This Date in Aviation History: July 4 - July 7

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 07/07/2020 at 12:35 • Filed to: wingspan, Planelopnik, TDIAH

2

8

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Welcome to This Date in Aviation History , getting of you caught up on milestones, important historical events and people in aviation from July 4 through July 7.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

A Lockheed Vega 2, painted with Amelia Earhart’s Vega registration and Continental Airlines livery in 1965.

July 4, 1927 – The first flight of the Lockheed Vega. In the earliest days of aviation, the airplane was a wondrous machine flown by daring and brilliant inventors before rapidly transforming into a weapon of war. After WWI, aviation moved from the purview of the military into the civilian world, and reached its so-called Golden Age in the 1920s and 1930s. Barnstorming pilots crisscrossed the countryside offering flying demonstrations and selling rides, air races pushed technological advances in speed and handling while their feats of daring and speed captured the attention of the world, and intrepid aviators assaulted the record books, each trying to set the next mark in distance, speed, or altitude. The fabric-covered biplane gave way to the all-metal monoplane, and many great—and some not-so-great—airplanes came out of this era. But one aircraft in particular, the Lockheed Vega, became an icon of the Golden Age, a rugged airplane with long range that came to be the preferred aircraft for some of the age’s best known aviators.

An early Vega, with open wheels and exposed radial engine. These would later be covered with spats and a NACA cowling.

The Vega was designed by Lockheed’s !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , both of whom would go on to start their own successful aircraft companies in later years. At first, the Vega was designed as a four-seat airliner intended for service on Lockheed’s passenger routes. At the time, paved runways were a rarity, and the Vega needed to be rugged enough to operate from grass fields and unimproved airstrips. But Northrop and Vultee also wanted their new aircraft to be fast, and when the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! radial engine was fitted to in the Vega 5 in 1929, it gave the aircraft an impressive maximum speed of 185 mph.

The first Vega 1, NX913, Golden Eagle, nears completion at the Lockheed Aircraft Company. The laminated plywood fuselage is visible.

The !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! fuselage was constructed with laminated plywood shaped in a concrete mold, with each half of the fuselage shaped separately and then assembled over a metal tube frame (as many as 10 later Vegas were built by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! with an all-metal fuselage, though they retained the original wooden wings). In order to maintain the strength and integrity of the fuselage, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! was mounted on top of the fuselage rather than passed through it, and a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! was placed over the engine and streamlined spats were mounted on the fixed landing gear to improve aerodynamic efficiency.

Amelia Earhart sits on the wheel of her Vega 5B in Derry, Ireland after crossing the Atlantic Ocean alone.

The Vega was introduced in 1928, but it proved too small for airline service. However, it soon found a home with private owners. By the end of the year, Lockheed had built 68 aircraft, more than half of the eventual 132 they ultimately produced. It wasn’t long before the Vega leapt into the record books when stunt pilot !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! set a new coast-to-coast record of 19 hours, completing the first nonstop west to east flight in the process. The following year, Vega pilots won every speed award in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in Cleveland. In 1932, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! made her historic solo crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in a Vega 5b that had been modified by Fokker Aircraft Corporation of America to increase the fuel capacity.

Wiley Post with his Lockheed Vega 5C “Winnie Mae” at Floyd Bennet Field in New York.

But there was perhaps none greater than !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! when it came to getting the most out of the Vega. Flying a Vega 5C named Winnie Mae , Post won the National Air Race Derby in 1930 by flying from Los Angeles to Chicago in 9 hours 8 minutes 2 seconds. Post trumpeted that record by painting it on the side of the Vega. The following year, Post and co-pilot !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! established the first record for circumnavigating the globe in a fixed-wing aircraft when they departed Roosevelt Field in New York in Winnie Mae and returned in just eight days after traveling 15,474 miles. Then, in 1933, Post beat his own record, making the global flight alone in seven days. But Post and his Vega weren’t done. In 1934, Post began work on developing the world’s first practical pressure suit for pilots and, in September 1934, Post flew Winnie Mae to 40,000 feet, then 50,000 feet, and discovered the existence of the jet stream as an added bonus.

The only airworthy Vega, one of a handful built by the Detroit Aircraft Corporation in 1933. This aircraft differs from other Vegas of its era by having an all-metal fuselage.

