Aviation Fans

[mp170.6]

There seems to be a lot of aviation fans here. 

 

How about a thread dedicated to favorite planes, air crashes, etc? 

[mp170.6]

Recently saw a documentary on United flight 232 that crash-landed in Sioux City. 

 

This was the flight where they lost all flight controls and had to steer by independently controlling engine thrust.  Crash-landed in Sioux City overspeed and off course, into a ball of flames, and yet 185 people made it out alive. 

 

Incredible.

[arch stanton]

My life has been in military aviation. It's where I've made pretty much every dime in my adult life. Maintenance tech. Maintenance instructor. QA inspector. Mod and depot teams. Tech writing. Simulator operator. F-15. H-60 Seahawk. CH-47 Chinook.

 

Other than what it takes to set up the sim I don't pay a lot of attention to the ops side.

[Kevin]

World War II planes are my favorite. My grandpa flew P-38 in the pacific in World War II so I've always been partial to that plane. Whenever a Mitsubishi pulled in front of him on the road he joked that the last time that happened, he shot it down.

About 10 years ago my dad and I got to fly in a B-17. Wasn't cheap but it was well worth it.

[Glen]

Spent my time in the Navy working on H-60s and S-3Bs. Always had a soft spot for helos. Worked on F-16s for a few years and then transferred to F-22s. 22s kinda suck.

I still think the SR-71 was one of the coolest planes ever. I love the idea of the Osprey. Never got to work on an H-53 but maybe someday...

[arch stanton]

Spent my time in the Navy working on H-60s and S-3Bs. Always had a soft spot for helos. Worked on F-16s for a few years and then transferred to F-22s. 22s kinda suck.

I still think the SR-71 was one of the coolest planes ever. I love the idea of the Osprey. Never got to work on an H-53 but maybe someday...

At Kadena we saw the SR-71s take off up close all the time. Rumbles through your whole body as you watch each afterburner ring light off. 5th stage AB before they really get moving.

 

I'm glad I managed to avoid the Raptors and I ended up turning down a F-35 final assembly job to go to the F-15SA tech writing team. The money was similar so it came down to working indoors and not living in Ft Worth.

[Stradling]

DB Cooper, obvs

[arch stanton]

Pujols' contract has highjacked hundreds of main board threads.

[gotbeer]

SR-71.  It's like driving a pinto, and when you get up to over 100 mph, it turns into a Ferrari.  

 

just an amazing piece of engineering.  Still probably a jet, if still commissioned, that could hold it's own against anything.  

[Vegas Halo Fan]

My family has been in aviation for decades. My grandfather and his brother were employees of Pitcairn Aviation, one of the precursor companies of Eastern Air Lines. When I visited Uncle Ben's place outside Atlanta, he had a framed letter signed by Eddie Rickenbacker (then president of Eastern) on company stationery thanking him for his contributions to the birth and growth of the airline. He is in the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame. When he passed away, he was buried in a plot specially selected because it overlooks the runways at Atlanta-Hartsfield International Airport. My father told me that his Uncle Ben had a bit of a wild streak. According to my father, Uncle Ben flew a Curtiss Jenny under the Main Street Bridge in Jacksonville - inverted.

 

This is the stock that I come from.

 

My Uncle Joe (who is still living in San Antonio, well into his 90s) was a B-24 copilot during World War II, flying bombing raids over Germany. He served as a flight crew inspector for the FAA for many years based out of Miami. When he retired, US Air offered him a job as a vice president, but he didn't want to move to DC, where the job would have been located.

 

My father was in the Army Air Corps during World War II, assigned to the Alaskan Command, with his outfit ferrying aircraft to the Russians to fight the Germans on the Eastern Front. He served in the Korean War after coming back (stationed in Japan), and was Electric Shop Chief for the Florida Air National Guard until his retirement. During his career there he worked on the P-51, F-80, F-86, T-33, F-102 and F-106. Some of my fondest memories of youth were of sitting under the wing of an F-102 on the tarmac at Imeson Airport in Jacksonville with a cold Sprite in a glass bottle. It was while they were at this base that my father worked on the Douglas C-47 that I mentioned in an earlier thread, the one that is now preserved at the Camp Blanding Museum in Florida.

 

My cousin Paul (Uncle Joe's boy) served in the Air Force and then flew for Delta. He retired about a month ago. He flew Lockheed L-1011s and then Boeing 737-800s (that I know of - he may have served on other types). During his time in the L-1011, one of the routes he flew was ATL-DFW. He was flying that route when the Delta L-1011 arriving from ATL crashed at DFW due to wind shear. It took about three days for me to find out that Paul wasn't the captain. The airline told us nothing. When I finally reached him, he said "I was at the Braves game that night."

 

I probably would have been a pilot myself, but I developed myopia during my teenage years. This was long before lasik surgery and the rule was that your vision had to be 20/20 uncorrected or else they wouldn't let you fly. My cousin Paul essentially lived the life that I had picked out for myself. My aviation history has been purely as a passenger, but the passion for flight has never dimmed. I am perfectly content with a day of plane spotting, especially at busy airports with a lot of international traffic. Probably my best day of spotting ever took place at MIA in 1976.

Edited May 23, 2015 by Vegas Halo Fan

[TobiasFunke]

My favorite plane when I was a kid strange enough was a A-6E Intruder.

Always loved the P-51s of course but my favorite war bird has always been the Spitfire. Had a chance to see one up close a few years ago and man was i stoked!

[Vegas Halo Fan]

Never got to favorite planes.

 

Commercial - Lockheed L-1011, Vickers Viscount, Lockheed L-188 Electra, Lockheed Constellation, Douglas DC-8, Douglas DC-9, Boeing 707, Boeing 727, Boeing 757, Douglas DC-3, Convair 880, Sud Caravelle.

