The purr leading up to the whine of jet engines preparing to takeoff is evident as this F-22 Raptor gets ready to perform at an air show.
Preparing to fly a $150 million state-of-the-art fighter is not like jumping in the family SUV to head to the grocery store. You don’t just jump in, start it and drive/fly.
During an air show in 2008, Major “Max” Moga was about to pilot an F-22 Raptor on a demonstration flight. The pre-flight check list continued after Moga fired up the twin Pratt & Whitney F119-PW-100 pitch thrust vectoring turbofan engines.
Making sure that the control services are in working order and letting both engines get completely warmed up is just a bit of the common sense and preparation that goes into making sure that an aircraft like the Raptor is ready to roar down the runway. The observant ground crew watches for anything the pilot can’t see.
The F-22 is an amazing plane. It’s a shame that only 187 were ever produced. Unfortunately, cost overruns and overseas contingency operations (OIF/OEF) cut in to the budget. Still, the Raptor roars just not in as big of numbers as originally planned. Enjoy.
Max out your credit card – well, OK, a few credit cards – and buy yourself a 747-400 air frame.
If you’ve got an extra $900,000 of disposable cash, you can buy Lady Penelope.
Now, before the human trafficking police start an investigation, here’s the deal: There’s an offer on E-bay to purchase a retired Virgin Atlantic 747-400 air frame for $900,000 (the starting bid is $299,000).
During its 25 years of service in the Virgin Atlantic fleet, the plane was known as “Lady Penelope.”
The engines have been removed and the seller is ready to accept an offer and move the air frame to the buyer. The air frame is also offered in sections – fuselage, cockpit – and the remaining parts are also available for sale. Shipping or engines to power this Queen of the Skies is not included.
A rare view of one of the last Space Shuttle launches and a look back at the history of the most unique aerospace program.
We’re approaching the five-year anniversary of the completion of the final Space Shuttle mission. The video that accompanies this story was shot from the window of Southwest Flight 0921 on May 14, 2010, captures the launch from Cape Canaveral, FL., of one of the final missions.
For two decades, NASA’s Space Shuttle program once again proved that the United States could be a leader in space exploration. The first mission was launched on April 21, 1981 and the last flight touched down at Kennedy Space Center on July 21, 2011.
The first flight was a bit of a gamble and has been called “the boldest test flight in history.”
“On a long list of firsts one stunning fact stands out,” a NASA official said at the time. “It was the first time in history a new spacecraft was launched on its maiden voyage with a crew aboard.”
And John Young, who commanded that first flight that included only pilot Robert Crippen, summed it up this way: “Anyone who sits on top of the largest hydrogen-oxygen fueled system in the world; knowing they’re going to light the bottom and doesn’t get a little worried does not fully understand the situation.”
Some facts and figures of the Space Shuttle program:
The Shuttle fleet’s total mission time was 1322 days, 19 hours, 21 minutes and 23 seconds.
Shuttles participated in 135 missions, launching satellites, interplanetary probes, the Hubble Space Telescope and helped construct and service the International Space Station.
The total cost of the program was an estimated $209 billion.
The cost of each launch/mission ranged from $405 million to $1.5 billion.
Five Shuttles were built and sent into orbit around the Earth: Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour.
Tragically, two of those shuttles were lost before they could complete missions.
On Jan. 28, 1986, Challenger exploded 73 seconds after launch due to the failure of the right SRB. The incident was particularly tragic because one of the seven astronauts who died, Christa McAuliffe, was to be the first teacher in space. Hundreds of classrooms around the country witnessed the disaster on television via live coverage of the loss.
Columbia disintegrated during re-entry on Feb. 1, 2003 and all seven crew members perished. An investigation concluded that the leading edge of a wing had been punctured during launch. The heat of re-entry penetrated the wing and led to Columbia breaking up over the Southwestern United States.
Endeavour, which was built to replace Challenger, will be on display at the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, which is in its construction phase. Recently, folks in Los Angeles were treated to the only remaining flight-qualified external tank from the Space Shuttle program being ground-transported to join Endeavour and be part of the eventual display. The fuel tank was donated by NASA.
The transporting of that fuel tank will likely be one of the last times that a part of a Space Shuttle moves more than a few feet.
