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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
Hundreds of people gathered to be with Dick Cole at SUN ‘n FUN 2018 in Lakeland, Florida, on April 14, 2018.
Cole has earned their acclaim in so many ways. At 102 years of age, his wise and experienced perspective should be sufficient to garner respect from the rest of us. Cole is a World War II veteran — another badge of honor that deserves our thanks. And he is one of the select group of men known as the Doolittle Raiders who shocked the Japanese empire and rallied American spirits with a daring bombing mission over Tokyo in April 1942.
Need more reasons to celebrate Dick Cole? He is the last living member of the Doolittle Raiders. And, by the way, as a young lieutenant, Cole was copilot for the raid’s leader, Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle. [Read more…]
If everything aeronautical seemed possible in the heady post-war jet age, some aircraft designs found where the limitations were.
The Convair F2Y Sea Dart was one of four delta-wing jets in design or production by that San Diego company in the 1950s. Convair embraced the delta planform as its ticket to supersonic performance. [Read more…]
SUN ‘n FUN 2018 hosted a rare airlift aircraft that resonates with veterans of the war in Southeast Asia. It’s a deHavilland CV-2 Caribou.
If airlifters, those classic carriers of cargo and combat troops, sometimes get overshadowed by the fighters and bombers, that does not detract from the pivotal significance of the transport mission to the success of military operations. [Read more…]
