The General Airplane Thread

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1950’s Grumman Goose, this one apparently destroyed in the Alaska 1964 earthquake
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PsuPepperoni
flying machine destroyed by earthquake :ouch:
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You joke, but people just don't appreciate just how massive that earthquake was. It was a 9.2 magnitude megathrust that forced 600 miles of the Pacific Plate to shift 60 feet under the North American Plate. Tsunamis reached 220 feet in Shoup Bay and caused damage in Hawaii and Japan. Movement directly related to the earthquake was felt all the way in Texas and Florida. Ground displacement was extraordinary, with parts of Kodiak being permanently raised 30 feet and parts of Anchorage being permanently dropped 15 ft. The only way that Grumman Goose would have stood a chance was if it was in the air at the moment the earthquake hit. Even being in the water wouldn't have saved it.
 
catamount39
Looks like the little brother of Consolidated's PBY-5A "Catalina". :P Love the lines of it, aircraft had style back in those days.
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Agreed, but I think it's mostly a case of form following function. Pretty much any twin radial powered amphibian would have a more than passing resemblance to both the G-21 and the PBY.
 
BobK
Agreed, but I think it's mostly a case of form following function. Pretty much any twin radial powered amphibian would have a more than passing resemblance to both the G-21 and the PBY.
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Very true, then again I'll admit I'm not terribly familiar with amphibious aircraft so that probably has something to do with it also. :lol:
 
You want amphibious, I got yer amphibious right here! I give you the P5M Marlin, the US Navy's last operational flying boat, in service until 1965. This one was on display on the bus tour lot behind the museum at the Pensacola Naval Air Station, and is believed to be the only surviving Marlin. It's indoors now, with a full exterior restoration (and it looks incredible!) but I have no pictures of it in its new home; you can't get far enough back from it to fit it in the frame!

EDIT: See my post #2245 below for the Marlin before restoration. These folks do good work!

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The wheels are not landing gear; it cannot take off or land on the wheels. They are attached as the plane floats in the water so it can taxi up onto the land.
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Inside the museum is a PBY suspended from the ceiling, and a cutaway PBY at floor level so you can see all the stations where crew worked or bunked.
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And finally, the Curtiss NC-4, one of three NC aircraft (NC-1, NC-3, and NC-4) which set out for a transatlantic flight in 1919. It was not non-stop; Newfoundland to the Azores, and then the Azores to Lisbon, Portugal. They departed NAS Rockaway at New York City on May 9, 1919, to Newfoundland. They departed Newfoundland on May 15th for the Azores, with ships stationed about every 50 miles along the route for navigational assistance and whatever emergency support might be needed. The flight to the Azores took over 15 hours, and this aircraft was the only one to actually make the Azores. NC-1 and NC-3 both were forced to land well short in bad weather, with NC-1 being too damaged to fly, and NC-3 actually taxiing 200 miles! NC-1 was taken under tow but sank. NC-4 departed for Lisbon on May 20th but suffered mechanical issues and returned. After repairs she departed again on the 27th and reached Lisbon in just under 10 hours, again with ships stationed along to show them the way. It took them almost 11 days to complete the trip from Newfoundland to Lisbon, with some 22 hours actually in the air. The ships along the route were brightly lit, had searchlights shining into the sky at night as beacons, and even fired flares repeatedly.

This is the actual NC-4 aircraft that made the first successful transatlantic crossing by an aircraft. The photo is a stitch of three frames.
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I still tend to imagine if recreational flight will really be a big thing. I remember when I researched the ICON A5 for a blog post, it made me wonder if such flight would be so accessible kind of like (for example) jet skis or something. I think it would be interesting to see what such a plane is like to fly or sit in, speaking as someone who has never been on a plane or taken flight.
 
JohnBM01
I still tend to imagine if recreational flight will really be a big thing. I remember when I researched the ICON A5 for a blog post, it made me wonder if such flight would be so accessible kind of like (for example) jet skis or something. I think it would be interesting to see what such a plane is like to fly or sit in, speaking as someone who has never been on a plane or taken flight.
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Well, I can tell you right now that the costs associated with aviation aren’t going down anytime soon. You have to factor in training, fuel, and hangar space on top of the cost of a plane itself. All of those can be astronomically expensive, even for some of the most basic, bare-bones aircraft out there. You’ll have an easier time owning a McLaren 650S than an ICON A5. I’ve wanted to get my license for more than a year now, but it’s just too much money that I do not have. The reality is crushing, to say the least.
 