Discovery is displayed at the Udvar-Hazy Smithsonian Museum at Dulles. Atlantis is on display at the Kennedy Space Center
Lift off from 13R at Dallas Love Field. Note all the Southwest employees in the parking lot and open deck of the airline’s headquarters building.
I went out to Dallas Love Field last week on 17 May 2016 to catch Lone Star One, N352SW, departing on her last flight out to the desert.
She retired the evening prior from passenger service with the last revenue flight from Houston Hobby (HOU) to Dallas Love Field (DAL). She was the oldest active factory-delivered 737-300 in the Southwest fleet and the airline’s first state-themed plane, unveiled in 1990 for Southwest’s 20th anniversary in 1991. Lone Star One was always my favorite of the Southwest fleet to see and photograph. A reporter with a major Texas newspaper (I think it was the Houston Chronicle) once said “You don’t move to Texas, it moves into you.” There is a lot of affection for Lone Star One both within the Southwest family and with aviation enthusiasts across the state- many considered her the flagship of the Southwest fleet and as the first of the state planes, she was definitely the matriarch of the state plane fleet. Southwest was born an underdog in 1971 flying the “Texas Triangle” between Dallas Love Field, Houston Hobby, and San Antonio, so for many folks, the plane is a symbol of the airline’s Texas roots and humble beginnings.
Southwest’s long time advertising agency GSD&M in Austin has a relationship with the airline that goes back to its earliest days and the state themed planes were one of the results of that long fruitful relationship between the airline and the ad agency. During its nascent years when Southwest was trying to eke out its existence in an intrastate market that was dominated by Braniff International, American Airlines and Texas International, the airline quite unusually spent over 10% of its working capital on a style of advertising that was a departure from what was the norm from airlines of the day. Southwest set the tone early on with ad campaigns that projected an unconventional approach that made them unique in their early days and laid the roots for their internal culture. Lone Star One was introduced on 7 November 1990, the day after her delivery from Boeing. GSD&M hired songwriters and musicians for years to do jingles for Southwest’s TV commercials and the introduction of Lone Star One was no different with songs composed just for the Lone Star One ad campaign. There’s no questioning the song’s mushiness, but the song worked well in Texas and as anyone knows, we Texans from all persuasions get sentimental and mushy when we talk about our home state!
*Trivia: GSD&M’s main office in Austin, Texas, has long been a no-smoking facility. However, Southwest chairman emeritus Herb Kelleher is allowed to smoke to his heart’s content when visiting.
Lone Star One’s unveiling back in 1990 at Dallas Love Field. (Southwest Airlines photo)
“We staked our claim in Texas. We’ve grown together, flown together, Danced among the clouds. We owe it all to Texas Together now for 20 years. It sure does make us proud.”
“(Narrator) On this our 20th anniversary, Southwest Airlines proudly unfurls Lone Star One, a high-flying tribute to the indomitable spirit that makes Texas a true state of mind.”
“And the Lone Star is flying high! Proud and undefeated, Right where it belongs, shining in the Texas sky, The Lone Star is flying high.”
Waving the Texas flag one last time for all of us here in North Texas.
She was headed to Tucson as Southwest Flight 8500 for scrapping, so this was not just Lone Star One’s last departure but last takeoff, ever. Her first flight was 17 October 1990, delivered to Southwest on 6 November 1990. She was really lightly loaded, only needing fuel to get the crew to Tucson, and shot off 13R like a homesick angel using only half the runway of a regular passenger -300.
You can see 13R reflected on the blue part of the under fuselage. In some ways still pristine, but you see chipped paint, staining and patch doublers befitting N352SW’s age and career of intensive flying.
This was the first time I’ve had the chance to photograph an airliner heading out to its scrapping. There’s something different to see an airliner takeoff for the very last time and for that to be an aircraft as iconic as Lone Star One, it’s bittersweet. Someone once joked to me that “Texas only exists at full volume!” It’s a feeling of home that transcends the cesspool of politics in this state. I have friends who span the political spectrum and we all have a love of Texas. I started flying Southwest regularly when I was in college. Used to do the Southwest shuffle even before there was through ticketing and baggage check in. I still remember when the Rapid Rewards frequent flyer program was called the Company Club, it was based on legs flown. With the Wright Amendment in full force, I’d rack up free flights easily which was as good as gold as a student. In the early 1990s when I was in college at the University of Dallas, there was no such thing as online booking. You called up the airline and booked a flight over the phone- but if you told the agent on the other end of the line you want to fly from Dallas to anywhere else outside of the Wright Amendment perimeter state, they’d apologize and tell you that they don’t fly that route.
