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There I was at 30,000 feet
After ranting about the media I need a palate cleanser. The internet equivalent of a breath mint is a LOLcat. But I’m into airplanes, so I’ll give you a LOLbomber instead. As with the B-58 Hustler I described in a previous post, even though I was around during the B-36 bomber’s heyday I never saw one in […]
After a meeting at the Pima Air & Space Museum yesterday I introduced myself to the leader of the restoration team and asked if I could take a quick tour of his work area, normally off-limits to all but the volunteer staff who work there. He said sure, and even gave me a lift to […]
More on the Hucks starter I described in an earlier entry. One of the aircraft at the Pima Air & Space Museum, a Japanese WWII fighter, used this starting method. When I was at the museum today I took a photo of the prop spinner so you could see the boss they’d hook the Hucks […]
We volunteered again (as we did last year) to man a sag stop for a bicycle race, Sunday’s Tumacacori Century. Does “sag” stand for anything? I don’t know. We’ll be setting up tables under a big shady tree near the intersection of I-19 and the Arivaca Road, then handing out water, Gatorade, fruit, granola bars, […]
I went down to the Pima Air & Space Museum for a volunteers’ meeting and while there took some photos with my cell phone camera, feeling quite the spy. This first photo, for example, was taken inside a storage room not open to the public. It’s a Japanese Kamikaze flying bomb, and there can’t be […]
I went to the library earlier today and found the entrance area crowded with parents and small children. I wondered, for a minute, if the library was holding a fire drill, but I was able to squeeze through the kids and get inside, where I checked out a book they were holding for me. By […]
Just for fun, a Sunday morning pop quiz: which came first? Answer: the jet, in this case the Vought F7U Cutlass, which entered operational service with the US Navy in July 1951 (the prototype first flew in September 1948). The Cutlass-like Chevrolet hood ornament first appeared on 1955 model year Chevrolets. Based on everything I’ve […]
Time for another Air-Minded diary? Sure it is. This time let’s take a look at a Century Series fighter from the 1950s, the McDonnell F-101 Voodoo. There were three distinct variations of the Voodoo — a fighter-bomber, a tactical reconnaissance aircraft, and an air defense interceptor — but I’m going to concentrate on the interceptor, […]