 

Early military - P-51, P-38, B-25, B-24,  B-29, B-17, P-47, C-47, Spitfire, Hurricane.

 

Later military - F-102, F-106, F-105, B-57, B-47, B-58, B-2, F-15, F-16, F-18, F-14.

 

I know that there are some that I have left out.

Edited May 17, 2015 by Vegas Halo Fan

[Tank]

F14

SR71

F15

Saturn V rocket - would give my left arm to go up in one of those because it would've meant i was a #@*&*(&%^ astronaut.

[tdawg87]

Flight 175 from Logan was my favorite crash. I especially like how the government made it appear as though a simple Boeing 757 could actually travel 590 mph at such a low altitude. Jet fuel does NOT melt steel beams.

Educate yourselves, sheep.

[Redondo]

A 10 Warthog

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[gotbeer]

My new favorite plane courtesy of VegasHaloFan.

 

[Vegas Halo Fan]

Wonder if they have found any yet. Union fighters and Confederate bombers are particularly rare.

 

Some of my favorite aviation sites, in case some of you may not have found them yet.

 

Airnation.net. Very active forums that contain both aviation buffs and current/former commercial pilots and airline personnel.

 

Flightradar24. Real time tracking of air traffic around the world. Clicking on each airplane icon tells you the airline, type of aircraft, point of origin and destination, altitude and how long it has been airborne and estimated remaining flight time. It also shows a line depicting the flight path. You can move the map to anywhere in the world. This is also available for Smartphones. The paid version (one time fee of $4.99) includes a feature that allows you to point your phone at a plane passing overhead and the utility will identify the flight for you.

 

LiveATC.net. Listen in on air traffic control at airports around the world.

Edited May 23, 2015 by Vegas Halo Fan

[Vegas Halo Fan]

For some reason the links in the previous post don't work.

 

http://airnation.net

 

http://www.flightradar24.com

 

http://www.liveatc.net

[ten ocho recon scout]

Huge aviation fan. My grandfather flew in 24s in ww2, and an a-26 in korea. I wanted to fly, but was too lazy to enlist for 8 years so i was an infantryman with a boner for planes.

Love ww2 aircraft, was at chino a few weeks back for their show. Have flown in a b-24 and a 17. Trying to get on a p-51.

Was always partial to the f-14 and a-10. Like the b-1 a lot too. Have been in blackhawks and 46's, not a huge fan because of rep, but i was lucky to never crash. The 53s are underrated badasses though.

Saw apaches once or twice but never really worked with them. Cobras a lot more so i have a soft spot. Never saw one in person, but from a CAS standpoint i would have loved to see a DAP MH-60 do its thing. Youtube it if youre unfamiliar...theyre badass.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

This is for gotbeer - the link to the entire text of the article that went along with the search for Civil War aircraft. It appeared in the Jefferson (IA) News on April 25, 2010. The author was Deb Hoover. An excerpt:

 

Anyone wanting to help in the cause or possessing knowledge as to the whereabouts of civil-war era aircraft, preferably those used in battle, should contact Johann Starkey of Scranton, Iowa.   

 

I would like to see the planes that Lee called in for air strikes during the Battle of Gettysburg. If the Confederacy hadn't had such a severe shortage of aviation fuel, the outcome of the war might have been much different.

 

I'm tempted to write to the author and ask what their progress has been in finding and restoring Civil War-era aircraft.

Edited May 23, 2015 by Vegas Halo Fan

[wopphil]

I hate flying and sometimes pop a xanax before getting on a plane. But I am oddly fascinated with the history behind jet crashes.

[gotbeer]

This is for gotbeer - the link to the entire text of the article that went along with the search for Civil War aircraft. It appeared in the Jefferson (IA) News on April 25, 2010. The author was Deb Hoover. An excerpt:

 

Anyone wanting to help in the cause or possessing knowledge as to the whereabouts of civil-war era aircraft, preferably those used in battle, should contact Johann Starkey of Scranton, Iowa.   

 

I would like to see the planes that Lee called in for air strikes during the Battle of Gettysburg. If the Confederacy hadn't had such a severe shortage of aviation fuel, the outcome of the war might have been much different.

 

I'm tempted to write to the author and ask what their progress has been in finding and restoring Civil War-era aircraft.

 

 

Mr. Starkey admits that he and his fellow airplane-hunters have slowed down a step or two since they undertook their previous searches. However, even though their memory maybe isn't what it used to be, they still know what a plane looks like when they see one.

 

[mrwicked]

I can chime in on the tech side.

Aviation and geosynchronous satellite systems to control/manage it are both very hard fields.

In high school I did an internship at Raytheon and worked on their "wide area augmentation system."

Basically it's technology to augment GPS satellites for better/faster/safer air navigation.

It was a blast, really cool stuff. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide_Area_Augmentation_System

 

Other than that I took a helicopter tour over hawaii one time when I was like 12.

I know I know.. try to contain yourselves.

 

Anyone here an actual pilot? 

Edited May 23, 2015 by mrwicked

[Blarg]

Civil War air defense were hot air balloons.

[Blarg]

I can chime in on the tech side.

Aviation and geosynchronous satellite systems to control/manage it are both very hard fields.

In high school I did an internship at Raytheon and worked on their "wide area augmentation system."

Basically it's technology to augment GPS satellites for better/faster/safer air navigation.

It was a blast, really cool stuff.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide_Area_Augmentation_System

Other than that I took a helicopter tour over hawaii one time when I was like 12.

It was neat.

Anyone here an actual pilot?

They hired you even though they knew you couldn't make sammiches? You must have nailed the interview.