Like so many great aircraft, technological advances soon surpassed the Vega, and only a handful remain in museums (the National Air and Space Museum is !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! to Winnie Mae ). As of 2014, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , though !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! is currently undergoing restoration.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

A modern Dr.1 replica.

July 5, 1917 – The first flight of the Fokker Dr.1 Dreidecker . When war broke out in Europe in 1914, aviation was still in its infancy. The Wright Brothers had made their First Flight just 11 years earlier, but the remarkable pace of aviation development meant that early airplanes were ready to join the fray. At first, aircraft were used only as observation planes, called scouts, that performed the same reconnaissance duties of their horse-borne predecessors. But it wasn’t long before air crews began taking pistols and rifles into the air, and the friendly wave between opposing pilots was was replaced with gunfire of questionable accuracy. Dedicated fighter planes armed with machine guns soon followed, and the aerial dogfight was born. Beginning an aerial arms race that continues to this day, belligerents worked feverishly to produce ever more powerful and maneuverable fighters in an effort to take control of the skies over the battlefield.

The Dreidecker V.4 prototype in 1917

In 1916, the first British !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! appeared over the Western Front, and the new fighter was immediately superior than the older, slower German !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! fighters then in use by the Deutsche Lufstreitkräfte (German Air Force). Working in Germany, Dutch aviation pioneer !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! immediately started development of a triplane to counter the Sopwith, and he started by converting one of his biplane designs already in development. The new fighter was designated the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , but initial results were poor. So Fokker revised the design by altering the ailerons and elevators and using a longer wing span to help improve roll control. The new aircraft was designated !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and though only three of these intermediate designs were produced, one was evaluated in September 1917 by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , famously known as the Red Baron. Despite its the V.5's shortcomings, Richthofen claimed his 60th victory in the triplane. In a further refinement of the design, Fokker added struts between the wings to minimize the wing flexing that hampered the fighter’s performance. The final production version, which was now called the Dr.1 Dreidecker (triplane), was very similar to the V.5, but now incorporated stepped wings that gave the aircraft its iconic profile.

Manfred von Richthofen’s red Dr.1

Two prototypes were ordered and delivered to Belgium in late August 1917 for evaluation by Richthofen. Within the first two days, he downed two enemy planes and reported that the Dreidecker was clearly superior to the Sopwith Triplane. Richthofen recommended that all fighter groups be outfitted with the new plane as soon as possible, and he scored his last 19 victories in a Dr.1 before his death in April 1918. The Dr.1 was inherently unstable, and while that trait could prove difficult for novice flyers, it also added to the fighter’s exceptional maneuverability in the hands of a skilled pilot. What it gave up in top speed to other contemporary fighters it made up for with excellent climb and roll rates. Despite continuing difficulties with the fighter, including wing failures and problems with visibility, 320 aircraft were built, and the Dreidecker was used to good effect.

Fokker Dr.1s of Jasta 26 lined up at Erchin, France sometime during the First World War.

Towards the end of the war, shortages of castor oil for the engines hampered the fighter’s readiness rate, and the use of synthetic oils resulted in numerous engine failures. Only three aircraft are known to have survived the war, one of which was known to have crashed during testing, and one of the aircraft flown by Richthofen was held in a German museum until it was destroyed by Allied bombs during WWII. Only a few artifacts remain, though many replicas and reproductions have since been built and are flown today.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Short Takeoff

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

July 4, 2005 – The NASA space probe Deep Impact successfully impacts comet Tempel 1. Deep Impact was launched on January 12, 2005 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and was designed to investigate the interior composition of comet !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . After rendezvousing with the comet, the spacecraft released an impactor that collided with the comet’s !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , formed a crater, and excavated debris from the interior crater. In the process, Deep Impact became the first probe to eject material from a comet’s surface for study. After completion of the mission, the spacecraft flew by Earth on December 31, 2007 on its way to study !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , as well as comet !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

July 4, 2002 – The death of Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., the commander of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in WWII and the first African-American general officer in the US Air Force. Davis was born into a military family in Washington, DC on December 18, 1912, and his father achieved the rank of brigadier general in the US Army. The younger Davis graduated from the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1936, but was denied entry to the Army Air Corps at a time when African-Americans were not accepted for flight service. Following the institution of the flight training program at Tuskegee University in Alabama, Davis was assigned to the first training class, and was deployed to the Mediterranean in support of the invasion of Sicily. Following the war, Davis rose through the Air Force, eventually gaining the rank of four-star General in 1998.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

