March 2013

Published on March 31, 2013 With 650 miles yet to go, the winds had not turned in their favor.  The two Portuguese aviators, Sacadura Cabral and Gago Coutinho, computed that they had just 8.5 hours of fuel remaining, and they were still burning 20 gallons per hour.  To make it to the rocks called the [...]

Published on March 30, 2013 When the pair of Portuguese flyers left Lisbon, they were confident of the voyage ahead.  Their aircraft, a single engine, open cockpit, Fairey IIID biplane on floats, was one of the Portuguese Navy’s finest.  The date was March 30, 1922 — 91 years ago today in aviation history.  As the [...]

“Compared with the previous Easter’s meeting, the weather conditions were, on the whole, not anything like so favourable this Easter, yet the exhibitions of flying that were given on the Friday and Saturday alone far and away exceeded any previous flights seen at Hendon.  Although we have to record one nasty accident — described later [...]

Published on March 28, 2013 The Armstrong Whitworth A.W. 154 Argosy II “City of Liverpool” was one of the key aircraft serving with Imperial Airways from Britain.  The airline crisscrossed Europe, offering a luxury “Silver Wing” service to Paris, flying to Berlin, stopping at Belgium and setting a high standard for others to match.  The [...]

Published March 27, 2013 When Captain Berry H. Young, USAF, took off that day in 1954, he had no idea that the events to come would test every ounce pilot skill and luck he had.  An experienced Aircraft Commander with the Strategic Air Command’s 9th Bomb Squadron of the 7th Bomb Wing flying from Carswell [...]

Published on March 25, 2013 One hundred years ago this week, Flight published its Foreign Aviation News report.  The news spanned the globe, ranging from China and Japan to close by in France and Germany.  Beyond the usual reports about pilots achieving their brevets, there were many interesting tidbits.  The high points, as with all [...]

This Week’s Hints to help you along: Oh the tragedy, the ill will of the skies and the wires! The True North strong and free! From far and wide…. A triple tail?  Surely you jest!  Yet it was perfect for the client. Designed and built uniquely for a company for special work. So do you [...]

Published on March 24, 2013 The Aerial Transit Company was established and incorporated in England “to convey letters, goods and passengers from place to place through the air….”  With the documents filed, as well as a patent for some of the technologies that they had developed to support the venture, the four partners set out [...]

Published on March 23, 2013 “ACCORDING to reports that have reached us, MM. Marc Pourpe and George Verminck, two Bleriot pilots who have been giving flying exhibitions in Ceylon, have been rather severely handled by the Government authorities there.  It appears that they were given permission to carry out their flights at the Colombo racecourse [...]

Published on March 22, 2013 On this date in aviation history, March 22, 1919, the world’s first regularly scheduled international service began operations that linked two cities, Brussels and Paris, under the banner of the Lignes Aériennes Farman.  Flying a mix of Farman Goliaths with Renault power (the F.61) and Gnôme-Rhone-constructed, Jupiter power (in the [...]

Published on March 21, 2013 “NOWADAYS it is safe to remark that any pupil who can keep a fairly clear head and who has quite an average amount of common sense can soon learn to fly.  He does not need to be an expert at engineering, or particularly will versed in the aerodynamical considerations underlying [...]

Published on March 18, 2013 The idea of man-powered flight dates back thousands of years to the story of Icarus and Daedalus, who in ancient myth flew with wings made of feathers and wax.  By 1912, that myth had become a goal every bit as important as flight in the newly developed engine-powered aeroplanes.  Competitions [...]

This Week’s Hints to help you along: Originally designed with radials, flown with 4 cyl. inline engines. Performed well, but only six were built despite marketing efforts. Could this have flown in a South American air force on liaison duty? Also flew with the CIA _______  ___   _______.  Fill in the blanks. So do [...]

Published on March 17, 2013 One hundred years ago, in the early days of aviation’s rapid advance, the flights with model aeroplanes were highly respected and not considered, “child’s play”.  In fact, many innovations were tested and validated first on models before being carried forward into the design of early planes.  Likewise, many early planes [...]

Published on March 16, 2013 “March 16 [1926].  Went to Auburn with S in am.  E and Mr. Roope came out at 1 p.m.  Tried rocket at 2.30.  It rose 41 feet & went 184 feet, in 2.5 secs., after the lower half of the nozzle burned off. Brought materials to lab.” These brief notes [...]

Published on March 15, 2013 By January 1916, Francisco “Pancho” Villa and his men had been declared enemies by the US Government in the aftermath of an ambush of a train a month earlier in which 16 American passengers were seized, stripped and executed in cold blood.  Public outrage was limited because the attack had [...]

