Whipped Cream Difficulties

I missed this anniversary by a few days, partly because it came up right after I got home from my road trip.

But:

It was on June 27, 1923 that Army Air Service 1st Lts. Virgil Hine and Frank W. Seifert passed gasoline from their aircraft through a gravity hose to another plane flying beneath it piloted by Capt. Lowell H. Smith and 1st Lt. John P. Richter, according to the DOD.

This was the first aerial refueling in history. According to the linked article, the Air Force did flyovers over all 50 states: a reliable source informs me that there was a flyover of the Texas capital, which I missed.

In honor of the anniversary, I considered embedding the entire MST3K episode featuring “Starfighters”, which I have sat through. However, I do not feel it would be right to subject you, my loyal readers, to the full movie. Especially since I believe this kind of cruelty is outlawed by the Geneva Convention.

So I’ll just embed this part of it:

If you want to watch the full movie, and get your fill of aerial refueling and Robert “B-1 Bob” Dornan, a YouTube search should turn it up.

Edited to add: interesting article from The Drive that I missed earlier, about the history and current state of aerial refueling.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 29th, 2023 at 9:10 am and is filed under History, Planes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.