July 4, 1997 – Pathfinder lands on Mars. After landing on Mars, Pathfinder deployed a roving probe named !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the first rover to operate outside of the Earth-Moon system. Pathfinder was launched from Florida’s !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! on December 4, 1996 and bounced to a landing on what is now called the Carl Sagan Memorial Station. Pathfinder was the first in a series of rover missions to the Red Planet, and the first successful lander since two !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! landers arrived on the Martian surface in 1976. Developed as part of NASA’s “faster, better and cheaper” initiative, the solar-powered rover carried out experiments on the Martian soil and took photographs of its surroundings before contact was lost two months after landing.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

July 4, 1986 – The first flight of the Dassault Rafale, a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! multi-role fighter developed in the mid-1970s to replace aging aircraft and consolidate missions for the French Air Force and Navy. Development began with the Rafale A technology demonstrator, a delta-wing aircraft that featured forward canards to increase maneuverability. Development led to the Rafale C, which was both smaller and stealthier than its predecessor, and utilized a redesigned vertical stabilizer, radar-absorbent materials, and increased use of composite materials. Production began in 1982, and more than 133 of both the one- and two-seat variants have been produced to date. The Rafale entered service in May of 2001 and has seen action over Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Africa.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

July 4, 1975 – The first flight of the Boeing 747SP, the smallest and fastest variant of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Boeing initiated development of the SP after a request from !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! for an airliner capable of carrying passengers from New York to Tokyo, its longest route at the time. The stubby wide-body was originally designated SB for Short Body, and then changed to SP for Special Performance. Boeing shortened the 747 fuselage, increased the size of the horizontal stabilizer, and simplified the wing’s trailing edge flaps. Though the SP was the longest-range airliner available when it entered service, Boeing received few orders, and only 45 SPs were produced. As of December 2016, 10 SPs remain flying, and NASA also operates one SP to carry the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (SOFIA), with a large opening in the side of the aircraft for a reflecting telescope.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

July 4, 1957 – The first flight of the Ilyushin Il-18, a four-engine turboprop airliner that proved to be one of the most successful Soviet airliners of its era. Like many Russian designs, the Il-18 was durable and rugged, with many airframes achieving over 45,000 flight hours. Following its entry into service in 1958, the Il-18 earned the Brussels World Fair Grand Prix in 1958 and set 25 world records for range and altitude. The Il-18 was widely exported, and also served as a military transport and cargo aircraft. Just under 700 were produced from 1957-1985, and though it was superseded by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! jetliner, the Il-18 remains in limited civilian and military service.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

July 5, 2016 – NASA’s Juno spacecraft enters orbit around Jupiter.   Juno is part of NASA’s !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! program, a series of missions designed to investigate the planets of our Solar System that seeks !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! to help fund and administer the exploratory missions. A second spacecraft in the program is !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which launched on January 19, 2006 to study Pluto. Juno was launched on August 5, 2011, and is the second probe to orbit the Solar System’s largest planet after !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which orbited Jupiter from 1995-2003. Juno’s mission is to study Jupiter’s !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! fields, its !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and will search for clues on how the planet formed and what the planet is made of. Following its scientific missions, NASA plans to deorbit Juno into Jupiter’s atmosphere in 2021.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

July 5, 1979 – The death of Émile Dewoitine, a French industrialist who designed fighters and airliners for France before and during WWII. Dewoitine was born in Crépy-en-Laonnais on September 26, 1892, and worked for aircraft manufacture !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! before founding his own company in 1920. He found little success with his company, and moved to Switzerland, where his !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! fighter was accepted for service. Following that success, Dewoitine returned to France to found Aéronautique Française (Avions Dewoitine) in 1931, where he produced the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , France’s first all-metal monoplane fighter, as well as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! airliner. During WWII, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! fighter proved to be France’s best domestic fighter, and was nearly a match for the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . When Dewoitine tried to start a company in America in 1940, he was tried in absentia by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and found guilty of treason, so he moved to Spain to continue his work, and returned to Toulouse after the statute of limitations expired on his sentence.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

