Why I am me, Part 5

Planes:
Airplanes are super cool. They are better than most cars in most every way. There are a few (and increasing number of) cars that combine technologies from both worlds to use wings to change down force, drag, directional stability and all sorts of things.

But Airplanes, I really like. Metal that flies? Are you kidding me? Sure, if you give enough velocity to anything, it will take on a trajectory, but if you design into it devices that produce lift with airflow going over it, you can control this trajectory, and you can actually get something to fly. The physics of it all are relatively simple, but it took man forever and a day to figure out how to do it. Again, we've only been doing this for 100 years. We have made any number of different configurations fly: bi-planes, monoplanes, props, jets, turboprops, auto-gyros, helicopters, liquid rockets, solid rockets, sub-sonic, super-sonic, hypersonic, light.. not yet.

Hundreds of thousands of people have contributed to the knowledge base of what it takes to fly. Trillions of dollars in any currency you can think of have been spent on making flight easier, cheaper, faster, more fuel efficient, extend capabilities, increase payloads, reduce emissions, etc. Militaries and private businesses alike have their own development departments to figure out how to make things better. Engineers, designers and just plain brilliant people have contributed to aircraft of every sort. Think of some of the historic flying vehicles throughout history, and there is an utterly endless list of people, and vehicles, and developments, and patents that have combined to make the best of it.

Orville & Wilbur Wright, Howard Hughes, Kelly Johnson, Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh, Glen Curtiss, Eugene Ely, James Doolittle, Chuck Yeager, Scott Crossfield. Each name brings up volumes of facts about their accomplishments, and the planes they flew to the record books.

A few of my favorites - nothing like my bucket list, I don't think there's any danger of me flying much of anything myself, much less some of the ones on this list that have been retired, of which there are few, or none left, or that have all been placed in museums around the country.

• Lockheed SR-71 - Developed in the early 60's, this plane has given its pilots, ground support crew, developers, designers, and anyone that has come in contact with one some interesting stories to tell. Perhaps the most interesting thing about it, is all of the misinformation that the general public has been fed, and some still hold to be true today. Much of its life has been declassified, yet still some details, and some stories retain the mystique of not really knowing whether to believe them or not. I am trying to get to see all of the remaining planes - that is on my bucket list. I have seen most of the ones in the southern half of the U.S., but there are still several more to see.

• Grumman A-6 - I read "Flight of the Intruder", and became fascinated with this plane. All weather durability, and the men that flew it loved it, even if only because it got them home. It's not a supersonic plane, there's not a lot of gizmos or technology to it, but it has done its job, and done it well. With a long service history, and even some modern uses for aerial refueling from carriers today, its capabilities make it fairly unique.

• Lockheed C-130 - Such an amazing track record, and such a versatile plane. It saddens me to see rows and rows of them in boneyards, their airframe-hours all used up. It is amazing that this plane is still being produced, and is still in use today. I especially like the C-130J-30.

• Northrop Grumman E-2 - The eyes and ears of any carrier group. The E-2 extends radar range beyond the horizon to keep aircraft carriers safe from approaching threats, as well as maintain situational awareness in the battlefield. Next to the C-2, it's sister plane, the only remaining prop-dirven aircraft remaining on the deck of a carrier. Its shape is unique, and its capabilities are essential.

• Northrop Grumman F-14 - Retired in 2006, the F-14 is probably most noticable as the plane that Tom Cruise and Anthony Edwards flew in the movie Top Gun, but its importance to America, and American forces goes far beyond that. First flown in 1970, this aircraft was used for air superiority in both medium and long range scenarios. I just like it cause it's cool-looking. And because of its history. And the swept wings.

• McDonnell Douglas F-18 - Only in recent years has this plane grown on me enough for me to say that I 'like' it. The introduction of the Super Hornet, I think is what did it. The round inlets of the older F-18s dont make it look quite as aggressive as the slanted rectangular inltes of the Super Hornet. Not to mention the advanced capabilities and maneuverability of the Super Hornet. A light, fast, relatively small fighter, this, and it has done wonders for our armed forces. It has an interesting story behind its development, because it almost never was. Thanks to the NAVY having different requirements from the Air Force, the losing design was saved, refined, and reintroduced as what we know today as the F-18. Good stuff. Come on, you know by now that I love history.