However, if you called the reservations number and wanted to get around the Wright Amendment, the conversation would go something like this:
“Yeah, hi, I’d like to book a flight on Southwest from Dallas Love Field to Baltimore-Washington and I already know about the Wright Amendment restrictions.”
“Oh, okay, you must be one of our regulars out of Love Field! So you know already I’ll have to set you up for two separate flights with a change over in an adjacent state then, right?”
“I always do the Southwest Shuffle with a smile, ma’am.”
And that’s how it was back in those days and they’d mail me two tickets. One from Dallas Love Field to an adjacent state (usually Oklahoma City, Little Rock, New Orleans or Houston Hobby was the most common when I was heading to the East Coast) where I’d deplane, go get my bags, and then check back in for my final destination, hence the name “Southwest Shuffle”. Thankfully in those days the security hassles we have today weren’t present. The reservations agents always tried to make sure you had enough time at the intermediate stop to pick up your luggage and check it back in again.
“Southwest 8500, contact Departure…….”
Back in 2011, a new FAA rule became effective that required setting of limits of an aircraft’s operational viability called an LOV, limits of validity. In order to prevent problems with fatigue, any aircraft past its LOV can’t fly within the FAA’s jurisdiction. That means aircraft now have an “expiration date”. Older aircraft have LOVs sooner than later, obviously. For N352SW, the mandated LOV is 75,000 cycles/100,000 hours. Late build -300s have LOVs of 85,000 cycles. (For reference, the last -300 rolled out December 1999 and went to Air New Zealand) The most recent data I can find for Lone Star One is from the end of March when it had 68317 cycles/80473 hours. For any commercial jetliner these days to get close to 70,000 cycles is impressive. If anyone knows what its final cycles/hours was when it landed in Tucson, let me know, I’d love that information. Lone Star One was the oldest factory delivered -300 at Southwest, that honor now falls to N354SW. From what I have been told, the 737-300s should all be gone by the end of 2017, I’m guessing they’re all coming up close on their LOV numbers.
Photo of the dispatch release with the very apropos George Strait quote. Southwest dispatcher Jake Zelman added the message in the remarks (photo courtesy of Mahala Ahearn)
I’ve never worked for Southwest, but they always got me going places when I had a tight budget and they did it with fun and style in my book, even if it meant picking up my bags and checking them in again in a Wright Amendment perimeter state. Lone Star One always encapsulated all that in a single symbol. Childhood memories, my college and beyond years, what home means to me, trips with my wife in my younger days on tight budget, family vacations now and memories to come. They have long been my preferred airline to fly and are still the airline we try to fly when we go on family trips. I have seen them go the extra mile for passengers and they’ve done that for us on several occasions as well. Lone Star One was unveiled just a year after I moved here to Texas, so its service to the airline covers a time of my life going from a young cocky college student to a middle aged guy with a family with four kids and a wonderful career in medicine.
Multiple exposure photo I did to show the flight crew rocking Lone Star One’s wings on her final departure.
On the final climb out from Dallas Love Field, the flight crew capped off the departure by rocking Lone Star One’s wings. It was a fitting farewell for the matriarch and flagship of the Southwest fleet leaving home for the last time. But Lone Star One will return- this July, the Boeing 737-700 N931WN will be repainted as the new Lone Star One.
Houston, Texas (Sept. 24, 2004) Fat Albert, the Blue Angels’ C-130 Hercules transport aircraft, banks-in in preparation for final over Houston, Texas. Fat Albert, home based at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla., has been flying relief missions into Pensacola following the devastation of Hurricane Ivan. On this mission, Fat Albert ferried pilots and maintenance personnel from Pensacola based Training Air Wing Six (VT-6), to their evacuated aircraft in Houston, Texas. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 2nd Class Saul McSween (RELEASED)
Hey, hey, hey. The Blue Angels’ “Fat Albert,” the demonstration group’s support transport, puts on a solo show.
The Blue Angels flight demonstration team, made up of Navy and Marine pilots, have been performing since 1946. Here’s a “bet you didn’t know” fact about the Blue Angels – in addition to the F/A-18 Hornets flown for the precise maneuvers, there’s a C-130T Hercules that also performs.