July 5, 1944 – The first flight of the Northrop MX-324. Jack Northrop’s name is closely associated with his massive !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! flying wing bombers, but before those aircraft took to the skies Northrop worked on a smaller rocket-powered flying wing fighter, which finally took shape as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . To develop the concept, Northrop built a glider version of the wing known as the MX-334, and a rocket-powered version with a single vertical stabilizer known a the MX-324. The MX-324 was powered by a Aerojet XCAL-200 rocket motor which provided 2,000 pounds of thrust and was towed into the air by a Lockheed P-38. When the motor was ignited, the 324 became the first rocket-powered aircraft to fly in the United States. When testing was complete test aircraft were scrapped, and only one example of the rocket-powered XP-79 fighter was built, but it was lost in a crash that killed test pilot Harry Crosby and the program was canceled.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

July 5, 1942 – The first flight of the Avro York, a four-engine transport aircraft that was derived from the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! bomber. Like other postwar British airliners that were based on bombers, the York borrowed the wings, tail, and undercarriage of the Lancaster attached to a larger, square fuselage that could accommodate up to 56 passengers. The York was powered by four !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! engines had a maximum speed of 298 mph wit a range of 3,000 miles. It entered service with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (BOAC) in 1944, and was also used by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Following the end of mainline service, the York continued to fly with independent airlines for both passenger and freight operations, and was finally retired in 1964. Avro produced 259 Yorks from 1943-1949.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

July 6, 2013 – The crash of Asiana Airlines Flight 214,   !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (HL77423) service from Incheon International Airport in South Korea to San Francisco International Airport (SFO). On final visual approach to SFO in excellent weather, the airliner came in below the glide slope and the main landing gear and tail of the 777 struck a seawall short of the runway before rotating and coming to rest to the left of the runway and catching fire. Of the 307 passengers and crew, three passengers were killed (one was run over by a fire truck) and 187 were injured. The !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! cited pilot error, saying that “Mismanagement of approach and inadequate monitoring of airspeed led to the crash of Asiana flight 214.” The report also cited the crew’s unfamiliarity with the 777's automatic airspeed control during descent. The accident was the first fatal crash of the 777 since the airliner entered service in 1995, and the first fatal commercial airliner crash in North America since 2001.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

July 6, 1952 – The death of Maryse Bastié. Born on February 27, 1898, Bastié became interested in flying after marrying a WWI fighter pilot. Following the death of her husband in 1926, Bastié began performing flying exhibitions to earn money, and eventually purchased her own !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! monoplane in 1927. She set numerous records for female aviators including a record time for a solo crossing of the South Atlantic, and was awarded the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1931. Bastié achieved the rank of Captain in the French Air Force while logging more than 3,000 hours of flying time, and was made a Commander in the French !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Bastié was killed at age 54 when her plane crashed after takeoff from Lyon.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

July 6, 1919 – The British rigid airship R34 completes the first east-to-west crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. R34 was the second rigid airship of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! whose design was based on the captured German Zeppelin LZ 86. She took her maiden flight on March 14, 1919 and plans were made for an Atlantic crossing soon after. R34 left England on July 2, 1919, less than a month after !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! completed the first crossing of the Atlantic from west-to-east by plane, and arrived two days later at Long Island, NY after a flight of 108 hours that nearly exhausted the fuel supply. With no experienced ground handlers present, a member of the crew parachuted to the ground and thus became the first person to arrive in America traveling by air. R34 returned to England July 10-13, and was eventually scrapped in 1921 after a crash in poor weather.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

July 6, 1819 – The death of Sophie Blanchard. Blanchard (née Armant) was born on March 25, 1778 and took up ballooning when she married pioneering balloonist !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1804. Sophie was the first woman to work as a professional balloonist, and continued flying after her husband’s death in 1809 when he fell from a balloon after suffering a heart attack. She made more than 60 ascents after Jean-Pierre’s death, and performed flights for !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , who named her “Official Aeronaut of the Restoration.” Blanchard was killed when fireworks that she launched from her balloon ignited the balloon’s gas bag, giving her the unfortunate distinction of being the first woman to die in an aviation accident.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

