The Aviators Thread

[Alpha]

Hoping I haven't posted this image previously

East Fortune Air Show

 

[MRC]

Alpha

Hoping I haven't posted this image previously

East Fortune Air Show

No, but you've got it upside down.

 

[Seiji]

I suppose this is as appropriate as any place to share my latest addition.

This is apparently an all together correct S.Smith&Son Ltd. A bit sad condition, but if other comparable serial numbers are dated correctly, this watch will be one of the earliest Imperial Japanese military watches acquired for the Navy Pilots. The approximate date of manufacture is 1890s. Most likely it was put into use in the late 1910s or beginning of 1920s.

The watch is the top left.

One of the first recorded histories of Japanese air to air combat is against Germany in September 1914 in China.
The aircraft was manufactured by Farman launced from the Wakayama Maru seaplane tender flown by Lt. Wada paired with Lt. Fujise in another Farman both attacking a German position at Tsingtao.

Japanese military began using aircraft in December 1910. Captain Y. Tokugawa went to France to buy Henri Farman bi-planes (R Mikesh and S.Abe 1990 Naval Institute Press page 79)

https://archive.org/details/japanese...anese+aircraft

 

[Fallout Boy]

 

[DoctorEvil]

Fallout Boy

I'm guessing that's a glider from WW2. Pretty amazing that soldiers were willing to go into battle in something as lightweight as that. I'm currently reading "Arnhem" by Antony Beevor. For those who are not familiar, it's about the Allied airborne invasion of Holland and their quest to secure the bridge over the Rhine at Arnhem. There's accounts of heavily loaded gliders just falling apart in mid air whilst under tow. If hit by flak, they'd just disintegrate. Landing in one was terrifying. The bravery of those troops was unbelievable.

 

[Fallout Boy]

Interesting! Picture from today, there will be some celebrations this week (on the 15th and 18th ? ,Macron, Fréjus?)

 

[JimInOz]

Fallout Boy

A Waco Without Wheels (WWW)?

 

[Fallout Boy]

IMO yes!

 

[spacemission]

 

[SpeedyPhill]

Former French "Armee de l'Air" fighter pilot recovered after his Fouga Magister, 1960s training jet without ejection seats, was recovered after it crashed in the sea during the Lavandou airshow.
RIP 67 year old pilot Didier Berger.
.

 

[DoctorEvil]

SpeedyPhill

Former French "Armee de l'Air" fighter pilot recovered after his Fouga Magister, 1960s training jet without ejection seats, was recovered after it crashed in the sea during the Lavandou airshow.
RIP 67 year old pilot Didier Berger.
.

OMG, that's just awful. No ejection seats in an aerobatic jet trainer? That's pretty ballsy of the original designers (and the Armee de l'Air for either not specifying it or accepting it).

 

[SpeedyPhill]

Next year is going to be 40 years since my first soloflight in an ASK-21 glider (this year 35 years since my first solo in a fixed wing aircraft).
In the 1980s clubs bought sailplanes with club money but nowadays many pilots have their own sailplane !
Anazing how performances (finesse/glide ratio and avionics) have progressed !
.

 

[SpeedyPhill]

While I'm at it... On this day... 1989, August 21
Next year it will be 40 years since my soloflight in an ASK-21 glider but 35 years ago I made my first soloflight in a fixed-wing aircraft.
Made on a sunny day at EBAW, IP Instructor Pilot was George Styl and the little aircraft was a Socata Morane-Saulnier Rallye 115 , registration OO-CBL, built in 1969.
(Photo: AirHistory)
.

 

[DoctorEvil]

SpeedyPhill

While I'm at it... On this day... 1989, August 21
Next year it will be 40 years since my soloflight in an ASK-21 glider but 35 years ago I made my first soloflight in a fixed-wing aircraft.
Made on a sunny day at EBAW, IP Instructor Pilot was George Styl and the little aircraft was a Socata Morane-Saulnier Rallye 115 , registration OO-CBL, built in 1969.
(Photo: AirHistory)
.

Thanks for sharing. Are you still flying? And if so, what aircraft type?

 

[SpeedyPhill]

Picking up gliding again... with two friends we might buy a glider

 

[SpeedyPhill]

1924-2024... Hundred years Wasserkuppe !
In 1924 Engineer and sailplane pioneer Arthur Martens opened the first flight school at the Wasserkuppe mountain in central Germany: Martens Fliegerschule! Wasserkuppe airfield is considered the birthplace of modern sailplanes / gliders sport.
Arthur Martens was the first to set student world record in the gliding world. He died in 1937 onboard a Belgian Junkers JU-52 aircraft, SABENA airline registration OO-AUB, which crashed near Oostende - Belgium.
(Photo: BundesArchiv)
.

 

[SpeedyPhill]

Aeronautical Stuff You haven't seen before... or deemed possible
Russian aeronautical engineer / aircraft designer Boris Ivanovich Cheranovsky developed some amazing ornithopter aircraft (e.g. the BICh-18 Muskulet biplane which had flapping wings like a dragonfly). Fact History has a 1937 color video of it flying after a bungee launch!
.
Meanwhile in the Western aviation world, flying wings and tailless flight experimentals:

Pterodactyl​

 

[Twocats]

SpeedyPhill

While I'm at it... On this day... 1989, August 21
Next year it will be 40 years since my soloflight in an ASK-21 glider but 35 years ago I made my first soloflight in a fixed-wing aircraft.
Made on a sunny day at EBAW, IP Instructor Pilot was George Styl and the little aircraft was a Socata Morane-Saulnier Rallye 115 , registration OO-CBL, built in 1969.
(Photo: AirHistory)
.

I fear OO-CBL is no more, I searched it and it was de-registered.

I listed this Dodane Morane-Saulnier on here for trade last year or the year before and I was contacted by not one but two members of the Morane family enquiring to purchase it. I will meet one in September and I am questioning my decision to sell. I should sell everything really and keep one Speedy and the Bermont.

 

[Fallout Boy]

seen today ((( First I thought : a Fiat G91))) but the nose...

 

[DoctorEvil]

Fallout Boy

seen today ((( First I thought : a Fiat G91))) but the nose...

F-86 Sabre? The wing sweep doesn't seem quite enough though...