Bill Lancaster The Final Verdict by Ralph Barker First published in 1969, re-released by Pen & Sword Aviation in 2015. If you’re ever looking for a story to turn into an aviation blockbuster, you could do a lot worse than the life of Bill Lancaster. His memory is a ready-made movie script, complete with dangerous flights and nail-biting escapes, glowing public adulation and depression-era destitution; … Continue reading Anomaly on the horizon
On a breezy Paris afternoon in 1901, more than two years before the Wright Brothers even invented the airplane, the only real contender anywhere set out to claim aviation’s first great prize. That visionary aviator was Brazilian emigré Alberto Santos-Dumont, and his goal was the 100,000 franc Deutsch Prize. When people ask you who invented the airship, please don’t say ‘von Zeppelin’. The idea of … Continue reading Santos-Dumont
I came across an amazing image when I was preparing an earlier post, Without A Trace. Even then, I knew I wouldn’t be able to let it rest with a 20 word caption. It was of a Mosquito – a truly great aircraft that is familiar fare for airscape. But much as I’ve studied the DH98 – the ‘Wooden Wonder’; the ‘Timber Terror’ – I’d … Continue reading Bang!
It’s amazing what can turn up just off the beaten track. . . In this case, the beaten track is known as Transmitter Road, Eielson Air Force Base, near Fairbanks – “The Golden Heart” of Alaska. (Remember that soubriquet, it’ll come up again.) And while it won’t amaze everyone, what’s just off that beaten track is this: Deep in rumour Yes, it’s a B-29. … Continue reading A real lady
With the first-ever Boeing 727 (727-22, serial N7001U, c/n 18293/1) making its last-ever flight from restoration at Paine Field to a permanent home at the Museum of Flight, now seems like a fitting time to look back at one of the coolest airliners ever built. I recently read a presentation called Web Design: The First 100 Years, which proposed that most of what we … Continue reading 727 departures
This is just a short post to tide you over (i.e. buy me extra time) while I research and write some bigger stories I’m working on. I also wanted to bring a great short film to your attention – one that should be required viewing for anyone with an interest in Australia’s aviation history. Big Sky Country Aircraft At Work was part of a Transport in … Continue reading Time Flies
Now, I dislike greedy, counter-productive litigation as much as the next person (especially if the next person happens to be X-Plane’s Austin Meyer), and I’ve always been somewhat troubled by the Wright Brothers’ aggressive patent actions around “their invention” of the aileron. So I was very intrigued to find the following article in the November 4th, 1911 issue of Flight magazine. . . … Continue reading Roll models
Back in March 2014 (yeah, where has THAT time gone??) I attended the Centenary of the Royal Australian Air Force at Point Cook, armed with nothing more than my iPhone. Surprisingly for some, it was a calculated move. I knew I’d be frustrated, then disappointed, by the performance of my entry-level DSLR – especially the tendency of my zoom lens to go ‘soft’ in the … Continue reading The airshow
As Ron Rapp commented after Part One of this feature, supersonic business jets work to entirely different economics than airliners. For private flights, the main driver is time saving and the enhanced productivity that comes with it. There’s no pressure to share the cost of a flight between as many passengers as possible, or to keep the ticket price competitive at the cost of catering and … Continue reading Sound barriers
It was always a matter of “when, not if”, according to Aerion Chairman Robert Bass. He was speaking after the September 2014 announcement that Airbus Group was staking significant resources in the development of his Aerion AS2 supersonic business jet. That backing, and a firm $2.4 billion order for 20 aircraft by FlexJet LLC certainly gives the high speed limousine a real air of inevitability. … Continue reading Fast company
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