Nicknamed “Fat Albert,” the C-130’s primary assignment is transporting spare parts, equipment and support personnel between performances. Flown by an all-Marine flight crew of three officers and five enlisted personnel, Fat Albert puts on a solo demonstration including low-level runs and breath-taking banking moves.
When it first started putting on demonstrations in 1975, the C-130 was used for Jet Assisted Take Offs. However, that was eliminated in 2009 because of a dwindling supply of rockets.
You can check out the cockpit video of Fat Albert in action at a recent air show and here’s a link to what it looked like from the ground.
The A-10 is always a popular topic with the Avgeekery.com crowd. A few weeks ago, we wrote about the Warthog’s main weapon, the General Electric GAU 8 Avenger Gatling gun and its distinctive 2-second “brrrrrt.”
That gun is one of the most powerful aerial weapons in existence, capable of delivering 70 rounds of 30 mm ammo in one second. A two-second burst – the “brrrrrt” – can deliver a kill shot on a heavily-armored vehicle – just ask the Iraqui army.
While the pilots who fly the A-10 get to pull the trigger for those two-second bursts, the ground crew members who maintain the gun and load the two ammo cans play just as big a role.
And when those guys in the hangar and on the runway get word of how effective an A-10 was in supporting ground troops, they move around with a bit more zip in their doodah.
Experience this scary crash landing – the pilot and 17 skydiver passengers walked away.
The question that skydivers are often asked: “Why would you want to jump out of a perfectly good aircraft?”
A group of parachutists never got to jump out of the airplane that was carrying them. When its engine quit soon after takeoff, its pilot was skilled enough to execute a crash landing that allowed everyone to survive (the pilot walked away with a bloody noise.
This incident occurred last Saturday in Lodi, Calif. The single-engine Cessna 208 from the Parachute Center Skydiving School was carrying 17 skydivers when the plane “experienced trouble shortly after taking off.”
The pilot attempted to return to the airport but had to settle for a crash landing in a vineyard. He was able to fly under power lines but the plane’s tail apparently clipped a pickup truck and that caused the plane to flip belly up upon landing. The pilot also was able to avoid a house that is located next to the vineyard.
When you watch the video, be advised there are some curse words uttered shortly after landing, so this is NSFW. But after expecting to skydive out of the plane, you can’t blame some of the passengers for some salty language after surviving a crash landing.
The Jumbo Jet re-imagined as a rolling art gallery.
We’ve written several times about 747s are being re-purposed for uses other than carrying passengers. Most recently, we reported on a story of a company who has converted a Jumbo Jet into the world’s largest firefighting aircraft.
But now we’ve come upon perhaps the most unique use for a 747 – even if it has nothing to do with flight.
The Big Imagination Foundation of Venice, Calif., is converting a 747-300 – or part of one – into “the biggest art car in the history of Burning Man.” That event which takes place in a temporary community built in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert is a perfect place for a Jumbo Jet converted into a rolling art exhibit.
Here are the three phases of the conversion (Phase One has been completed):
Phase One: Clean out, and cut off the tail and wings.
Phase Two: Reconstruct the upper deck and refinish the cockpit, cut the upper section of the fuselage, and prep the upper fuselage for transport.
Phase Three: Reconstruct the lower deck interior, install the decks over the wings and upper deck canopies, unbolt the wings/landing gear and prep for lower fuselage transport.
When completed, the fuselage will be 132-feet long, 24-feet wide, and 20-feet tall. The moving team will consist of a semi with 12-axle trailer, five highway patrol officers, two bucket trucks, two pilot vehicles, a transportation captain, and a documentary film crew.
The trip to Nevada for Burning Man, which runs from Aug. 28 through Sept. 5, should be a spectacle for the drivers sharing the road with half a 747 on wheels.
The Big Imagination Foundation is accepting donations to help fund the project. You can visit the website to donate and to learn more about it.
Climbers planning to scale Mt. Everest first have to get past landing at the world’s most dangerous airport.
Two months ago we published a week-long series on some of the world’s most dangerous landing strips (the links to those posts can be found in this roundup.)
So what is considered the world’s scariest/dangerous airport? The strip of asphalt in Lukla, Nepal – which also happens to be the gateway to Mt. Everest, one of the world’s most challenging mountain climbs.
