Cool airplane photo thread

Design led by Government comitee.

 

Funny thing is Boeing and Airbus used the same study for their very large airliner analysis, but obviously came up with different conclusions.

 

Boeing factory building under WW2 camouflage.

I believe Disney built them a little village on the roof.
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An all time favorite bit of urban planning!
Wondering if Mr. Parks may know some of the history of this 'village'.....?

 

Yep, I know about it. I came there to work in 1950 and the "village" was long gone, five years to be exact. It is ludicrous to think that this would have fooled any astute adversary that had photos of the area before hostilities because salient features were still blatantly visible. The Boeing Field runway east of Plant Two, the bridge over the Duwamish River north of the plant, other recognizable features like the main roads east and west of Boeing Field that were not disguised. I guess that it was one of many desperate attempts to foil an aerial attack on our defense industry. And because there was never an attack here, the plant under the netting and "village" soon was producing 20 to 22 B-17's every day. Lockheed and Douglas were doing almost as well.My first job assignment was at the "B-17 Hangar" on the east side of Boeing Field where the first Boeing Model 299 was prepared for first flight in 1935. It was still surrounded by an earthen revetment when I reported for work there on 10-04-1950. We were working on B-50's then to modify them for training K-3 bomb sight operators for the B-52. One of my first jobs was to lock wire the bolts on the fuel tank panels in the wing lower surfaces. They were about 4' X 8'. The lock wire had to be continuous from start to finish. If it broke , it had to be restarted. We were outside with the temp around 35 and standing in ice water, it rained in Seattle then. Another job was to install a drift meter mast above the flight deck on the upper nose . The night time freeze left a film of ice on the skin and it was a shaky operation to climb from the wing to the upper fuselage at 0600 on a November morning and work on drilling the holes for the 4 bolts in a location that also had to be checked from the inside so that meant several excursions from outside to inside. The base of the mast was FLAT, the fuselage was CURVED and using a sighting scope I had to mount the mast with zero error in alignment with the target on the vertical fin. Even after hammering the top of the fuselage skin flat and getting the mast plumb,it was impossible to do because the slight breeze kept moving the tail of the airplane. An inspector finally bought it off after we came to an agreement that I had done all I could do with a job that was designed by an engineer that had no appreciation for the environmental issues that we faced. That winter several mechanics were injured when they fell off the icy surfaces of the B-50's . Subsequent safety meetings emphasized that we should be careful when we were on the airplane.
I din't realize that I went on so much, sorry, lots of memories.

 

No problem, Bob! We love hearing your stories from long ago.

 

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My last flight in an L1011 with Delta out of LAX was not auspicious. Changed my watch to the time where we were going as she lifted off. Than the landing gear would not retract. So now I never change my watch until the gear retracts. Seems to be working because the gear has always retracted on all later flights.

 

Dear Terry,

Perhaps the airlines should be paying you to not change your time so they could avoid the landing gear problem...

Best regards,

Robert

 

The tomcat has and probably will be my favorite

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Having a retractable tailhook must have been nice. Ours (F-111) only went one direction.

 

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Once the 747 got going, it seemed that a lot of small-country national airlines all wanted to have at least one in their fleet just for the prestige, even if they really didn't need a jetliner that large.

 

I love the lower deck lounge that PSA had on their L-1011s. Although, given their short leg lengths, I've never understood how anyone would have time to get down there, order a drink, drink it, and get back to their seat before the seatbelt sign went on.

 

I won "tie of the day" at the San Jose Airport once.
Prize?
First Class upgrade back to NYC.

(I was younger, cuter and much better dressed...LOL)

 

Whenever I see a classic Varig jet:

https://www.airliners.net/photo/Varig/McDonnell-Douglas-MD-11/666961

PP-VOQ is better known as the 'hearse' that carried racer Ayrton Senna's body back to Brazil from Europe (CDG flight), after the Imola Tragedy. Now with Gemini Cargo.

 

Ward Carroll has his own YouTube channel. He has some interesting experiences with the Tomcat and other accounts.
The things I like the most, is he cuts out the rumors or 'Hollywood' B/S about the Tomcat, and gives you the straight dope.

 

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Oh boy, so many good memories on this page...

I will never forget flying to the USA for the first time in my life in a Pan Am 747, just the before it folded. I was a kid but I could notice something was not right with that company because the interior condition was crap: one piece of lthe iner from the ceiling was a bit wobbly even before take off and it fell down after a turbulence.

After my childhood idolizing the F-14 Tomcat, watching Top Gun a zillion times, building models, and collecting photos and books, I could finally watch one flying in real life at the Abbotsford international airshow. That was a hell of an experience that I will never forget. It's a pitty that there is none at private hands like with some other legacy fighters.

I also had a super pleasent surprise with Varig once when flying to Frankfurt. I paid economy but presented my Star Alliance card at check in and was automatically promoted to business class. Once seated, a nice flight attendant came to me after a few minutes and said at low voice: "Mr C, would you like to move to the 1st class? We have an empty seat there".

It's incredible that Pan Am and Varig, once gigantic airlines, are now all gone.

 

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