CoolPix And 'Name The Plane' Northrop P-61 Black Widow

(click pic for hi-res)

 Earlier today I whipped up an aircraft ID test as part of my on again off again game I call 'Name The Plane'. I thought I was being really clever by cropping down the rear windows in the Northrop P-61 Black Widow so it actually looked like cockpit windows. I figured it would be good for at least two days of avgeek research. I was wrong. About an hour after I put it up, twitter follower @PilotConway had it nailed! Of course it didn't hurt him that he had recently built a 1/48 scale model of the P-61 and those back windows had been pesky during the build. He turned that little bit of knowledge into a bacon sandwich at OSH11 : )

 So here's the whole picture of the P-61 as a nice big CoolPix.

 I'll have more details another day about this rather large and somewhat slow night fighter. As with everything built for the WWII effort, there's a lot of interesting info to be learned about the design process and then the actual military flight operations... but for now I hope you enjoy checking out a really big picture of another one of Jack Northrop's unique aircraft.

Virgin Galactic's VSS Enterprise Makes 1st Free Flight... YeeHaw!

(click pic for hi-res)  First manned free flight of the VSS Enterprise! (photo: Virgin Galactic)

(3 CoolPix)

 10.10.10 is a really big day in Mojave California as Virgin Galactic has taken one giant step closer to becoming the world's first commercial spaceline. The SpaceShipTwo named VSS Enterprise released from the WhiteKnightTwo mother ship VMS Eve at 45,000 feet as seen in the photo above. Pilot Pete Siebold and co-pilot Mike Alsbury had a variety of objectives for this flight, including verification that all systems were functioning properly prior to release; then, perform a clean release; evaluate initial flight handling qualities; stall characteristics; verification of lift-to-drag ratio performance; a practice approach at high altitude; and finally a completed descent and landing. The landing took place at the Mojave Air and Space Port.

Click to read more ...

CoolPix - Racers: The Galloping Ghost (This Is Reno Air Racing!)

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 I took this picture on Sunday, the last day of the 2010 Reno Air Races. It seems to capture what the Reno Air Races are all about. Seeing it opened up big as a CoolPix image really helps to make you feel more like you're there.

 First, you've got one of the slower groups of Unlimited racers on the course, and it's a pretty cool variety of aircraft at that... a P-51 going by first, followed closely by a P-40 that's also followed closely by a Corsair. Where else you gonna see that?! Second, you've got a great look at The Galloping Ghost. This fabulous clipped and chopped P-51 from Jimmy Leeward wasn't just cool to look at, it was also exciting to follow the journey of the team. They didn't qualify early in the week as expected, and instead found themselves working their way up thru the field with hopes of gaining a slot in the big Gold race on Sunday. In this picture, they had just finished taping up all the seams with alumanized furnace tape as they had indeed earned a slot in the final big race that was scheduled for the end of the day. And third, while really big crowds of people are farther down the show line in the grandstands, you also see part of the long line of people at the edge of the pit area watching the race that's on the course. This one picture says a lot - it's all about people with a passion for air racing coming together to make the fastest motorsport in the world become a reality.

 You probably already know that the big race on Sunday was not run due to excessively high winds making the conditions on the race course unsafe. It was an interesting twist to the story of The Galloping Ghost. Just when it looked like maybe the silver P-51 might be in a position to surprise the Gold Unlimited speedsters, it wound up without a chance to prove itself. The good news is that 2011 is coming, and Jimmy Leeward and crew will likely be ready to show the world what they've got. It should be really exciting to watch!

 I'll have more in depth info on The Galloping Ghost before long. It's an airplane, and a story very much worth pursuing.

