The first Naval aviator to give his life

Every time I look at the window and watch the wings of a big ol' jet airliner flex in bumpy air, I am reminded of all those who pioneered this crazy idea that man could fly. The story below is incredible. Apparently, nobody had thought of seat straps.

Dale

 

The idea of a man or woman flying. It's craziness, I tell you.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO7-_fGqGTg]Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines Trailer [HD] - YouTube[/ame]

And the idea they can do it off a boat!
Lunacy, I say.

 

Ah, YES! One of my favorite movies! I have a book on how the replicas were built for that film and how they had to learn to fly them. Structural stiffness was a problem for the Vickers monoplane, wing loading for the Demoiselle for which they found a 90 pound girl pilot to fly it, Santos Dumont was a tiny little guy and his airplane was a "point design" machine. Flying flat out at 40 mph took some hidden skills on the part of the pilots. Fun fun movie. Thanks for dredging that up, Russ.

 

Interesting story. I follow the golden age of aviation. After the Phantom II (Pigs), it is just not the same .


Unfortunately, manned aviation in the military has just a few more decades of service. Tactical aviation may not have three more decades of service with military pilots at the stick.


Drones will not go away. sad face.

 

Here's a relative site...

Even has a picture of William Billingsly, a B-2, etc.

Scroll to page 12.

http://www.history.navy.mil/avh-1910/PART01.PDF

 

Thanks!

Dale

PS Here is a related story about learning on the job. My dad flew PBYs in the big war. He said that he almost became a marine. (He was going through OCS at Jax when Pearl hit.) But, he couldn't stand that blood stripe on their uniforms, so he stayed Navy. He said this decision probably saved his life because the Jarheads flew taildraggers, and we lost a bunch of people trying to land on jungle strips when they couldn't see what they where doing.

 

Thought maybe you guys might enjoy this.

Dale
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Question: In the carrier pic, is this guy landing or taking off? The caption said landing, but it doesn't look that way to me. But I could be wrong.

Dale

 

I think that this is a landing.

 

No LSO !!!!!

 

Agree.

If it's in the same plane as the pic above it, (the one with the seatbelt!), it's a take off.

 

The picture of the pilot at the controls with the leg belt strapped tight is not the airplane in the take off/landing sequences. The pilot picture is a seaplane with tip floats and no struts emanating from the leading edge of the lower wing. The battleship pictures show a different airplane sans the tip floats and forward struts. That's what I have detected and just my input.

 

So does it look like the plane is landing? After looking at it, I think so.

Dale

PS How would you like to be the dude strapped into the seat? Talk about a come to Jesus/Alla/Bubba moment.

 

So the arresting 'system' is just sandbags with cables strung between them?

I guess if the plane only weighs hundreds of pounds...

 

Looks that way, huh? Must have been interesting.

Dale

 

Sand bags with rope connecting them. That sytem was used for quite a few years before the hook.