Fri, 11 Jul 2008
A final B-17 mission
84-year-old Marvin Skubick, a B-17 Flying Fortress pilot in World War II, took his final flight on a B-17 last month. According to wikipedia, "of the 1.5 million tonnes of bombs dropped on Germany by U.S. aircraft, 500,000 were dropped from B-17s."
posted by Bill White at 22:51 | permalink | email me | | |
Thu, 28 Feb 2008
A380 cockpit
Here's a controllable panoramic view of the cockpit of Airbus's monster A380 airliner
posted by Bill White at 21:25 | permalink | email me | | |
Wed, 02 Jan 2008
New leads in the DB Cooper case?
You never know when DB Cooper will crop up in conversation around the house - here's a recent article from New York Magazine with some developments.
posted by Bill White at 15:32 | permalink | email me | | |
Wed, 05 Dec 2007
Fleetweek in San Francisco, 2007
Some great pictures from Bernard Zee - they start out good and get really interesting toward the end. Check out the transonic oblique shockwaves as an F-18 flies just below the speed of sound about 20 feet above San Francisco Bay heading towards Berkeley on a bombing run.
posted by Bill White at 13:57 | permalink | email me | | |
Tue, 13 Nov 2007
The mighty do fall
The old Soviet aircraft carrier Kiev is now an attraction at a Chinese theme park. Isn't their space shuttle Buran parked in a playground somewhere? google... no, the static test model is in Gorky Park; the Buran that flew was crushed when its hanger collapsed a few years ago.
Heh - here's what Soviet websites would have looked like if the Commies had made it another ten years to the internet age (link to buran.ru).
posted by Bill White at 17:54 | permalink | email me | | |
Nice hobby
Art Nalls has one heck of a hobby.
posted by Bill White at 17:48 | permalink | email me | | |
Thu, 01 Nov 2007
"Dante would have been terrified"
Paul Tibbets died yesterday at his home in Columbus, Ohio. Here's his obituary in his home-town newspaper, and here's a lot more background at acepilots.com. Studs Terkel interviewed him in 2002.
posted by Bill White at 21:56 | permalink | email me | | |
Thu, 18 Oct 2007
Tex Hill and Robin Olds
Two great American aviators died recently: David Lee "Tex" Hill and Robin Olds. Here's a half-hour of story-telling from General Hill, and another from General Olds.
posted by Bill White at 11:15 | permalink | email me | | |
Mon, 01 Oct 2007
That beautiful sound
It's strange that the instruments of war should be so beautiful. Here's a video of an airshow this year in Blenheim, New Zealand, that featured seven Fokker Dr I triplanes, a Fokker D VII, a SE5a, a Sopwith Camel, and a Nieuport. You can find details of the planes here.
posted by Bill White at 12:55 | permalink | email me | | |