All I Want For Christmas Is A YC-14! (CoolPix - Modern Military)

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 About the time I was getting my drivers permit, the Boeing YC-14 made its first flight. I was well aware of this because we got Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine when I was a kid, so staying up on all the cool aerospace projects was easy. It was the mid 70’s and the Air Force was looking for an airplane to fill the Advanced Medium STOL Transport (AMST) role, ultimately looking at a modern replacement for the C-130. Boeing offered up the 2-engine YC-14 and McDonnell Douglas had the 4-engine YC-15. This CoolPix in the Modern Military category gives a great view of the Boeing airplane in flight. In the end, neither airplane went on to production and the AMST concept was dropped, but the YC-15 did later become the foundational concept that led to the C-17. Both the YC-14 and the YC-15 were considered quite successful at meeting the AMST requirements.

 Something about the Boeing airplane really caught my attention over the one from MD. Of course I liked the high mounted turbofans that were tapping into a little used concept of Upper Surface Blowing (USB), where the high velocity jet blast actually sticks to the upper surface of the drooping flaps and gets directed downward giving you a large increase in lift. The YC-15 (and the C-17) mount the engine blast below the wing and direct it right at the drooped flaps for increased lift, but USB allowed the engines to be mounted higher and thus farther away from the ground and possible foreign object damage. This was potentially a pretty big deal as the primary objective was STOL performance from relatively unimproved fields.

 But it was more than just the USB element of the YC-14 that I liked. It just looked like more fun. This short, tubby jet that was somehow ’sporty’ at the same time. And with massive flaps on a relatively short wing, stylish main gear pods, a huge T-tail and loads of cockpit windows, it seemed like it would be a great airplane to go play with. Imagine buzzing your friend’s house with this! The reports I’ve seen indicate the airplane had very impressive performance, especially low speed maneuverability. One of the AMST requirements was that the airplane had to be able to carry a 27,000 pound cargo, and fly a 1,000 mile round trip into a 2,000 foot runway without refueling. It appears that the airplane met its target, and the Boeing website even says the airplane could takeoff in just 1,000 feet with that 27,000 pound cargo. Pretty stinkin’ amazing for an airplane with a wingspan of 129 feet, which is actually about 3 feet shorter than its length! In a non STOL setting, the YC-14 had a 251,000 pound gross weight with an 81,000 pound payload.

 So, I think I could be happy if this Christmas I somehow wound up with a flyable YC-14 under the tree. Only two were built, and it appears they both still exist out in sunny Arizona. S/N 72-1873, the prototype (and the airplane in the picture above) is on display at the Pima Air Museum, and S/N 72-1874 is at Davis Monthan AFB. Hopefully Santa is on good terms with Uncle Sam… and I promise, if I get this sweet STOL superjet for Christmas, everyone gets a free ride!

CoolPix - Homebuilt: Fab Focke-Wulf FW 190 Replica At Reno 2010

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 When I was about 12, I built a 1:48 scale model of the short nose Focke-Wulf FW 190. I painted it in a really good camouflage scheme, and it was actually the only one of the many plastic models I built that I was really pleased with how it turned out. I've been pretty severely attracted to the FW 190 since those days as a kid, so I was very excited to see this one at Reno, shown here in a nice big CoolPix.

 It looks like this one was recently flown for the first time by Steve Hinton and is owned by Frasca International, the flight simulator people out of Urbana, Illinois. If I have my info correct, it's one of the FlugWerk replicas from Germany, and has a Pratt & Whitney R-2800 engine in it. It was raced at Reno by John Malony, but not hard and not as a serious contender. But wow, it was very cool to see it in the air!

 I was impressed with the paint job as the airplane appeared very authentic. Not a 'show plane' paint job, but one you could believe was representing the airplane just as it would have looked in the Luftwaffe. It also looked smaller than I expected by a little bit. The one or two I've seen before were in a museum, and seeing this one out in the open around other warbirds made me realize it's not as big as I had thought. Comparing dimensions to the P-51 Mustang shows that it is indeed a little smaller all the way around.

