Oshkosh Pix #1: Sunday 7.24.11 - Before It Starts (14 Pix)

  Even tho Sunday is still a day before Oshkosh officially begins, there's still a ton of things to see and do. One that's always interesting to check out is the Sonex open house over on the east side of the airport at Sonex headquarters. I ran over there at 10am when things got started to see what I could find out about the Onex. As these first two pix show, the Onex is all prettied up for OSH11 with (surprise) yellow paint. I found out that the airplane is still short of 40 hors total time but that flight testing has progressed nicely.

 Initial kits components for the Onex are just beginning to ship to customers, tho the Sonex team is still finishing up the complete package. The good news however is that Onex airplanes will soon be under construction, and there's every reason to think that the follow-on components will be fully prepped soon to keep these builders moving forward. As expected, the prototype Onex was drawing a lot of attention at the open house, and I'm sure it'll be heavily gawked during the week!

 Inside one of the hangars was a second Onex aircraft still under construction, and as you can see, it's a trike version. The airplane looked pretty decent, but in my mind, there's never been a tricycle version of any airplane that looks anywhere near as nice as the taildragger version. However, the already more pleasing lines of the Onex over the Sonex translate to a good looking little airplane, even without paint.

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Bob Hoover: Living Legend Shares Some Of His Amazing History

 This video from 2009 is of Bob Hoover talking about some of his fascinating experiences in the sky. He is truly a living legend in the world of aviation. It's great to know that he will honored at Oshkosh on Tuesday July 26th. This is a fantastic 8:49 history lesson... don't miss it.

Video from Inventive Productions

A Real Focke-Wulf Fw 190 Is In The Air!

Flying Heritage Collection's Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A-5 first flight on 12.1.10 (photo: FHC)

(2 pix and 3 videos)

 The last time this airplane flew was July 19th, 1943. What that means is this is a 'real' German Focke-Wulf Fw 190 rather than the replicas that have surfaced in the last several years. Any Fw 190 is amazing, but to know that there is an actual example that's been faithfully restored is pretty phenomenal. The first flight actually took place about a month ago, with veteran race and warbird test pilot Steve Hinton at the controls, but since I somehow missed it when it happened, I thought you may have too. (if you're an Fw 190 fan, check out my other Fw 190 posts)

Paint scheme of the lost 1943 Fw 190  (image: FHC)

 The airplane is owned by Paul Allen's Flying Heritage Collection, and it will make an awesome compliment to the already stellar collection of historic World War II combat aircraft from around the world. These restored aircraft are brought back to flying condition, and done so at the highest level. The Flying Heritage Collection, which is based on Paine Field in Everett Washington, honors the amazing technological leaps that took place during the WWII aviation era.

 I've been fascinated with the Fw 190 since I was a kid, so this is pretty exciting stuff to be sure. Even more, I've recently been gathering a far greater understanding of the events of WWII than I'd ever had before. The more you understand about the people, the battles and the motivations involved in WWII, the more significant artifacts like this Fw 190 become.

 Here a three videos of interest related to this specific Fw 190:

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AirPigz Podcast #13: Racer Marilyn Dash Talks Reno 2010 - Part 1

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Marilyn Dash races her Pitts Special in the Biplane Class at the Reno Air Races

For more info on Marilyn Dash and the Reno Air Races, check out:
RubyRedRacing.com and PylonPlace.Blogspot.com

 Marilyn Dash has been racing in the Biplane Class at Reno for many years now. She's also extremely well connected to the culture of people and airplanes at Reno which makes her a great person to talk to about all things Reno. Our chat was long enough to break into two parts, with part 1 here covering her personal experience racing the Pitts Special again this year, along with some talk about the racers in the Formula One Class.

 Marilyn is both sharp and fun... this is a great interview for anyone with an interest in air racing. Enjoy!

 (part 2, covering Sport & Super Sport, T-6, Jet, and Unlimited Classes will be up soon)

Marilyn Dash and her Pitts Special

Bill Falck's 1970's 'Rivets' Formula One racer discussed in the interview

Reno 2010: AR-6 'Endeavor' Formula One racer discussed in the interview

Video: 'Live Airshow TV' 2010 Reno Air Races Wrap Up Part 1

 Here's a great, detailed look back at how the recent 2010 Reno Air Races shaped up thru the early part of the event. I especially like this video since it includes a couple pix I took of The Galloping Ghost - check 'em out at about the 8:10 mark.

 Part 2 of the Live Airshow TV wrap up will be coming soon with a look at how the last two days unfolded, including some details on George Giboney's mayday landing that destroyed the Rapid Travel Thunder Mustang but still let him walk away essentially unhurt. 

FlyingMachinesTV: This Is How Aviation Video Should Be!

 I first stumbled upon the video below while doing lots of Focke-Wulf FW 190 research. I was really impressed with the video quality, specifically from a 'smoothness of tracking' and the perspective from where the video was shot that I dug a little deeper. Wow! FlyingMachinesTV.co.uk takes aviation video to the highest level. I must learn to do this! The video above from the recent Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) event on July 17-18, 2010 at Fairford in the UK is absolutely amazing! Tracking flying machines with that much smoothness changes the game.

 DVD's are available of several different airshows or specific aircraft.  You should check out their stuff and tell all your friends : )

 You can also get some quick viewing in at youtube.com/user/FlyingmachinesTV. Wow.

1939 Focke-Wulf FW 190 Prototype: Crazy Big Spinner!

Focke-Wulf FW 190 V1 (prototype) with massive spinner

Cooling air was taken in thru the center hole in the spinner

(4 pix)

 As I mentioned in the FW 190 CoolPix post the other day, I've been a fan of the this airplane since I was a kid, but that doesn't mean there isn't a boatload of stuff for me to to still learn about it. Like; I didn't know the prototype aircraft had that huge spinner the diameter of the fuselage! I had no idea that this was the original concept Kurt Tank had for the airplane. I found out about the prototype FW 190 in a book my dad had that I stumbled across later the same day I had put up the CoolPix. The idea was that cooling air would enter into that big hole in the middle of the spinner, and the smaller spike spinner was there to help increase the air pressure. All this was supposed to lead to good cooling and low drag.

 There are two kinds of out-of-the-box thinking in aircraft design: super crazy cool ideas that are not only different, but right away they strike a chord as being really well worth the time and effort to give them a try. And then there are those ideas where you just have to say what the heck were these people thinking?! For me, that huge spinner fits the first category. It's like aerodynamics, art, and fantasy all coming together for a moment of synergy, but in the real world. Too bad this idea was better at looking cool than it was at keeping the engine cool.

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

(click pic for hi-res)

 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 : )