I would absolutely love to have a small private plane, something simple with tundra wheels so I can go to remote places and get back again. The four planes below are what I'm most interested in. Unfortunately, I am a very poor man and, absent winning the lottery or some unknown distant relative leaving me a fortune in their will, I will never have one.

American Champion Scout


Aviat Husky


CubCrafters SuperCub


Maule Orion
 
Populuxe Cowboy
I would absolutely love to have a small private plane, something simple with tundra wheels so I can go to remote places and get back again. The four planes below are what I'm most interested in. Unfortunately, I am a very poor man and, absent winning the lottery or some unknown distant relative leaving me a fortune in their will, I will never have one.

American Champion Scout


Aviat Husky


CubCrafters SuperCub


Maule Orion
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All four of those are pretty much what I want as well, along with a Piper J3 Cub/Super Cub. I don’t plan on flying at night, so an LSA is fine with me. :)
 
Populuxe Cowboy
I would absolutely love to have a small private plane, something simple with tundra wheels so I can go to remote places and get back again. The four planes below are what I'm most interested in. Unfortunately, I am a very poor man and, absent winning the lottery or some unknown distant relative leaving me a fortune in their will, I will never have one.

American Champion Scout


Aviat Husky


CubCrafters SuperCub


Maule Orion
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The supercub really is a funny little thing to look at. Steveo1Kinevo on YouTube made a vid about his time in one a few weeks ago from out west.


Correction, Carbon Cub. Anyways, there was a home owner next to our highschool that had a small grass strip, no longer than 600 yards long and 75 yards wide that he used as his airfield. Literally, right next to the school.

phenomphlyer
Anyone else do any flight simulation?
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Aye. Not as much anymore but from time to time I'll jump on Vatsim and do a leg.
 
The below videos purport to show a rumored secret aircraft, sometimes referred to as the TR3B Astra.
What do you think, is the craft real or hoaxed?









EDIT:


A military zone
 
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I'm a Seattle native. My dad is retired from Boeing. The Tex Johnson barrel roll in the prototype 707 is legendary out here. I'm almost certain Slim Pickens' character in Dr. Strangelove was at least partially based on Tex Johnson.
 
I don't think I ever got around to posting this photo I took over Christmas:
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From left, IIRC: YF-12A, X15, D-21, X24A, X24B, Gemini Capsule (obscuring the tan-coloured Apollo 15 Command Module), and the main subject is of course the XB-70 Valkyrie.

If you're ever near Dayton, I highly recommend taking some time to stop by the National Museum of the USAF. Just be careful, since you can quite literally take days to see everything they have. They've got four full hangars of aircraft plus some smaller exhibits in between, and those hangars are quite sizeable. This view shows less than half of one, for a sense of scale the other half includes each aircraft used as 'the' Air Force One from Roosevelt through Nixon.
 
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I've always loved these 1930s twin-engine small cargo/passenger planes. For years now I've had an idea to write a crime noir story about a pilot working on the shady side of the law who gets caught between gangsters and the police. I always see the main character flying something like one of these.


Beechcraft 18


Lockheed 12 Electra


Cessna T-50


Airspeed Envoy


Barkley-Grow T8P
 
Populuxe Cowboy
I've always loved these 1930s twin-engine small cargo/passenger planes. For years now I've had an idea to write a crime noir story about a pilot working on the shady side of the law who gets caught between gangsters and the police. I always see the main character flying something like one of these.


Beechcraft 18


Lockheed 12 Electra


Cessna T-50


Airspeed Envoy


Barkley-Grow T8P
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That Electra is one of my favorites. Local field by me has one in a hangar.
 
I keep doing this. Twice on this page! Somebody posts something, and I come in with, "Hey, I got some of those!!!"

So here's my '30s twin: Beech 18 flown at the Blue Angels Homecoming show this past November by Matt Younkin. Rolls, Cuban 8s, etc.

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