4 free flights have been made so far, with the most recent being on January 13, 2011. Here is the 'results' entry from that page for the flight: "All objectives achieved. Stall at aft CG. Evaluated flutter modifications to 250 KEAS. Envelope expanded to 3.8 g's. As part of the test objectives, the SS2 pilots vented water ballast just before coming in to land, which produced a visible contrail."

  Godspeed Virgin Galactic.

Video Lesson: Flying A Goat With No Gas At Torrey Pines

(3 videos)

 It's not hard to find decent videos at youtube, but it is hard to find really good ones. In my mind, this one from user airchairp is a really good one. It not only does a great job of showing how this ultralight sailplane called a Goat flies, but the narration helps to better understand exactly what is going on for those who don't know much about this extremely pure form of flying. It also shows the Torrey Pines Gliderport with a nice amount of activity... even tho often times the activity there gets crazy busy!

 It's especially interesting to me to see the UL sailplane sharing the ridge-lift flying with hang gliders and para gliders. If you like what you see here in this video, hit the jump to see a couple more really good ones of 'airchair' flying!

Click to read more ...

Caption Contest #51 Winner - I'm In Trouble!

 Congrats to what I think is a new captioner, 'Davo87', for fetching up the most votes with his I'm in trouble caption. Fortunately, he's not really in trouble, and if he makes it to Oshkosh 2011, I'll have a fabulous bacon sandwich for him to enjoy for winning.

 Once again, a big thank you to everyone who partcipated this time around. It wouldn't be a game, or any fun, without you! And, keep in mind that there will be free bacon strips available to anyone during my bacon parties at Oshkosh 2011. The dates and times for these chew-the-fat avgeek gatherings will be posted as we get closer to the greatest aviation event on earth!

 Watch for more from captionation this next Monday morning.

Video: British Airways 747 Burns Rubber! (Slow Motion)

 This video from youtuber delpillar is short but it's very cool. I find it fascinating to be able to see things like this British Airways 747 landing gear touching down in slow motion. In real-time, this stuff all happens so fast that you don't really get much feel for any of the details. When you see how much rubber is burned on a typical landing, it's hard to believe the tires could survive to do it again! I might be wrong, but I think they get 20 to 30 landings out of tires on a typical 747 these days, but if I remember right, when the 747 first went into service back in the early 70's, they would only get 7 to 10 landings out of the tires. That's really burning some rubber!

Super Guppy Fuselage Cross Section... It's Umm, Really Big!

(click pic for hi-res) NASA Super Guppy super-size cargo transport at Edwards AFB in 2000

 A total of eight Guppy aircraft were built by Aero Spacelines in the 1960's to haul oversized cargo, including many large parts related to the Apollo space program. In fact, those specific parts were the inspiration for airplanes that could relatively affordably transport pieces that were huge in size but not really all that heavy. The Pregnant Guppy, the Mini Guppy, as well as the Super Guppy that's seen here at Edwards Air Force base in 2000 were a remarkable success over the years... and I believe this one, the last Super Guppy produced is still operating yet today for NASA.

 This CoolPix really shows off the massive fuselage cross section of this beast. The original Super Guppy was built by lengthening and adding the massive upper area on to a Boeing C-97J Turbo Stratocruiser which was the old C-97 that had been retrofitted with large turboprop engines. That first SG still retained the fuselage floor width of the C-97 which was just under 9 feet wide. You might have already read the story I posted that tells about the near loss of the prototype SG on one of the last flights during the certification tests. If you haven't read, I suggest you go there now, it's an amazing story: 1965 Super Guppy Dive test Goes Bad (Not A Bird Strike!)

 I would guess the lessons learned from that nearly catastrophic event played a big part in the changes made in the four additional Super Guppy's that were later built. They all had fuselages built from scratch, and Aero Spacelines took the opportuinity to widen the fuselage at the floor level to just over 13 feet. The view looking into this SG gives a bit of an idea of just how big that scratch-built fuselage is. It's a pretty stunning sight! It's an interesting shape too. This view with the nose swung out of the way really shows it off.

 It's easy to see a picture of a 'Guppy' and just chuckle at the crazy big fatness of the airplane, but these unique aircraft have been a really important part of the aerospace industry over the last 40 years. They're definitely worthy of our respect and appreciation!

