The Ogden Osprey sought a niche as a small six-place trimotor suitable as a business aircraft, a feeder, or air taxi vehicle. The 1929 stock market crash was a death knell for the new design.
Of Wings & Things
Red Hawk joins long history of jet trainers
The family tree of long-term dedicated two-seat jet trainers in the Air Force has been a story of success evidenced by the decades of training service the T-33, T-37, and T-38 provided.
Heavy metal: The Junkers armored patrol plane
The armored Junkers J.I reached frontline units toward the end of 1917 during World War I. The biplane gained affection for the rugged protection it offered its crews, who flew at low altitudes to determine the ebb and flow of the front lines of combat.
The Sea Rover: Melded metal and wood in a flying boat
The Sea Rover has been described as having good water handling traits, as well as decent flying characteristics, although its diminutive size limited its utility.
Japanese seaplanes and the second bombing of Pearl Harbor
Underwing carriage of torpedoes, bombs, or depth charges made the Kawanishi H8K1 and H8K2 lethal sub and shipping hunters. But their debut as land bombers the night of March 4, 1942, proved inauspicious when cloud cover obscured the prized target of Honolulu. The largely unheralded second attack by the Japanese on Oahu was a bust.
A monoplane and a half
Sesquiplanes enjoyed a moment in the sun as designers grappled with the robust structural truss integrity of biplanes versus the lower drag of monoplanes. Sesquiplanes, effectively a “monoplane and a half,” as described by aviation historian Joseph Juptner, used an abbreviated lower wing to enable bracing, while keeping overall span short, and reducing drag below that of a full-bore biplane.
Bittersweet end for the last B-17s in the Air Force
Radio-controlled B-17s were first used to bomb Germany, but after World War II, the Air Force found several other uses for the drones, known as QB-17, including taking radioactive samples, water ditching tests, and testing antiaircraft missiles.
Max Biegert: Runways and railroads
While chatting with the folks working on B-17 firebombers at the Mesa, Arizona, airport on a brisk winter day in 1980, someone said I needed to meet Max Biegert, the man responsible for getting the B-17F registered N17W out of a city park in Arkansas and returning it to flight as a large sprayer and air tanker. That B-17 now holds a place of honor in the Museum of Flight in Seattle.
Kinner’s bold Envoy design
A general aviation airplane ahead of its time.