This “airport” is at an elevation of 9,100 feet. The tarmac is 65 feet wide by 1,500 feet long. At the southern end, there’s a 2,000-foot drop into a valley. At the opposite end, the runway ends in a stone wall and a hairpin turn. Pilots have to hit their mark when landing.
The runway has a gradient of 12 percent, sloping down toward the valley. That upward slope helps slow planes on landing to the north but creates even more excitement on takeoffs as planes are angling down – toward the valley – when they’re supposed to be heading up.
The video below of this Twin Otter of Tara Air shows a rare “go-around.” On final approach an aircraft has to be stable. That means that they are lined up with the centerline, at the correct airspeed and have a descent rate that is within tolerances. In any approach, a go-around is a challenging maneuver. At Lukla, a late go around could easily result in CFIT or Controlled Flight Into Terrain. In this video of an aborted landing at Lukla, the pilot chose to bank left. He veered off into the valley, below the horizon. He dropped off-camera (which led to a heart-in-the-throat feeling for viewers like us) until the plane reappears for a (successful) landing.
Trivia note: The official name of this landing strip is Tenzing-Hillary. In 2008, the airport was renamed for Sir Edmund Hillary, not the two time presidential candidate.In January 2008 the airport was renamed in honor of Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary, the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 1953. Their climbing adventure/accomplishment didn’t include landing at the airport, which had yet to be built.
Lone Star One, a 737-300 that was one of Southwest Airlines first uniquely liveried planes, has been retired.
Southwest Airlines announced this week that one of its special 737s would be retired. Lone Star One, N352SW, a 737-300, has been pulled out of service.
The plane made its debut in November 1990 and was the first Southwest aircraft to feature a state flag – the Texas state flag, in recognition of its home state.
The plane is retiring but the airline said that a new Lone Star One will make its debut later this summer. This time on a 737-700NG aircraft.
The Dallas-based airline has a rich history in distinctive color schemes for selected planes in its fleet. Southwest’s first special livery aircraft made its debut on May 23, 1988. The 737-300 (N334SW) was painted as a Killer Whale from nose to tail, in partnership with Sea World of Texas.
The Lone Star livery was second in line. The airline has partnered with the NBA, Sports Illustrated for its swimsuit issue and has celebrated the states it serves with state-flag liveries.
Boston Airborne posted a video of it flying in the Northeast just 10 months ago. Today, it is at its final resting place in Tuscon, Arizona waiting to be parted out and cut for scrap.
These Air National Guard F-4 Phantoms provide some thrilling action with their powerful low-level passes.
If you … love the smell of jet fuel in the morning.
And if your morning starts with an alarm sound that’s the roar of a fighter engine at full throttle.
Then this video is for you.
Most videos like this one, which last five minutes, is accompanied by some sort of musical sound track (probably Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone” from “Top Gun.”) And, apparently the original version did have a musical background.
But these F-4 Phantoms of the Reno Air National Guard making dozens of low-level passes at full throttle needed ambient sound. So, the musical sound track was ditched for this version of the video – which captures the F-4s breaking the sound barrier.
For those needing a little historical background, here’s the 411 on the F-4.
The Phantom is a two-seat, twin engine supersonic fighter that was developed my McDonnell Douglas. The F-4 was a fighter/bomber that proved its versatility during the Vietnam War. Originally developed for the Navy, it was so popular that the Air Force and the Marines each adapted a version.
When it first debuted, the F-4 set 15 different world records. The Phantom proved it could arrive quickly and in a bad mood. It could reach Mach 2.2 and could lug more than 18,000 pounds of weapons on nine external hard points.
Sure it’s a little bit of a stretch for Avgeekery.com but we’re pretty sure that any video with Danger Zone in it is fair game.
Aerial combat (well, space combat, actually) from Star Wars movies with the “Danger Zone” soundtrack by Kenny Loggins? Kick the tires and light the fires, we’re there.
Two years after Star Wars hit theaters in 1977, Kenny Loggins scored a Grammy with his single “This Is It.” And then in 1986 Loggins had the theme song for “Top Gun.”
How are these movie/music facts connected? They’re not.
At least not until someone had the brilliant idea to take Loggins’ “Danger Zone” – the hard-driving, perfect song from the 1980s hit – and use it as the musical backdrop for the video of spaceships clashing in the various Star Wars flicks. Shout out to Weston Wong for a masterful job of melding the music with the video.
