I feel like it has been a while since I’ve done anything with military aircraft, so here’s a nice one for you: “F-14 Tomcat The Total Fighter”, produced by Grumman sometime in the 1980s. It’s only about 10 minutes long, too.
Bonus #1, also short, also from Grumman: “F-14 Air Combat Maneuvering”, featuring F-14 pilots in training at Fighter Town USA (not to be confused with Flavor Town).
Bonus: as a tip of the hat to Ygolonac, please to enjoy the following:
Someone on Hacker News posted a link to this website listing surviving examples of the Lockheed Constellation and Super Constellation. (I know, Comic Sans, I’m sorry.)
This inspired me, and I thought it might be fun to share some Connie videos. First up: “The Super Constellation”, a 1955 Lockheed promo film about the building of the Super Constellation.
Bonus #1: The EC-121 Air Force variant flies to Yanks Air Museum.
Bonus #2: Want to see one flying over the Black Forest?
Bonus #3: this is longer, and I have not watched all of it yet. An episode of the “Great Planes” documentary series focusing on the Constellation.
Bonus #4, since three out of four of these have been short: Super Constellation engine startup and takeoff.
Today, I wanted to put up something that pushes a few of RoadRich’s hot buttons (and my own).
The California Highway Patrol has a YouTube channel. I thought it might be interesting to look at some aspects of operations that are common to both the Austin Police Department and the CHP. These are things that APD devotes presentations to in their Citizen’s Police Academy (which is on-hold at the moment), so why not take a look at how a department outside of the United States handles these things?
First up: “Air Operations”. This is a two-parter: Part 1.
(Can I note here that I hate “vlog”? I would say I hate the word, but it isn’t even a word.)
Part 2: this covers CHP’s fixed-wing (that is, not helicopter) operations.
You know what else CHP has? The mounted police.
You know I had to do that.
Anyway, the CHP mounted patrol.
I thought I’d try some things that are lighter and shorter today.
First up: “See A Job”. Actually, I have the impression that “See A Job” is the title of this whole series of educational films, and the actual title of this one is: “The Airline Stewardess: What’s A Nice Girl Like You Doing Way Up Here When The Ground’s Way Down There?”, “the story of Elaine Vaughn, an African-American Pan Am airline stewardess.”
That was from the 1960s. Bonus: “Airline Glamor Girls”, stewardess training from the late 1940s.
More bonus, and in the interest of equal time: TWA explains their “Inflight Services Personnel Selection Process” as of 1979.
Another really short bonus. “Top Gear” enthusiasts may have seen this one, but I had not previously: Clarkson’s custom drink cabinet for the trunk of his car.
I just find that very cool. One more, but still on the short side: “A Roman Solider Prepares Dinner”.
It seems to me that the C-130 is an underappreciated plane.
It isn’t sexy. But it can carry a lot of stuff:
It can carry a lot of troops.
It can land on a short field.
It can land and take off from an aircraft carrier.
Properly equipped versions even have a “frappe” setting.
Today’s feature: “Touchdown!” a 1960s vintage promo film for the C-130 from the Lockheed-Georgia Company.
Bonus, just for fun:
This isn’t exactly travel, but more a cross between business and aircraft.
“Tailspin”, which seems to be from something called “Enterprise” narrated by Eric Sevareid. This is a fairly short documentary about the history, and especially the fall, of Braniff. Warning: for some reason, the sound completely drops out at about the 24:30 mark, but most of what’s left at that point is shots of parked Braniff aircraft and the credits.
Bonus video #1: did you know Braniff flew the Concorde? Well, technically, they offered Concorde service between DFW and Dulles, with connecting flights to Paris and London (operated by Air France and British Airways: I think this is what we might call a “codeshare” today, but the US leg of the flights was operated by Braniff pilots.)
They started the service in early 1979.
Bonus video #2: a 1966 vintage (and mildly amusing) Braniff commercial.
Bonus video #3: another one from 1965 for “The End Of the Plain Plane“.
“We won’t get you where you’re going any faster, but it’ll seem that way.”
Bonus video #3: footage of “The Great Pumpkin”.
If I remember Splash of Colors correctly, the Great Pumpkin was the last Braniff plane in the air. I do remember a story about them being enroute to Hawaii: during the flight, the captain called the chief stewardess up to the flight deck.
Travel Thursday!
I thought I’d do something different today. Instead of planes for our first video, trains. And instead of visiting a relatively civilized country, a fifth world banana republic.
“The California Zephyr”! With VistaDome! And courteous waiters!
To be fair, this is from the 1950s, prior to the decline and fall. And somewhat interestingly, Amtrak still runs a train called “California Zephyr” over a similar route (According to Wikipedia, the original Western Pacific Railroad, Burlington Railroad and Rio Grande Railroad incarnation shown here was discontinued in 1970, and Amtrak began running their version in 1983.)
Bonus video #1: More trains, this time the Santa Fe railroad. “Southern California Holiday”. Both of these videos also include some footage of the happiest place on Earth.
“You may cross here from country to country, with no passport problems.” I remember those days. (Never been to Tijuana, but when I was young, my family walked across the border between Texas and Mexico more than once. And when I was older, I made a couple more cross-border trips with friends. Then Homeland Security.)
Bonus video #2: Okay, travel by air this time. “California: World In a Week”, from the 1960s and United Airlines.