• Fairchild Republic A-10 - Slow, ugly, and a gun the size of a Volkswagen. No seriously. I had a die-cast model of this when I was a child, and I would use it to do strafing runs on my G.I. Joe's and LEGO men. It was very impressive to me then, of course, I didn't have to worry about how much ammunition I could carry. Later in life, with the discovery of PC based flight simultators, I was slightly less than impressed with how 'little' power it had, but it seems to work well. On a recent visit to the Pima Aerospace museum in Arizona, I saww several groups coming back from training runs, and it was quite impressive indeed to see them fly in formation, and break away one at a time to find the landing pattern for the nearby air base. Of course, it is a plane, I could sit and watch it all day.

• Rockwell OV-10 - This is one of those that I stumbled upon later in life. Perhaps less well-known, and less liked, but what I have read about it, and what I've seen of it, pilots really seem to love them, and they are a lot of fun to fly. I just think they look kinda cool. In fact, how I stumbled upon them was a web search for something else entirely, and some guy was building an R/C scal version, and I had previously collected some random dxf file of a different version, and he said he was going to do his a little differently, and a lot of people were excited about it, so I stuck around, and started doing research on it.

• North American B-25 - My wife's Grandmother built these during the war. Her husband went overseas, and she did her part back home. My wife had mentioned to me that her Grandmother built planes, but no one in the family ever knew which ones, or really, what she did. So I asked her one day. As she started explaining it, I started thinking about all of the planes that it could have been, and through a process of elimination, I figured out that it was the B-25. I showed her a picture of it, and her face lit up. So I did some more searching, and found one on display locally, and we took her to go see it. She loved talking about it, telling stories that had been locked away in the back of her head for fifty years. It was awesome to be able to hear them, and to share that moment with her. She was so happy to talk about it, like she was young all over again. Ahhhh Grandmas.

• Boeing B-52 -This is one of those planes that has always just... been there. It can fly around the world non-stop, and drop a truck container or two full of bombs in one trip. With upgrades through to present day, the airmen operating them are younger than the airframes they are servicing. I got to see one up close at March Air Field Museum, and the bomb bay is large. I can stand up in it, and not reach the top. It is a very impressive plane up close as well.

• Boeing B-1 - There is something about this plane that makes it even more intriguing than what's on the surface. It's a bomber. Okay. Not too unusual. It has sweepable wings. It was developed as a long range bomber, but is now used for low altitude fast-in, fast-out bombing. There's a mystique in that for sure. From some angles, it looks like a puppy, and from others, it looks like a mole. The little 'catfish whiskers' on the front give it an odd 'face'. Its early years were rocky, and I think I had toys of it before it went into service when I was young. But it has always been one of those planes that captured my imagination. Still today, it is one that I have never seen, and would love to spot in the air.

• McDonnell Douglas C-17 - This plane has some impressive capabilities.I've seen them sneak up and land on a short runway, and you didn't even know they were there until they were on the ground. It has an interesting shape, and the amount of cargo that it can carry for its size is most impressive. Another photo that I have roaming my desktop looks like the flying monkeys approaching from Wizard of Oz.

• Fairchild C-119 - As a child of the video game age, and with a Father and a Brother that were both very much into computer performance, and building your own machine, I had early exposure to PC video games, most of which were either flight simulators or driving simulators. The first flight simulator I can recall that I played was Chuck Yeager's Air Combat. Then came X-plane. Wow. Well, one of my favorite planes to fly in X-plane was the C-119 Box Car. Not really sure why. It did what it was supposed to do, and was a bit of fun to fly. I'm sure there are stories to go along with the servicemen that flew on it, but I've only begun to dig that trench. Still, it is one of my favorite planes.

• Grumman C-2 - The stable-mate to the E-2, this carrier-based cargo plane is nearly identical to the Hawkeye. It shares wings, engines, gear, tail feathers and cockpit. It is pretty interesting that two completely different planes with two completely different functions can use so many of the same parts, but if you look at them, you can see the resemblance. These sound wicked flying overhead, or during a cat launch. They are not jets, and those scimtar propeller blades make them look otherworldly. The upgrades have done them well, and I hope they continue to fly for a very long time.

• Lockheed C-5 - A picture is worth a thousand words. This C-5 is eating a whole C-130. That should say something about its cargo capacity, no? I went to an air show when I was a child, perhaps at El Toro or something, but they had a C-5 that you could walk through, and it was utterly amazing how expansive the interior of this plane was. I was a kid, so of course, everything has shrunk since then, but still. One of the largest planes ever made, and it can carry so much. The pass-through design of its cargo hold is unique, and allows for some... interesting opportunities to say the least.

