@ttyymmnn said in This Date in Aviation History: October 16 - October 19:

@bicyclebuck

But if the flight number doesn't change, then it is a flight around the world.

If that's the case, perhaps you'd be interested in buying my axe. It was used by Washington to chop down that cherry tree so long ago. It's only had five new handles and two new heads since then, so you know it's good to go.

@ramblinrover

And don't forget Air America which, along with Dumbo Drop, is a film I've never seen.

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@facw So the original builder apparently did have a good (or at least plausible) reason for the mod:

The technician, in his interview with the NTSB, stated that he and Denver talked about the inaccessibility of the cockpit fuel selector valve handle and its resistance to being turned, as the handle was located behind the pilot's left shoulder - counter to Rutan's original design. Unique to this homebuilt Long-EZ, the builder - Adrian Davis of Texas - elected to relocate the switch behind the pilot because he did not want to have fuel lines running into the cockpit, especially down where they might rupture in a belly landing.

@darkbrador A good friend of the family's transferred from being a tanker to flying OH-58's in the army. He was a long term army guy and took a look at what jobs were available post army. Tanker? You're qualified to operate a bulldozer after some training.
OH-58 pilot? You're checked out on the very common, and in demand, Bell helicopters.

@ttyymmnn Yes it is a good looking plane, looks like a P40 Warhawk and traces of pre-war trophy cup racers with the somewhat stubby fuselage and cockpit way far back.

@facw @RacinBob

The plot thickens.

Let's see if Airbus Lockheed can get the win this time.

@ttyymmnn I know someone that owns a T-28 (former boss of a friend so I'm not willing to try and bum a ride unfortunately). Last time I talked to him he had only flown it four hours in the previous year. The fuel burn is terrifying. Heck, it's got a bigger engine than a Mustang! A mechanic friend of mine who gets to fly all sorts or planes owned by people he works for has some time in one too. Says it handles beautifully belying the tank-like looks.

@skyfire77

That's the fancier version 2.

@bicyclebuck @Skyfire77

Got it. Thanks. It's a blessing to have so many proofreaders, though it can also be a curse.

@john-norris

I certainly understand. I originally wrote that 9/11 article three or four years ago. I tried very hard to keep it from being sensational in any way, sticking as much as possible to the facts of the aviation events of the day. My brother and my dad visited the NYC memorial back in 2019, and we all skipped the room with all the images of the death and destruction. I have no wish to relived that. Once was enough.

Thanks for reading, and for the thoughtful reply.

The Day The World Came To Town is an amazingly excellent read about the planes and people that stayed at Gander.

@ttyymmnn I've got a lot of PIC time with the Jaguar. Mine got destroyed but it looked just like this one:

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@ttyymmnn And then Muldoon takes an AMRAAM to the face.

@ttyymmnn said in This Date in Aviation History: September 1 - September 3:

Then, when faced with evidence that the airliner had been shot down, they suggested that the fighter pilots had mistaken the 747 for a Boeing RC-135 reconnaissance plane, one of which actually was operating in the area at the time.

So this is just an amazing bit of US / Soviet cold war history!
I'm not sure if my memory at age 61 is fading, or there is some lost history here, or I am just too incompetent to find the additional tidbits of history I am looking for.

So after the shootdown President Reagan made a speech stating that we had evidence from a Japanese listening post of the Soviet fighter pilots communications as he targeted and shot down the plane.

Then Ambassador to the UN Jean KIrkpatrick followed up the next day teeing up the full recording at the UN.

The first of two things that I can't seem to find is a video of what followed at the UN, with the Soviet Ambassador listening to the recording. As I recall that was very entertaining.

Then the second thing is the additional detail about the recording. As I recall when the US said we had a recording, the Soviets said BS, knowing that it was encrypted. Apparently we and/or the Japanese at the Japanese listening post were able to decrypt it. We probably really didn't want confirm for the Soviets that we could decrypt it, but now that all these lives were lost the importance of raising the accountability rose above the importance of maintaining the secret of our ability to decrypt the communication. We would have spent a lot of US tax payer dollars learning how to decrypt Soviet military communications, and then kept spending keeping the fact that we could decrypt it a safe secret.

Encryption today is far more sophisticated, but certainly in 1983 the Soviets would have encrypted communication between a fighter and a ground controller when shooting down what they thought was a hostile in the cold war environment. There was encryption all the way back in WWII. Surely the Soviets encrypted their military communications.

But who knows, perhaps my aging memory has made it more interesting than it really was.

@ttyymmnn I just noticed that the canopy on the civilian registered F-20 (N3986B) is a bit more bubbled and generally different than the military version. The nose isn't as pointy either. Do you know the details why they're different? Thanks!

@ike808

Quite the free air show. I’ve seen an Osprey fly far overhead once or twice, but that’s it. Never seen one up close. With the pivot towards China, things are only going to get busier.

@facw

I hadn't read any trustworthy story of why they ditched it, but that certainly sounds plausible.

@ttyymmnn It looks like I can make a short drive up to Oak Harbor if I want the nostalgia of seeing a P-3. Most of the patrol squadron's up there now fly the P-8 Poseidon. However, the Reserves in VP-69 still fly the Orion.
https://www.airpac.navy.mil/Organization/Patrol-Squadron-VP-69/

@roundbadge

I have actually written about every airplane on that list of 3420 users. All turned out to be duds. But the exigencies of wartime make for some pretty wild ideas, the 3420 among them.

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Another one of my favorite double engines that did see the light of day was the Armstrong Siddeley Double Mamba double turboprop, which powered the Fairey Gannet.

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@ttyymmnn They're well worth checking out. The chapter on Aloha Airlines flight 243 (the fuselage fatigue caused accident) was detailed enough that I worked out that there was a much better than even chance that I flew on that 737 at least once one one of the two trips to Hawaii I took with my parents when I was a kid. The last trip was in 1986 so even if I was on that plane, it was at least two years away from the roof coming off. But it still kind of creeps me out to think about it.

@ttyymmnn I have an MLIS, yeah. It's a worthwhile degree if you're able to specialize. For example, I work in an archive for a branch of the Gov't. I got the job because I have a background in the preservation / conservation of photographic and born-digital materials, which aligns with our current mission guidance. Getting the MLIS to go into archives / libraries in the general sense isn't probably the wisest use of your money. It's difficult to find decent paying jobs in this field unless you're able to find / create a niche.

@roadkilled said in [This Date in Aviation History: August 4 - August 6] 1989 invasion of Panama to go after Noriega.

And that one was mainly blasting Def Leppard and going mach 1 overhead.

@distraxi
After watching it in action, that doesn’t surprise me. The phrase “balls of steel” comes to mind.

@john-norris I was just reading something about how the F-5's area-ruled design inspired Raymond Loewy to incorporate coke bottle styling into the Studebaker Avanti, which was then also adopted by a decent number of other early '60s car designs.