Serving Midwest Aviation Since 1960
Serving Midwest Aviation Since 1960
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Army Air Force pilot training initially involved three levels: Primary, Basic, and Advanced (single engine and multi-engine). Advanced training was a ten-week course devoting 60 hours to ground school, 19 hours to "military" training, and 70 hours to flight time. Twin engine training used the Cessna Bobcat, Curtiss Jeep, the Twin Beech, and the Beech AT-10 Wichita. The AT-10, or Model 26, designed by a team led by T. A. Wells, trained over half of the Army's multi-engined pilots. Although Beech...
Designed by Doug Webber and Noel Hockaday, the two seat Model 6000 Speedster was delayed in production due to not being able to meet government spin regulations. The first two Speedsters, including NC15865 in this photo, were powered by a 95 hp four cylinder inverted A.C.E. Cirrus Hi-Drive air cooled engine. Cirrus engines, produced in Marysville, Michigan, from 1928 to 1935, were used mostly as power for the Fairchild 22 and Great Lakes Trainers. When the company folded, Menasco picked up the...
Richard Fairey began as a maker of flying model airplanes. By July 1915, Fairey Aviation Co. began construction of license built Short biplanes. From then on, Fairey was known for design and manufacture of aircraft mainly for the Royal Navy. Famous designs included the Fairey IIIF, the Flycatcher fighter, and the WWII Swordfish and Albacore torpedo bombers. The RN's first eight gun fighter was the Merlin powered two-seat Fairey Fulmar of 1940. Although large and slow, it did well in the...
Airbus, known for its flyby wire airliners, including the popular A320 series and the gigantic A380, also produces military aircraft. The A400M Atlas turboprop transport was designed to replace the Transall C-160 and the early model Lockheed Hercules. Able to use undeveloped landing strips and capable of aerial refueling, the Atlas has suffered from development delays and cost overruns. Some countries cancelled orders for the Atlas. The prototype's delayed first flight occurred on 11 December...
Reno Nevada, Curt Brown Taxi's Sawbones, a 1949 Hawker Sea Fury FB11, out for the Saturday Reno Air Race. Brown started from the number four position and finished in the number four position....
“No luggage?” It was oh-dark-thirty and we’d just left the VW at the Park-N-Fly. Sue had a small shoulder bag and I had my camera bag. “It went ahead on the semi.” “Semi?” “We’re part of an air racing team, heading to Reno for the races.” “They race airplanes?” For as long as the Reno races have existed, they are not as well known to the public as one might expect. In the Golden Age of Air Racing, from 1929 to 1939, speed in the air was a major attraction nationwide. Today, mention air raci...
Edouard Nieuport (later changed to Nieuport) began building high speed monoplanes in June 1910. He was killed on 15 September 1911 and Henri Deutsche de la Meurthe with Gustave Delage as designer continued the name, but moved to building a series of over 10,000 V-strut sesquiplanes with rotary engines that became the backbone of French and Allied fighter squadrons. Delage broke the pattern in June 1917 with the Nieuport 28. It used untapered wings, twin Vickers guns, and a circular section...
The prototype Moth, G-EBKT, was first flown by Geoffrey de Havilland at Stag Lane on 22 February 1925, powered by a Halford designed Cirrus I engine of 60 hp. The name Moth was bestowed on the two-seater biplane in reference to de Havilland's reputation as a lepidopterist. Over its production life, the DH-60 was powered by Cirrus inlines of 60-90 hp, the 75 hp Genet radial, DH Gipsy inlines of 100 to 120 hp, and the 130 hp Gipsy Major inline. Aircraft were manufactured for civilian and military...
"You've been coming here a long time." It wasn't a question and I wasn't sure if it had implied age or I just looked like an Oshkosh veteran. "Over 30 years," I admitted. "This is our first time. We've had it on our bucket list for years. Now we're finally here." The wind ruffled the umbrella shade over the yellow picnic table by the Subway near the Vintage Red Barn. They were about our age, a couple from Arizona, much farther away from home than we were. "What do you recommend we see?" the...