 The one thing that stirs me big-time about the FW 190 is those long, wide-stance, aggressive gear legs. It's the same thing that makes the Hughes H-1 and the F-8 Bearcat look so stinkin' hot to me. The P-51 is a very beautiful airplane, but its gear legs just don't affect me the way these other aircraft do. I know, I'm a weirdo... but I'm a very happy, aggressive-gear-leg-lovin' weirdo : )

CoolPix - Misc: Fabulous Whirlybird View Of Oshkosh 2010

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 Oshkosh 2010 was the year I finally went for a Bell 47 ride over the grounds. I've really grown to like the sound of those impeccably maintained whirlybirds flying over the event all week long, and this year, I decided I needed to see what the view was like from one of them. Bottom line: the view is really good. (Duh!)

 My friend @adamcanfly and I had decided to walk from the campground out to where the Goodyear blimp was moored to get some pictures (which is when I got this blimp CoolPix) and that put us right on the path to the Bell 47's operating out of Pioneer Airport over by the EAA Museum. I had planned to work a ride in at some point so I could hopefully get a pic like the one above for you all to see, and that evening looked like my chance.

 As with pretty much all the images I choose for the CoolPix feature, the idea is that you click it to make it big, and then you take a moment and look closely at the details. In this one, you get a great view of much of the commercial exhibit area, and then on to the east you can see AeroShell Square. This was Thursday evening after the airshow, so the Square is a little empty looking. The C-5 that took up a boatload of the Square late in the week was still about 2 hours away at this point. You can see 5 DC-3's toward the back right in the pic, and at the far left, being towed down the taxiway is the Erickson Air Crane named Goliath. There are several other aerobatic aircraft behind the Air Crane making their way to the other side of the airport for the night, including the last airplane in the lineup, Kyle Franklin's Waco Mystery Ship. At the very top of the pic is a little view of beautiful Lake Winnebago as well.

 I was a little surprised how the route we flew gave such an awesome view of the grounds. I knew it had to be a good view, but I just didn't expect it to be this great. It was incredibly refreshing to get off the ground during the event, and getting such an amazing view at the same time, well, it was just perfect. I highly recommend you go for the ride when you can. It was an especially good experience after all the unique challenges that had been dealt with early in the week with the very wet grounds and delays getting thousands of airplanes into the event... seeing Oshkosh looking exactly like 'Oshkosh' from above was a really good thing thing to see : )

CoolPix - Airliners: GE Powered 787 With Mount Rainier (Gorgeous!)

(click pic for hi-res)  photo: Boeing

 This is ZA005, the 5th 787 to fly, but it's the first one to fly with the General Electric GEnx engines. The first flight actually took place on June 16th, 2010, and this fab pic over Mount Rainier may have been on that same day. Regardless of when it was taken, it sure is a great sight to see, especially when you click the pic to make it big.

 The schedule for the first 787 deliveries has recently been pushed back (again), this time for just a few weeks to February 2011, but overall it appears that flight testing has been going well. The recent failure of a Rolls Royce Trent engine at the RR facility however is definitely adding some drama to the 787 delay saga. Check out this Aviation Week story for more info on the engine failure.

 If you're like me and running a little behind on your 787 test program details, check out this Flightblogger link for loads of great 787 tagged posts, and also Boeing's 787FlightTest.com for all kinds of interesting details that track the individual aircraft in the flight test program.

 I'm really looking forward to the 787 program moving past the flight test phase and into actual airline service just so we can finally see one with a really great paint job! (I know, I know, you've had enuf of me and my ideas about paint jobs lately : )

CoolPix - UAV: General Atomics Unmanned Aircraft Triple Play!

(click pic for hi-res)          General Atomics MQ-1 Predator

 Like it or not, unmanned aircraft are fast becoming a large part of the workforce in the U.S. Military, and you can be sure we're gonna see them showing up in general aviation applications in the future. General Atomics-ASI is the company responsible for the best known aircraft, the MQ-1 Predator. To the casual observer, it's easy to confuse the MQ-1 with their other popular UAV, the MQ-9 Reaper (formerly known as the Predator B), so I figured a quick visual lesson using some big CoolPix images would be a great way to learn their differences. Plus, I've added their logical extension of their UAV program, the jet powered Avenger that's currently in development.

