BELL AIRACOBRA/KINGCOBRA: INNOVATIVE AIRCRAFT, RUSSIAN FAV, ADVANCED EXPERIMENT, DON’T FORGET PINBALL PART 1
THE BELL AIRACOBRA WAS ADVANCED in several ways and disadvantaged in others. A lot has been written about its virtues and vices. Yet the aircraft and its offspring became one … Continue reading
KALININ’S K-12: WIN SOME, LOSE IT ALL
KONSTANTIN KALININ WAS A SOVIET AIRCRAFT DESIGNER. His designs were unconventional, which made them controversial during the Stalin era—and also, in retrospect, interesting projects for my GMax hobby of building … Continue reading
KALININ K-7—A GMAX CHALLENGE PART 2
UNLIKE KONSTANTIN KALININ, I CAN HONESTLY SAY Josef Stalin did not force me to build a Kalinin K-7. This, despite my usual GMax avoidance of such ungainly craft. On the … Continue reading
KALININ K-7—A GMAX CHALLENGE PART 1
I’VE NOTED THAT GMAX computer modeling of aircraft is a fine hobby, with several recent examples displayed here at SimanaitisSays: the Cessna XMC, the Consolidated PBY, and the Santos=Dumont Demoiselle. Talk … Continue reading
THE OLDEST OPERATING AIRPORTS IN THE U.S.
IT’S FUN AND STRAIGHTFORWARD: Identify the earliest U.S. airports that are still in operation. Being the A.I. luddite that I am, I did my own scraping of the Internet and … Continue reading
THE SANTOS=DUMONT DEMOISELLE PART 2
BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS OF ALBERTO SANTOS=DUMONT were offered in Part 1 yesterday. Today we focus on the 1908 Demoiselle, his last aeroplane design and my latest GMax project. An Ur-Ultralight. Quite … Continue reading
THE SANTOS=DUMONT DEMOISELLE PART 1
BRAZILIAN ALBERTO SANTOS=DUMONT (the “=,” his stylized choice) was a Deutsch-Prize-winning balloonist (1901) who went on to demonstrate his 14 bis aeroplane on October 23, 1906 before a large crowd … Continue reading
AN OLD FRIEND, A NEW GMAX PROJECT
THE CONSOLIDATED PBY CATALINA is an old friend at SimanaitisSays. In fact, it made an appearance here in “Twenty-six Miles Across the Sea, a PBY Has Transported Me.” Actually, I … Continue reading
RUM-RUNNERS OF THE AIR PART 2
YESTERDAY, A 100-YEAR-OLD REPORT from The New York Times described “Flyers Who Ply Their Contraband Trade on Our Landward Borders and Our Coasts.” What writer Howard Mingos had in mind … Continue reading
RUM-RUNNERS OF THE AIR PART 1
THE EIGHTEENTH AMENDMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION and its enforcing Volstead Act, 1919, prohibited the manufacture and sales of alcoholic beverages. Note, however, it didn’t outlaw the possession or consumption of … Continue reading
