(click pic for hi-res) The early days of aviation, and no seat belts! From shorpy.com
When you click the image above you'll get a big hi-res version over at shorpy.com, and it'll give you a really up close view of these two intrepid aviators believed to be somewhere near Washington D.C. and around the year 1911. The expressions on their faces are really interesting to me, along with the idea that there doesn't appear to be seat belts of any kind installed! I've never studied the issue of aircraft seat belts, but I believe it was pretty common in that era to simply trust in the idea of 'hang on'.
Those expressions almost look like something out of a crazy old movie, one of those over-acted comedies, but there's every reason to believe this is all for real. Imagine the thoughts going thru their heads as they are about to light the fire on that water-cooled engine swinging a huge pusher prop. The pilot looks confident and eager while the young lady looks a little less sure of it all but still somewhat confident as seen in the relatively comfortable way she is holding onto the airplane structure. And of course the fabric strap tied around the bottom of her dress is a fascinating insight into the entire thought process related to early open-air aircraft flying.
Early aviators were either amazing adventurers or remarkably clueless people, or maybe a little of both. But it's hard not to be impressed with people like these two who are about to go experience the wonder of flight. They probably had no idea of the incredible trail they blazing.
Be sure to click the pic to see the hi-res version of the image along with a few more details. And while you're there at shorpy.com, take some time and explore their fascinating hi-res image world of life in the last 100 years.
This video has been very popular in the last week but with my vacation to California I didn't get around to posting it here. In fact, I didn't even get around to watching it myself until just now. Wow. This is one of the coolest videos I've seen in a long time. You just never know how people will react to an experience like this, but for me, seeing video images from multiple cameras (and truthfully from two different launches) that show both the ascent and the descent of the Solid Rocket Boosters is simply stunning. It amounts to a real-time experience to the edge of space and back (about 145,000 feet) while getting to see the Shuttle and Main Tank from several points of view as well as the other separated SRB at times.
Video screenshot showing the Shuttle and main tank after SRB separation
The standout visual for me in the video is the deployment of the three recovery parachutes. I really enjoyed seeing some of the reefing process used on the parachutes to control the rate at which they fully inflate. As a parachute guy in a past life, that's really cool stuff. This is just something you never get to see from this perspective... and actually, the whole SRB recovery process has been a bit of a mystery thru the Shuttle era. It's really cool to have so much of the process shown in this video.
Screenshot of the awesome SRB recovery parachutes deploying
And for this video, it doesn't hurt that the sounds accompanying it have been tweaked by the folks at Skywalker Sound (Lucasfilm) to maximize the experience. According to the video description tho, these are the actual sounds picked up by the camera mics, they've just been optimized to take it all to a much higher level. Anyway, I hope you take the time to experience all eight and a half minutes of this spectacular video!
I'm finishing up my vacation in California so I figured a simple post with a new Caption Contest is the perfect solution for today... so here ya go. It shouldn't be too hard to have fun with this one, but as always remember to follow rule #4 below and keep it clean.
The winner with the best caption will become the proud owner of a bacon sandwich at OSH12 which most people find is a pretty tasty little trophy : )
So, you've got til Wednesday evening at 9pm EDT to submit your clever/funny/cool captions. Then, I’ll pick the best 5 and put ’em in a poll for everyone to vote on for all day Thursday and Friday so we can find the winner.
The Rules:
1) Max of 3 submissions per person
2) Submissions go in the 'comments' area
3) Game ends Wednesday at 9pm EDT
4) Keep it clean!
Then, anyone can cast their vote starting Thursday morning and running thru til 9pm EDT Friday. The winner will be posted Saturday morning 3-24-12. Have fun and hang in there!
(click pic for hi-res) Pan Am Anzac Clipper (Boeing 314) Clear Lake California circa 1941
A couple days ago I stopped in at the Lake County Museum in Lakeport Califonia to see what might be interesting to learn about the county and lake area that my mother grew up in. We're visiting her right now, and enjoying the view of Clear Lake, California's largest natural lake. It's a big one at over 17 miles long and over 7 miles wide at the widest part. As an avgeek, you can't help but think of seaplane flying when you see this massive lake surrounded by beautiful small mountains.