Which brings to mind these questions:
Even though the battles between the good guys and the bad guys flying X-wings and TIE fighters take place in space and in a galaxy far, far away … are they still classified as dogfights?
Luke Skywalker is a great name, but he didn’t have a nickname like Lt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, did he?
If Luke “used the force” did Maverick use the force of Goose’s dog tags?
If not for Kenny Loggins’ songs, would “Top Gun,” “Footloose” and “Caddy Shack have been the big hits they were?
Whatever happened to Kenny Loggins?
Star Wars has been part of seven different sequels/prequels – why hasn’t Hollywood decided to crank out a “Top Gun II?”
That’s Peter Finch, who won the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of mentally ill newscaster Howard Beale in the great 1970s movie “Network.” His rant would be a perfect theme for air passengers this summer.
With the summer travel season approaching and the United States’ commercial airlines gearing up for full-capacity flights, the specter of nightmarish-long security lines has air carriers and airports ready for the complaints.
Most of those disgruntled passengers take out their frustrations on the airlines – especially if the security line causes them to miss a flight – or the airport itself. Complaining to the TSA is likely to lead to a strip search. The procedures have barely changed and aren’t any speedier than when the security was ramped up after 9-11.
Congress spent three hours putting TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger on the hot seat Thursday about the dysfunction of the organization he runs and the long lines facing passengers.
Delta has offered to assign some of its staffers to help the TSA this summer. The TSA is warning that staffing shortages and a lack of funds to pay for overtime will create a lack of manpower at check points.
“The customers don’t distinguish security when coming through the airport between Delta and TSA,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian said during a recent media event at its Atlanta headquarters. “Security is something that, in our opinion, is a joint responsibility of both TSA and the airline, and we will do our share to help.”
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey – which is in charge of the three major airports in the New York City area – along with Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport have sent scathing letters (yeah, those always work, don’t they?) to the TSA that if the screening process isn’t improved, they’re prepared to privatize the passenger screening process.
The Atlanta airport is working with Delta Air lines and TSA to experiment with Innovation Lines at Hartsfield. The new procedures are similar to the systems being used at London’s Heathrow and Amsterdam’s Schiphol airports.
Two I-Lines are scheduled to come on line at Atlanta’s south domestic terminal checkpoint later this month. Here’s how they work:
Baggage bins automatically move to a separate conveyor belt if a TSA agent IDs them as suspicious.
Baggage bins automatically recirculate after they move through the security machine.
The I-Line includes special “divestiture” areas where passengers can take off shoes, belts, etc. at their own pace.
Of course, the irony is that last week the lines at the Atlanta airport were even longer – the TSA closed the south security checkpoint for three weeks of testing of the new I-Lines. Progress can indeed be painful.
If the program is successful in Atlanta, it could be implemented at other airports. Until then, the frustrations will remain high.
The New York/New Jersey Port Authority letter to the TSA mentioned the “inadequacy of TSA passenger screening,” fears of widespread “customer dissatisfaction” and described wait times as “abysmal.”
From mid-March to mid-April, there were hundreds of times that passenger waits lasted more than 20 minutes – and sometimes more than 55 minutes, the letter said.
You can blame carry-on bags, the TSA, or the cheap fares. The bottom line is that it doesn’t look like lines are getting shorter anytime soon.
Bringing back an original color scheme and look for a Piedmont aircraft.
Piedmont Airlines, which began flying under the American Eagle brand in October of 2015 after the merger of American Airlines and US Airways, which became final in 2013. The regional airline serves Philadelphia plus three other locations in Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland.
American Eagle repainted one of its Dash 8 fleet carriers in the Piedmont original colors and debuted the new color scheme this week.
The original Piedmont has a rich history. It first flew in 1961. In the 1980s, it rapidly expanded on the east coast of the US before being purchased by US Air. US Air, later US Airways, renamed one of its regional subsidiaries as as Piedmont. Today, they fly a fleet of Dash 8s and EMB-145s under the American Eagle brand.
This lightweight 757 does a low-level fly-by followed by a cloud-piercing climb.
If you are an avgeek, you’ll love watching this video. We’re suckers for unrestricted climbs of our favorite aircraft. The 757 is definitely on the list.
