EARLY LIFTING-BODY AIRCRAFT
WHAT A tantalizing idea: Use the fuselage of an aircraft for lift, not just its wings. Lifting-body aircraft have recurred throughout aviation history (the Space Shuttle, for instance, glided to … Continue reading
JUNKERS JUMO AND ITS NAPIER DELTIC OFFSPRING
DIESELS ARE boring, some say. Here are two, however, that are anything but. The German Junkers Jumo was (almost) unique in providing diesel power for airplanes. The English Napier Deltic … Continue reading
HENRY FORD’S FIRST FLIGHT
HENRY FORD was 64 years old before he took his first airplane ride. Not that aviation was of little interest to him: Ford had already invested in an aeroplane (albeit … Continue reading
THE REDHEAD WITH DISTURBINGLY ROUND GOGGLES, PART II
YESTERDAY, TONY Jannus’s 1914 flight across Tampa Bay turned into something even more disturbing than his passenger’s disturbingly round goggles. Chapter 3—A new place, and a new friend THIS was … Continue reading
THE REDHEAD WITH DISTURBINGLY ROUND GOGGLES
A ROMANCE starring Tony Jannus, the Benoist XIV Flying Boat and the Redhead with Disturbingly Round Goggles. Chapter 1—No longer a lazy day FOR pilot Tony Jannus, it seemed just … Continue reading
FLYING ROME TO TOKYO—IN 1920
THE FIRST flying machines seen by thousands of people across Asia could have been two Ansaldo SVA.9 biplanes. Italian pilots Arturo Ferrarin and Guido Masiero, accompanied by their mechanics Gino … Continue reading
SMUGGLING AND MOTORSPORTS
FULL DISCLOSURE: Here I do not mean mere smugglers, of drugs or whatever, who happened as well to participate in motorsports of one kind or another. Instead, I celebrate two … Continue reading
OPERA AND AVIATION
A RECENT mention of the John Adams opera Nixon in China (http://wp.me/p2ETap-2Rh) got me thinking of other links of aviation and opera. One of today’s links is a classic, two are … Continue reading
PRESIDENTS ALOFT
THE TALES of U.S. presidents in the air extend from a joy ride of Teddy Roosevelt to a flying date of Barak and Michelle Obama. In between, there are international … Continue reading
VIVA EL MICROPLANO!
MEXICO ENJOYS “the distinction of being the first country to have employed aeroplanes in actual warfare.” So says the authoritative Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft, 1919. See also “Masson’s Mexican … Continue reading