Designed by Armand Thielblot to an April 1945 US Navy specification for a new primary trainer, the XNQ-1 mockup was inspected in September 1945. Construction of three, two to fly and one for static testing, was authorized by the Navy. The prototype, Bu-75725, was first flown by Richard Henson on 7 October 1946, at Hagerstown, Maryland. It was joined in the test program by Bu-75726 in February 1947. Testing by Navy and Air Force pilots garnered good reviews. The Air Force gave it the designation...
Dr. Mikhail Leontyvich Mil (1909-1970) began his career working on autogiros with another noted Russian rotary wing pioneer, Nikolai Ilyich Kamov (1902-1973). During WWII, Mil was assigned to a Red Air Force autogiro unit. In 1947, he formed his own design bureau to pursue rotary wing research. His first helicopter, the Mi-1 "Hare" with an Ivchenko piston engine was completed in September 1948 and was produced for Aeroflot and the Soviet Air Force for passengers, crop spraying, and med evac....
Archibald Barkley began his career working with the Wright brothers and with pioneering companies Verville, Stout, Ford, and Curtiss. Teaming up with Harold Grow in 1936, they established the Barkley-Grow Aviation Corporation in Detroit. Their main product, with its patented multi-spar all metal wing, was the T8P-1, a twin engine, twin tailed airliner, which first flew in April 1937 piloted by Frank Cordova. Test flying was done by noted air racing pilot Lee Gehlbach. The T8P-1 was awarded Appro...
CASA or Construcciones Aeronauticas SA was formed in 1923 and became Spain's main aircraft company. It license-built aircraft from Dornier, Breguet, Vickers, Bucker, Heinkel, and Northrop in addition to producing aircraft of its own design. In 1980, it joined with Indonesia's IPTN to create Airtech for production of the CN-235 turboprop transport. Appealing to the military for its load carrying ability, excellent short field operations, and being adaptable to the maritime recon role, the...
The Czech Aero company got its start in 1919 manufacturing the Austria- Hungarian designed twin gun Phoenix fighter under license. Later, it produced its own designs for civil transports, fight- ers, and bombers. After World War II, the reformed Aero began production of a family of light transports, beginning with the Aero 45 of 1947. Designed by Jiri Bouzek, Ondrej Nemec, and Frantisek Vik, the prototype Aero 45 flew on 21 July 1947, the first Czech designed aircraft to be produced after...
PZL or Panstwowe Zaklady Lotnicze was established in January 1928 to be Poland's main aircraft design and manufacturing concern. Known in the early 1930's for a series of parasol wing monoplane fighters designed by Zygmunt Pulaski, PZL went on to produce one of the finest twin engine bombers of the pre-WWII era. The PZL 37 Los (Elk) had excellent performance and, had the war not intervened, would have been exported to a number of countries. After the German blitzkrieg, what was left of PZL was...
Known for its reliability, range, and cargo capacity, the Bellanca Pacemaker won the hearts of bush pilots and record setters. As an example, Russell Boardman and John Polando flew from Floyd Bennett Field to Istanbul in a Pacemaker called "Cape Cod" nonstop, a distance of 5,011 miles in 49 hours and 20 minutes between 28 and 30 July 1931. In the far north, Bellancas hauled fish, were used for aerial mapping, and mounted on floats and skies, provided mail service to remote Canadian and Alaskan...
Designed as a basic trainer with light attack capabilities, the S. 211 first flew on 10 April 1981. Powered by a 2,500 pound thrust P&W of Canada turbofan, it has a maximum speed of 414 mph and a service ceiling of 40,000 feet. With four underwing hardpoints, it can carry a variety of bombs, rockets, and gun pods. Only three countries ordered the S. 211: Haiti (4), the Philippines (24), and Singapore (30). Over 60 percent of the airframe was made of composites. The two crew members sit in...