The 757 was developed to take the place of the popular 727. A narrow-body, single-aisle commercial aircraft, it was designed for airlines facing higher fuel prices. The new plane’s design used lighter materials and featured better aerodynamics.
Plus, the twin-engine design improved fuel efficiency. The 757 was built to save 20 percent of fuel consumption. The power-to-weight ratio made it possible for it to operate from shorter runways plus serve airports where the air was hotter and thinner.
The 757 Is an Overpowered beast of an airliner
The 757 was a narrow-body aircraft with a high-lift wing and the power plants capable of carrying a hefty load of freight and cargo. When this lightly-configured jet with new Rolls Royce engines was allowed to go full throttle and head for the ceiling, it could put on quite an impressive show.
This video was posted on Youtube by Historical Machines TV. We’re grateful for them posting some beautiful footage.
Bonus video below!
Additional video of another performance was posted on Youtube by roderm. See the video below.
For 50 years, NASA’s Super Guppy transport aircraft has carried and delivered over-sized cargo to keep the space program moving.
There are aircraft that are inherently beautiful and graceful. Either on the tarmac or in flight, they elicit admiring glances.
To be quite frank and blunt, the Super Guppy isn’t one of those aircraft.
It’s swollen fuselage, from a side view, does give it a fish-like appearance. But as typically the case in a plane that has an unusual appearance, this plane has been modified for a specific purpose. It transports oversized components for NASA and has been on the job for half a century. From Saturn booster rockets to the Hubble Telescope, the Guppy has swallowed and moved cargo that has helped keep the space program moving.
Early versions were modified from the C-97J Turbo Stratocruiser. Later versions were constructed from scratch, using only the cockpit, wings, tail, and main landing gear. A four-engine turboprop, the Super Guppy also has had engine modifications to improve power and range.
This aircraft also features full frontal … cargo loading. A unique hinged nose swings open 110 degrees to permit easy loading and off-loading.
This particular Super Guppy mission was a four-hour flight between between Ellington Field, Texas and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. The cargo was a Crew Compartment Trainer for the Space Shuttle to be displayed at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.
The A-29 Super Tucano has the qualities needed for effective ground support in this era of modern warfare … so let’s add it to the U.S. arsenal.
Place this in the “Everything Old Is New Again” file.
Modern warfare, in particular the fight against terrorism, has created a new demand for a ground support military aircraft. The A-10 Warthog continues to be outstanding in its role of providing accurate fire and weapons on enemy ground positions.
But going back to a single-engine, propeller driven, ground support attack aircraft makes sense – even if it resembles the war birds that flew during World War II.
The development of the A-29 Super Tucano, also known as the Embraer EMB 314 Super Tucano has provided a ground attack plane that can get the job done. Unfortunately, as this story points out, Congress failed to OK the funding for the Air Force to add the A-29 to its arsenal.
So why a turboprop plane? The A-29 can fly at low speed at low altitude and operate in desert-like heat. It also has the fuel capacity and economy to stay on station for long periods of time. The Super Tucano can be configured in single-seat and twin-seat models.
The A-29 has .50 cal machine guns (one in each wing), and features five hard points under the wing and a fuselage that can carry up to 3,300 pounds of additional weapons. The hard points also can be configured to carry auxiliary fuel tanks.
The A-29 is also cheaper to operate, requiring about $1,000 per hour in the air. By contrast, the A-10 costs about $11,500 per hour while the controversial F-35 Joint Strike Fighter costs about $30,000 per hour of flight.
In January, the Afghan Air Force (AAF) acquired four A-29s, the first of 20 set to be delivered over the course of the next few years.
“The A-29 light attack aircraft is a versatile aircraft that brings a number of critical capabilities to the AAF,” said U.S. Army Colonel Michael T Lawhorn, director of public affairs for NATO’s Operation ‘Resolute Support’ in Afghanistan, said. “These include close air support, armed escort, and armed over watch.”
If the Defense Department is resolute in its desire to eventually retire A-10s from active service, it should ask ground troops what sort of close-support aircraft they would prefer to replace it with knowing that the other options are the F-35 or a limited number of F-16s. Given the choice between nothing and a capable weapons system, they’d probably vote for the A-29. Too bad that’s not the process.
A company in England that helps fight oil spills has converted two Boeing 727s to serve as chemical-dispersing delivery aircraft.
