Long before entrepreneurs launched cars into space, pilots of the 1920s and 1930s were beholden to people of wealth who could sponsor record flights or offer cash prizes for the first intrepid aviator to achieve a specific milestone flight. Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herndon teamed up in an effort to be the first to span […]
Kodachrome captured World War II in color
That color stability has been of vital value to researchers and anyone pursuing color imagery dating back to before World War II.
Boeing P-12, F4B refined the art of American biplane fighters
The decade of the 1920s was a transitional time for American military aircraft design and construction. Early fighters of the era, though better than the machines of the recently concluded Great War, were hardly revolutionary. They began employing welded steel tube fuselages, a design advancement proven in combat with Fokker fighters flown by German airmen. […]
No pilot? No problem!
An age-old component of aviation has been the pilot-in-the-loop. A pilot brings sophisticated human faculties to bear in solving problems of flight and making judgments on proper actions. But sometimes, the presence of a pilot can be detrimental — to the pilot. If an aircraft is to be subjected to dangers ranging from gun and […]
Video: Lan Roberts Sky Circus circa 1970
In the early fall of 1970, Seattle radio personality Lan Roberts and radio station KOL presented the Lan Roberts Sky Circus air show at the now-defunct Issaquah Skyport. These rare vintage 8mm movies – from the Airailimages YouTube channel – captured the day, starting with a couple passes by radio-controlled model airplanes followed by full-size […]
Game-changing Fokkers served on both sides of the Atlantic
When Anthony Fokker’s team introduced the futuristic Fokker D.VII biplane fighter to Germany in 1918, its welded steel tube fuselage and wings with less external bracing and rigging were a game-changer. Clocking speeds as high as 124 miles an hour, the D.VII was bested in that regard by the contemporary British S.E.5 and French SPAD […]
The art of naming aircraft
Aircraft manufacturers and users have a penchant for picking names for their machines. Sometimes, a name is so good or so universally associated with a manufacturer that it gets recycled on a new design. The Chance Vought company’s first Corsair was in 1926. It was an observation biplane, the O2U, supplanted by the O3U. Fewer […]
How airplanes became aerial ambulances
If World War I showed the nations of the world how the airplane could vault over ground emplacements to strike at an enemy, the combatants also came to appreciate the efficacy of using aircraft as ambulances to surmount obstacles and save precious time flying away from the fray. During that war, U.S. Army aviation devised […]
‘Dottie Mae’ debut highlights Warbird Roundup 2017
There’s an old-hat easygoing comfort in the way the Warhawk Air Museum hosts its annual Warbird Roundup in Nampa, Idaho, every summer, but the event is far from the same each year. This year, in addition to rousing start-ups and fly-bys with the Planes of Fame Museum’s P-38, F4U, and B-25, Warbird Roundup hosted the […]