posted by Caleb on May 15
You know, I bet Wilbur and Orville never had any idea that their innovation would lead to something like this.
It’s seriously the most awesome thing I’ve looked at in uh…this entire year.
I have a pretty decent sized vocabulary, and yet I fail to find sufficient adjectives to describe how incredibly beyond rad that contraption is.
posted by Caleb on Apr 3
Check out the over-the-wing engine mounts; very unusual, but according to the website is actually more efficient.
I can’t help my fascination for semi-odd aircraft, I grew under the flight line for Edwards Air Force base, in the heart of aviation country. So I was innudated with aircraft with forward swept wings, super fast race planes, and of course all the aircraft built by the Rutans.
posted by Caleb on Mar 26
A discussion got me thinking about airplanes again, and I went and did some digging. I wanted to find some pictures of an Unlimited Class Racer with contra-rotating propellers. Because I am a kind soul, I shall share my bounty with you. Meet Precious Metal:
Click to embiggen. Looks just as good sitting on the ground as it does in the air. Man, I really need to get back to Reno.
posted by Caleb on Mar 13
Air Force is retiring the nearly 30 year old F-117 Stealth Fighter.
I’ll be sad to them go, I remember as a child watching the occassional Stealth fly over my house on it’s way to Edwards or the Skunkworks and thinking to myself “that is an ugly plane”. Still, by virture of my house’s location, I had an opportunity that not a lot of our enemies had - to actually see a Stealth. Most of the time, they just heard a “whooshing” sound and then didn’t hear much of anything.
I won’t be as sad to see the F-117 go as I will be when they eventually decide to have the old A-10 hang up her cleats, but the Stealth Fighter was an innovation and an effective weapon. It’s too bad.
posted by Caleb on Feb 26
I was trying to think of a cool title for this post, but the only word that kept coming to mind was “awesome.”
U.S. SOCOM arming V-22 Osprey aircraft with GAU-2B Gatling guns.
February 25, 2008: The U.S. V-22 tilt-rotor aircraft is being equipped with weapons. U.S. SOCOM (Special Operations Command) has had a GAU-2B machine-gun fitted to the bottom of a V-22. This is a remote control turret version of this six-barrel 7.62mm machine-gun.
I love Ospreys, I remember when I first started hearing about the tilt-rotor concept in the 80’s and I thought in my 10 year old mind that a helicopter that could be a plane was the closest thing to a Transformer that I would see, and that was awesome.
Hence the title of this post, because putting a remote-controlled mini-gun on the Osprey to lay down fire for troops entering/leaving the aircraft is even more awesome (there’s that word again).
posted by Caleb on Dec 18
Thanks to Tam for the heads up.
Yesterday was the 104th anniversary of the first powered flight, made by the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk. Thanks to Orville and Wilbur, over the next 104 years, we would develop aviation from a tiny plane that flew for 12 seconds into the massive aircraft that can carry tanks across the ocean. We would see some of the most graceful psychical representations of human engineering take shape in steel and wood…and invariably with piston engines.
Click to embiggenate.
posted by Caleb on Nov 8
So, Kim du Toit wants to know what your five favorite cars are. I say fie on you Kim, as much fun as cars are, aircraft are much cooler. I’m sure that Scully and my brother will agree with me on the inherent superiority of aircraft in the aesthetics department over cars. So, what are your five favorite airplanes, and why? Here are mine, from 5th to 1st.
5. The de Havilland Mosquito - AKA “The Wooden Wonder”. It was a fantastic aircraft, that excelled at almost every role it was asked to perform. The graceful lines soften the appearance, and yet it exudes a subtle sense of menace; as if it’s saying “I’m pretty, but I’m dangerous”. The Mosquito is that woman in the old Bogart films that you knew was nothing but trouble, but you couldn’t stay away.
4. SPAD S. XIII - For all the grace that the Mosquito has, the SPAD has none. What earned it a fondness in my heart was not its appearance, but rather its performance. Flown with skill by Eddie Rickenbacker in World War I, the SPAD had a reputation as being able to dive away “like a brick on rails”. Not the most maneuverable fighter of the war, the SPAD was still an excellent aircraft in the hands of a skilled pilot.
3. The P-39 Airacobra - Not on the list for its combat performance, the Airacobra is one of those weird planes that I thought was awesome as a kid, and have maintained a partial fascination with since that time. It just think it’s a neat looking aircraft, although the guy who put a door on a plane should probably have been fired.
2. F-4 Phantom II - In addition to being the only jet on this list, the Phantom gets its number spot simply for being the ugly duckling at the ball. And yet this huge turkey of a jet was used both by the Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds as a demonstration aircraft. It was a big beasty, but like the Airacobra, I’ve got a sickness for it. It was the first plane I ever saw fly at an airshow, and when I was a kid, I had a huge poster of it on my wall.
