BEL GEDDES AIRLINER NUMBER 4 PART 2
NORMAN BEL GEDDES had a grand design evolving between 1929 and 1932: His Airliner Number 4 was envisioned as a flying hotel traveling non-stop between Chicago and London in 42 … Continue reading
BEL GEDDES AIRLINER NUMBER 4 PART 1
IT’S A SIGNIFICANT understatement to call Norman Bel Geddes an industrial designer: His designs were artistic, innovative, eccentric, flamboyant, occasionally bordering on the wacky, hardly just “industrial.” Here in Parts … Continue reading
MR. DUNNE’S FLYING WING—IN 1910! PART 2
JOHN WILLIAM DUNNE was more than a pioneer aviator. His D.5 aeroplane displayed the extreme innovation of a flying wing, almost a century before Northrup’s B-2 stealth bomber. And his … Continue reading
MR. DUNNE’S FLYING WING—IN 1910! PART 1
JUST SEVEN YEARS after the Wright Brothers demonstrated controlled, heavier-than-air, powered flight, British aviator John Dunne designed and piloted his flying wing: The 1910 D.5 was a tailless swept-wing craft … Continue reading
FLYING THE OISEAU BLEU OF HAPPINESS PART 2
YESTERDAY PART 1 FOCUSED on the actual Farman F.180 Oiseau Bleu (Bluebird) and its Paris/London service in the 1920s and 1930s. In Part 2 today, my GMax modeling of the … Continue reading
FLYING THE OISEAU BLEU OF HAPPINESS PART 1
SIGHTING A BLUEBIRD is a symbol of future joy and happiness. And so it was for the Freres Farman, Richard, Henri, and Maurice. These Farman brothers, Paris-born of English parents, … Continue reading
FASTEN YOUR SEATBELT! (NO KIDDING….)
A recent topic was “The World’s Most Dramatic Airport Approaches.” Here are tidbits on three of the article’s eight that I’ve actually experienced, together with comments about my flight simulator … Continue reading
CELEBRATING A STEAM PUNK ZEPPELIN BUSTER PART 2
NOEL PEMBERTON BILLING had a fertile imagination, exemplified by his four-winged P.B. 31E Zeppelin buster. We continue the tale of this quadruplane in Part 2 today and view one in … Continue reading
AN ENGLISH ECCENTRIC PART 2
NOEL PEMBERTON-BILLING, pioneer aviator, aeroplane manufacturer, outspoken adventurer, succeeded and failed a goodly number of times in his early years. Founder of Supermarine, Pemberton-Billing built no aeroplanes as renowned as … Continue reading
1911 VALKYRIE MONOPLANE PART 2
YESTERDAY, WE HAD Horatio Barber’s Valkyrie demonstrating its short take-off capability by charging directly at admiring crowds. Today in Part 2, the Valkyrie continues to entertain, becomes the world’s first … Continue reading
