Courtesy of PublicResource.org comes this fascinating 1943 US War Department training film which teaches basic ground, take-off, and landing techniques for pilots learning to fly the P-47 Thunderbolt:
Demonstrates procedures in flying the P-47. Includes preflight and cockpit checks, warm-up, taxiing, cruising, banking, stalling, speeds for approaches, turns, and landings. Also shows how to conduct postflight checks. War Department. Army Air Forces.
Photo: looking thru my lens
Here's an interesting bit of contemporary aviation history... The "First Responder" F-15A (Airframe 77-0109) -- the first American warplane to arrive on scene in the skies of Manhattan on the morning of September 11, 2001 -- will soon be on display at the Pacific Coast Air Museum in Santa Rosa, California.
From the San Francisco Chronicle:
The first American fighter jet to respond to the attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, has been given to the Pacific Coast Air Museum in Santa Rosa, where it will be the centerpiece of the West Coast's first major exhibition about the attacks.
The U.S. Air Force F-15 Eagle, which was retired in 2006, was awarded to the nonprofit museum by the National Museum of the United States Air Force.
[...]
The F-15 was part of the 101st Fighter Squadron, 102nd Fighter Wing, at Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts when it was directed to Manhattan that fateful day to intercept the hijacked airliner.
UPDATE: December 16, 2010:
It arrived!
Image: Ken Middleton
This story is not new, per se; it involves an American Liberty Ship that sank in shallow water off the coast of England during World War II while carrying 7,000 tons of explosives.
But it's a story that remains extremely current, because that ship, the SS Richard Montgomery, still rests in the very spot where it sank, with 1,400 tons of explosives still in its cargo holds. The ship remains under very close supervision, because to this day the British are deathly afraid that the wreck might explode. And rightly so; if the Montgomery were to go boom, it would unleash a blast with the force of a small nuclear weapon, throwing water 10,000 feet into the air and damaging buildings up to 2 miles away.
What went wrong? Britain's Maritime and Coastguard Agency summarizes:
In August 1944 the ship was loaded with a cargo of some 7000 tons of munitions and joined convoy HX-301 bound for the UK and then on to Cherbourg. On arrival in the Thames Estuary, the vessel was directed to anchor in the Great Nore anchorage off Sheerness. The ship was to await the formation of convoy to continue the journey across the Channel. However, on the 20 August 1944, she dragged her anchor in the shallow water and grounded on a sandbank running east from the Isle of Grain approximately 250m north of the Medway Approach Channel.
The vessel grounded amidships on the crest of the sandbank and intensive efforts began to unload her in order to lighten the vessel so that she could be refloated and also to save the cargo of munitions that were vital for the Allies post-D-Day advancement. Unfortunately, by the next day, a crack appeared in the hull and the forward end began to flood. The salvage effort continued until the 25 September, by which time approximately half the cargo had been successfully removed. The salvage effort had to be abandoned when the vessel finally flooded completely.
The wreck of the SS RICHARD MONTGOMERY remains on the sandbank where she sank. The wreck lies across the tide close to the Medway Approach Channel and her masts are clearly visible above the water at all states of the tide. There are still approximately 1,400 tons of explosives contained within the forward holds.
Today the Montgomery sits at the center of a prohibited zone, ringed by warning buoys, and under constant surveillance.
There's no plan to dispose of the wreck, or its cargo, apart from keeping fingers crossed. This video provides a good tour of the wreck site, and a graphic demonstration of what may happen if things go awry:
IMAGES: Ian Boyle,
Last week, a pair of F-35B Joint Strike Fighters flew in formation for the very first time. The F-35B is the STOVL version of the aircraft, which means it can take-off and land vertically (much like the famous Harrier jump-jet) using a system of ducts and pivoting nozzles that redirect the engines' thrust downward.
It's hard to believe, but this is a picture of the first formation flight by two F-35Bs -- taken on Nov. 10, 29 months after the first flight of the STOVL variant. Aircraft BF-1 and BF-3 were photographed near the NAS Patuxent River test center on a flight to evaluate the close-proximity handling qualities of the F-35B.
