October 2012

Published on October 31, 2012 At this writing, just days remain until American voters will cast their ballots for the Presidency of the United States.  Today’s political candidates fly “hops” around the country making multiple campaign appearances every day in each of the key media markets where they can influence voters.  To achieve this, they [...]

Published on October 30, 2012 In 1935, the Boeing Model 299 was the most extraordinary design conceived for service as a bomber with the US Army Air Corps.  It featured four engines, a central bomb bay and gunner stations spaced around the fuselage for defense.  It was fast, could carry an excellent bomb load, and [...]

Published on October 29, 2012 It all began with a car fire in 1901. Charles Rolls and his friend Frank Hedges Butler, along with Frank’s daughter Vera Butler, had decided to undertake a motor car tour around Scotland.  As wealthy members of high society and active members of the Automobile Club of Great Britain, it [...]

This Week’s Hints to help you along: That may be a Boeing marque on the tail, but…. The cockpit is distinctly a Dornier-type design. Two 1,400 hp engines gave a top speed faster than 200 mph. Four wing-mounted machine guns — for ground attack? So do you know what this aircraft is?       [...]

Published on October 28, 2012 Well, thought Davenport, at least the Royal Aero Club is thinking straight.  He read on, “The ‘authorities,’ after the manner of those who have no friends, come in for more kicks and than ha’pence, and have doubtless learned ere now to accept their lot with equanimity.”  Well written, that, though [...]

Published on October 27, 2012 On this date in aviation history in 1962, one of Italy’s most powerful businessmen, Enrico Mattei, who headed up the largest oil firms in the Europe, ENI (Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi), died in a plane crash when his Morane-Saulnier MS.760 Paris, I–SNAP, crashed in a storm close to the village of [...]

Published on October 26, 2012 Today in aviation history, 50 years ago in 1962, the USAF took delivery of the last production B-52 Stratofortress bomber. The expectation at the time was that the B-52, like its predecessor the B-36, would have a service life of between 10 and 25 years. Instead, 50 years later, the [...]

Published on October 25, 2012 by Thomas Van Hare Today in aviation history, on October 25, 1955, marks the first flight of the SAAB J 35 Draken, a revolutionary fighter interceptor that established the Swedish military aviation industry as a global competitor with the United States, Russia, France, and England.  This achievement is all the [...]

Published on October 24, 2012 The name of Harry Hawker is quite nearly one of the most famous in British aviation history.  By the late 1930s, the RAF had settled on two aircraft, the Supermarine Spitfire and the Hawker Hurricane as their single engine monoplane fighter aircraft types.  Yet Hawker’s name in British aviation history [...]

Published on October 23, 2012 Painted in the bright red of the “corso rosso” of Italian racing, the Macchi M.C. 72 had been purpose-built for the Schneider Cup Seaplane Races of 1931.  The plane hadn’t made the races, however, as it was still suffering development pains when the British Supermarine S.6B won at Calshot Spit [...]

Published on October 22, 2012 “Geoffrey,” Charles Davenport began, “you don’t think much of this new practice of aviation, do you?” Geoffrey stopped for a moment from his business setting out tea in the library.  “No sir, if you value my opinion enough to ask me, then I will say these flying machines are death-traps.  [...]

This Week’s Hints to help you along: Twin-engine but with pusher props on the nacelles. Are those crew stations on the engine nacelles? Clearly an American machine, but was it American designed? The shape of the rudder should give you a good hint. So do you know what this aircraft is?       Post [...]

Published on October 21, 2012 On October 21, 1978, something strange happened off the coast of Australia.  Perhaps the events took place over the Bass Straight between Cape Otway and King Island — or maybe not.  In any case, what is known is that a four seat, single engine Cessna 182L registered as VH-DSJ, departed [...]

Published on October 20, 2012 Dawn on October 20, 1934, marked the beginning of the MacRobertson Air Race, a race over an 11,380 mile grueling route that spanned from the starting point at RAF Mildenhall airfield in East Anglia, England, to Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Australia.  Along the way, participants were required only to stop [...]

Published on October 19, 2012 by Thomas Van Hare The prize was extraordinary — 50,000 francs — as offered by Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe, a Frenchman known as the “Oil King of Europe” and co-founder of the Aéro-Club de France, along with Ernest Archdeacon and Gustave Eiffel (hence the decision to incorporate the Eiffel [...]

Published on October 18, 2012 The Wright Flyer B was the same model that Charles, le Compte de Lambert, had used in July for his race to be the first to cross of the English Channel.  Louis Blériot had made it first, as both had waited for the weather to break and Blériot had awoken [...]

Published on October 17, 2012 Today in aviation history, on October 17, 1922, marks a major milestone in modern US Naval air power when a plane took off from the deck of the USS Langley (CV-1).  Yet this wasn’t the Navy’s first aircraft operations from ships — Eugene Ely, a civilian on contract with the [...]

Published on October 16, 2012 On this date in aviation history, Samuel Cody took off in his British Army Aeroplane No. 1 at Farnborough, England, and set a second “first” in British aviation history — he crashed. His goal was to extend the distance achieved in his flight experiments. Just eleven days earlier, on October [...]