July 7, 2003 – The launch of Mars Exploration Rover–B, better known as Opportunity . Opportunity was launched atop a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! rocket as part of NASA’s !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! program and landed on the Red Planet on January 25, 2004, three weeks after its sister rover !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (MER-A). Spirit became mired in soft ground in 2009 and ceased communications the following year, but Opportunity continued to function 15 years after landing, even though it was designed to work for just 90 days. Opportunity made significant discoveries on the geology of Mars, and helped to determine whether the Earth’s closest neighbor was ever capable of sustaining life, looking particularly for signs of water. Contact with Opportunity was lost on June 10, 2018 when the rover failed to wake from hibernation, and the mission was declared officially over on February 13, 2019. In all, Opportunity had traversed over 28 miles of the Martian surface, surpassing the previous record for a rover set by the Russian !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! rover that landed on the Moon in 1973.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

July 7, 1981 – The Solar Challenger completes the first solar-powered flight across the English Channel. Aeronautical engineer !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! made a name for himself in the 1970s with human-powered aircraft, one of which, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , was the first aircraft to cross the English Channel under human power in 1979. The Albatross was then developed into the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which added a solar array to generate power for propulsion. The Solar Challenger was a much more robust development of the Penguin, with power for its two three-horsepower engines coming from 16,128 solar cells on the wings and horizontal stabilizer which provided up to 3,800 watts of electricity. The Solar Challenger took its maiden flight on November 6, 1980, and completed the crossing of the English Channel from France to England in just under 5.5 hours. The aircraft is now part of the collection of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

July 7, 1961 – The first flight of the Mil Mi-8, a twin-turbine helicopter that was originally designed as a transport helicopter and then further developed into an airborne command post, gunship, and reconnaissance helicopter. More than 17,000 have been built since production began in 1961, and it is the most common operational military helicopter in the world. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! designed the Mi-8 (NATO reporting name Hip ) as a replacement for the radial-engined !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and the twin turbine-powered Mi-8 can accommodate up to 16 troops or 3,500 pounds of cargo and has a top speed of 161 mph. The Mi-8 entered service in 1967, is flown by 71 countries worldwide and remains in production today.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

July 7, 1946 – The first flight of the Hughes XF-11, an experimental reconnaissance aircraft built for the US Army Air Corps by Howard Hughes to compete with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! for a US Army Air Forces contract. Resembling the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the XF-11 was fitted with such a complex system of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! propellers that the second prototype received traditional propellers instead. On its maiden flight, a hydraulic leak caused caused the loss of one engine, and Hughes crashed while attempting to make an emergency landing on a golf course, an accident that the Army attributed to pilot error. Hughes was seriously injured, but survived. After he recovered, Hughes successfully flew the second prototype in 1947, but the USAAF had lost interest in both the XF-11 and the XF-12, and both projects were canceled.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Connecting Flights

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

If you enjoy these Aviation History posts, please let me know in the comments. You can find more posts about aviation history, aviators, and aviation oddities at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Thomas Donohue > ttyymmnn 07/07/2020 at 12:39

1

I didn’t know Nibby had a plane w/custom registration.

TheRealBicycleBuck > ttyymmnn 07/07/2020 at 13:40

1

This guy has an interesting synopsis of airships and what happened to them.

ClassicDatsunDebate > ttyymmnn 07/07/2020 at 13:49

3

The D520 had a K/D of 147/85 before capitulation. P retty tidy .

After the Vichy government was toppled the original D520 test pilot, Doret, re-formed GC1/8, painted over the German markings and went into action against the last of the straggling German pockets in the south of France..

user314 > ttyymmnn 07/07/2020 at 14:02

1

Obligatory:

I have, in a box, somewhere, the ‘97 Hot Wheels Sojo urner Action Pack.

ttyymmnn > user314 07/07/2020 at 14:09

0

Oh, man, that Hot Wheels rover is awesome. 

user314 > ttyymmnn 07/07/2020 at 14:27

1

There’s a second smaller lander insider the aeroshell too:

jminer > ttyymmnn 07/07/2020 at 14:53

0

Excellent read as always - thanks!

I especially loved the b it about the dirigible pilot parachuting down and acting as ground crew.  That’s hilarious.

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > ttyymmnn 07/08/2020 at 10:20

1

I think my favorite story of the early war is the one about the Allied pilot who returned to base with a hole in his wing complaining that “the German had thrown a brick at him”.

Some of the stuff they tried before they worked out how to best mount machine guns was just crazy. Grenades on a string, fouling props with steel cable... gotta do what you gotta do I guess