Bob Hoover: Living Legend Shares Some Of His Amazing History

 This video from 2009 is of Bob Hoover talking about some of his fascinating experiences in the sky. He is truly a living legend in the world of aviation. It's great to know that he will honored at Oshkosh on Tuesday July 26th. This is a fantastic 8:49 history lesson... don't miss it.

Video from Inventive Productions

Hot Stuff! Radial Rocket RG (With 360hp Thump’n Russian Radial)

The new Radial Rocket RG from New Century Aerosport

(10 pix)

 There are four things in my opinion that make a perfect airplane. Round engine, pilot’s seat on the centerline, right hand on a stick and left hand on the throttle, and dragging your tail. If you’ve got those four things, you’ve got me hooked. And tho many pilots haven’t experienced all of these aircraft attributes, the only one that most modern pilots would likely disagree with is the tail draggin’ part. Enter the Radial Rocket RG.

 With 360hp of thump’n Russian M14-P radial power swinging an 80” 4-blade MT constant speed prop, the Radial Rocket from New Century Aerosport in Olathe Kansas brings centerline seating and right-hand-stick-left-hand-throttle happiness, plus the straight forward simplicity of tricycle landing gear to the high-class composite kit aircraft scene. The sound alone from that M-14 is worth the price of admission as far as I’m concerned. And interestingly, that 360hp comes at a pretty affordable price compared to the flat 6’s you’ll find under the hood in a Lancair Legacy. In my mind, the Radial Rocket RG is an art deco alternative to the Legacy. With truly nostalgic lines and a sound right out of the golden age of aviation, the RR RG offers 240mph+ high-speed cruise and a pretty authentic fighter-like feel due to the seating configuration.

Tricycle, retractable landing gear Radial Rocket RG

The very friendly looking RR RG cockpit

Click to read more ...

Caption Contest #51 - Ends Wednesday 2.16.11 At 9PM EST

 It's a new week and here's a fresh chance to come up with a caption that's good enuf to win a bacon sandwich at OSH11. And if I may say... if you can't find something funny to say about this pic, then you're totally avgeek humor impaired!

 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 2-19-11. Let the fun begin!

Mystery Scoop Identified - Cirrus Design VK-30 Homebuilt

The full pic of the Cirrus VK-30 homebuilt from the Name The Plane game on 2.12.11

(3 pix)

 I was really hoping the Name The Plane game on 2.12.11 would last about 24 hours. Instead, it went just 15 minutes when the correct answer of Cirrus VK-30 was put in the comments area by 'Rob' who wins a bacon sandwich at an AirPigz bacon party at Oshkosh 2011. There's no doubt I'm gonna be cooking a lot of bacon this year!

 I really didn't expect a correct answer so quickly. It's hard to know how many people are aware these days of what the VK-30 is. Only a handful of the 4-5 place homebuilt pushers have been completed since it first became available as a kit back in the late 1980's. I remember seeing the prototype at Oshkosh in 1988 and even have some old VHS video of it in the air and taxiing on the ground that I'll eventually get posted. I found the airplane very interesting because it looked so much like the airplanes I had drawn in my notebooks in high school when I was supposed to be paying attention to the teachers!

Click to read more ...

Caption Contest #50 Winner(s) - 'Caspian Sea Monster' Comrades

 Not only did we have a tie in the voting poll (and thus I'm awarding 2 bacon sandwiches), but I got side-tracked this morning and didn't get the winners posted like I should have! Oh well, better late than never comrades : )

 So here are your two winners... the top one from 'William', and the bottom one from 'biggeral' - congrats to you both for having the most popular captions of the odd, unique, bizzare and pretty much just plane weird 'ground effect' flying machine from Russia sometimes referred to as the Caspian Sea Monster! I hope both of you will be able to claim your bacon sandwich winnnings at Oshkosh 2011.

 And I'm working on a detailed post about the Ekranoplan (a more official name for the aircraft in the pic) so you can all be up to speed about what I consider to be one of the most disturbing looking flying macchines ever made!

 Thanx to all who submitted and voted... and more captionating to come.