The peerless industrial designer Raymond Loewy trying on one of those stunning Apollo ILC early “broad-shoulders” space suits (maybe an A-4H) for size at the NASA Huntsville Center, Alabama (1968). Loewy was contracted by NASA during the 1960s to produce design ideas for spaceships and space stations. The superb Skylab interior had his hand all over it.
Monthly Archives: December 2022
Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Gudkov LaGG-3: Quite a looong name.
The Yak-1, the MiG-1/3 and the LaGG-1/3 were the most modern aircraft available to the Soviet Air Force at the time of the invasion in 1941. Of the three, the LaGG-3 was the least loved, being underpowered, underarmed and not well-behaved. Produced in huge numbers anyway, the design was gradually improved, with some positive results. Not enough though. However, it later evolved into the very efficient La-5/7.
Soviet Elan. Ace Mayor Leonid Galchenko, the commander of 609 IAP, and his colourful “Cat & Mouse” artwork on the tail of a “1st Series” LaGG-3.
Lockheed F-94C Starfire: Just Because (CXV).
Wright A: “A daring young man played a dangerous game.”
Eugène Lefebvre was an engineer and self-taught pilot at Ariel, the French Wright producers. Lefebvre made his first flight on July 18th, 1909 just in time to participate with a Wright A in the 1909 “Grande Semaine d’Aviation de la Champagne” of Reims, where he finished fourth in the Gordon Bennett Trophy race. He also was notorious for his aerobatic antics. Nine days later, on September 7th, 1909, he became the world’s first powered aircraft pilot to be killed in a flight accident. All that without a getting a “Brevet de Pilote”.
A blazing hot-rod life. No, Lefebvre didn’t replace the Wright A’s 35hp Wright 4-cyl with a P&W J60/JT12.
Supermarine Sea Otter Mk.II: To the Rescue.
More than pleased with the dated-looking Supermarine Walrus, the Fleet Air Arm and the RAF wanted more of the same, just a little better. So the people of Supermarine took the main features of its predecesor and improved its range, sturdiness and versatility. They also changed to tractor propeller configuration its more powerful 850hp Bristol Mercury. First flown a year before the war, the Sea Otter only enter service on late-1944(!). The development and testing were protracted, but the main problem was that the resources to produced it were simply not available. The less than 300 procured rendered a good, if brief, war service as recon seaplanes and “Search & Rescue“ (SAR) aircraft.
A sporty demonstration of the role the Sea Otters, and the Walrus, were well-known and loved. It was truly a creature of the sea.
Lockheed F-104G Starfighter: Resting Places (LXVI).
Hartmut Rehorsch installed on April 16, 2013 this engineless Marinefliegerkommando F-104G on the building roof of his welding equipment company at the Zuffenhausen district of Stuttgart, Germany. Nearby residents don’t share Rehorsch’s love for old military aircraft however; they have been sending letters to local authorities demanding its removal.
For the moment the Starfighter remains there.
Royal Airship Works R101: Not for the faint-hearted.
The R101 and the elaborate mooring mast of Cardington. The passengers and crew access was through that hairy gangway beneath the airship nose. The 200 feet high mast was equipped with a lift and a staircase.
Photo taken from “War in the Air – Aerial Wonders of Our Time”, 1936.
Waco Standard Cabin: Let it Snow!!
For many years teacher and historian Edward Rowe Snow dropped bundles of Christmas gifts to New England’s lighthouses. Isolated keepers and their families annually had been receiving air droped gift packages since 1929 when William Wincapaw started the tradition. In the late-1930s, Ed Snow, who was not a pilot, came to help of Wincapaw and his son Bill Jr. From then on he carried his duties as a “Flying Santa” until the early-1980s.
Santa and his earthy wife, Anna-Myrle Snow, loading a lovely Waco Standard Cabin biplane in 1940. She also flew in that lovely sledge.
Photo by “Friends of Flying Santa”.
Boeing 2707: Far beyond Mach 2.
A pair of hilariously attired Braniff flight attendants in Supersonic Derby Shift Dress or “Emilio Jet” pose inside the “space age” cabin mockup of the early 2707.
Photo: Boeing Historical Archives.
Sparmann S1-A: Söt Övningsjaktplan.
Austrian engineer Edmund Sparmann came to Sweden in 1919 with to sell his Phönix D.III and decided to stay. His S-1 was a private-venture cheap military fighter trainer aircraft which made its maiden flight on the Spring of 1934. Lovely and minute this single-seat was low-wing braced-monoplane of steel-tube fabric covered fuselage and wooden wings construction, equipped with a fixed landing gear. It was powered by a single 130hp DH Major engine. After some debate about its usefulness, the Swedish AF ordered just ten under the unusual P1 name; they were the only user. Despite its original role, the “Sparmannjagaren” were mainly employed as liaison aircraft.
Pastoral photo of the short lived first prototype (SE-ADX). It was lost in Aug. 1935 when it crashed at the hands Lt. Lambert-Mueller during an airshow. Gladly the pilot was unharmed.
Aviation Rapture 