You can display all the fancy jets in the world but they won't hold a candle to the vision and the sound of these magnificent machines.
This reminds me of the American WWI Ace Eddie Rickenbacker, who was also an accomplished race car driver. Rickenbacker competed in some of the first Indy 500 races, and also owned the track for several years. Nieuport 28 Image Unavailable, Please Login 1915 Maxwell Image Unavailable, Please Login
There are a bunch of 737 Max stored at Kelly Field in San Antonio that made a nice backdrop for some other aircraft. It was quite an array from airlines of different countries, the diversity of colors was remarkable. Last pic isn’t mine... public affairs took it on our return after Hurricane Zeta rolled through and I was busy holding the flag. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
maybe.... I had PA take a similar shot back in September coming out of the fresh water rinse in September. The curved props on the J do look a lot larger. Image Unavailable, Please Login
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Captain Eddie was an amazing guy. I read his autobiography this summer, and I highly recommend it. In addition to all those things, he was also adrift in the pacific during WWII for, I think, 37 days. And had his own car company. And was the CEO of Eastern Airlines. And....
Thank you for your thought. The -80 now doesn't look anything like it did 66 years ago. KC-135 nose dome, later model fan engines with turbo compressors, modified wing, etc. That ol' girl had a busy and successful career and contributed untold advances to aviation. I had a very minuscule part in her existence but I witnessed the birth of commercial jet aviation through my working on it then without really sensing the total impact at the time. It was an exciting airplane at the time but who knew what was to come. I'm glad that I saw the first take off and every jet after that except the 757. The B-52 take off in 1952 was the first of the jets that I witnessed. Twenty years before that, I saw the Boeing 247 that started commercial airline service for it's short time until the DC-3 came along. And then, I was able to fly a DC-3 in 1994. So, I have had fortunate flight through my time here .
How could I forget to mention flying Boeing 247 NC13347 in 1967! I got an hour in the right seat with Jack Leffler , owner, in the left seat. Thirty five years after I saw the first one at the old Washington D.C. airport, Hoover Field. I even remembered to enter it my long lost log book. I could sense the B-17's lineage from comparing the 247's flight characteristics to it . From riding around in B-17's a few times in 1945, they had the same solid, steady, locked in stability and resisted any changes to their flight course once it was trimmed and set. Increase in size and two more engines from the 247.
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Werner Voss and Manfred von Richthofen with Voss' Albatros D.III greeting ladies. Jasta 11 adjutant Guido Scheffer looks on. Voss and von Richthofen were good friends. Scheffer flew von Richthofen to the meeting in a 2 seater. The Hackenkreuz on Voss' D.III was a good luck symbol and used widely by both sides in WW-I. Image Unavailable, Please Login