It is almost like being there. Except you don’t have to step over the needles and feces. Marineland of the Pacific operated until 1987, when it was bought by the people who owned SeaWorld. The new owners promptly moved all of the animals to SeaWorld San Diego, shut down Marineland, and poured concrete into the drains.
(Also.)
If you’re a big WWII buff (especially the kind of WWII buff that watches “12 O’Clock High”) you’ve probably heard of, or heard talk about, the Norden bombsight.
It was an early tachometric design that directly measured the aircraft’s ground speed and direction, which older bombsights could only estimate with lengthy manual procedures. The Norden further improved on older designs by using an analog computer that continuously recalculated the bomb’s impact point based on changing flight conditions, and an autopilot that reacted quickly and accurately to changes in the wind or other effects.
Together, these features promised unprecedented accuracy for daytime bombing from high altitudes. During prewar testing the Norden demonstrated a circular error probable (CEP)[a] of 75 feet (23 m)[b], an astonishing performance for that period. This precision would enable direct attacks on ships, factories, and other point targets. Both the Navy and the USAAF saw it as a means to conduct successful high-altitude bombing. For example, an invasion fleet could be destroyed long before it could reach U.S. shores.
To protect these advantages, the Norden was granted the utmost secrecy well into the war, and was part of a production effort on a similar scale as the Manhattan Project. Carl L. Norden, Inc. ranked 46th among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts. The Norden was not as secret as believed; both the British SABS and German Lotfernrohr 7 worked on similar principles, and details of the Norden had been passed to Germany even before the war started.
In practice, it wasn’t quite that accurate: Wikipedia gives a combat CEP of 1,200 feet.
I wonder, if you had told WWII bombardiers at the time that the detailed workings of the Norden bombsight would be available to anyone in the world 73 years later, what would they have thought? Maybe nothing. Who knows?
Bonus video: and here’s how you’d actually use one in combat.
According to Wikipedia, the last use of the Norden bombsight was during the Vietnam War: “The bombsights were used in Operation Igloo White for implanting Air-Delivered Seismic Intrusion Detectors (ADSID) along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.“
Travel Thursday!
I know we went to Singapore last week, but here’s a different view, from a different airline that still exists and is one of my personal favorites. Why?
“Singapore Stop Over”, from Qantas sometime in the 1960s.
Bonus video: in all our travels, I’ve been neglecting the United States. So let us fix that. And it is the time of year when I want to visit someplace slightly cooler.
“This Land of Ours: Montana”, from 1947.
To be fair, yes, I probably picked this just so I could use the Frank Zappa video.
Some military aviation stuff today. One short-ish, one longer.
The short-ish: I’m a fan of the US Naval Institute. I intermittently subscribe to “Proceedings”, and have actually gotten some valuable leadership tips out of it.
(I don’t want to post it here, but I think I have a PDF of that article somewhere, if you can’t access it through your local library.)
“David McCampbell: Ace of Aces” is a short documentary produced by USNI (including material from his oral history) about Captain David McCampbell (USN – ret.), the Navy’s leading fighter ace, the third highest scoring ace during WWII, Medal of Honor recipient, and F6F Hellcat pilot.
Longer bonus video: “Gaining Altitude: The Mosquito Reborn”, about the de Havilland Mosquito…and the restoration of a vintage one.
Oh, what the heck. Nibbles: the Mosquito at Oshkosh in 2019.
And from the RAF Museum: “Under the RADAR: Mosquito versus Me 262”.
I’m fond of the Mosquito: how can you not like a fighter made of wood? At the same time, I’m not sure I’d actually want a Mosquito with the infinite money I don’t have, because I’m not sure I want to try to maintain a plane made out of wood. The Me 262 is closer to being my jam as far as vintage fighters, all that pesky Nazi stuff aside. Or a F6F Hellcat, but they aren’t making those anymore.
(I can’t find it now, but I have a general recollection of a company – somewhere up near Dallas? – that was building Me 262 reproductions with current engines. I think they were asking a little over a million each, but I have no idea what the current status is. If I am remembering this right, that seems a lot more feasible and fun than trying to find a vintage F6F and parts, or trying to maintain a Phantom jet.)
Travel Thursday!
I was thinking about the Orient today. We’ve already done Japan. So how about the next best thing?
“New Horizons: Hong Kong and Singapore”. From Pan Am and 1960, back when Hong Kong was still under British rule.
And your bonus for today: “The Wonderful Jet World of Pan American”, from 1959 and the usual suspects, touting the virtues of Pan Am’s jet fleet.
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”.
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.
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 know yesterday was Travel Thursday, but I think it’s time for some more planes. Specifically, some big jet airliners.
(If you haven’t seen it, “Genghis Blues” is a swell documentary, and is available on Amazon Prime.)
Where were we? Oh, yes, planes. Specifically, the DC-10. I think, like the Electra, this is another example of a good plane ruined by bad publicity. Though to be fair, the cargo door problem is one that should have been caught and fixed before people died: it wasn’t a little known phenomena, like whirl mode on the Electra.
But I suspect what really killed the DC-10 was American Flight 191, and that seems unfair. It wasn’t that the plane was bad: it was that the airline decided they were going to experiment with maintenance shortcuts on a passenger aircraft, and that came back to bite them good and hard.
Today’s feature video: “The Making of a DC-10”, from our friends at McDonnell Douglas.
Bonus: “The Ten Takes Flight”, a slightly longer video about the design and construction also from McDonnell Douglas.