1. F-82 Twin Mustang - What can I say? I like it. I think that it’s a gorgeous aircraft, that never really got to see it’s day in combat. It never saw use in World War II, which I think is too bad, because it would have torn up the Japanese fighters it would have faced. The one feather in the cap of the F-82 is that it got the first three air-to-air kills of the Korean war, and eventually destroyed a total of 20 aircraft (sixteen on the ground). It was the last piston engine fighter to be operated by the Strategic Air Command. Sadly, there are no currently operational F-82s left in the country. Personally, I think it would be awesome if some homebuilder with a bug up his fanny took a pair of Titan Mustangs…well, you get the idea.
So pretty.
posted by Caleb on Aug 13
You can ask any of my brothers - while my older brother has always been fascinated with World War II and the Jet Age when it comes to aviation, there is something in the aircraft and pilots of World War I that holds a special grip on me.
Perhaps it’s the fact that many of the “fighters” of that era were barely more than box kites with propellers and machines guns; maybe it’s the fact that the pilot was really in contact with his aircraft; maybe I just like scarves and goggles.
In the post just below this, I mention my desire to get an ultralight version of a Fokker E. III, a big part of that is my curiosity on what it would have been like to fly back then. On a side note, I’ve always been more attracted to ultralight aviation, due in part to the decreased amount of federal hoops that I’d have to jump through. If you’re interested in learning more about ultralight aviation, check out these links. (Link 1, link 2)
Back on the topic of World War 1 aviation, one of my favorite planes from that era is the aforementioned Fokker Eindecker. While not the most maneuverable, or fastest aircraft ever, the Fokker E series changed warfare; pilots such as Oswald Boelcke and Max Immelmann used it as the platform for creating tactics and maneuvers which are still taught in air combat training to this day. Aside from his 40 air to air kills, and mentoring Manfred von Richtoven, Boelcke is most famous for creating the Dicta Boelcke, which as you can see is still relevant in this modern age of jet fighters. If you think you’ve heard of Max Immelmann, it’s probably because you’re heard of the Immelmann Turn, which gets it’s name from Max Immelmann. Interesting, the Immelmann Turn as we know it today is not at all the same maneuver that the pilot would have used during World War 1.
The modern Immelmann Turn is a half-loop followed by a half-roll at the top to right the aircraft - in an aircraft with top speed of 90 mph, attempting this maneuver would have likely led to a stall; even if you did not stall, the loss of speed would have made any further maneuvering almost impossible. In contrast, the Immelmann Turn of World War 1 most resembled what is now called a Hammer-Head Turn: after making a diving attack, the pilot would pull up, and as his aircraft approached stall speed, use the rudder to yaw the plane back into a dive. When properly executed, the Immelmann Turn would allow a pilot to gain position for another diving attack on his target. The Immelmann Turn was especially effective with the Fokker Eindecker series of aircraft; the aircraft used wing warper instead of ailerons to control, however the rudder was very large and responsive. By taking advantage of the large rudder and this maneuver, a skilled Eindecker pilot could dive in on unsuspecting targets, make a strafing run followed by an Immelmann Turn, and then strafe his targets again.
World War 1 was a war that included many firsts, among those were the first air-to-air engagements in warfare. The introduction of the airplane as a tool for waging war changed the face of the battlefield, just as certainly as the introduction of the machine gun.
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posted by Caleb on Aug 13
Get there in style. So what if the top speed is 54 mph? So what if trucks on the highway would be passing you? There is a combination of factors that would make flying an ultralight-class Fokker Eindecker replica one of the coolest things ever.
Now if I could just figure out how to add an interrupter gear to a Rotax 503, I’d be all set.
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posted by Caleb on Jul 20
July 20th, 1969 - Mankind walks on the surface of the moon. Ever since I was a kid, I’d been interested in aviation, in space exploration and everything goes with it. The thought to me that we could literally put human beings into space and onto the moon was at various times the coolest thing ever.
Despite all the crazy conspiracy nuts and others who deny the moon landing, the legacy of the Apollo 11 crew has remained intact for almost 40 years. With our gradual slide away from acknowledging American heroes, it is imperative in the coming years that we do not forget, nor allow our children to forget the names and the feats that were performed by the entire Apollo crews.
Men like Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins should not be forgotten. Nor should the pioneers of aviation that made the Apollo missions possible. Without the contributions of Chuck Yeager, John Glenn, and Michael Adams to just name a few, the tremendous feat that was performed on July 20th would not have been possible.
It is my great, optimistic hope that in my lifetime, I’ll get to see the first permanent human installation on the moon.
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