But what about that vertical take-off and landing sequence? That's even more fantastic to watch, particularly for anyone who has a soft spot for The Transformers:
IMAGE: Lockheed-Martin
In northeast Ohio, there's a sizable collection of vintage aircraft rotting away in an overgrown meadow. Amassed by an obsessed aircraft enthusiast over the course of several decades -- mostly during the 1950s and 1960s -- the collection is familiar to many vintage warbird enthusiasts, but less well-known to the general public.
Reader Michael Wendell contacted Telstar Logistics recently to share his experiences visiting the site, and to share a gorgeous video he took on the property. Describing his interaction with Walter, the owner of the collection, Michael writes:
He may be a bit of a hoarder. While I didn’t see inside their house, I did see that junk seemed to be stacked high against every window. During our discussion he told me that the Federal government changed the rules regarding surplus airplane purchases because of him, tightening them down to the point that he hasn’t purchased a plane since the 1970’s. Since then he’s switched to literature about airplanes, other magazines and books, and all kinds of toys and dolls. In addition to his home, which is full, he has a few large storage units or a barn or something which is full. He was saying that he needs to spend some time sorting it all out, and that he plans to do that, but it sounded like very wishful thinking to me. He’s currently in his mid-eighties, and explained that his heart isn’t very good.
He spoke at length about the P-51, and how it would torque right over on throttle-up, killing lots of young pilots, including many who bought the planes as surplus after the war. He talked about religion and politics a little; I just listened and he seemed to enjoy it. Eventually, he showed me around, but it was getting hot and he was getting tired.
In addition to the airplanes shown clearly in the videos, there’s a B-36 in pieces and some other huge tanker, both forming the north wall of the property. There are sheds and sheds of parts and pieces, and every airframe is stuffed to the gills with... more stuff. Everything is suffering from the harsh lake-effect snows in the area and 30+ years of exposure.
Here's Michael's video. It's lovely and haunting:
Images: From top, a Vought F7U Cutlass, a North American B-25 Mitchell, and a Douglas Skyraider. Screen grabs via Michael Wendell.
Dazzle camouflage was a technique used during World War I to protect warships from enemy submarines. The goal was not to hide the ships per se, but to break up the vessels' lines and contours to make them harder to see clearly -- and target.
As the Wikipedia summarizeth:
At first glance Dazzle seems unlikely camouflage, drawing attention to the ship rather than hiding it, but this technique was developed after the Allied Navies were unable to develop effective means to disguise ships in all weather.
Dazzle did not conceal the ship but made it difficult for the enemy to estimate its type, size, speed and heading. The idea was to disrupt the visual ragefinders used for naval artillery. Its purpose was confusion rather than concealment. An observer would find it difficult to know exactly whether the stern or the bow is in view; and it would be equally difficult to estimate whether the observed vessel is moving towards or away from the observer's position.
Replace "visual ragefinders" and "naval artillery" with "cameras" and "automotive photojournalism" in the paragraph above, and it's not hard to understand why some automakers today use dazzle camouflage to cover up new vehicle designs during real-world road tests.
These photos, however, were taken by an regular citizen who happened to be touristing in Las Vegas last summer. It certainly shows how effective dazzle can be at masking shapes and contours.
Anyone know what kind of car that is under there?
Photos: Angie Linder
UPDATE: We have a winner! Electroginge points us to an Australian photo of the same vehicle in similar camo, which allowed us to positively identify it as a 2012 Range Rover Evoque:
Our familiar friend and local neighbor, the former USS Tripoli, is getting a spa treatment.
A retired US Navy amphibious assault ship, the weary-looking ex-Tripoli now serves as a test platform for America's missile-defense program, and this week the ship was moved to San Francisco's BAE Shipyard. Daver6, the photographer who took the photos above, tells us, "It's got a few soft spots on her bottom that will be cut out and replaced, then a bottom paint job."
CAMEO BONUS: Notice that the tugboat hard at work on the port side of the ex-Tripoli is the high-tech tractor tug Marshall Foss. Telstar Logistics explored the Marshall Foss in 2008, so you can explore it too.