Ocean oil spills can be disastrous to the environment. When a significant amount of oil is accidentally released, the response time is critical. Before the spill spreads, containment and chemical dispersing are two of the main weapons.
Chemical solutions are used to break up the slicks into smaller droplets, which are then mixed by the water’s natural movement. Delivering those solutions early helps to prevent large slicks from reaching shore and fouling beaches.
Oil Spill Response Limited (OSRL), a company based in England, as converted two Boeing 727s to serve as quick-response delivery systems to fly to the site of a spill and spray oil dispersant chemicals.
The 727s, previously owned by FedEx, have had to undergo significant alterations to gain compliance. The United Kingdom’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) ruled that the dispersant liquid used to break up oil slicks should be treated as flammable. That led to the aircraft being classified to carry flammable cargo.
The advantage of using aircraft to deliver oil-dispersant chemicals are obvious. First, they can arrive much quicker than ships that are sent to do the same job. Previously, ORSL used Hercules transports but the 727 has a definite speed and range advantage over the four-engine propeller-driven transports.
OSRL has one 727 that will be loaded with oil dispersant chemicals and on-call 24-7. The other 727 will be used to deliver cargo to help defer the company’s expenses but can quickly be converted to serve as another delivery system.
In the video below by miar2006, you can clearly see the spray bar below. Eat your heart out Chemtrail fans!
(If you’re into the technical aspects, here’s the company report on the 727 project.)
We continued our love fest with the venerable Baby Boeing 737-200.
The week that was – a compilation of Avgeekery.com stories and videos from the last seven days.
Happy Mothers Day, Avgeeks! Don’t forget to call your mom. Here are two stories this week that honor women who did the extraordinary.
JetBlue offered another great promotion for passengers on a recent flight by turning tears into cheers.
Our weekly “Flashback Friday” tells the little-known story of the women whose math skills helped launch our space program.
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With the passage of another week, Avgeekery.com looks back and offers a one-stop post that shares all of the other stories and videos posted during the last seven days that our readers loved. Just click and enjoy.
Would you be surprised to know that the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the cutting edge of commercial aircraft, is equipped with a … propeller?
An experienced pilot recalls his time flying the 737-200 – a “pilot’s airplane.”
A wonderful documentary worth your time about the “Silent Wings” – courageous glider pilots in World War II.
This Chicago-area skydiving club got a rare treat – jumping from the bomb bay of a World War II-era B-17.
The Lockheed Super Constellation’s four engines give a new definition to the term “flame out.”
A decade ago, WestJet celebrated the retiring of its 737-200 aircraft with a double fly-by buzzing of the airport tower.
The versatility of the 747 is displayed as “The Spirit of John Muir” debus as the world’s largest fire-fighting aircraft.
The C-17 Globemaster proved its “off-road” capability by making a delivery on a dirt runway.
JetBlue offered another great promotion for passengers on a recent flight by turning tears into cheers.
Did you know that the 787 can deploy a propellor underneath its fuselage? It’s called a Ram Air Turbine or RAT.
Not the furry animal, silly. The 787 Ram Air Turbine is a propellor that provides an auxiliary source of electrical power in the case of dual engine failure.
If you look closely at the video below, you’ll see that this video shows testing of the Dreamliner 787 ram air turbine (RAT). It’s a small propeller installed on each side of the fuselage that can be used as an additional source of power in the event of a dual engine loss.
Photo by Boeing.
It generates its power from the airstream by ram pressure. The RAT is meant only as an emergency power source for the aircraft in the event that both engines fail. It provides enough electrical power to power only one of the 3 electric hydraulic systems on the jet. If you have to use it for real, you are having a really bad day.
787’s Ram Air Turbine Is Tested Regularly
The RAT is tested before delivery. It’s also tested occasionally during revenue service. Once the RAT is deployed, it can’t be retracted. It has to be stowed by maintenance personnel after landing.
The Dreamliner is an amazing aircraft, but it has had its fair share of problems, even lately. We reported recently on Avgeekery.com, that the FAA is requiring some Dreamliner engines to be replaced as part of an emergency directive.
Icing issues on certain models of the General Electric engines on Dreamliner led to the Federal Aviation Agency to issue a directive to “urgently modify” those engines.
The General Electric engine model GEnx-1B PIP2 is in question. Planes that are equipped with both engines of that model could potentially experience a catastrophic loss of both engines in flight.
