Aviation - Plane

The MiG -3 - Russia's Best WWII Fighter Plane

2008-01-16T22:04:03+08:00

The German Luftwaffe in July and August of 1941 encountered for the first time a previously unknown Russian fighter with a long slender nose. It was obviously powered by an inline or "Vee" type engine, which was also surprising because all the Soviet fighters up to that time were powered by radial engines and lacked the performance of the front line German fighters. The Luftwaffe pilots were taken completely by surprise by the existence of this new fighter, because their information from Luftwaf...

The B -50 Superfortress

2008-01-16T22:04:01+08:00

Officially, the justification by the USAF for the new B-50 designation was made on the basis that the changes introduced by the B-29D were so major that it was essentially a completely new aircraft. The ruse worked and the B-50 survived the cutbacks to become an important component of the postwar Air Force. The decision to produce the B-50 was confirmed on May 24, 1947. From the start, the B-50 was earmarked for the atomic bombing role. This decision was prompted by the uncertain future of the C...

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

2008-01-16T22:03:53+08:00

We all know that we need tickets for planes and trains, but do we need them for automobiles?The answer is 淣o! It s true, we dont need tickets for our cars, but how many of us can say that weve never received one?Not many.

The subject that I am getting at is your Automobile Insurance renewal that just went up because you have two tickets on your record and it is affecting your new rate.

Between the kitchen table and the telephone is a distance of about five feet. It should take you no mor...

A Brief History of Aviation - 1908 Onwards

2008-01-16T22:03:53+08:00

This is part two of a two-part review of Aviation from its beginnings to the present day. It is a subjective look at a few of the highlights in the development of Aviation over the centuries.

Glenn Hammond Curtiss who was well known in the aviation field by 1908, won the first American award, the Scientific American Trophy, for an airplane flight when he flew the 'June Bug' 5090 ft (1552m) in 1 min 42.5 sec on July 4, 1908. Curtiss also went on to win the first international speed event, at a...

The B -26 Marauder

2008-01-16T22:03:51+08:00

One of the most controversial American combat aircraft of the Second World War was the Martin B-26 Marauder. It was primarily used in Europe and was in fact numerically the most important USAAF medium bomber used in that theatre of action. However, on four occasions, investigation boards had met to decide if the development and production of the Marauder should continue.

In spite of this, the Marauder survived all attempts to remove it from service. By 1944, the B-26s of the US 9th Air Force ...

The AT -6 Texan (Harvard) Trainer

2008-01-16T22:03:50+08:00

"The Pilot Maker" was one of the more printable nicknames give the AT-6 Texan by student pilots who trained on it. It was a twin-seat trainer with a completely enclosed glass canopy, a tall body and low-set rectangular wings, student in front, instructor in the rear. Derived from the 1935 North American NA-16, the Texan filled the need for a basic combat trainer during WWII and beyond. The original AT-6 (94 built) differed little from subsequent versions: the AT-6A (1,847 built) which revised th...

The RAF Lockheed Ventura Light Bomber

2008-01-16T22:03:44+08:00

The Lockheed Ventura was the result of a September 1939 proposal by Lockheed to the British Air Ministry for a military version of the Model 18 Lodestar twin-engined 15/18-passenger commercial transport. It was viewed as a successor to the Lockheed Hudson in RAF service. The Hudson was itself a military version of an earlier model of the Super Electra 10/14-passenger commercial transport.

Under the temporary design designation of L-108, the Lockheed Company considered several different propos...

Flying Without Wings

2008-01-16T22:03:44+08:00

Since early man witnessed the ability of early sparrow, he has always wanted to shrug off earth's gravitational force, and fly. Still some way to go in evolution terms, we need to loose a little weight and grow some feathers, wings and stuff, but being an ingenious type of creature, it wasn't too many millions of years until man invented flight by artificial means.

Early flight pioneers tried emulating the graceful antics of the butterfly, before settling on wings and eventually jet propulsio...

C -119 Flying Boxcar

2008-01-16T22:03:44+08:00

The C-119 was a redesign of an earlier Fairchild transport design, the C-82 Packet, which was built for the USAAF between 1945 and 1948. While the Packet provided valuable service to the Air Force's Tactical Air Command and Military Air Transport Service for nearly nine years, its design had some limitations and these were addressed in the new C-119 transport.

It was designed to carry cargo, litter patients and mechanized equipment and to drop cargo and troops by parachute. The C-119 had the ...

