Search my Blog
Subscribe
rss
-
Recent Posts
December 2024 S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Archives
Recent Comments
- Marie Palachuk on My Grandfathers
- Ingrid on My Grandfathers
- Joe Clark on The Aeronca Chief
- Lindsay Barra (Knowles) on The Aeronca Chief
- Peter Brown on Gladys Ingle
Category Archives: Aviation History
Truly, I am not dead, no matter what they say…
I have been busy. For you loyal readers, trust me when I say, I am cataloging ideas for when I am free from this work in which I am now engaged–work which is keeping me from the blog. Should I tell you … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying, History, Life in General
|
Tagged airplanes, Charles Lindbergh, Florida, flying, professional pilots
|
3 Comments
The Éole
Today, 121 years ago, Frenchman Clement Ader’s steam-powered airplane flew for the first time. Yes, you are correct in your math if you said that was 13 years before the Wrights flew. And yes, it was a steam-powered airplane. Ader … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying, History, Life in General
|
Tagged a steam-powered airplane, airplanes, aviation history, barnstormers, Brothers George and William Besler, clean emissions, flying, Frenchman Clement Ader, internal combustion engine, Lead-based fossil fuels, open cockpit biplanes, the Besler Steam Airplane, the Doble Steam Motors Company, The Éole, the First World War, the Travel Air 2000, the Wrights, very quiet operation, William Besler
|
Comments Off on The Éole
Trim Tabs
Friday was a terrible day for aviation and for air racing in particular. When the elevator trim tab separated from the airframe, Jimmy Leeward lost control of his modified P-51 air racer, The Galloping Ghost, crashing into air race spectators. … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying
|
Tagged 1959 Cessna 150, aerodynamic flutter, air race spectators, airplanes, airspeed, altitude, Bruce Raymond, elevator trim tab, excessive g-loading, flight training, flying, football player “Red” Grange, hardware, humanware, Jimmy Leeward, judgment, Leeward Air Ranch, modified P-51 air racer, National Aeronautics Association, Ocala FL, Reno Air Races, Steve Beville, the Army Air Forces, The Galloping Ghost, Thompson Trophy Race, Trim Tabs, Walnut Ridge AR
|
Comments Off on Trim Tabs
Tribute
This is a very good tribute to the old aviators who made aviation what is today. I have no idea as to the author and editor who created this, but they did a good job with the tribute to the … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying
|
Tagged 180-horsepower Lycoming engine, a history lesson in verse, a poor man’s F-14, aerobatics, airplanes, airspeed, altitude, flying, homebuilts, John Denver, memories, Navy, Richard VanGrunsven, RV-6, taildraggers, the most delightful airplane, the old aviators, Tribute
|
Comments Off on Tribute
1st Solo, + 40 Years
As I sit writing this, my mind goes back 40 years, almost to the second, of this instant. I cannot believe so much time has passed since the moment I feel as though I was truly born. I was there, … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flight Instructing, Flying, Life in General, Personal
|
Tagged "her pound of papers and scraps", "land lubbers", a kaleidoscope of images memories events and people, a life aloft, a life-defining moment, a lucky one, A pilot's logbook, a witness and participant, all the secrets to life, an accident statistic, at one time?, Because I flew, Beryl Markham, Fatal statistics, having fun beyond description, I flew alone, just yesterday, learning to fly, my one and only perfect landing, my share of bad landings, over there, passing lessons down to the youngest pilots, proof of my own life in the sky, reserved only for aviators and sailors, Solo + 40 Years, Sunsets and sunrises, the first time I truly spread my wings, the good and the bad, the other side, the touch of their grandchildren, this instant, too, Was I that young, West with the Night, why he or she was so unlucky, why I was so very lucky, “young whipper-snapper”
|
5 Comments
Florida’s Hometown Hero
In the Orlando area, the aviation community is well aware of a gentleman by the name of Joe Kittinger. He has been well involved in the aviation industry almost all of his life. In fact, he has set some significant … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying
|
