by Nick Anderson | Feb 20, 2023 | Plane Tales
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Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier was one of two men who left the earth’s surface and flew in Montgolfier’s balloon for the very first time. He also designed a type of balloon that was given his name that flew using a combination of a lifting gas and hot air. More than 200 years later, his design would be used in the balloon that made the first non stop round the world flight.
A Rozièr balloon
Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier in a Montgolfier balloon
De Rozièr perishes in a baloon crash over Wimereux
Don Cameron led the way in record breaking and unusual balloon design
Double Eagle II
Virgin Flyer
The successful balloon circumnavigation by Piccard and Jones
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to those Public Domain images available, NASA, the Smithsonian,The Virgin Group, Cameron balloons and Breitling.
by Nick Anderson | Feb 17, 2023 | Plane Tales
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Each year upwards of 2 million of the faithful make the journey to follow the path of the profit Muhammad to a number of holy sites before their pilgrimage rites are considered complete. Muslims from around the world make this journey which, in modern times, is often completed using air travel, as it was in 1991 when Nigeria Airways wet leased a Douglas DC8 operated by Nationair Canada to help them cope with the season’s increase in passenger traffic due to the Hajj. Under the hot sun of the Arabian desert, the scene was set for a disaster.
A Nationair DC8
King Abdulaziz International airport in Jeddah
The Maintenance Record analysis
The DC8 gear
A typical brake fire
Excerpt from the accident report
Excerpt from the accident report
Conditions in the cabin became unsurvivable
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Pedro Aragão, Yousefmadari, ICAO and the USAF.
by Nick Anderson | Feb 17, 2023 | Plane Tales
Podcast (pt): Download
They were the pioneers who trod the territory beyond the sound barrier… a place no man had ever been before and which had killed many who attempted the journey. The rocket powered, winged bullet first flew only 42 years after man’s first powered flight, an achievement that still astounds me. To think that a toddler around at Kitty Hawk who saw one of the Wright Brothers first flights, could have heard the world’s first man made sonic boom before they reached the ripe old age of 50 is a true testament to the ability of America’s finest minds and the bravery of their greatest pilots.
The Bell X1 in flight
The Miles M52
The X Planes
US Military astronaut wings
The X2 drop
The X2 crash
The X15
An X15 launch
Armstrong with the X15
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to NASA, the RAF, the USAF, NPRC,
by Nick Anderson | Feb 17, 2023 | Plane Tales
Podcast (pt): Download
It’s time for another of my flying logbook tales and it’s May 1987 and I’m on the Australian FA18 No 2 Operational Conversion Unit at RAAF Williamtown starting the final phase on course 1 of 87 before moving onto No 77 Squadron which was to be my home for the next few years.
An FA/18B with a pair of BDU33 practice bomb carriers
The Salt Ash bombing range
A practice bomb strikes the centre of the target
The CCIP aiming symbology
Mk 82 500lb General Purpose bombs
RAAF Townsville
Mk82s hitting the target on Cordelia Island
Course graduation
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the Welcome Collection and the USAF.
by Nick Anderson | Jan 19, 2023 | Plane Tales
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A tribute to Sherman Smoot, friend of the APG Show, who died doing what he loved best… flying.
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to Capt Nick Anderson.
by Nick Anderson | Jan 19, 2023 | Plane Tales
Podcast (pt): Download
The First World War battle of the Somme continues, to this day, to fascinate and appal in equal measures. Much has been written about the ground war the first day of which saw the greatest number of British casualties than had occurred before in the entire history of the British Army… 19,240 were dead and 38,230 injured. The fighting over a 16 mile front lasted almost 5 months, after which the Allied troops had advanced about 6 miles. The butchers bill of casualties was horrendous. The combined Commonwealth countries number reached nearly 60,000 but was dwarfed by the United Kingdom’s casualty number of over 350,000. The battle opened on the 1st of July 1916 with a massed explosion that ranks amongst the largest non nuclear explosions in history and was then considered the loudest human made sound to date, audible beyond London 160 miles away. It was witnessed by an 18 year old RFC pilot.
The mine under Hawthorn Ridge
Then the dust cleared and we saw the two white eyes of the craters
Going over the top
The la Boisselle mine crater now and then.
Pip’s landing
The Fokker Eindecker
Bristol Fighters
A dogfight
The battlefield
Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to British First World War Air Service Photo Section, Ernest Brooks, Henry Armytage Sanders, H. D. Girdwood, the RFC and the IWM.
