Aviation

Damsel got this nice photo of a vintage Beech 18 as it flew overhead today. She says that the sky was filled with nice wispy clouds all day and it was pretty nice. Click on the image for the 800×600 pixel image.

For me, the B-18 is a nostalgic symbol of my days in Naval Aviation. I flew co-pilot in one of these for a former Blue Angel pilot who invited several sailors to join him on a currency flight. Later in my (short) Navy career, I maintained avionics on these and other reciprocating (piston) engine airplanes and helicopters. The military designation for the Beech 18 is C-45.

Wikipedia has this and more about this venerable aircraft.

The Beechcraft Model 18, or “Twin Beech”, as it was better known, is a 6-11 place, twin-engine, low-wing, conventional-gear aircraft that was manufactured by the Beech Aircraft Corporation of Wichita, Kansas. This model saw service during and after World War II in a number of versions including the United States Army Air Forces C-45 Expeditor, AT-7 Navigator, AT-11 Kansan, and for the United States Navy, UC-45J Navigator and the SNB-1 Kansan. An estimated aggregate total time in service for the aircraft time is in excess of 20,000,000 hours of flight time.

The Beech 18 is the most modified US-certified aircraft design, with over 200 FAA approved Supplemental Type Certificates on record for the aircraft.

The aircraft uses have included aerial spraying, sterile bug release, fish seeding, dry ice cloud seeding, aerial fire fighting, airborne mail pick up and drop, ambulance service, numerous movie productions, skydiving, freight, gun and drug smuggling, engine test bed, skywriting and banner tow. A number of Model 18s were operated as passenger aircraft, The Model 18 was also the first aircraft flown by Philippine Airlines, Asia’s first and oldest airline. Many are now in private hands as highly prized collectibles.

Today, we had errands – we took the dog to the groomer, shopped for groceries (in two stores), bought some DVDs and visited the Western Museum of Flight. While I was there, I got into the cockpit of an F5 fighter jet and snapped this image of the instrument panel. You can see my feet on the rudder pedals at the bottom of the picture (click to enlarge).

I copied this blurb from the museum’s website:

The Western Museum of Flight is a non-profit, educational institution dedicated to preserving and displaying aircraft history and artifacts of Southern California’s aviation heritage. The Air Museum’s educational programs give children an opportunity to see and touch the airplanes that made aviation history. The Air Museum offers an inside look at completed and in-progress aircraft restoration projects. The Western Museum of Flight’s collection includes numerous Warbirds, aircraft and target drones, piston and jet aircraft engines, aircraft components, aircraft ejection seats, World War II instruments, aircrew accessories, and an extensive model aircraft collection.

I took this close-up of the Goodyear Airship ‘Spirit of America‘ during a pass almost directly over the house this past weekend.

You can see the twin 210 horsepower engine nacelles configured as pushers. Behind the props are a pair of scoops which collect some of the propwash to direct airflow to ballonets which assist airship trim and control. The gondola is about 22¾ feet long and can hold a pilot and six passengers.

Coincidentally, the light display had the word ‘ON’ displayed which looks like it’s saying ‘NO’ from this angle.