Tagged 102800 feet, 1LT William J. Reich, aeromedical research, Air Force, aviation records, Church Street Station, Clark AFB, Colonel John Paul Stapp, combat tours, F-84s, F-86s, Florida Gator, Florida's Hometown Hero, freefall at 714 miles per hour, Gainesville, he F-4D Phantom, high altitude ejections, high speed ejections, Holloman AFB, Jacksonville, Joe Kittinger, jumped out of a balloon, Marine Corps, Mig-21, Navy pilots, New Mexico, Orlando, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Rosie O'Grady's Flying Circus, Tampa, the A-26 Invader, the Bolles School, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), the Hanoi Hilton, the Harmon Trophy, the longest freefall, the senior ranking officer, the Sunshine State, the University of Florida, Vietnam
|
Comments Off on Florida’s Hometown Hero
Doing It the Old Fashioned Way
Well, I guess I have graduated from the School of Geekdom at the University of Hardknocks. Following this past week’s computer emergency, with the help of some friends, a couple of manuals, and the Internet, I was able to teach myself … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flight Instructing, Flying, History, Life in General
|
Tagged a mean old cantankerous flight instructor, a sense of collective history, Alexander Graham Bell, am locomotive engineers, ancient sailors, Apple, black and white prints, Captain Ross, commercial electricity, computer emergency, computers, dependent on technology, digital cameras, Doing It the Old Fashioned Way, English, Ernest K. Gann, Fate Is The Hunter, French, Garmins, history, Johannes Gutenberg, Kill Devil Hill, manual typewriters, measured by column inches, mentors, MicroSoft, Nicola Tesla, proportion wheels, re-loading various software, rocket science, sailed across the Atlantic, School of Geekdom, smart phones, Spaniards, storytelling, the ancient Polynesians, the DC-3, the light bulb, the New World, the printing press, the telephone, the University of Hardknocks, the Wrights, Thomas Edison, Tom-Toms, Trimbles, Vikings, World War II, “the old-fashioned way”
|
5 Comments
The Seventieth Reunion
My friend, Mike, is a very interesting fellow. He is an aviation aficionado of the highest standing. He is also a very funny guy whose wife must absolutely be the greatest understanding wife of all time. Sometimes, I wonder how … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, History
|
Tagged an aviation aficionado, an understanding wife, B-25 Mitchell bombers, David J. Thatcher, Dayton OH, drink a very solemn toast to their comrades, Edward J. Saylor, Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Jack Hudson, planning their seventieth reunion, Richard E. Cole, Robert L. Hite, the "Whirling Dervish", The Doolittle Goblets, the Doolittle Raiders, the Hennessey Company, the National Museum of the Air Force, The Seventieth Reunion, the USS Hornet, the “Ruptured Duck”, the “TNT”, Thomas C. Griffin
|
1 Comment
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Another of the great writer-flyers from World War II was a Frenchman by the name of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Unlike the youthful Bert Stiles profiled yesterday, Saint-Exupéry was relatively older—especially for serving as a combat pilot. Saint-Exupéry is the author … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, History, Life in General, Reading, Writing
|
Tagged a silver identity bracelet, airline companies, an airmail pilot, André Prévot, Antoine Saint-Exupéry, author, combat operations, dehydration, F-5B reconnaissance aircraft, finding his place as a wordsmith, Flight to Arras, gathering intelligence, hallucinations, L'Aviateur or The Aviator, Marseille, navigator, Night flight, pioneering flights, Riou Island, the fastest flying time from Paris to Saigon, the Free French Forces, The Little Prince, Wind Sand and Stars, World War II
|
Comments Off on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Bert Stiles
Yesterday I wrote about the bomber bases in England, left crumbling today 66 years after the end of World War II. Mentioned in the blog, was the loss of talent resulting from the deaths of many. Specifically, I said I … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying, History, Writing
|
Tagged 505th Fighter Squadron, a feature writer, a writer ahead of his time, B-17 and B-24 heavy bombers, Bassingbourn England, Bert Stiles, captured, dogfight, Estes Park, exceptional writing, flying the B-17 into combat, Hanover Germany, Hitler’s war effort, killed in action, missing, P-28s, P-47s, P-51D, P-51s, Serenade to the Big Bird, Tar Heel, the 91st Bomb Group, The Eighth Air Force, the Royal Air Force, The Saturday Evening Post, US Army Air Corps, V-1 buzz bombs, V-2 rockets, W.W. Norton & Co., World War II, World War II bases, wounded
|
Comments Off on Bert Stiles
