All Things Aviation Related

[Dpmulvan]

Some more good stuff

[Robert Coats]

Grandpa Pettibone was an informal debrief/narrative in Naval Aviation News and was first published in 1943.

I like the phrase, "During his nylon descent..."

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by john70t

The B-29 glider was good enough to copy for decades:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-4
The Tupolev Tu-4 (Russian:Туполев Ту-4; NATO reporting name: Bull) is a piston-engined Soviet strategic bomber that served the Soviet Air Force from the late 1940s to mid-1960s. The aircraft was a reverse-engineered copy of the American Boeing B-29 Superfortress.

I heard that when a B-29 landed in Russia when they were our allies, they kept it. Stalin ordered it to be be exactly copied. The one that had and a makeshift patch from flack damage in the fuselage, and the Russians even copied that, to make it an exact copy.

[Les Paul]

Sad story here. Coming from Ohio to Naples pilots lost both engines at once on approach. Audio of pilot calmly telling controllers he wasn’t going to make it. He was aiming for a golf course on the other side of that concrete barrier and didn’t make it. Plane hit the fence which spun it around exploding. That’s on I75 a very very busy road to Miami. Pilots died 3 people somehow made it out. Lot of speculation but sucks big time.

[oldE]

Best guess I've heard ( Probable Cause) :they took on fuel up north to avoid airport charges and specified " no anti-gel " thinking it would be cheaper ( it wasn't). With engines at idle on approach their fuel gelled, starving the pumps and causing both engines to flame out.
They saved their passengers. RIP to the crew.

Best
Les

[Heel n Toe]

B-17 Flying Fortress formation - Stuttgart raid - Sep 6th 1943

[Heel n Toe]

Vought F4U Corsair

[Heel n Toe]

The Kikka prototype jet aircraft were the firsts of the type for Japan. Although the effort to embark on a design for jet fighters was inspired by the German firm Messerschmitt's successes with the Me 262 fighters, the Kikka design was created by Kazuo Ohno and Kenichi Matsumura from the ground up without German assistance, the only exception being the Ishikawajima Ne-20 powerplant which was based on the German BMW 003 axial flow turbojet engine.

The prototype conducted its first ground test on 30 Jun 1945, and in Jul 1945 it was disassembled for transport to Kisarazu Naval Airfield. On 7 Aug, it flew for the first time with Lieutenant Commander Susumu Takaoka in the cockpit. On 11 Aug, a second test flight was scheduled, but it came to a sudden end when rocket assisted take off (RATO) equipment caused the aircraft to crash into a drainage ditch. At this point, the second prototype was close to completion, while between 18 and 25 more examples were under construction.

The Kikka aircraft were designed to be high speed interceptors, but in the final weeks of the war, Japanese Navy leadership seriously considered to use them as special attack, ie. Kamikaze, weapons despite of their high production cost. As the war ended within days of the takeoff accident, none would see combat action. At least 3 of the under-construction Kikka aircraft were taken by the United States for further studies, and they were likely taken apart to form the partial frame currently on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, United States.

[Robert Coats]

Ouch. Air Mexico, I think.

[rennwagen]

Originally Posted by Heel n Toe

Vought F4U Corsair

"Ole 122 "

F4U-1A # 122 of VMF-111 was the only aircraft in WWII to receive an official citation in its own name. Operating from the Gilbert and Marshall Islands against Japanese forces “Ole 122” as it came to be referred to, flew 100 missions carrying heavy bombs, logged over 400 flying hours, covered over 80,000 miles, never required and engine change and never had to turn back because of mechanical problems. The aircraft even made Robert Ripley’s “Believe It Or Not” newspaper column in 1945.

[john70t]

HUGE REPOSITORY of cutaways, blueprints, artwork, etc wow:

https://mavink.com/post/CDBF03383A4E483984825C2052F50817D6AMA475CA/lockheed-p-38-lightning-schematics

[DRONE]

Interesting A-10 article
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=191&t=2066368

[dlockhart]

[ted]

Some old photos from a San Diego PSA reunion.

[Robert Coats]

Damaged P-51 Mustang of the US Air Force, Korea, early 1950s:




Unauthorized 'nose art' on a Boeing CH-47 Chinook:

[Racerbvd]

[dlockhart]

[A930Rocket]

A United Airlines flight lost a tire while taking off from San Francisco International Airport, but safely landed at Los Angeles International Airport after it was diverted, the airline and airports tell CNN. The Federal Aviation Administration said they will investigate the incident.

https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2024/03/08/united-airlines-plane-tire-fall-takeoff-san-francisco-vpx.cnn

[pavulon]

[KNS]

Chuck Yeager in the NF-104