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Tag Archives: World War II
The Battle of Britain
This week, I had the opportunity to watch a very well done documentary on the Battle of Britain. Hosted by Ewan McGregor and his brother Colin, they told of how they grew up in England studying about the fighter pilots … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying, History
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Tagged airplanes, airspeed, altitude, British pilots, Colin McGregor, discipline, Ewan McGregor, flight training, flying, friends, Harvard, inexperienced pilots, judgment, learning to fly, military service, open cockpit biplanes, pilots, professional pilots, Stampe trainer, student pilots, T-6 Texan, taildraggers, training aircraft, World War II
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1 Comment
The Problem with Time
Forty-three years ago today, the United States put man on the moon. It is amazing to think that much time has passed. Even more astonishing is the rate at which time is now flying. I stood in the passageway at … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation History, History, Life in General, Personal
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Tagged aviation and space, dreams of flying, life, man on the moon, memories, Neil Armstrong, our leadership in aviation, pilots, professional pilots, We Chose to Go to the Moon, World War II
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Seventy Years
Seventy years ago this morning, 80 brave men took off from the USS Hornet on what would later become known as the Doolittle Raid. It is hard to imagine babies were born, lived their entire lives, and died having lived … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying, History
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Tagged 500-pound high explosive bombs, 500-pound incendiary bombs, 80 brave men, Admiral Marc A. Mitscher, Admiral Yamamoto, Afghanistan, American history, an extraordinary display of airmanship, April 18 1942, B-25B Mitchell, bailing out, Beirut, China, Grenada, Hawaii, Iraq, James H. (Jimmy) Doolittle, Japan, Kobe, Lexington to Gettysburg, Nagoya, Normandy, Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt, Purple Hearts, Russia, sacrifice, secret mission, Seventy Years, sneak attack, the Air Force Museum in Dayton OH, the Ardennes, the Chosin Valley, the Congressional Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Doolittle Raid, The Eighth Air Force, the Ia Drang, the Japanese army, the sleeping giant, the Twin Towers, the USS Hornet, Tokyo, volunteers, World War II, Yokohama, Yokosuka, “Toujours Au Danger!”
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2 Comments
I Woke Up Old Today
When I woke up today, the talking heads on television were talking about historic events—in particular, John Glenn’s three-orbit flight around the world. I remember that flight. Just like it was yesterday. It was, however, 50 years ago. I turned … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, History, Life in General, Personal
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Tagged Air Force, airplanes, airspeed, altitude, Atlas, discipline, February 20 1962, flight training, Florida, flying, John Glenn, judgment, Marines, memories, Mercury, military service, Navy, Pearl Harbor, pilots, professional pilots, training aircraft, World War II
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BluewaterPress Goes National
Yesterday and the day before were busy days for BluewaterPress. As I finished the fall term at school, my mind naturally began thinking of the things I had to finish for the press. Highest on the list was drafting a … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, History, Life in General, Personal, Publishing
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Tagged airplanes, flying, inexperienced pilots, Juan Trippe, judgment, Lockerbie, oeing 314 Clipper, Pan Am 103, Pan American World Airways, Pearl Harbor, pilots, professional pilots, publishers, Tenerife, World War II, writers
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1 Comment
So Long, Allan Wise
Two or three years ago, the veterans of World War II were dying at an alarming rate of more than 1000 per day. Of the 16 million who saved the world while wearing the uniform of one of the United … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying, Life in General, Personal
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Tagged Air Force, airplanes, airspeed, Allan Wise, altitude, EAA, flight training, Florida, flying, friends, homebuilt airplanes, memories, military service, open cockpit biplanes, Pietenpol Air Camper, pilots, professional pilots, World War II
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Reno
As usual, the news media is doing a terrible job on the continual reporting of the Reno crash. There is a modicum of fact and the remainder of their reports, articles, and videos contain unsubstantiated conjecture and a lot of … Continue reading →
Posted in Uncategorized
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Tagged aerodynamic flutter, air race spectators, airplanes, airspeed, altitude, discipline, elevator trim tab, excessive g-loading, flight training, flying, hardware, Jimmy Leeward, judgment, modified P-51 air racer, Ocala FL, professional pilots, taildraggers, the Army Air Forces, The Galloping Ghost, Thompson Trophy Race, Trim Tabs, World War II
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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
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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”
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5 Comments
Precession – Is It Really A Left Turning Tendency?
Flight instructors teach their students about the left-turning tendencies an airplane encounters on takeoff. Unfortunately, some flight instructors may not fully understand the dynamics of takeoff and might pass a misconception or two on to the next generation of new … Continue reading →
Posted in Aviation, Flight Instructing, Flying
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Tagged airplanes, airspeed, altitude, Back in the Old Days, Cessnas, conventional landing gear, flight controls, Flight instructors, flight training, flying, full throttle, high power settings, high-angle-of-attack-flight, inexperienced pilots, judgment, learning to fly, left-turning tendencies, Newton’s third law, nosewheels, novice pilots, P-51 Mustang pilots, P-factor, pilots, precession, Precession - Is It Really A Left Turning Tendency?, professional pilots, propeller blade, right rudder, spiraling slipstream, student pilots, students, taildraggers, tailwheels, torque, training aircraft, World War II
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6 Comments
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
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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
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