• Northrop Grumman X-15 - A record-breaker. Experimental. Monumental achievements in research. These planes paved the way for the American Manned Space Program. Without these planes, the Space Shuttle never would have survived its first test flight if it would have been built at all. As small a world as this is, my Step-Father worked on the wings for these aircraft when they were being built. What they accomplished, and the records that they hold really are astonishing, and if you can find a decent source, it is worth a read to learn about them.

• Bell X-1 - Supersonic flight. This is the plane that proved that it was possible. Several modifications were made to the airframe and control surfaces that allowed it to actually accomplish this goal, but in the end, the first plane to ever break the sound barrier was this one, and the first man to fly it while doing so was Chuck Yeager. I love this photo of the B-29 being lifted on top of hydraulic rams, and the X-1 being positioned beneath it for mating. It is interesting to me how the engineers and ground crew came up with solutions to the problems that were presented to them in their quests and tasks.

• Chance Vaught F-4U - The amount of engine in this thing is simply frightening. The size of the propeller, the drop-gull wings, the fact that as a carrier-borne craft, it somehow folds into a smaller footprint. Again, with the simulators, this was a really fun plane to fly.The history of these planes, and their success in war gives them a lot of history, and garners a lot of respect to those that flew in them, and those that died with them. Probably our biggest advantage during the sea battles in the Pacific Theater during WWII, these planes.

• Curtiss P-40 - The capability, or operational history of these planes nonwithstanding, they just look cool. Big V-12 engine, and the painted on teeth that just seem like they belong there. These are sleek looking planes, and though I have never actually seen one, it remains possibly my favorite WWII era plane ever. My favorite part of the movie Pearl Harbor is when they take off in these to combat the Japanese Zero's, and I think it is really quite cool that a P-40 was restored to flyable condition just for use in the movie.

• Lockheed F-104 - The rocket with a man in it. I've seen a couple of these in various states of restoration and repair, and I think what strikes me most about them is the thickness of their main wings. They really are like razors, and it boggles my mind how those tiny little things can lift so much, and not fold under the strain. I have heard stories of ground crews actually cutting themselves while handling the wings because they are so sharp. The complex landing gear fascinates me, and again, the accomplishments of these planes are extraordinary.

• Lockheed F-117 - If you want to talk about impressive design, this plane is going to be near the top of nearly any list. Lockheed's Skunkworks division was headed by Kelly Johnson for many years, and his successor Ben Rich finished developing this plane under the Have Blue project. I recently read a book by Ben that described some of the things they went through in developing this plane, and they were by far, leaps and bounds ahead of their time. Stealth technology, artificial stability, materials, geometry and all sorts of other developments were concepts first introduced on this aircraft. One story in particular comes to mind, where Ben was called to Washington D.C. to justify all of this research money being spent on this program, and I can't remember if it was Ben or Kelly that took a ball bearing into the meeting, rolled it across the desk, and told the top brass that this represented the radar signature of the plane they were working on. That's quite a feat! Not to mention, they got the thing to fly - even though without its computers, the thing wants to fly backwards.

• Lockheed F-22 - Cutting edge technology, the latest and greatest of America's Fighters. This one took a while to grow on me. In fact, I was actually opposed to it initially. I don't recall if I thought that maybe if the F-22 didn't try to take over the role of the F-18s, then the F-14 wouldn't be pushed out of service, or what, but now, knowing what I know, and being given some time to warm to the idea, I kind of like it. It looks menacing. Perhaps more so than anything in our arsenal currently. The worst part about it's outer appearance, is that you never know if it is carrying any ordnance, or what that ordnance is, exactly. Every fighter up until now, you can tell exactly what is is carrying, sometimes even by its radar signature, but this, no.. This one will keep you guessing until after it has fired them, and by then, it is probably too late to worry about it. Supersonic cruise speeds, incredible maneuverability, and the latest in stealth technology makes this plane what it is today, and earns my respect as well.

• Lockheed P-38 - This is a very interesting plane. It is unique in its shape and design, and with that, comes certain new issues that arise as a result of a new design. What is interesting, is that beside the issues, the designers managed to tackle all of the growing pains, and create quite the effective little plane. Counter-rotating props, changing from top in to top out, adding fillets to fuselage/wing joints to eliminate buffeting caused by airflow going near supersonic in compressed areas around the plane, and the center of lift moving aft during high-speed dives creating difficulties when trying to pull out of a dive. The commonality of all engine components except firing order to change the rotation of the engine, and the subdued sound of the engine exhaust after having gone through a turbo-supercharger. If you look through the history books, you will find many examples of heroism, or outstanding performance from a pilot, a fighter wing, or combat group of some sort, but beneath the surface, there are several interesting stories that come from this little plane. The example pictured, for example found itself downed near the polar ice cap. It was found nearly25 stories deep in ice. They dug to it, disassembled it, pulled it out piece by piece, and then reassembled it - into the flyable example you see above. Pretty amazing no matter how you stack it.

