EARLY AVIATION MOVIES
I WAS BROWSING in Aeroplane (or Flying machine) Scrap Book Number 3 1911-1941 and read an ad for an early aviation flick, The Air Mail, 1925. This got me wondering … Continue reading
TONY’S STRAIGHT SHOOTER
THE FOKKER EINDECKER changed the tactics of aerial combat midway through World War I. Aeroplanes were initially used exclusively for observation, until an observer took a potshot at an enemy … Continue reading
BOEING B-9: 1931 HIGH TECH
THE NAME “BOEING” conjures up an image of the majestic 747 airliner or the mighty B-17 Flying Fortress and war-ending B-29 Superfortress. In fact, though, Boeing made its early reputation … Continue reading
CIRCUIT OF BRITAIN AIR RACE—1911
THE WORDS Brooklands and Brighton resonate today with historic motorsports: the wonderful Brooklands Museum and the annual London-to-Brighton Run for veteran cars. Back in 1911, these two locales were only … Continue reading
AERIAL WHO’S WHO—1913
SOME AVIATION PIONEERS are well known, such as the Wright Brothers, Glenn Curtiss and Louis Blériot, for example. Others may be well known, but not in the context of early … Continue reading
THE WRIGHT BROTHERS—AERO THEORETICIANS
THE WRIGHT BROTHERS went far beyond being bicycle builders because of their extraordinarily methodical approach to all of their activities. Why, for example, did these Ohioans first fly at Kitty … Continue reading
AN ENTHUSIAST’S FATHER BROWN
BEING ENTHUSED about classic cars, vintage aircraft and English mystery stories, I recommend the BBC TV adventures of Father Brown. In a recent PBS presentation, this parish priest/amateur sleuth found … Continue reading
1916 GALLAUDET D-1 SEAPLANE—THE TRADEOFFS OF INNOVATION
SOME AIRCRAFT INNOVATIONS, such as ailerons and joystick, proved lasting. Others may have been based on sound engineering principles, but this wasn’t enough. An example is the patented Gallaudet Drive, … Continue reading
FLIGHT AND THE GREAT SPHINX
EGYPT DOESN’T OCCUPY a great deal of my memory bank, nor of the items here at SimanaitisSays. There’s Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida, this opera and its wayward tomb doors and Winston Churchill’s … Continue reading
THE MUSIC OF AVIATION
AVIATION HAS provided significant inspiration for music. And I’m not just talking about titles such as Flying Down to Rio or Der fliegende Holländer. I’m thinking of classic musical pieces … Continue reading
