Aviation

20th Anniversary of the B2 Spirit Rollout

Out of the Black and into the Blue

B2 Spirit in flight over Edwards Air Force Base

On July 17, 1989 at Edwards Air Force Base, Northrop and the United States Air Force rolled out this magnificent aircraft. I watched the closed circuit TV coverage from the media center at Northrop Electro-Mechanical Division in Anaheim, California.

Damsel and I later had the privilege to visit the B2 production facility in Palmdale for a group tour and a fly-by. It was spectacular.

Photo taken by The Flying Kiwi at the 2005 Air Show at Edwards Air Force Base. Be sure and visit the link for more photos from the air show. Click image to enlarge.

Buy a Flying Car on eBay

aerocar.jpgReally – and for only 3½ million bucks.

But it’s got provenance. Flown in by Raul Castro, being one of it’s notable (?) historical claims.

I believe that I know the person selling this car on eBay. Years ago, I worked in the same laboratory with Carl, whose wife, Marilyn ran a car parts business out of their garage. In connection with the garage operation, they collected a few rare and interesting vehicles, such as the Italian Isetta, among others. I lost touch with them before they acquired the Aerocar in 1981.

I taught Carl to fly in the 1970’s and used to spend a lot of time with them at that time. Maybe I’ll register and bid on the car just to open that nostalgic door.

Check out this Aerocar video.

I found a pretty good article about this on wired.com. Here’s an excerpt from the December, 2008 article:

Just six Aerocars were ever built, and they did fly when they were built. Marilyn Felling bought Aerocar No. 2 more than 25 years ago, but never restored it. She insists it has been examined by a mechanic and could be made airworthy in a few hours. Of course, N103D hasn’t flown since the Ford Administration, so that may be optimistic.

Still — how cool would it be to own a flying car that’ll do 60 mph on the highway and 110 in the air? Just think of the joy you’d feel. And if you can’t think of enough good reasons to own it, the folks at aerocarforsale.com have spelled them out for you.

You can pick one up “for inclusion in your private collection.” Or if you’re feeling philanthropic, buy one “for a donation to your favorite museum.” Maybe your kids or grandkids would appreciate it “as a legacy for the heirs of your estate. “Our favorite is the promise of “a 1031 property exchange,” though we have no idea what that means.

Despite all those perfectly rational benefits, after two years the Aerocar still hasn’t attracted a buyer and Mrs. Felling turned to eBay. We know gas is getting cheaper, but we’re not so sure about her decision to keep the “Buy it now” option at her original price of $3.5 million. There’s a “Best offer” option, but as of Monday morning, no one had made one.

Cockpit of the Airbus A380 – Interactive Panorama

a380-cockpit.jpg

A colleague sent me this email today:

As you move your cursor you can see the whole cockpit from top to bottom. You can even zoom on the dash [sic – instrument panel is the term]. Most panoramas are of landscapes. This 360-degree panorama is unlike any other – It’s a picture of an Airbus A380’s cockpit. Be sure to go to full screen.

CLICK HERE >> INSIDE THE COCKPIT OF THE AIRBUS A380

Panorama photographs are becoming increasingly popular on the Net. That’s because software is making it easier than ever to create them. The Airbus A380 is the largest passenger airliner in the world. It can seat more than 850 people. Only a couple of the
planes are in service. So, you’ll probably have to wait for your first ride. Until then, check out its state-of-the-art controls, top, bottom and all around.

After a quick look, I had to force myself to go back to work and defer the frustrated ex-pilot geekery until this evening.

Click in the link or the screenshot above to go to the website.

The Most Beautiful Aircraft Ever Flown

As I made my rounds through reading the blogs today, I ran across a post that made a connection to the SR-71, which got me to look for this favorite picture of that magnificent aircraft.

As for the post (hat tip to The Liberty Sphere), it was not really about the SR-71, but about a speech made by a former pilot of one of these. These patriotic words of Brian Shul are partially listed at the Bloviating Zeppelin who has a very nice article and picture of Shul: Good Morning Monday: A Speech We NEED To Remember.

sr71.jpg

If you want to see this bird full-sized, click on the image above.

Packin’ Heat for Catalina Island

This year for our trip to Catalina Island, we took a flight to the island on Island Express Helicopters, just as we did last year. I took some video of the last trip that you can see at this link. Damsel took some stills this year which I stitched together in the composite below – the helicopter arrival at the helipad – the departure over Los Angeles Harbor – Passing Avalon Bay – on the pad at Pebbly Beach.

Catalina by air

However, we did something this year that we have never done before – we took firearms. I made a couple of calls to Island Express and Catalina Express (the boat coming back) to inquire about the policies for bringing firearms for non-CCW private citizens. (We have the Utah CCW but the idiots in the California Legislature deem that to be worthless here).

The helicopter folks told us to declare the firearms to the attendant who would ensure that they were packed in the baggage compartment. We were instructed to pack the ammo in separate luggage.

The boat people said to present the weapons to the Captain of the vessel before boarding and the same admonition for packing ammo as before.

Since we didn’t want to take the guns with us during the day while we were touring and dining, we had the hotel clerk lock them in a safe compartment for which I was presented the only key.

We packed the guns (S&W 686 and 442) in their original cases with padlocks. To avoid blatantly carrying gun cases in the terminals and around the streets of Avalon, I packed both cases in a paper supermarket shopping bag which I kept with me at all times until surrendering to the transportation agents.

Lessons learned – we can get both revolvers into a single case since the 442 is very small and the 686 has a short barrel. The safe boxes do not have any padding, so there was metal-to-metal contact during storage and handling of the box. Next time we will put the guns in a pouch or padded gun case when we put them into the safe.

Airplane and Helicopter Pilots

BlackhawkThis past weekend, we celebrated Armed Forces Day by visiting some of our military folks who brought some static displays and military equipment to show off to the public. The Army brought this UH-60 Blackhawk for all to sit in, touch, photograph and just plain gawk.

While I gawked, I remembered something that a 70’s news anchor, Harry Reasoner, said when he compared airplane and helicopter pilots with the following statements:

The thing is, helicopters are different from planes. An airplane by its nature wants to fly, and if not interfered with too strongly by unusual events or by a deliberately incompetent pilot, it will fly.

A helicopter does not want to fly. It is maintained in the air by a variety of forces and controls working in opposition to each other, and if there is any disturbance in this delicate balance the helicopter stops flying, immediately and disastrously. There is no such thing as a gliding helicopter.

That is why being a helicopter pilot is so different from being an airplane pilot, and why, in generality, airplane pilots are open, clear-eyed, buoyant extroverts and helicopter pilots are brooders, introspective anticipators of trouble. They know if something bad has not happened, it is about to.

– – Commentary by Harry Reasoner, February 16, 1971

As you may or may not know, I am a pilot – I’m rated in both airplanes and helicopters. While I agree with Mr. Reasoner’s basic corollary, I can see that it only applies to a pilot while flying a particular aircraft type.

For example, while flying airplanes under visual conditions, I do a little drill by identifying potential emergency landing sites around the airplane – an alert, but mostly casual drill. But, when piloting a helicopter, I find myself making slight course changes in order to be in a position to autorotate to a landing site. Sort of like a stepping-stone approach to navigation. It’s a bit more intense then the airplane drill.

When not flying, I like to think that I can be as extroverted or introspective as conditions warrant.