 MQ-1 Predator (inverted V-tail): Wingspan about 48 feet, max weight 2,250 pounds; powered by Rotax 914F (115 hp); cruise speed about 100 mph.

 2,000+ mile range, 24 hours endurance, service ceiling 25,000 feet. Over 350 built.

(click pic for hi-res)          General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper

 MQ-9 Reaper (Y-tail): Wingspan about 66 feet, max weight 10,500 pounds; powered by TPE331 turboprop (900 shp); cruise speed about 200 mph.

 3,200+ mile range, 14-28 hours endurance, service ceiling 50,000 feet (typical operations at 30,000 feet). Approximately 30 built (exact number unknown).

(click pic for hi-res)          General Atomics Avenger UCAV

 Avenger (in development): Wingspan about 66 feet, payload 6,000 pounds; powered by Pratt & Whitney PW545B turbofan (4,800 pounds thrust); speeds around 460 mph.

 20 hours endurance, service ceiling 50,000 feet. Prototype built and flying, with number two aircraft (slightly larger than prototype) in development. Avenger includes some stealth in the design, and is a combat-oriented aircraft with internal weapons bays.

CoolPix - Airshow: Thunderbirds F-16 And A Big Blue Sky!

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 Wow! A Thunderbirds F-16 up-close against a big and beautiful blue sky - what an awesome sight. Especially when you click this CoolPix to make it really big. This Air Force photo was taken as the airplanes were arriving at Hickam AFB in Hawaii for the 'Wings Over the Pacific' show in September 2009.

 I can still remember following along back in the early 70's when General Dynamics was developing the F-16. My dad subscribed to Aviation Week and Space Technology back in those days, so while a lot of other 11 year olds were playing tag in the neighborhood, I was learning about new airliners and military aircraft, in great detail, in the pages of that awesome weekly magazine.

 I also remember how the F-16 changed the game for me by not only having amazing performance, but by having a look that was pure sex appeal. I hadn't seen anything this beautiful in a jet military fighter in... well, ever! And here we are, 40 years since this shape was drawn on paper, and it's still one sexy looking airplane!

 The Thunderbirds put on a great show with their F-16's, but I noticed something interesting when I saw them at Sun-n-Fun this past April. It was a fuzzy, hazy, white-sky-overcast kind of day when I saw them, and it was interesting how little the airplanes stood out against that sky. It was an excellent show to watch and hear, but I was thinking if they had been that other team that flies those blue F-18's, they would have been easier to see. So, I had an idea. Maybe the Thunderbirds need a new paint scheme. That's when I decided to put my overactive thinker to work and design an all new, kick butt paint scheme for our beloved Thunderbirds. All the basic work is done, and I must say it looks pretty stinkin' hot to me. Unfortunately, it's not ready for you to see just yet. Hopefully I'll have it done here before long, but I want to be sure it looks really good in the rendering so the Air Force will be so impressed that they'll want to get to booking some time in the paint shop asap : )

CoolPix - Modern Military: Barksdale B-52 Via Grissom KC-135

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 My incredible ride with the 74th Air Refueling Squadron in a KC-135 based out of Grissom Air Reserve Base (Indiana) on July 21st gave me the opportunity to capture this ultra-cool image of the Barksdale Air Force Base (Louisiana) B-52 that we had just finished refueling. This view was beyond stunning to see in person, and I hope that by making it available to you as a CoolPix, you'll feel a little more like you were there too. If you missed my 56 pic mega-post of the KC-135 ride, you should check it out now, I'm pretty sure you'll like it!

 Of the 744 Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bombers built, almost 80 remain in service yet today. It's hard to believe that the airplane has been in service with the U.S. Air Force since 1955. Even more amazing is the idea that it's possible that some of them will still be in service in 2040, almost 80 years after the last ones came off the assembly line! The B-52 is a very important part of the U.S. Military, both past and present. I was very fortunate to be able to see one on this beautiful day, and to capture this awesome image. Enjoy.