• Boeing 747 -This airframe is quite versatile, and has done quite a bit for the airline industry. It has been gracing our skies since 1970, and is still being produced. It is the most popular long range airliner in the world, and the most popular freighter as well.It is still being turned into long term projects like the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft pictured here, and even SOFIA based on a short airframe version of the dash-100 that was built in 1977, and is certified for 20 more years of service with SOFIA. Its lines are unique, and distinctive, and it continues to receive improvements that make it faster and more efficient. After thirty years, it just keeps getting better.


• Lockheed Constellation -The advances that this aircraft made in commercial aviation grew the industry by leaps and bounds. The design credit goes to Lockheed, but it is said that Howard Hughes drove many of the design aspects of the plane. It was difficult and expensive to produce, and was plagued with problems, but it was the first pressurized transport fuselage available to the airline industry, and it expanded schedules, ranges, and capabilities of the industry, and forced other companies to stretch their design to meet its capabilities as well. Beyond that, it's just a sexy plane. It is pretty incredible that there are only two of them that are in flyable condition. I saw an interesting program on the Military Channel or something that captured a portion of the restoration of one in Arizona - it was awesome to see the thrill on their faces when they were able to get all four engines started up and run in a bit. They managed to get the plane certified, and flew it from the States to Australia via Hawwaii. It was so cool to see it roll down the runway and climb into the air.

• Hughes H-4 -The largest aircraft to ever leave the ground... or water, as it was. Even more amazing, this airplane wasn't made with a metal fuselage. Due to the metal shortage during the war, Hughes Aircraft company was forced to find alternate materials. Contrary to the press-given mockery of a name, it is made almost entirely out of Birch. Some of the control surfaces are even covered with fabric! It spent most of its life, kept in a flyable state in Long Beach prior to Howard's death in 1967, and was on display in Long Beach until 1980, and I still never saw it. Now I have to go to Oregon to see it. The pictures that I have seen of it are amazing.

• Northrop Global Hawk - Unmanned Aerial Vehicles are particularly interesting for several reasons. Craft such as this are quite remarkable. Humans have been flying remote control aircraft for quite some time. Drones during WWII, experiments with animals like pigeons piloting the craft to a target, or the use of a remote point of view camera to control the craft. This particular example is, in most respects autonomous. It is given a command, or directive, and then it performs it. It is not flown by a pilot located somewhere on the ground, it is told to taxi, take off, climb to an altitude, fly to a location, etc. Even landing is controlled by the craft itself. And its landings are picture-perfect. The Global Hawk did, however have a rough start to life. Difficulties with structures and materials used for manufacturing proved troublesome partly because the prototypes were pressed into service prior to having all of the bugs worked out. Eventually, the kinks were ironed out, and the craft is being used actively all over the world for situational awareness and reconnaissance. Other countries are interested in obtaining copies from Germany and Australia to Japan. NASA uses it as a scientific test platform for sensing technologies and research. There is even a tanker version in the works. Quite the compatible platform for so many different tasks. Don't be fooled by the photo, it stands 15' tall, 44' long, and has a wing span of 130'! Keep in mind the Wright Brother's first powered flight was only 120'.

• Lockheed U-2 -Such a storied design, this. So many variants, and so much history pivotal to the success of the U.S. might, and folly. With more than 50 years of service, this, another sprout from the genius mind of Kelly Johnson is quite an amazing aircraft. It has been crashed on takeoff, crashed on landing, shot down, refueled in air, shot from carriers and used for illegal overflights, stand-off reconnaissance, weather research, satellite calibration, astrological research - what do it don't do? Follow Top Gear's James May as he gets a ride in one to see just why this is one of the coolest planes ever.

It might be worth mentioning that each of these photos is part of a much larger rotation that graces my desktop on my computer. I'm sorry if the resolution kills you (4096 x 1152), but that's just the way it is.

I could write a blog post on each of these about how they became important to our military, why I like them, and how they came to be, but suffice it to say that all of these and more, are planes that I can't get enough of. And so, it is Airplanes that makes me who I am.