General Aviation News

Of Wings & Things

Warbird Roundup 2018 features world-class fliers and aircraft

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Warbird Roundup 2018 brought the cream of American warbirds and pilots to Nampa, Idaho, on the weekend of Aug. 25-26 for a rousing flying display hosted by the Warhawk Air Museum.

The weekend also featured standing-room-only presentations by World War II ace Bud Anderson, while Steven Hinton gave inspiring talks, describing what it takes to modify and fly the fastest piston-engine aircraft in the world.

And the hardware — oh yeah, the hardware: Hinton flew the modified Mustang “Voodoo” on a rare appearance outside of its California home; John Maloney flew the P-47D Thunderbolt “Dottie Mae,” and a host of pilots and owners came together to put aloft a five-ship formation of Curtiss P-40 Warhawks. [Read more…]

Consolidated Coronado seaplane flew in relative obscurity

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If Consolidated’s PBY Catalina flying boats and amphibians set the tone for U.S. Navy seaplanes before and during World War II, that company’s larger four-engine PB2Y Coronado flew in relative obscurity.

Budgetary math did not favor the big Coronado; the first six PB2Y-2 models ordered by the U.S. Navy in March 1939 cost as much as 18 twin-engine PBYs.

More than 200 PB2Y-3 variants were built. Some served as patrol bombers, others underwent modification to become long-range transports. [Read more…]

The Lighter-Than-Air Army

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If the U.S. Navy and Goodyear gained icon status as operators of blimps in the United States, the U.S. Army was a big player in the interwar years.

U.S. Army lighter-than-air aircraft can be traced to reconnaissance balloons used during the Civil War by Thaddeus Lowe in support of the Union Army.

In 1921 the U.S. Army operated the semi-rigid Italian-built airship Roma, the largest semi-rigid design in the world at the time, with a length of 410′.

Buoyed by hydrogen, the Roma came to grief near its base at Langley Field, Virginia, in 1922 when the nose collapsed during high-speed flying, and the ensuing hydrogen fire gave the U.S. military the resolve to fill all of their future airships with nonflammable helium instead. [Read more…]

Vintage and vanishing military helicopters

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The use of helicopters in the U.S. Air Force predates the Air Force as a separate service.

In World War II, limited numbers of Sikorsky R-4s flew for the Army Air Forces. But with the separation of the Air Force from the Army in 1947, both branches of the military coveted helicopters to do certain jobs better than fixed-wing aircraft. [Read more…]

Yak-110 debuts at Gunfighter Skies

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The Gunfighter Skies air show at Mountain Home Air Force Base, about 50 miles southeast of Boise, Idaho, saw the triumphal air show debut of the unique Yak-110 twin-fuselage aircraft on June 3, 2018.

The Yak-110 is made from two single-engine Yak-55s joined at the wing and tail, with a jet engine added beneath the wing center section to make a unique trimotor air show aircraft. [Read more…]

A journey in the future to honor the past

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Imagine more than a squadron of Douglas C-47s winging across the Atlantic in three-ship formations, joining up with 15 more from Europe and as far away as South Africa. The armada will sweep across France 75 years after the Normandy invasion of June 6, 1944.

That dream is the goal that animates Moreno “Mo” Aguiari, executive director of the non-profit D-Day Squadron.

Mo and others from the Squadron came to SUN ‘n FUN with two of the C-47s that are scheduled to make that historic flight next year. And both of those Douglas transports are pedigreed veterans of the original Normandy landings.

This is no last-minute lark. It’s a serious venture estimated to need a lot of donations and volunteers if it is to execute its mission. [Read more…]

That’s a Standard, not a Jenny

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Popular history has a way of making icons of some aircraft and almost ignoring others.

In the case of American World War I biplane trainers, the Curtiss JN-4 and JN-6 Jenny series of biplanes are undisputed icons of their era.

But there was another American trainer of 1917-18 that all too often gets lumped in with the Jenny in well-meaning but erroneous photo identification. It is the J-1 Standard biplane.

Its general configuration bears some remarkable similarities to the Jenny, but there are also some salient differences. [Read more…]

Planes of Fame warbird show fills the sky

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The annual Planes of Fame air show at Chino, California, on May 5-6, 2018, was not your typical air show.

It was non-stop warbirds, warbirds, and warbirds. Yes, there are some good non-warbird aerobatic acts, like Sean Tucker’s Oracle team and Rob Harrison, but nowhere else can you find nearly 50 warbirds flying throughout the day in shifts representing different eras and combat operations.

It is a sensory buffet of sights and sounds, ranging from the short, brisk exhaust reports from Merlin-powered P-51 Mustangs to the melodious sound of P-38s, and the insistent roar of a pair of R-2800 engines in a Grumman F7F Tigercat as pilot Stewart Dawson carved loops in the sky over Chino. [Read more…]

Twin Beech with a twist

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You know the classic Twin Beech Model 18, right? It has twin tails, a tailwheel, and a bit of a pug nose.

That is until Pacific Airmotive took it into its Burbank shop and created a tricycle-gear, single-tail, high-forehead pointy-nose business aircraft and commuter airliner in the 1960s from this pre-war design.

Called the Tradewind Beech, one of three known to exist flew to SUN ‘n FUN 2018 from Mena, Arkansas. [Read more…]

Glacier Girl survives its own ice age

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Any P-38 Lightning fighter of World War II is a crowd-pleaser. The Lightning called “Glacier Girl” amped that enthusiasm even higher at SUN ‘n FUN 2018.

“Glacier Girl” was literally frozen in time from 1942 to 1992. Part of a flight of six brand-new P-38s and two B-17s heading to Europe to bolster American forces, the then-anonymous future “Glacier Girl” and her compatriots were forced down on the Greenland ice on July 15, 1942. The crews were rescued, but the warplanes had to be abandoned in that remote and inhospitable scene.

Bob Cardin was central to efforts to recover and restore “Glacier Girl,” and he talked about that daunting project during a Victory’s Arsenal Theater session on the corner of the Warbird ramp during this year’s SUN ‘n FUN. [Read more…]

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