I found one interesting picture on the wall of a Cessna Bamboo Bomber that was being used after the war as a local area transport, so that got me thinking that I should ask if they had any other aircraft pictures. I was happy to see they had a file folder marked 'airplanes' and in it was a small handful of aircraft pictures related to Lake County history. One of them was the picture seen here, posted as a hi-res CoolPix, of the Pan American Airways Boeing 314 Clipper named Anzac that operated on the west coast of the United States. (for loads of great Clipper info, go to FlyingClippers.com)
There's so much rich history that surrounds Pan Am's fleet of Clipper seaplanes that provided luxury service around the world, but I know very little of it. I hope to do more research and post more interesting stories in the future of these aircraft built by Martin, Sikorsky, and Boeing... but for now I've got two really interesting stories that go with the Boeing 314 Anzac Clipper pictured here.
First, it's sitting on Clear Lake in this picture, but this was a pretty remote area back in the 1940's so it was quite unusual for this passenger airplane to be sitting on the lake. The story as I was told at the museum was that Clear Lake was used as an alternate landing area for the Clippers when the weather in the San Francisco bay area wouldn't allow for landing. Being a seaplane only (no landing gear) created a unique challenge when the weather became a factor. Clear Lake was close enough to be easy to get to, but being inland and at a higher elevation, it was likely to have very different weather as far as visibility is concerned.
Interestingly, there was no provision for being able to dock the airplanes on the lake, so they would sit out on the lake, with the passengers inside, until the weather improved and they could make the approximate 90 mile trip back to the city by the bay. I can just imagine being around the lake back in the 40's and hearing the Clipper come over the mountains... what a sight it would have been to watch her land on the lake!
The second story about the Anzac Clipper is found over at a website called Jim Slade's Air Lines, and the story is titled 'Forty Minutes To Pearl' - it's the fascinating story of this Pan Am Clipper as it arrived at Honolulu 40 minutes late on December 7, 1941 which meant they received a radio warning that Pearl Harbor was being attacked giving them the opportunity to divert to Hilo to avoid being shot down by the attacking Japanese aircraft. Had they not arrive late, they almost surely would have been a large and easy target, and a tragic civilian loss added to the military losses. It's an amazing story.
Felix Baumgartner ready to leave capsule at over 71,000' on 3-15-12 (photo: facebook)
I was really excited when I first learned about the Red Bull Stratos project and Felix Baumgartner's plan to attempt to break Joseph Kittinger's amazing high altitude jump record of 102,800' from 1960. My dad started skydiving in 1958, so the incredible jumps of Joe Kittinger were part of household talk when I was a kid. But when the Stratos project went on hold in late 2010 due to a legal battle over how this new project had been conceived (see story here), I lost a lot of my interest. But with yesterday's test jump from over 71,000 feet that launched from Roswell New Mexico, and the success that has been achieved thus far, it's hard not be excited again. (apparently some sort of out-of-court settlement got the project back on track in mid 2011)
I'm guessing there will be some extensive freefall video available before long, but for now the video below gives a good overview of the project and the jump from yesterday.
It's pretty much off-the-scale-cool that Joe Kittinger is involved in the Stratos project encouraging Felix along... and it's great to see that this new project has helped bring attention to Joe's amazing accomplishments from so long ago. And the Stratos project is more than just a stunt. The next generation of pressure suits are being tested here, and then there's that interesting idea that Felix may indeed go supersonic when he gets to the big jump planned for 120,000 feet. I don't know if there's really anything interesting or useful to be learned from a man in a pressure suit falling at supersonic speeds, but I guess we won't know until it's done!
For more details on the Red Bull Stratos project, check out:
Me trying on the A-4 Skyhawk cockpit at the Hiller Museum in San Carlos California
Technically my wife and I are on vacation right now in California to visit my mom, but you always gotta squeeze some aviation in whenever you can. We actually planned to spend our first day seeing the tourist sights in my birth city of San Francisco before we headed up farther north to where she lives, but since it was raining in the city we decided we'd make a quick stop by the Hiller Aviation Museum on Wednesday. We stumbled onto the museum location on Tuesday night when we went looking for dinner shortly after we arrived at SFO... I honestly didn't realize that the museum was so close to where I had lived for a while when I was a kid back in the 60's. All I knew was that it was somewhere in California.