How Jet Engines Operate

2008-01-16T22:03:41+08:00

It is a great privilege to be able to retain the services of a lear jet when you need it for business or personal use. Some individuals are seasoned travelers, while others might feel some pangs of reservation when they think of executive jet travel. It sometimes helps assuage any hint of anxiety by becoming informed about your jet, and one way to do that is to understand a bit about how jet engines operate. With knowledge comes understanding, and that understanding will make you more comfortabl...

Aviation - Between Heaven And Earth

2008-01-16T22:03:41+08:00

People have probably wanted to learn how to fly, since the time they conceived their first thought. It seems to be the nature of humans, to push the limits of what they can do, regardless of how illogical it may be. The pursuit of flight may have been a more prevalent thought, than those surrounding the automobile. People were always able to travel with their feet, but to be able to fly, now that would be special.

Most people credit the Wright brothers for starting the flying revolution, but ...

Radar - The Early Days of Development

2008-01-16T22:03:40+08:00

Nowadays radar is taken for granted in all nearly all aspects of aviation. And yet it is only seventy years ago that it was first being developed. Dr. Robert M. Page was a physicist working at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington D.C. who was the original inventor of monopulse radar, preceding the work of the British by at least nine months. This was in 1934 and predates the work of Sir Watson Watt of England, though most articles and encyclopedias give Watt the credit. Early British...

The Boeing B -29 Superfortress

2008-01-16T22:03:39+08:00

When Boeing designed the B-17 "Flying Fortress" in the mid-thirties, the aim was to meet the United States Army Air Corps request for a very-heavy, very-long-range bomber capable of flying 5000 miles. Though the B-17 demonstrated impressive strength, firepower, speed, bomb load, range and altitude capability, it was not until the B-29 Superfortress flew that the original specifications were met.

The B-29 from the beginning was a producer of "firsts" unbelievably employing some of the methodol...

The F -22 and the Fighter Aircraft's Future

2008-01-16T22:03:38+08:00

Without doubt, the most exiting combat aircraft of the early 21st century is the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor. A far different aircraft from anything preceding it, the F-22's development history reflects the many problems, both technological and financial, than can beset an advanced system of its kind.

In the late 1970s, the USAF identified a requirement for 750 examples of an Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) to replace the F-15 Eagle. The goal was to produce a tactical aircraft that would rema...

The F4U Corsair

2008-01-16T22:03:37+08:00

The most capable carrier based fighter of the Second World War proved to be the Chance Vought F4U Corsair. This big, fast and maneuverable Navy and Marine fighter was designed around the Pratt and Whitney XR-2800 Double Wasp engine, which promised to be the most powerful aircraft engine in the world at that time. This very successful twin row 18-cylinder radial engine initially produced about 1850 HP and ultimately produced about 2,450 HP with water injection by the end of the war.

The U.S. N...

The B -24 Liberator Bomber

2008-01-16T22:03:37+08:00

Consolidated Aircraft won the original contract from the US Army Air Corps in 1939 to build a bomber that could exceed the performance of the B-17. Their prototype, the XB-24 first flew in December 1939. Slightly smaller than the Flying Fortress, it had four 1,200-hp Pratt & Whitney R-1830-65 Twin Wasp turbocharged radial piston engines which enabled it to fly farther with a bigger bomb load than the B-17.

Of seven service-test YB-24s, six were sent to the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1940 under ...

Aviation - Really Part Of Our Lives

2008-01-16T22:03:37+08:00

I often wonder how things affect the way I live. In particular something like aviation. We tend to think of it as a means of transport and of course it is. But how much of a role does aviation actually play in our lives?

Let's first look at just one aircraft. Take the Boeing 737. First introduced in the early 1960s, this plane has been in service pretty well constantly since then. Naturally, there have been modifications. Slight tweaks and changes to improve performance and safety. This is no ...

The Focke -Wulf FW 190

2008-01-16T22:03:36+08:00

Designed by Kurt Tank the Focke-Wulf 190 was a nasty surprise to the RAF in September 1941. Only a little over 200 were completed in 1941, but in 1942 1,850 were built, which amounted to about 40% of German single seat fighter production.

Powered by a BMW 14-cylinder twin row air cooled radial engine that put out 1,760 hp, the FW 190 had excellent handling qualities and gave the early FW 190A models a clear superiority over the RAF's Spitfire Mk V. Many German aces flew the FW 190. Georg-Pete...

The B -47E Stratojet

2008-01-16T22:03:35+08:00

The B-47E Stratojet was the major production version of the B-47 and it was the only version that was mass-produced by all three members of the production pool, Lockheed, Douglas and Boeing. The B-47E was basically the standardized production version of the Stratojet and incorporated many innovations that had been suggested by experience with the earlier B-47s, A through D. In contrast to the B-36 program, which was on the verge of cancellation several times, there was never any significant effo...

