Aircraft

[peter ramm]

Does anyone remember the framed B&W prints that used to be in the lobby of the Toronto Airport Hilton? Very mechanical pics of props and engines and the like. I remember seeing them some years ago and tried to find out who shot them, but no one at the hotel knew. I think they were removed as part of remodeling, but am not sure.

[peter ramm]

Let's resurrect this.

Sinar P2, FP4+, Rodie 240mm af F32, 7' tilt, Epson scan of the 8 x 10, cropped and tweaked in PS

[Miguel Coquis]

good !
is this going to fly to EU ?
I'll be glad to have a try !!!

[peter ramm]

good !
is this going to fly to EU ?
I'll be glad to have a try !!!

No immediate plans, Miguel. The only one in the EU (F-AZLL) belongs to Bernard Chabbert and flies out of Ferte, I believe.

[David Lobato]

In early 1959 I flew in a MATS version of the Constellation from the Oakland, Calif. area to Clark AFB in the Philippines. The seats were arranged so that the passengers faced to the rear of the aircraft. It took 48 hours to reach Clark AFB with 10 hour legs between the islands across the Pacific. We spent about 4 to 5 days at Clark then off we flew to Taiwan where I spent the next 15 months. Howard

Howard, my father left Taiwan in 1959 after a USAF tour there that began in 1958. He has a lot of aircraft stories from those days.

[Jerry Bodine]

Long retired now, by far the most satisfying time of my entire professional career as an aerospace structural engineer occurred from 1959 through 1963 while working on the XB-70 program at North American Aviation, Inc. It was a time when I’d get up on a Saturday morning (day off) and head in to work just for joy of it and work in relative solitude. My work was mostly in the crew compartment where the airframe used both high strength steel and titanium alloys because of the high temperatures (450F) involved at Mach 3. Aluminum was incapable of withstanding that much heat and was used sparingly in the interiors where the pilots were able to function in a shirt-sleeve environment. The key to that thermal gradient was use of a “transpirational wall” (thin sheet with tiny perforations) that covered the inboard chords of the frames. Much testing was necessary for the design of the jettisonable escape hatches above the pilots who were seated in capsules-on-rails that would seal them in (along with their environment) just prior to jettison via self-contained rocket. Ejection sequences, programmed, took place automatically once selected; pilot and co-pilot could eject separately if necessary. This system was designed for ejection at Mach 3 and 70,000 ft. After the capsules cleared the aircraft, telescoping booms would extend to stabilize the capsules from tumbling until the parachutes opened. Each capsule had in inflatable bag on its bottom to cushion the impact of a landing on terra firma or for flotation during a water landing. It was June 8, 1966 when I was participating in an Ansel Adams workshop in Yosemite that I was shocked to read the headline that the second of the two prototype airplanes suffered a mid-air collision with a chase plane and crashed on the desert floor during a slow-speed photo-op flight. I remember that day as if it happened just yesterday. The pilot was able to eject safely and survived – a harrowing experience as related in an interview to Time Magazine – but he was unable, due to the lateral G’s from the flat spin, to pull the co-pilot back into his capsule so he could eject him and he perished with the plane. Very, very sad.

For those interested, here is a relatively superficial story of the development of the airplane and the aftermath, with lots of pictures.

http://unrealaircraft.com/classics/xb70.php

[Jiri Vasina]

Let's resurrect this.

Sinar P2, FP4+, Rodie 240mm af F32, 7' tilt, Epson scan of the 8 x 10, cropped and tweaked in PS

If you want this resurrected, I may only contribute one of my older images:

Ready to go...

Chamonix 5×8", Schneider Xenar 210mm f:4.5, 13×18cm Fomapan 100 @ EI 64, Developed in R09 (Rodinal variant)

Jiri

[Floyd Waller]

Sorry about the B-24 which was a 4-engine aircraft, but that is a B-25 Mitchell. Photos are great, however!

[DavyG]

Resurrection time !

I was at the local port photographing something completely different, when all of a sudden a large helicopter from the Danish Defence (or maybe it was from the fleet idk) landed a few hundred meters from me. A few minutes later an ambulance came rushing up to it, and a stretcher was being moved from the ambulance to the helicopter.

It all happened very fast and I had barely time to swing the camera around, refocus and press the shutter, before it was taking off again.
(please ignore the dust)


Helicopter by DagenErHvid, on Flickr

[goamules]

Long retired now, by far the most satisfying time of my entire professional career as an aerospace structural engineer occurred from 1959 through 1963 while working on the XB-70 program at North American Aviation, Inc. It was a time when I’d get up on a Saturday morning (day off) and head in to work just for joy of it and work in relative solitude. My work was mostly in the crew compartment where the airframe used both high strength steel and titanium alloys because of the high temperatures (450F) involved at Mach 3. Aluminum was incapable of withstanding that much heat and was used sparingly in the interiors where the pilots were able to function in a shirt-sleeve environment. The key to that thermal gradient was use of a “transpirational wall” (thin sheet with tiny perforations) that covered the inboard chords of the frames. Much testing was necessary for the design of the jettisonable escape hatches above the pilots who were seated in capsules-on-rails that would seal them in (along with their environment) just prior to jettison via self-contained rocket. Ejection sequences, programmed, took place automatically once selected; pilot and co-pilot could eject separately if necessary. This system was designed for ejection at Mach 3 and 70,000 ft. After the capsules cleared the aircraft, telescoping booms would extend to stabilize the capsules from tumbling until the parachutes opened. Each capsule had in inflatable bag on its bottom to cushion the impact of a landing on terra firma or for flotation during a water landing. It was June 8, 1966 when I was participating in an Ansel Adams workshop in Yosemite that I was shocked to read the headline that the second of the two prototype airplanes suffered a mid-air collision with a chase plane and crashed on the desert floor during a slow-speed photo-op flight. I remember that day as if it happened just yesterday. The pilot was able to eject safely and survived – a harrowing experience as related in an interview to Time Magazine – but he was unable, due to the lateral G’s from the flat spin, to pull the co-pilot back into his capsule so he could eject him and he perished with the plane. Very, very sad.

For those interested, here is a relatively superficial story of the development of the airplane and the aftermath, with lots of pictures.

http://unrealaircraft.com/classics/xb70.php

Wow, what a fantastic job that must have been. I was just watching the documentary on the XB-70, and then last night watched For All Mankind. We really had some things going in the aerospace world back in the 50s-70s. I worked with the Stealth as a training manager for several years, and some "other" programs.