This great little museum is located on the San Carlos airport about 10 miles south of San Francisco International Airport, and it's well worth the time and effort to stop in. I'll put up a detailed post on the museum before long, but for now I have two interesting things to share. First, I didn't even know that my avgeek friend @adamcanfly had a trip to SFO in the works, but I found out via twitter shortly after we arrived that he had just departed from SFO headed back to home. How weird that we just missed each other when we were both so far away from our homes in Indiana and Kansas. But imagine my surprise when on Wednesday, after we made a last-minute decision to go to the Hiller Museum (which I didn't even realize was in the area we were gonna be) and we sign their guestbook at the entrance we see the entry before us is Adam's from his visit the day before! The randomness of this occurrence is hard to wrap my head around! The only thing that could have been better of course is if we had both been there the same day rather than one day after the other.
The other thing to share is my simple opportunity to sit in the A-4 Skyhawk cockpit that's not only on display at Hiller but is set up so you can hop in and give its fit a try. So I hopped in to see how it felt. I was surprised how snug it was, but that really gave me an awesome thought for how much this jet fighter must have felt like something you were wearing rather than a big machine you were sitting in. The short nose and snug cockpit made me realize the amazing feel of power that a pilot of such an airplane must have. Most of us never get this kind of extreme experience, especially as the sole occupant of a jet fighter. All I can say is: wow.
So to drive that awesomeness home a little more, here's a sweet old school video of the Blue Angels flying the A-4 Skyhawk. The video appears to be from 1986 when the Blues turned 40 and were preparing to retire the A-4 and bring the F-18 onboard. I remember seeing some of the A-4 performances back in the day, but watching this video makes me realize that the Skyhawk rocked as an aerobatic platform for the amazing U.S. Navy Blue Angels!
Caution: small political rant to follow, read at your own risk
This video is about NASA, politics, science, aerospace, America and the future… and it gives me an opportunity to make a spiritual point as well. You may already know who Neil deGrasse Tyson is… I wouldn’t have recognized his name, but I did recognize his voice right away when I first watched this video. Neil has been tapped as an expert in many science related programs that have been on PBS, History and more. He’s got a lot of knowledge and has a great way of presenting what he knows.
I don’t know the specific origins of this video posted by youtuber Scrunchthethird, but it appears to be a montage of statements Neil has made related to NASA (and the money we invest in space science) set to video images that really help drive his message home. That message is basically that ’we stopped dreaming’ when it comes to exploring the universe (and the technologies that make that happen) and because of that we have somewhat lost our way. He also makes the very powerful point that the entire NASA budget in over 50 years of work is still LESS than the bank bailout of 2008/2009! The added point that the NASA budget amounts to 4 tenths of a penny out of every dollar brought in really puts some perspective on how little is spent on an agency that has so much impact on the way we all live.
As America continues to struggle with massive national debt stemming from wasteful and misguided spending in areas that the government should stay out of… like entitlements for retirement, health care and massive social programs, we have to look at the politics of what’s going on. Our leaders have made decisions over the last 40 years that have taken the focus off of what it is that makes the economic engine work and instead have cultivated a massive subculture of weakened people who drag our progress down. I’m not saying that these thoughts are specifically Neil’s, but these are the thoughts I have when I hear his powerful words in the video.
Screenshot from the 'We Stopped Dreaming' with Neil deGrasse Tyson video
There’s something very amazing in the human spirit about moving forward, exploring and trying to build a better world. I believe that comes from the Creator, by God’s design. Others certainly see that differently. From what I see about Neil, he has a hard time believing that there’s a benevolent God out there responsible for the Universe… but you might find it very interesting that he has stated at times (like in this video) that across the varied disciplines of science, on average, 40% of scientists in America pray to a personal God. Even more interesting to me is his assertion that among engineers and mathematicians that percentage jumps to 60. The idea that science and spirituality aren’t compatible seems to be challenged by those within the science field itself. I make this point to just bolster my idea that God has put in man the desire to understand His creation, and anything that stands in the way of this natural desire has the effect of diminishing the entire human experience.