The First Rocket Powered Airplanes

2008-01-16T22:03:34+08:00

In 1947, the first recorded flight in excess of the sound barrier was recorded. This was the famous flight of Air force Captain Chuck Yeager in the Bell X-1 rocket powered aircraft. There are disputes that other pilots had previously broken the sound barrier but their claims were not substantiated. This flight was recorded at Mach 1.06 as the peak airspeed.

During World War II, the German Air Force was designing a rocket powered aircraft but the end of the war disrupted these plans. The Briti...

The Convair B -36D Peacemaker

2008-01-16T22:03:33+08:00

The B-36 was an immense aircraft in every dimension and one of the last of the piston driven bombers. Designed as a long distance heavy bomber capable of carrying a huge bomb load or the nuclear bombs of the period, it went through numerous re-designs and modifications. The first B-36A was built in early 1947 and flew for the first time on August 28, 1947. The models B and C soon followed and were found wanting for one reason or another, mostly because the Air Force and the Government's Departme...

Pan American Airways - From Khartoum to New York City

2008-01-16T22:03:33+08:00

Pan American Airways "Pacific Clipper", a Boeing Flying Boat, had just completed it's flight from San Francisco to Auckland, New Zealand on Dec 7, 1941 when the news reached them that the USA was at war with the Japanese. This meant that they could not return across the Pacific the way they had just came, so they started out on an odyssey to the west crossing Asia, Africa, the South Atlantic Ocean, to South America and finally north to their home base in New York City.

At this juncture of the...

The English Electric Lightning

2008-01-16T22:03:32+08:00

Only the RAF, of all the world's airforces, made the jump from subsonic to Mach Two fighter with no "Mach One plus" intermediary. They replaced the Hawker Hunter day fighter and the Gloster Javelin all-weather fighter with the Mach 2 English Electric (later BAC) Lightning. The Lightning had its origin in a Ministry of Supply Specification which was issued in 1947 and called for a manned supersonic research aircraft.

English Electric's design, the P.1, submitted in 1949, was quickly seen to ha...

The Mosquito WWII Nightfighter

2008-01-16T22:03:31+08:00

A night fighter can be best defined as a fighter aircraft that - either by design or by adaptation - could fly at night or when other aircraft were grounded due to poor visibility. To be able to fulfil its role, a typical night fighter would be a twin-engined aircraft with the nose section crammed full of electronic equipment, typically radar, direction finders to find the airbase at night, a variety of communications equipment plus special lighting inside the cockpit.

The early night fighter...

Safety Around Helicopters

2008-01-16T22:03:30+08:00

For several years I worked around helicopters. Safety is never more important than when you are either near or inside an operating helicopter. This is because their is rarely a second chance when someone makes a thoughtless mistake near a running helicopter.

One of the first things said to me by a helicopter pilot, giving a safety talk about working around helicopters was, slow down. Don't get excited. People hear the noise, and sense the vibrations, of the quickly moving rotor blades of a he...

The Supermarine Spitfire

2008-01-16T22:03:28+08:00

Ask any old-timer what is the classic fighter aircraft of all time and they are almost certain to name the Spitfire. It has become part of the British folklore - the aircraft that saved the UK in the Battle Of Britain. The reality tells a different story (actually it was the Hawker Hurricane) but that does not diminish the legend of the Spitfire one whit. Others simply admire the beautiful lines of the airframe.

The writing of the history of aviation from the WWII and for twenty years afterwa...

The Armstrong -Whitworth Whitley MkV Bomber

2008-01-16T22:03:23+08:00

In 1934 the British Air Ministry issued a requirement for a heavy bomber as one of the steps in the British rearmament program, The new aircraft would be a cantilever monoplane of all metal construction, with advanced features for the time, such as and enclosed flight deck, retractable landing gear, trailing-edge flaps on the inboard sections of the main wings and inboard stowage of the bombs, together with turreted defensive armament. The power plant was to consist of two high-powered piston dr...

A Short History of Flight

2008-01-16T22:03:22+08:00

People have dreamed of flying since ancient times. About six thousand years ago drawings on tombs in Egypt showed gods that could fly. Leonardo da Vinci, who lived five hundred years ago, was very interested in flight and believed the way to do it was to flap wings as birds do. He drew numerous pictures of flying machines, but never tried to build any.

The invention of the steam engine changed everything and contributed to the development of flight. Machines could make products such as new kin...

