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Category Archives: Vintage Aero

KATIE’S AEROPLANES—AND MINE

KATIE HOUNSOME IS A TALENTED ILLUSTRATOR with an evident love of classic aeroplanes. “My parents think it’s hilarious that I’m so retro,” she told Mick Walsh in Classic & Sports … Continue reading

May 1, 2023 · 5 Comments

A HOBBY DIVERSION

FOR A LONG TIME, MY GMAX/FLTSIM HOBBY focused on pre-WWI civilian aircraft. Examples appearing here at SimanaitisSays include Cody’s 1909 BAA-1, first to fly in Great Britain; 1910’s Coandă “Jet” … Continue reading

April 2, 2023 · 6 Comments

VIKTOR BELYAEV’S FLYING WING PART 2

SOVIET AIRCRAFT DESIGNER VIKTOR BELYAEV had faith in his batwing idea, but one thing and another complicated matters. We’ve already discussed its rear gunner locations being too cramped to operate … Continue reading

March 3, 2023 · 3 Comments

VIKTOR BELYAEV’S FLYING WING PART 1

I ENJOY BUILDING SCREWBALL AIRCRAFT with GMax for importation into Microsoft Flight Simulator. These include the Stipa-Caproni, which Daughter Suz calls the flying toilet-paper roll; the Pemberton-Billing Nighthawk, which I … Continue reading

March 2, 2023 · 2 Comments

FLIGHT-SIM STIPA-CAPRONI

A WISE YOUNG WOMAN taught me “Never say never.” Well, a fat lot of good that did, because as recently as October 13 of last year, I noted that the … Continue reading

January 9, 2023 · 3 Comments

GMAX/FLTSIM IMITATES LIFE

SO THERE I WAS, just like SAAB engineers with their 21A fighter: They wanted to convert it to jet power. For details, see “Saab 21—Where’s My Prop?” here at SimanaitisSays. … Continue reading

December 8, 2022 · 6 Comments

DUCTED FAN AD EXTREMUS PART 2

LUIGI STIPA’S INTUBED PROPELLER concept may have been derided as the “flying barrel,” but Stipa had done his homework. Here in Part 2, we’ll see whether theory translated into practice. … Continue reading

October 14, 2022 · 2 Comments

DUCTED FAN AD EXTREMUS PART 1

SENSING MY PENCHANT for GMax modeling of odd aircraft, a reader recently asked me about doing a Stipa-Caproni “Flying Barrel.” Surely it’s one of the oddest things ever to take … Continue reading

October 13, 2022 · 7 Comments

A HANDSOME CZECH MONOPLANE—THE AERO 45, PART 2

YESTERDAY IN PART 1, details were shared about the Aero 45, a handsome Czech monoplane built between 1947 and 1961. A goodly number of these craft continue to be airworthy, … Continue reading

September 11, 2022 · 1 Comment

A HANDSOME CZECH MONOPLANE—THE AERO 45 PART 1

IN MY GMax hobby of constructing computer-sim aircraft, I especially like those with airy greenhouses. The De Havilland Dragon Rapide is one; the Westland Lysander another. My latest GMax project, … Continue reading

September 10, 2022 · 4 Comments