Whipped Cream Difficulties

I thought it’d be fun to post something especially for RoadRich, and something that is plane related, but civilian rather than military.

“Flying Fun”. This a Cessna promo video from the 1960s, talking about (and demonstrating) aerobatics…in Cessna airplanes. It is also coffee break sized.

Bonus video #1: while this is a Navy training film, it fits into this theme: “Flight Training Wingovers and Chandelles”, from 1953, demonstrating how to perform those maneuvers.

Bonus video #2: from our friends at the National Film Board of Canada, “Bush Pilot: Reflections on a Canadian Myth”. This is a little longer than coffee break size, but not too much so.

Bonus video #3: okay, one more, for fun. By way of Sporty’s Pilot Shop, a virtual airshow with Patty Wagstaff. This is recent, high quality, and coffee break sized.

I’ve posted some B-58 videos previously, but not in a while, and this one is interesting: “Tall Man Five Five”.

On March 5, 1962 two Convair B-58 Hustler supersonic bombers from the 65th Bombardment Squadron, 43rd Bombardment Wing, Carswell Air Force Base, Texas, took off at sunrise and headed west to Los Angeles, California. Off the Pacific coast they refueled from a Boeing KC-135A Stratotanker, then headed east at maximum speed to New York. The total elapsed time, Los Angeles–New York–Los Angeles, was 4 hours, 41 minutes, 14.98 seconds (4:41:14.98) for an average speed of 1,044.97 miles per hour (1,681.71 kilometers per hour) The crew and the airplane “Tall Man Five Five” established three National Aeronautic Association speed records for Speed Over A Recognized Course. At Los Angeles the crew, Captain Robert G. Sowers, Pilot, Captain Robert MacDonald, Navigator, and Captain John T. Walton, were congratulated by General Thomas S. Power, Chief of Staff, Strategic Air Command, and each airman was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. For the eastbound transcontinental flight, the crew won the Bendix Trophy, and for “the most meritorious flight of the year,” they were also awarded the MacKay Trophy.

I can’t tell if that record still stands: I suspect it was broken by the SR-71, but the NAA’s records site is a bit awkward to use, and they changed the way they classify speed records a while back.

Bonus video: “Twenty Years of Strategic Air Command”, from 1946 to 1966. Silent, but short.

Last Friday, we had the DC-10. Today: the L-1011 TriStar.

It was the third wide-body airliner to enter commercial operations, after the Boeing 747 and the McDonnell Douglas DC-10.

We’ve already talked about the 747, of course.

From the early 1970s, “You Have To Get Up Pretty Damn Early To Beat The Tri-Star”, a vintage Lockheed promo film featuring Hank Dees, the L-1011 project pilot.

Frank Borman (who is still alive at 92) shows up as well. His Wikipedia entry is worth reading.

Bonus video #1: “Welcome Aboard”, another L-1011 promo, notable for references to Jules Verne, and for acknowledging that airline travel is cramped…in 1968. Sort of an antidote to all those other vintage videos showing people eating caviar off of fine china in the air…

Bonus video #2: “No Simple Thing”, another L-1011 promo, focusing mostly on the design of the aircraft.

I thought I’d do a little trolling today.

Remember the Tailhook scandal?

Well, we have video of the reunion of the Tailhook Association…

…from 1968. I guess at some point it stopped being a “reunion” and started being a “symposium”. Or maybe it’s always been both a reunion and a symposium. I’m not clear.

There’s some interesting “a wink and a nod” stuff in here: “bold men with a zest for life”, un-orthodox use of “No Step” decals, a reference to supplies of tomato juice in Vegas being seriously depleted (because of aviators consuming Bloody Marys as a hangover cure). Then again, “…single men in barricks don’t grow into plaster saints“.

There’s also some nice vintage video of Vegas in the late 1960s, if that’s your pleasure.

(I kind of wonder how the admiral got his award home. But he was an admiral: that was probably a problem for his subordinates.)

(The Tailhook Association is still active, though the 2020 symposium has been cancelled due to the Wuhan flu.)

