Keeping Aviation History Alive

[Catmando]

"Still On The Job at [age] 93."

A short video of men who worked building the B-24, Atlas rockets, and Convair aircraft, still volunteering and restoring today, old aircraft to museum quality.

[video]http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local-beat/Still_on_the_Job_San_Diego.html[/video]

I wandered into their hangar two years ago, and it was quite an experience. These guys are a national treasure. They will enthrall you with story after story of aviation history. They built it, and lived it! They loved it, and love to share their experiences. Unfortunately, they won't be around forever. Check them out, and thank them.

They labor not at the main museum, but at the Gillespie Field annex.



http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local-beat/Still_on_the_Job_San_Diego.html



Well worth a visit!

 

[cfam]

It's the same here in Pensacola. The guys that volunteer in the restoration hangar behind the naval aviation museum are amazing. A lot of them work on the planes they actually flew in. If you ever get a chance to take the behind the scenes tour back there, do it, and stop and talk to them. They have great stories. And if you're an a-pooler looking for a good job, you can't beat it. A ton of history, and a real chance to get your hands dirty while doing some good work.

 

[Alpha_Echo_606]

The same is going on in New York.

http://www.aolnews.com/weird-news/a...build-classic-war-planes-in-brooklyn/19700159

 

[OscarMyers]

Thread, I bring thee back from the dead!!

I was watching The Right Stuff last night and it inspired me to do a little poking around about the F-104 starfighter crashed at the end of the movie. I hadn't realized that it was outfitted with a rocket engine above the motor canted up to aid in turning the Plane vertical. Here's a pretty good recreation of the test and the mishap. The Virgin Galactic SpaceShip 2 unity uses a similar setup in that the engine bell housing has a bologna cut where the bottom part is longer than the top to achieve the same effect.

 

[Jim123]

Thread, I bring thee back from the dead!!

I was watching The Right Stuff last night and it inspired me to do a little poking around about the F-104 starfighter crashed at the end of the movie. I hadn't realized that it was outfitted with a rocket engine above the motor canted up to aid in turning the Plane vertical. Here's a pretty good recreation of the test and the mishap. The Virgin Galactic SpaceShip 2 unity uses a similar setup in that the engine bell housing has a bologna cut where the bottom part is longer then the top to achieve the same effect.

NF104.com has a fairly detailed technical explanation of the reaction motors, how effective they were for controlling the airplane in the thin atmosphere, and the ideal profile for those flights. Summary- it's complicated.

 

[Griz882]

My dad worked as part of the brief Navy flirtation with the F-104 at China Lake.

 

[Jim123]

I heard they put a tailhook on it and did carrier trials on a 27C. The minimum wind over the deck had to be 80 knots.

(Maybe some enterprising hacker/troll could deep fake a YouTube video to look like a serious aviation documentary.)

 

[Griz882]

I heard they put a tailhook on it and did carrier trials on a 27C. The minimum wind over the deck had to be 80 knots.

(Maybe some enterprising hacker/troll could deep fake a YouTube video to look like a serious aviation documentary.)

A lego version would be way cooler!

 

[ea6bflyr]

A lego version would be way cooler!

Sounds like someone was spoiled by the Maverick Lego trailer. ??