This Week’s Hints to help you along: A two-seater, featuring a side-by-side cockpit design. The designer’s one and only aircraft creation. Is that an early flying wing, parallel to the work of the Hortens? Record-setting (for its class), nonetheless, never manufactured. So do you know what this aircraft is?       Post a REPLY [...]

Published on October 15, 2012 “Geoffrey,” Charles Davenport called, “bring the copy of Flight to the library if you would be a good man!”  In short order, the “First Aero Weekly in the World”was brought with tea.  And so we begin this week’s article recalling the grand days of 100 years ago when the Aero [...]

Published on October 14, 2012 As U-2 pilot Richard S. Heyser of the 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing (4080th SRW) reached 72,500 feet, he adjusted his course to pass over Cuba from the south to the northern coast of Cuba.  As he turned to the north to begin his pass his plane had flown straight into [...]

Published on October 13, 2012 By Thomas Van Hare As the balloon, “Queen of the Air”, drifted lazily over Boston at 1,200 feet of altitude, James Wallace Black pointed his Daguerreotype camera toward the harbor.  He carefully opened the aperture and exposed the first glass negative to the light of the city below.  Then, closing [...]

Published on October 12, 2012 At 01:00:03 GMT on October 12, 2005, a Long March 2F rocket carrying a Chinese-made capsule called Shenzhou 6 launched into orbit from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert, located approximately 1,000 miles from Beijing.  Strapped into the Shenzhou capsule were two men, Fèi Jùnlóng and Niè Haishèng.  [...]

Published on October 11, 2012 At first, when Arch Hoxsey, one of the pilots at the Air Meet and part of the Wright Exhibition Team, asked former President Roosevelt if he would like to take a flight, the President replied, “No, thank you.  There are enough high-fliers up there already.”  Yet then, sensing the moment [...]

Published on October 10, 2012 Today in aviation history, on October 10, 1933, a Boeing 247 flying on the regular New York to Chicago route for United Airlines was destroyed by a bomb that had been loaded into either lavatory or the aft baggage compartment.  The plane, flying at night, was seen at approximately 1,000 [...]

Published on October 9, 2012 Thirteen years before the Wright Brothers flew at Kitty Hawk, on October 9, 1890, in Brie, France, on the lawn of the Château d’Armainvilliers, Clément Ader was about to make history.  At the invitation of the Château’s owner, a wealthy banker named Monsieur Pereire, a runway of 200 meters was cleared on [...]

Published on October 8, 2012 For Sgt. Josef František, a Czech fighter pilot, the past two years had been spent in hard combat against the Nazis.  He had watched the Wehrmacht occupy Czechoslovakia in 1938.  He fought in Poland against the Blitzkrieg in 1939 — even dropping grenades on the enemy when he was temporarily [...]

This Week’s Hints to help you along: Sporting a supercharged V-12 engine imported from Central Europe. One of the few planes to bear a swastika with two air forces. Its fate remains entirely unknown — though it flew for three years. Fast, light and maneuverable — but are those fixed landing gear? So do you [...]

Published on October, 7, 2012 It looked every bit like a flying barrel, its fuselage too fat and too round.  The wings looked like an afterthought, jutting out from the sides of the barrel.  A narrow channel fuselage was perched on top, in which the single pilot sat.  The tail seemed too small, just thrown [...]

Published on October 6, 2012 In Israel 39 years ago, it was Yom Kippur, the most holy day of the Jewish calendar.  The roads were bare of traffic, businesses were closed and many were at home or at synagogues in prayer and fasting.  Likewise, the Arab world was celebrating the holy month of Ramadan.  In [...]

Published on October 5, 2012 One hundred years ago today, on October 5, 1912, Flight, the “First Aero Weekly in the World” published its its Issue No. 197 (No. 40, Vol. VI).  The banner declared that it was “A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport” and also reminded [...]

Published on October 4, 2012 The beeping tones were incessant.  By tuning onto the frequencies of 20.005 or 40.002 MHz, anyone the world over could listen to this simple repeating tone — yet what made it different was that it was broadcast from outer space, from on board the first satellite that orbited the Earth.  [...]

Published on October 3, 2012 “The Milan meeting was unfortunate in that not only was the opening clouded by the lamentable death of Chavez, but after a very successful week the closing day was marred by a collision between Thomas, on an Antoinette machine, and Capt. Dickson, on his Henry Farman biplane.  Capt. Dickson during [...]

Published on October 2, 2012 On this date in aviation history in 1923, the de Havilland DH.53 Humming Bird made its debut.  Designed specifically for the Daily Mail Light Aeroplane Competition of 1923, the DH.53 was to be flown in the competition by Capt Geoffrey de Havilland himself.  The competition was chiefly sponsored by the [...]

Published on October 1, 2012 For the USA, the war was less than a year old.  Every aviation company in the country was engaged building new aircraft for the US Army Air Corps and the US Navy.  Amidst the massive development effort, there was one aircraft that was more secret than any of the others [...]

This Week’s Hints to help you along: This aircraft is one of the few that defended its own factory at the outset of the war. In the hands of one of this country’s aces, it proved a formidable aircraft. This type of aircraft downed at least one enemy bomber during the war. All but one [...]