World War II - The Foo Fighters

2008-01-16T22:03:20+08:00

Foo Fighters was the name used for numerous unexplained phenomena in WW II, as well as being used in a derogatory sense. Some pilots over Europe called them "Kraut balls". In the Pacific Theater, it was how some pilots referred to the Japanese fliers who were infamous for their erratic flying. Foo fighters is the name given by the scientists and historians to the general body of spherical, circular, disc-like, or wedged shaped "bogies", sometimes seeming to glow, shine, or reflect a high degree ...

Honda Moves Into Aviation with New Jet -engine Plant in N. Carolina

2008-01-16T22:03:20+08:00

From automobiles and motorcycles, Honda Motor Co. is moving into aviation as it invests $27 million in a North Carolina plant to build engines for small business jets.

Fumitaka Hasegawa, the chief executive officer of the unit said at a press briefing in July 17 that construction of the factory and a headquarters for Honda Aero Inc. will soon begin in Burlington, North Carolina. The unit will initially create 70 new jobs, according to Mike Easley, the governor of the state.

As the biggest e...

The Boeing B -17 Flying Fortress

2008-01-16T22:03:19+08:00

Of all the heavy bombers that flew in WWII, the B-17 Flying Fortress was without a doubt one of the two most famous, the other being the Lancaster. The prototype first flew in 1935 but it would be another five years before the B-17 was delivered in any quantity. They first saw action with the RAF in 1941. The first order filled by Boeing was for 39 B-17Bs with turbo-charged Wright Cyclone radial engines. The 17C followed with seven machine guns instead of the original five; this modification tog...

How To Pick A Helicopter School For Training

2008-01-16T22:03:18+08:00

A career in flying helicopters or airplanes is a dream of many youngsters. Learning to fly is an expensive affair. It is very important to choose the best training school that trains you in flying. Visit the school; meet with the owner/president, look the facilities and aircraft over. Make a note of the pertinent information and compare it with their information brochure. The following aspects should be checked out before arriving at a decision:

?Does the school have single or multiple helicop...

A Brief History of Aviation - The Beginnings

2008-01-16T22:03:17+08:00

This is part one of a two-part review of Aviation from its beginnings to the present day. It is a subjective look at a few of the highlights in the development of Aviation over the centuries.

The generally accepted definition of Aviation is the design, manufacture, use, or operation of aircraft - in which the term aircraft refers to any vehicle capable of flight. Aircraft can either be heavier-than-air or lighter-than-air, lighter-than-air craft including balloons and airships; and heavier-th...

The Lancaster Bomber

2008-01-16T22:03:15+08:00

The first Lancaster bomber, powered by four of the seemingly ubiquitous Rolls-Royce Merlin V-12 engines, took off in January, 1941. Regarded immediately as a success, Avro put it into full time production, with numerous companies sub-contracting for the parts. Consisting of 55,000 separate parts, it has been estimated that half a million different manufacturing operations were involved to produce just one aircraft. Peak production was achieved when a combined 293 aircraft were produced in Britai...

Helicopter For Sale

2008-01-16T22:03:13+08:00

There are many reasons to purchase a helicopter for sale. Helicopters, often more affordable than their cousin, the air plane, afford both fun and function. Helicopters for fun and for business provide advantages over terrestrial vehicles, and can earn their keep in money saved. There are many business uses for helicopters for sale, and just as many leisure activities to pursue with a helicopter.

Helicopters can increase the efficiency of sales for companies with wide geographic sales territo...

The Lockheed P -38 Lightning

2008-01-16T22:03:09+08:00

The first P-38 Lightning flew in 1939, but it was not until 1941 that full scale production was started. When the USAAF first accepted delivery, the Lightning was the fastest fighter in the Air Corps. Over the years of its production, there were over a dozen model variants built. The changes were mainly in armament or increased load-carrying capacity. The P-38L was the most built model, 3923 in all. The final variants of the Lightning design, the F-4 and F-5 were photo-reconnaissance aircraft an...

Pan American Airways - From Auckland to Khartoum

2008-01-16T22:03:09+08:00

Pan Am's "Pacific Clipper" was just a few hours out of Auckland, New Zealand when the Radio Operator picked up the transmission of the news that Pearl Harbor had been attacked and that the USA was at war. It was Dec, 1941 and the Captain, Robert Ford, quickly realized that they would not be able to return via the route they had came over the South Pacific. It took a week before the US Embassy in Auckland gave them the word that the Pacific Clipper was to return the long way, westbound around the...