One of the benefits of having a brand extension who is three years-old is that it affords us the opportunity to experience various San Francisco attractions that we might otherwise dismiss as being too touristy for any self-respecting local.
So that explains why we went for a Duck Tour.
Properly speaking, of course, it was a DUKW tour. And as any self-respecting geek can tell you, a DUKW was a World War II amphibious vehicle that played an important role during the D-Day invasion of Normandy in 1944. Half General Motors truck, half boat, the DUKW proved to be a very useful vehicle either on land or in the water. Here's one coming ashore during the invasion:
Capable of carrying 2.5 tons of cargo at up to 45 mph on land, and then driving into the wet to carry same at 6 mph over water -- or vice-versa -- the DUKW was a classic wartime case study in clever ingenuity and rugged simplicity, and more than 21,000 of them were built during the war. As the Wikipedia summarizeth:
The DUKW (popularly pronounced "duck") is a six-wheel-drive amphibious truck that was designed by a partnership under military auspicies of Stephens & Stephens and General Motors Corporation during World War II for transporting goods and troops over land and water and for use approaching and crossing beaches in amphibious attacks. Designed to last only long enough to meet the demands of combat, productionized Ducks, a modification of the 2-ton capacity "duece" trucks used by the US military in WWII, were later used as tourist craft in marine environments.
From a design standpoint, amphibious vehicles are innately fascinating. (See also: The Amphicar.) This is because amphibians are, by definition, all about the awkward compromises created when one vehicle is asked to perform two fundamentally opposing tasks: driving and swimming.
As Roderick Stephens, a naval architect who helped design the DUKW, once quipped, “She’s better in water than any truck, and she’ll beat any boat on a highway.” The three year-old grasped the improbablitiy of this instantly: "It's a TRUCK???" she squealed. "And a BOAT???" Then she practically dragged us to the ticket booth.
If only as a mechanical curiosity, the opportunity to go for a drive and a swim in a surviving DUKW was a no-brainer. Throw in the excitement of hearing a lot of bad jokes about San Francisco told for the benefit of a Duckload of out-of-towners, and who could possibly resist?
That's pretty much how we ended up going for a ride in the "Peking Duck," a 1944 DUKW operated by Bay Quackers. Our DUKW was remarkably intact considering both its age and the US Coast Guard's passenger safety requirements. Apart from an overhead canopy, a proper windshield, and the addition of bus-like seating, the vehicle was, from a historical perspective, pretty straight.
We motored from San Francisisco's Fisherman's Wharf to the boat ramp at China Basin -- a distance of about 4 miles -- via North Beach, Chinatown, and Union Square. When we reached the water, we simply drove into the Bay without the slightest bit of dramatic fanfare or mechanical clunkiness. The DUKW may be a mutant hybrid of a truck and a boat, but making the transition from land to sea (or sea to land) is one of the things it was designed to do best, and it shows. Smooooove...
Once in the water, we sailed (drove?) over to McCovey Cove, where the San Francisco Giants were in the process of trouncing the San Diego Padres in the last game of the 2010 National League West playoffs. (Go Giants!)
Circling back, the DUKW waddled effortlessly out of the water, and then we drove back to Fisherman's Wharf via the Embarcadero. The three year-old was smiling from ear-to-ear, and frankly, so was everyone else. A TRUCK that turns into a BOAT??? On a sunny day in San Francisco? What's not to like about that?
Here are more photos from our surf-and-turf adventure. Set it on full-screen and have a fun trip:
Images: Telstar Logistics
Back in 2007, when Telstar Logistics got an up-close look at a World War II-era Boeing B-29 Superfortress, we wrote:
As a work of industrial design, the most remarkable thing about the B-29 was probably its fabulous glazed nose, which still manages to look futuristic in a Buck Rodgers sort of way.
Today the Wall Street Journal goes a giant step further, in a front-page profile of FiFi, a fully restored and flyable B-29 operated by the Texas-based Commemorative Air Force. The article is great if only for the spectacular images (including the ones shown above) taken from the B-29's gorgeous nose as the pane flew over Midland, Texas.