Published on March 14, 2013 The invasion of France was less than three months away and Allied forces were massing across England.  As planners labored in secret in preparation for the combined naval, air and army assault on the beaches of Normandy, they made a stark realization that the system they were depending on to [...]

Published on March 13, 2013 “High Upon a Kite. The No. 1 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps carried out an extensive series of experiments with kites at Farnborough, on Tuesday, and in one case an officer and two men were carried to a height of 2,000 feet.” One hundred years ago today, this small [...]

Published on March 12, 2013 One hundred years ago today, the publication Flight, from the Royal Aero Club, was arriving in the post around Great Britain carrying news of events far and wide in the circles of aviation.  Among the stories was a snippet entitled, “Brindejonc des Moulinais Returns Home”.  The story was about a [...]

Published on March 11, 2013 “One of the most important items recently chronicled in Flight was that recording the achievement of Lieut. J. W. Dunne, who, at Eastchurch in the Isle of Sheppey, few a distance of 2 1/4 miles on a machine of his own design, which displayed so much natural stability as to [...]

This Week’s Hints to help you along: After take-off, the pilots retracts the float against the fuselage. The wing floats retract outward and form wingtip fairings. Designed to hunt submarines; a top secret project at the time. Overrun by a more successful design of another friendly nation. So do you know what this aircraft is? [...]

Published on March 10, 2013 On March 10, 1956 — today in aviation history — the Department of Defense authorized the following information release: March 10, 1956/B-47/ Mediterranean Sea The aircraft was one of a flight of four scheduled for non-stop deployment from MacDill AFB to an overseas air base.  Take-off from MacDill and first [...]

Published on March 9, 2013 The phrase “”More lost than Lieutenant Bello” (“Más perdido que el Teniente Bello”) is a part of Chile’s linguistic heritage and refers to someone who loses their way quite badly.  Yet where did the phrase come from?  Well, it turns out the “Lieutenant Bello” saying pays homage to an early [...]

Published on March 8, 2013 “Flying is the best possible thing for women.” — Raymonde de Laroche It seems fitting that today, on International Women’s Day, we should salute the first woman in history to earn a pilot’s certificate.  Raymonde de Laroche was an unlikely aviator.  Born Elise Raymonde Deroche, she was the daughter of [...]

Published on March 7, 2013 The household vacuum cleaner ran smoothly for 25 minutes, slowly pushing air into the inflatable, collapsed wing, which would span 27 feet once filled.  Incredibly, the wing and airplane together weighed just 38 pounds without the pilot.  It featured a wing area of 250 square feet and carried no engine.  [...]

Published on March 6, 2013 Today in aviation history, on March 6, 1990, the very last US Military flight of the SR-71 Blackbird took place.  The flight originated from Palmdale, California, and flew to Washington-Dulles International Airport outside of Washington, DC.   The aircraft (s/n 61-17972) was piloted by Lt Col Ed Yielding, USAF, with [...]

Published on March 5, 2013 Air Ministry Specification F.7/30 was published in 1930 and called for British firms to prepare designs for a future fighter plane, one that could achieve 250 mph and carry four machine guns.  Specification F.7/30 was slanted heavily toward designs that made use of the Rolls-Royce Goshawk II, a V-12 liquid-cooled [...]

Published on March 4, 2013 The date was March 4, 1942.  Just four months had passed since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.  Since then, America had ramped up its war footing rapidly.  The Japanese knew few details and thus, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) realized that it would have to overfly Pearl Harbor once [...]

This Week’s Hints to help you along: The tail design might help you, but probably not…. Exceedingly rare and later scrapped after rejection by the military. Sleek, but still a biplane at a time when monoplanes were leading. Perhaps envisioned for training, or hopefully as a fighter? So do you know what this aircraft is? [...]

Published on March 3, 2013 At the height of the air war over Vietnam, the USAF and US Navy kill ratios achieved by their pilots in combat were far lower than expected.  For the US Navy, it was just 3.7 enemy aircraft shot down for every American plane lost.  This was a far cry from [...]

Published on March 2, 2013 Twice before, weather had delayed the first test flight.  High winds had dogged the plans and even today, on March 2, 1969, the winds were uncooperative.  Nonetheless, the French waited patiently.  British observers and engineers were on hand as well.  Finally, as the morning gave way to afternoon, the winds [...]

Published on March 1, 2013 On this date in aviation history, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) published a draft of the new, universal, worldwide phonetic alphabet to be used in aviation communications.  The phonetic alphabet uses multi-syllabic words to represent individual letters — thus, “A” is spoken as “Alpha”, “B” is spoken as “Bravo” [...]