|
VikingSkull posted:gently caress yes, airplanes! My grandfather was actually the director of research at Lockheed back in the day. Apparently, when they were developing the C-5, the runner-up name for it was the Jesus Christ, because that was what everybody said the first time they saw it. EDIT: Also, I don't really know all of the details, but apparently, after the cancellation of this program, some sort of cockpit mockup for the XV-4 ended up in his basement. My mom was still a kid, and she's only mentioned it a couple times, but apparently it was a really really rough mockup and it was made primarily out of plywood. i'm not really sure what it was for. Eventually, when he needed more space for all of the other cool poo poo he acquired over the years, my grandfather chopped it up and burned it (I wish he hadn't). EDIT EDIT: Wow, no one probably cares but me, but I just googled my grandfather's name and found an antique magazine ad about him. Unfortunately I just bought it so it's gone now, I'm trying to find it in my cache. WT Wally fucked around with this message at 05:16 on Mar 8, 2010 |
#
¿
Mar 8, 2010 04:49
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 3, 2024 07:35 |
|
|
WT Wally posted:EDIT EDIT: Wow, no one probably cares but me, but I just googled my grandfather's name and found an antique magazine ad about him. Unfortunately I just bought it so it's gone now, I'm trying to find it in my cache. I found the photo in my cache. Here's my grandfather: 
|
|
#
¿
Mar 8, 2010 06:14
|
|
|
silversiren posted:
It looks like it started out as a Short Sunderland.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 16, 2010 10:11
|
|
|
Hawker Hurricane?
|
|
#
¿
Sep 11, 2019 23:58
|
|
|
We were at an airshow a few years back, and the weather was too bad for rides so we got to tour it on the ground. I got a ton of photos inside and out.  
|
|
#
¿
Oct 2, 2019 22:53
|
|
|
I was walking the dog a little while ago and saw a strange looking airliner flying pretty low. Looked it up on ADS-B Exchange and FlightAware, apparently it's some Russian government flight? Anyone have any idea what this would be about? Landed at Dulles. Here for the RNC? https://flightaware.com/live/flight/RA96023
|
|
#
¿
Aug 24, 2020 18:32
|
|
|
MrYenko posted:Guns pointed pretty much straight down. My grandfather was a B-24 ball turret gunner. After takeoff, the gunner would crawl into the turret and another crewman would latch it from the outside. On one of his first training flights, the guy who supposed to latch it didn't fully engage the latches. As soon as my grandfather traversed the turret to about this point, the hatch flew open and he fell halfway out. No one noticed, and when he flopped out, his mic cord disconnected so he couldn't even tell anyone. The mission was supposed to be radio silent, so other bombers in the formation were frantically trying to use hand signals to tell them their gunner fell out. The crew was never able to figure out what they were trying to tell them, and eventually my grandfather was able to wriggle his way back in and get the hatch closed on his own. Anyways, that's the story of how I almost didn't exist.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 12, 2021 17:46
|
|
|
two_beer_bishes posted:Mine too, he brought be to an airshow when I was a kid and showed me how he crawled in and out of the turret. I didn't fully appreciate that as a 6yr old. Nice! Shortly before mine died, I finally managed to drag him to an airshow that had a B-24. First time he'd seen one since the war. He basically parked himself next to the turret and talked to the people touring the plane for hours. He had a blast.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 12, 2021 21:14
|
|
|
Phanatic posted:They rounded up metal steak knives. Metal forks, spoons, butterknives, are fine. Anecdotal, but when flying out of Dulles in 2016 someone in our group ordered a steak at an airport restaurant, and they gave him a plastic knife. Stuck in my mind because the steak was tough as leather and impossible to cut with the flimsy knife.
|
|
#
¿
May 24, 2021 14:42
|
|
|
Somewhere in my dad's house he has a video of the shuttle carrier landing at Bergstrom AFB while he was stationed there. I haven't seen the tape in probably 20 years though, no idea what condition it's in.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 20, 2021 14:21
|
|
|
HookedOnChthonics posted:don't travel internationally during a pandemic just to see a bunch of dumb fighter jets hth I know we were saying this same thing last year but I hope to christ it's still not this bad in July
|
|
#
¿
Sep 22, 2021 20:02
|
|
|
Someone left two airliner life jackets at a house party I threw. One's still in the package, the other I opened up to verify that it was indeed a life jacket. They say "unauthorized removal from aircraft is a federal offense," but they have US Airways branding so hopefully no one's coming after them?
|
|
#
¿
May 5, 2022 14:27
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 3, 2024 07:35 |
|
|
Sagebrush posted:i find it difficult to believe that one person moving around could have a significant effect on the CG of a B-29 Superfortress, but maybe i suppose According to my grandfather, the gear-up landing procedure for the B-24 had as many crew members as possible assemble as far back as possible to shift the CG aft. After touchdown, those crew members were supposed to then move as far forward as possible as quickly as possible. He said they all read that and looked at the narrow bomb bay catwalk and said, OK, I guess if it comes to that we'll all just die.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 14, 2023 16:07
|
|