Bonus video: these are supposedly home movies of U-2 flight tests at Edwards AFB in 1972.

We have Science Sunday. I think I need to declare either “Travel Tuesday” or “Travel Thursday”, for the alliterative value.

We could sort of have a two-fer today, since it isn’t just Travel Thursday, but TWA Thursday. Sit back, relax, perhaps have a cup of TWA coffee, or some TWA tea.

(Somewhere, I hear Pat Cadigan yelling “DWIGHT!” the way she used to yell “GARDNER!”)

(I still miss Gardner.)

“The World of TWA”, from sometime in the glorious 1970s.

The film follows (in droning voiceover) a typical American couple as they travel around the world on TWA, starting in London, England, and continuing to Paris, France, Rome and Pisa, Italy, the Holy Land including the Sea of Galilee, Greece, Egypt, India, Thailand and finally Hong Kong.

I’m a little surprised they didn’t stop over in Hawaii. And speaking of Hawaii…

Bonus video #1: according to the YouTube notes, this is a Coast Guard video (composed of actual 8mm footage and some re-enactments) about Pan Am Flight 6.

Pan Am Flight 6 (registration N90943) ditched in the Pacific Ocean on October 16, 1956, after two of its four engines failed. The aircraft took off from Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, at 8:26 p.m. HST on the flight’s last leg to San Francisco. After passing the point of equal time, the flight received permission to climb to an altitude of 21,000 ft (6,400 m). When that altitude was reached, the No. 1 engine began to overspeed as power was reduced. The First Officer, who was flying the plane, immediately slowed the plane by further reducing power and by extending the flaps, and an attempt was made to feather the propeller. The propeller would not feather and the engine continued to turn at excessive RPM. The captain decided to cut off the oil supply to the engine. Eventually, the RPM declined and the engine seized. The propeller continued to windmill in the air stream, causing excessive drag that increased the fuel consumption. As a result, the plane was forced to fly much slower, below 150 knots (280 km/h), and lost altitude at the rate of 1,000 feet per minute (5.1 m/s). Climb power was set on the remaining three engines to slow the rate of descent. The No. 4 engine then began to fail and soon was producing only partial power at full throttle. At 2:45 a.m. the No. 4 engine began to backfire, forcing the crew to shut it down and feather the propeller.

This sounds very similar to the plot of “The High and the Mighty”, but the movie came out in 1954 (and the book in 1953).

I’ve seen that once, on TV, and I’d like to see it again. Lawrence has the DVD, but we have to wait until RoadRich can join us. (This isn’t ‘Nam, this is movie night. There are rules.)

(It’s also interesting to me that Robert Stack plays the pilot on the verge of cracking up. Compare to “Airplane!” Was this a deliberate choice? Wikipedia talks about the choice to cast Stack, but is silent on this specific point.)

Bonus video #2: inside the Eero Saarinen designed TWA Flight Center in 2014.

I’m stealing that title from great and good FotB of the blog, RoadRich, who tipped me off to this story from Plane and Pilot.

Carolyn Guertin turned 92 on June 29th.

…the State of Virginia issued a proclamation making June 29th Carolyn A. Guertin Day, and if ever there were anyone deserving of it, it is this woman. Oh, and the CAP also marked the day by awarding Guertin the rank of Colonel.

If you do the math, that makes her 13 in 1941.

Guertin joined the Civil Air Patrol in 1941 on the first day of its existence. She said she was first in line, but 10 guys took officially sanctioned cuts, so she wound up being cadet #11 in the State of Virginia. She was also the first female cadet in the state. That means her recent CAP anniversary commemorated 78 years in service, continuous service, that is. She started a squadron, which is still in active service and is today named after her, served as a member across eight decades and has met more famous aviators than you can shake a stick at, including a dance with General Chuck Yeager. She also met and spent time with Igor Sikorsky and General Jimmy Doolittle, and has met astronauts and presidents. But the thing that means the most to her is the chance she’s had to be a positive influence in the lives of so many young men and women, so many of who look up to her as an inspiration. As we now do, as well!