Ultimately, it may simply be too late for the old America to resurface and lead the world into the future. But for most of us, I’m pretty sure we’d all like to see us give it a try by putting the right perspective back in place… and a step in the right direction would be adequate funding for NASA to explore the Universe (and discover the technologies needed to do that) - Thanx Neil for your very encouraging words concerning this!
Lastly, I’d like to make it clear my belief that all of mankind is far better off when the responsibility for taking care of those in need is left to the individual and not the government. We all have a huge responsibility to take care of those truly in need, but that is done more effectively and far less costly by real ‘neighbors’ instead of a cold, calculating and power-hungry entity like ‘government’.
The fascinating and radical design of John McGinnis' Synergy (photo: facebook)
The prototype 5-seat Synergy aircraft is making some great progress as can be seen in the recent posting of 92 new images on John's facebook page. John, along with members of his family and a grass-roots team are having the experience-of-a-lifetime knocking down challenges and watching the airframe take shape as a result of their hard work.
Synergy breaks new ground on several levels, including the very unique box wing/tail design, high efficiency pusher configuration (advanced design compared to typical pushers), advanced technology propeller design, use of V-4 turbo-diesel engine (DeltaHawk), and overall high attention to laminar flow.
Projects like this are always extremely difficult to pin down when they will reach completion, but the good news is that they're making serious progress and are hitting important targets along the way. Keep watch of the resources at the links below for updates on the project:
A large number of submissions came in for this Caption Contest, and they were followed by an extra large number of votes in the poll as well. In fact, the free poll software I've been using has a limit of 100 votes and we hit that in just over 24 hours and that means whichever caption was leading at that point has wound up the winner. So we say congrats to 'Toto' for the clever twist on getting some fuel for your Luscombe. I hope you'll be making it to OSH12 to enjoy your bacon sandwhich winnings!
I've always been surprised how only a very small portion of the traffic I get daily will get in on the voting in these polls. I guess lots of folks see this as just avgeek silliness... and to that I say: exactly! Anyway, thanx to everyone for submitting so many great captions and to all who voted. I really appreciate your participation.
I'll switch over to my second choice for poll software, it allows for unlimited voting. Some of the other polls I've put up lately have hit the limit lately too, but this was the first time for a caption contest. Regardless, I'll be ready for the next game - and that will be coming up on a Monday morning before long : )
(click pic for hi-res) VTOL F-35B during carrier suitability testing in October 2011
The confirming news is now a little over a week old about the reality of a Top Gun 2 movie project with Tom Cruise coming back as Maverick. And with the 'anytime baby' F-14 Tomcat smoking cigars in an easy chair these days, the F-35 Lightning II gets a chance to show off its ability to turn cash into an incredibly slow fighter jet. Of course I'm speaking of its VTOL capabilities.
Tom Cruise as Maverick waaaay back in 1986 in the original Top Gun movie
Regardless of how you feel about the whole F-35 project (cost, schedule, capability), when you watch the video below, it's pretty hard not to be exceedingly impressed with what this little beast can do. I love watching the control surfaces and the vectored thrust nozzle on those rolling, short carrier takeoffs! (the 1:50 mark is a good example) - I hope the onboard computers have chips that are well cooled as I'm guessing there's some serious processing going on there.
So, whenever the Top Gun 2 movie actually hits the big screen, the scientology star for me will be the F-35, not Tom. The F-35 is all about applying science and technology toproduce the ultimate fighter, so I figure if I'm gonna have to talk about scientology, I'm gonna apply it all to the Lightning II.
I'm guessing Tom is hoping people focus on the F-35's scientology too : )
(click pic for hi-res) Another awesome CoolPix view of the F-35B doing carrier VTOL
Friday, March 23, 2012 at 08:56AM 
(click pic for hi-res) The early days of aviation, and no seat belts! From shorpy.com