Tom Lymburn The full moon was the only light on the gray gravel of lot 3-the Participants and Media lot. Race crews filtered slowly out of the banquet hangar, last good byes, hugs, slaps on the back, jokes, and joshes delivered, and wended their tired, sunburned ways toward rental cars, dusty pickups, and RV'S. Sawbones team would be taking many ways home-airliner, truck, and race plane. Sue and I trudged toward the gate, past Formula 1 racers being disassembled for trucking home. Wings and...
During World War II, the British relied on the United States for transports. Realizing they could be left behind after the war was over, the Barbazon Committee looked at setting requirements for post-war airliners. Some designs, like the huge Bristol Brabazon with eight Centaurus radials and the ten engine Saunders-Roe Princess flying boat, were colossal failures. Only two became serious trend setters. The graceful de Havilland Comet had to overcome some mysterious early crashes before proving...
"That should about do it." John set the big camera down and turned to the lap top that rested on the work bench. Another biz jet taxied by the Weeks hangar. Light rain continued its dreary patter on the big hangar's roof. Deftly, he adjusted the contrast to eliminate a tiny bit of glare near the faded letters of the crew bomb tally. At Oshkosh, in 2015, I had run into Atlanta photographer John Slemp by the Stinson. When he showed me a photo from his bomber jacket art project – a photo that w...
Hawker Siddeley Kestrel FGA. Mk. I (XV-6A) Evolved from the Hawker P.1127, which made successful use of the Bristol Siddeley Pegasus vectored thrust turbofan, the Kestrel paved the way for the V/STOL combat capable, and later battle tested in the 1982 Falklands War, Harrier, that remains in service with the USMC, Italy, India and Spain. Work began in 1958. The first free flight of P.1127 serial number XP831 took place on 19 November 1960. Another prototype and four development aircraft...
Prior to World War II, Yugoslavia manufactured a number of fighters and floatplanes, plus license manufactured the British Bristol Blenheim bomber and Hawker Hurricane fighter. After the war the aircraft industry's recovery took a number of years. Soko, formed in 1951, began with license manufacture of Westland Whirlwind and Gazelle helicopters. In 1957 it initiated work on the Galeb and Jastreb series of jet trainers and light attack aircraft. Then, in 1966, came the Kraguj, a single seat...
The Concorde was not the first airliner to exceed Mach 1.0. That honor goes to a Douglas DC-8-40 with Rolls Royce Conway engines that broke the sound barrier in a shallow dive on 21 August 1961. First flown at Long Beach on 30 May 1958 by A. G. Heimerdinger, the DC-8 was designed to replace the piston powered DC-6 and DC-7 and compete with Boeing's 707. Somewhat late to the market and without the benefit of military versions like Boeing's KC-135, only 556 DC-8's were built, compared to 856...
The Davis series of parasol wing monoplanes was built by former WWI pilotWalter C. Davis and the Davis Aircraft Corporation of Richmond, Indiana from 1929 to 1930. Power plants varied from the 60 or 85 hp LeBlond, through the 100 hp Kinner K-5, the 90 hp Lambert, to the 145 hp Warner Super Scarab model that is the subject of this Oshkosh 1988 photo. The Davis won Approved Type Certificate #256 on 8 November 1929, with the Warner version licensed under Group 2 Approval #394 on 21 December 1931....
Designed to replace the Wright R-3350 Turbo-Compound powered Canadair CP-107 Argus (remember the May 2003 Mystery Plane?), which had replaced the wartime Avro Lancaster 10, the Lockheed CP-140 Aurora was ordered in July 1976. Wearing serials 140101 to 140118, the Aurora combined elements of the P-3C airframe with S-3A Viking electronics and search gear. With a crew of 11, the CP-140 was powered by four 4910 hp Allison T-56 turboprops. It is fitted out to handle antisubmarine, pollution patrol, s...