Aviation - A Brief History

2008-01-16T22:03:08+08:00

Humans' desire to fly probably dates back to prehistoric man. Some people think human flight starting with the airplane in the 1900s. But in fact, people had already been soaring for about 120 years. Around the 9th century the Muslim Moors Armen Firman and Abbas Qasim Ibn Firnas are the first to have been known to have built and flown gliders.

After visiting China, Marco Polo brought back stories of human-carrying kites. These kites would stay aloft by the wind's power, but the kites were tet...

The Yakovlev Yak -9

2008-01-16T22:03:05+08:00

The Yak-9 and its variants were the final development of a line of propeller driven Russian fighters that started with the Yak-1. It was the mainstay of the Soviet Air Force in the middle and late years of WWII and was produced in greater numbers than any other Soviet fighters. By the middle of 1944 there were more Yak-9s in service than all other Soviet fighters combined. Production of the Yak-9 continued into 1947 and a staggering total of 16,769 were built.

Like other Russian fighters, it ...

Did You Know That Porsche Once Built Airplanes And Tanks

2008-01-16T22:03:04+08:00

Okay, not really but the founder of Porsche, Ferdinand Porsche, was an important developer in the engineering of airplanes and race cars plus in tank building for the Wehrmacht.

Many people do not realize what a prolific inventor this man was, he had over one thousand patents issued! Early in his automotive engineering career Ferdinand was chief engineer for none other than Mercedes Benz, after being dismissed for disagreeing with their engineering methods he started his own engineering firm ...

The P -47 Thunderbolt Fighter/Bomber

2008-01-16T22:03:03+08:00

Of all the aircraft built by Republic in WWII, the P-47 Thunderbolt was the most famous. The P-47 first flew in 1941. It had been designed as a large (for that time), high performance fighter/bomber and was powered by the large Pratt and Whitney turbo-charged R-2800 Double Wasp engine. This gave the P-47 excellent performance and a large load-carrying capability. The US Army Air Corps started flying it in the European Theatre soon after first deliveries were accepted in June 1942.

Even though...

Flight History Of Aeroplanes And Steps Of Flying

2008-01-16T22:03:01+08:00

The invention of flight by the Wright brothers has brought about a revolution in the world. The concept of speed and distance started changing. The impossible started looking possible. The perfect combination of strength, weight, and carrying capacity has been experimented and finally achieved.

The airplanes were previously called Kites?They did not have much power and were supplied with a lot of wing area. The streamlined aircrafts came up just before the World War I. they has cleaner aerody...

The B -52H Stratofortress

2008-01-16T22:03:00+08:00

The B-52 was first designed as a turboprop driven version of the B-36 in 1948, but it never got off the drawing board. It was not until 1951 that the B-52A was cleared for limited production, in fact only three were built. It went through numerous design and equipment modifications with the B-52H being the final model. A total of 744 B-52's of all types have been built.

The crew of the B-52H was originally six. The pilot and co-pilot sat side-by-side on the upper flight deck, with the pilot o...

The F -86 Sabre Jet Fighter

2008-01-16T22:02:59+08:00

Of all the aircraft I worked on while in the Air Force my favorite was the F-86 Sabre Jet. It was an easy aircraft to work on, and the Canadair Sabre 6, the RCAF version of the F-86, was extremely rugged, requiring less maintenance than most aircraft of its type. In over three years while based in France, I never heard a derogatory word about the F-86 from any of our squadron pilots when they returned from their scrambles.

The 1950s were a decade of dynamic activity within the Royal Canadian ...

The P -40 and the Flying Tigers

2008-01-16T22:02:56+08:00

In late 1941 the Japanese Zero fighter was gaining an aura of invincibility, winning a high percentage of its battles. It was a good aircraft, but it did have its drawbacks, one of, which were its slower speeds and its inability to withstand high-speed dives. It won most of its fights with it's outstanding agility at low speeds and altitudes.

Claire Lee Chennault was a former colonel who had retired from the U.S. Army Air Corps because his theories on tactics were so at odds with the fiercely...

The Bell P -39 Airacobra

2008-01-16T22:02:55+08:00

Made by Bell Aircraft Corporation, the P-39 Airacobra was produced from 1939 until 1944 and it might be called the most controversial US fighter plane of WWII. It was embraced heartily by the Soviets and equally shunned by both the USAAC and the RAF; it was hounded by myths and falsehoods that added to the controversy to this day.

It was off to an auspicious start when the first unit, the XP-39 was unveiled at Wright Field on April 6, 1939 to the gasps and ahs of the assembled dignitaries. On...