Replicating Ancient Aircraft (podcast)
The magnificent aviators of the early days were amazingly courageous, launching themselves into the blue yonder on fragile contraptions made of sticks, cloth and wire. We have photos of their aircraft and, in some cases, actual examples of their aircraft in museums… but how can we ever know what they flew like? You’re going to have to build one! One of our favourite aviation podcasts, PlaneCrazyDownUnder, has recently...
1911: Cal Rodgers (First Trans-USA flight)
A Crash Course in Transcontinental Flight Born in Pennsylvania, USA in 1879, Cal suffered scarlet fever as a child — an illness that left him almost completely deaf. Never one to let a handicap stand in his way, as a young man Cal received flight training from Orville Wright. As was normal in 1911, his flight training was short… after 90 minutes of flight training he passed his test and was issued with Pilot Certificate...
Joe Kittinger: Supersonic Parachutist!
Ever heard of Joe Kittinger? Neither had I, until I received an email describing his awesome high altitude parachute jump back in the 1960s. Rather than retell this story, here is the email (author unknown). You can read more about Joe on Wikipedia. Joe Kittinger is not a household aviation name like Neil Armstrong or Chuck Yeager. But what he did for the US space program is comparable. On Aug. 16, 1960, as research for the...
707 Barrel Roll! (1955)
In the early days of jet airliners the Boeing company’s test pilot, Tex Johnson, rolled the prototype of the 707 airliner upside down, to impress the audience and encourage them to buy this wonderfull airplane. Although this was a perfectly safe thing do do, Tex’s boss was not impressed! Here is the famous photo taken from onboard that day, looking at the world above…...
Aviation Ancestry – Old Adverts
We stumbled across a fabulous coolection of early aviation print ads and thought you might like to take a look. (oops, that was supposed to be “collection” — but it really is cool!) The Aviation Ancestry website features print advertisements covering British aviation from 1900 through to 1970 — from engine manufacturers through to airlines, flying schools and more. There are hundreds of old adverts for...
1961: Yuri Gagarin & Alan Shepard – First Men in Space
In 1961 mankind first rode rockets into space. The first man in space was Yuri Gagarin, a cosmonaut from the Soviet Union (Russia), orbiting the earth in a flight lasting 108 minutes. Eager to show that they too could put a man into space, the United States launched astronaut Alan Shepard shortly after Gagarin’s flight. The US was not quite ready to conduct a manned orbital flight, instead settling for a sub-orbital ballistic...
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Aviation podcast featuring news
and special interest topics from the Australia/New Zealand perspective.
www.planecrazydownunder.com
www.swamp.com.au
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