Yet as the Journal reports, restoring a Superfort is one thng, but keeping it in the air turns out to be a very expensive proposition:
Fifi can bring along nine paying passengers for a 30 minute ride ($995 to ride up front, $595 for a back seat) in addition to the six CAF crew members—including two whose sole job is to scan the wings and engines for smoke or fire.
Mr. Agather said the CAF took in $45,000 to $50,000 for rides aboard Fifi at last weekend's annual Airsho here in Midland. Dave Miller, Fifi's crew chief, says it costs roughly $9,000 an hour to operate the plane. In November, Fifi will relocate to her new home at an airport in suburban Dallas.
From there, the plane will go to selected air shows during the summer and fall, and be stored inside a hangar to prevent weather damage at other times. The bomber will also continue to give rides to paying customers.
Images: Aerial photos, The Wall Street Journal. Exterior, Telstar Logistics
We're not sure whether to be thrilled or horrified by this news from Hollywood.
BUT before you read on, we encourage you to put on your headphones and start listening to this.
Still with us? Feeling in the mood? Now...
David Ellison, the 27 year-old son of Oracle CEO (and avation geek) Larry Ellison, wants to produce a sequel to "Top Gun," the 1986 film that starred Tom Cruise in a (arguably homoerotic) Cold War period piece about F-14 Tomcat pilots serving aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise.
Word on the street that Ellison wants to put the whole band squadron back together, with overtures made to Tom Cruise, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and director Tony Scott to participate in the project.
New York Magazine's Vulture blog tells us:
But why the move to make a sequel now, all of a sudden? We’re told that a big part of the reason is the influence of David Ellison, the 27-year-old son of Oracle Corp. founder — and world’s sixth-richest man — Larry Ellison. Despite being only 3 years old when Top Gun first strafed theaters, Ellison clearly became a big fan of the film on VHS, and went on to become both an aerobatic pilot and instrument-rated commercial pilot before attending USC's film school and then launching his own production company, Skydance. His first production was the 2006 World War I drama Flyboys, in which he also starred. It bombed, but Ellison didn’t lose his taste for the movie business: Just this August, Ellison the Younger left his Skydance offices (located at Santa Monica Municipal Airport, where Ellison still keeps several small aircraft), swung by JPMorganChase, and raised $350 million to co-finance much of Paramount’s slate of films — the first of which will be … wait for it … Mission: Impossible 4, starring Tom Cruise.
Roll film:
(Click to enlarge)
This chilling photo sequence shows what happena when a Mk-48 torpedo strikes a target -- in this case, the former HMAS Torrens, a decomissioned Australian destroyer.
Here's the video version:
Defense Industry Daily, says the Mk-48 is "the standard heavyweight torpedo used by the US military."
The Mk-48 is a huge 533mm torpedo (19 feet long, 3,500+ pounds) with advanced homing, wire guidance capabilities, and devastating consequences when its 300kg warhead hits a target. It is designed to kill both fast, deep-diving nuclear submarines and high performance surface ships, and is carried by US Navy and Royal Australian Navy submarines.
The Mk-48 is an expensive torpedo too: DID says each one goes for $2 million, rising to $3 million with various upgrades factored in.
Image: Wikipedia Commons
As the saying goes, give an infinite number of monkeys an infinite number of typewriters and an infinite amount of time, and eventually one of them might just write Hamlet. By the same token, give Telstar Logistics a digital camera, six F-18 Hornets, and about ten years of San Francisco Fleet Weeks, and eventually we'll snap a presentable photograph of the Blue Angels.
Indeed, after years of failure, we finally managed to take some satisfying photos of the Angels as they zoomed just a few hundred feet above our heads.
Moreover, from our vantage point, and against a cloudless blue sky, we couldn't help but notice that a few of our photos made the F-18s look decidedly insectoid. Hornet-like, even:
As always, our thanks go out to the U.S. Navy for an excellent airshow.
Images: Blue Angels by Telstar Logistics
