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 […]
Theresa Eaman set the mood at SUN ‘n FUN’s Victory’s Arsenal Theater
Part of the attraction of major aviation events like SUN ‘n FUN, which ran from April 10-15, 2018, is the sensory smorgasbord of sights and sounds that can only be fully appreciated in person. Recordings just aren’t the same as the real deal. If the harmonic purr of a P-38 Lightning warbird is music to your […]
Miss Veedol’s victory spanned the Pacific
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 […]