The Aviators Thread

It hit right wing first, then the nose right into the main steel beam for the hangar just to the right of the man door. That second impact bounced the airplane backwards (thanks, Newton), and as it spun (clockwise when viewed from the top), the left wing pierced the bifold door. Sheared the sump drain off so there was some fuel leaking out.

I made it out the door first. Immediately told the pilot, "mags off! Master off!" I climbed onto the wing, opened the door, and found the ol' boy kinda slumped over; conscious but dazed. His hands were bleeding and he had a good shiner on his head. I pulled the mixture and throttle out, reached over him and shut the mags and master off. Then I instructed him to remove his seatbelt to see if he was coherent and could follow a basic command. He did slowly. I threw some books and junk into the backseat that were going to impede him getting out.
The saddest part was when he said, "I guess I can't sell it now..." I could tell he was really beat up emotionally over it all. I walked him inside, to the wash basin and had him wash up his hands & provided him some basic bandages. Then I made sure he sat the hell down and had our office manager watch him while I went to sort out the fuel leak.

The airport manager came over promptly and already had fire & ems rolling. The guy that showed up in the ambulance was an old schoolmate of mine (small town). The county mounty that showed up was a former acquaintance from years ago too.
And this is the thing that had us all laughing and joking around on scene: we were all alright, and the pilot was not seriously injured.

We have a pretty dark and relentless humor in our shop. The airport manager, whom I've known for years, even remarked, "man, you guys have some dark senses of humor about this stuff." To which I replied, "Matt, we have to! This turned out really well, all things considered. Besides those doors needed replaced anyway!"

All in a day's work, right? 😝

My version of a hangar meets aircraft.

1968, HMS Hermes was operating off the East Australian coast with our Navy. I was on the duty crew one evening. The weather was foul, heavy rain squalls and pitch black due to clouds.

For some reason, some crew from Hermes had to fly to the air station (probably to attend some wardroom function).

So we were briefed, a Fairey Gannet AS.4 would be arriving at about 21:00.
The PO in charge of the duty crew decided it was too wet/dark/cold to recover the aircraft all the way down at the flight line so he decided to marshal the aircraft to the hard stand outside the hangar.
We were standing in the hangar entry and saw the Gannet land and begin taxying back from the far end of the strip and as the PO was supervising and there were two troops to cover marshalling and chocks I decided to go to the crew room for a brew.

I'd only just sat down to enjoy a nice hot coffee when I heard the sound of the Double Mamba engines go full power and the contra-rotating props feathering.
For a split second my brain thought "that's strange, why are they doing that?" and then the loudest noises I'd ever heard began.

It appears that the Gannet had powered up a bit to turn toward the marshaller in front of the hangar and as the marshaller slowed waving his wands, the Gannet kept coming!
Seems that brakes don't work as well if they've been soaked by taxying for about a kilometre in deep puddles and spray kicked up by the huge props on the front of the aircraft.

While the ground crew dropped everything and ran, the 17,000 lb Gannet majestically rolled toward the hangar doors and proceeded to eat them with the two four bladed contra rotating props. Luckily this killed the engines (I think they oversped) and the Gannet came to an inglorious stop at last.

While the actual incident only took about 30 seconds, the resulting clean up, investigations and finger pointing took much longer.

Sorry, no pictures.

It was bit different in those days. No such thing as small digital cameras or mobile phones with cameras.
Plus, the only people allowed to take photographs on the base were the official PHOT (photographer) ratings.

They have now become "Imagery Specialist" sailors.

Neil Armstrong had a piece of the muslin cloth from the Wright flyer in his pocket as he stepped onto the moon.

the little helicopter drone that flew on Mars also has a piece of the wright flyer cloth on board.

it’s amazing to think that material handled by two bicycle mechanics in 1903 made it to the moon and Mars.

Sorting out some photos today and I realised most days at East Kirkby Eurofighter Typhoons from RAF Coningsby make a slow fly-past. It looks like the old guard from WW2 get a daily tribute from them so every day is remembrance day - nice touch.
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The lengths we must go to trying to move Ohio further away from us...lol

One from my meagre collection, Supermarine Walrus, River Forth Scotland

A couple more,



Location unknown



North Sea Class patrol Airship, 1st flight 1 February 1917 and retired 25 October 1921

Following the above post with the North Sea Patrol Airship a lot more information 👍

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NS_class_airship

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Indeed :0)

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I thought these were cracking shots / good quality.

I wonder if anyone can identify the watch or the plane in the first pictures?

The ladies of the ATA did an amazing job for the RAF in WW2. I recall a very famous pilot quoting how all the guys at a base were complaining about a certain aircraft and its impossible landing characteristics - only to see an ATA girl deliver one with a perfect 3 point landing and taxi to the tower :0)

Maureen Dunlop (ATA) pictured along with Elizabeth Gardener from the American WASP unit in in
B-26 for the last photo.

@cvalue13 - these ladies did make longer flights / more varied and it looks like wrist watches were front and centre for them in WW2 (navigation and fuel management)

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