XB-70, what a cool plane! amazing that you got to work on it Jerry. It was a real tragedy about the crash. someday I hope to see the surviving one at WP.
XB-70, what a cool plane! amazing that you got to work on it Jerry. It was a real tragedy about the crash. someday I hope to see the surviving one at WP.
Ed, this plane was THE MOST exciting time of my entire career. If you do make it to the Air Force Museum to see it, you should be aware that the plane was moved to the new 4th building a couple of yrs ago. My assignment in the structural part of the design was the crew compartment and ejection system as well as the electronics bay just aft of the cockpit. Here's an interactive video of the cockpit from the pilot's position, particularly enjoyable to anyone who's really into buttons/gauges/instruments.
http://www.nmusafvirtualtour.com/coc...tour/RD-9.html
If you know what/where to look, you can make out the INNER windshield that is subjected to 11 psi cabin pressure (tested to 22 psi) as well as the OUTER windshield (subjected to aero pressure only) that is movable from landing/takeoff position (for better visibility) to streamlined position for high speed flight. Googling "xb-70" will bring up a flood of info on this plane. Good video of plane in flight:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/flig...rsonic-bomber/
One of my friends is acquainted with a retired Air Force pilot who said he never would have retired so soon if he could've flown that plane.
A great plane, indeed. I remember seeing them fly commercially out of Lambert Field in St Louis as a child, and years later seeing an AC-47 aka Puff The Magic Dragon doing its thing one evening just outside the airbase in Nha Trang, Vietnam. I did fly once in an Air America C-46, but never did get to fly in a DC-3 or C-47.
Kodak Bullet of 1896 Vintage Airplanes Small by rrunnertexas, on Flickr
Kodak Bullet no 4, 1896 model.
I recently attended a fly-in at the Kingsbury Aerodrome near Seguin, TX with my 8x10 and 4x5. As I was taking a picture of this airplane, a guy comes up to me and asks me if i can still take pictures with that camera, so I snarkily responded with "No, I just like setting it up and looking through it." The guy laughs and starts telling his buddies the joke. He then says he's the owner of the airplane and would like a copy of the photo, and I jokingly tell him I'll trade him a nice Silver gelatin print for a ride in his airplane. Amazingly, he agreed and 5 minutes later we were doing aerobatics and I was trying not to throw up in his airplane. I definitely got the better end of the bargain, but hopefully he likes his print.
Deardorff V8
12" Commercial Ektar @ f/22
HP5+ in Pyrocat HD 1+1+100
V700 Scan
North American SNJ-5 by Mike Boudreaux, on Flickr
I'm sure he will Mike. Nice work.
Thanks for the comments. Here's one more from that day. I'm really impressed with the commercial Ektar lens, super sharp but great character!
North American SNJ on 8x10 by Mike Boudreaux, on Flickr
In the 80's I lived close to BWI airport outside of Baltimore,MD. Way before any security they have today at airports I was allowed to stand close to the end of the runway,out of line with the aircraft. At that time I was experimenting with Lithograph film and filters to alter what light the film "saw" in 4x5 and pushing the heck out of the slow ASA and then using heated developer to articulate the films grain. The negative was very dense and took almost a full minute exposure in order to get a good print.
The airplane was from the long gone Allegheny Airlines. A local "puddle jumper" coming in from New York.
A de Havilland Dash 7, wow, it's been a long time since I've seen one of those! Even the Dash 8 traffic is drying-up at BWI. There is actually a nice park at the end of runway 33L, called the Thomas A. Dixon Jr. Aircraft Observation Area, where you can still take photos of planes. I have lots of 35mm slides from there and few 4x5 transparencies. But I don't have any scans of the 4x5's to post.
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