Since we are talking vintage aviation...

This is one of my prized possessions. My grandpa's Powerplant Handbook. His crew outfitted the Enola Gay with the racks for the atomic bomb.

I am especially proud since I followed in his footsteps and have been in aviation for 30 years.

I now work for the FAA, which used to be the CAA. That's who produced this particular manual.

 

How about this avation power plant!

 

I guess this could be considered vintage aviation. The drawing and the models were built by my uncle Elmer Holbrook in junior high school circa 1933. They are carved from balsa and other wood and use metal propellers.
In 1949 he sold his house in Massachusetts and packed up his family and drove to Seattle Washington to his new job as an aircraft designer for Boeing where he worked for many years.
When he passed away I had contacted his kids to see if they wanted the models and to my surprise they had no interest whatsoever in them! I had done a cursory restoration on them as they had been broken from improper storage over the years.
Anyway here they are. Hope you all enjoy them.

 

That.....is cool.

 

Check this out, since we're talking vintage aviation, a B-17 just flew over our house. I grabbed my camera and took the best pictures I could in a moments notice. The plane is in town this wekend giving tours and flights.

 

Hey Chris- My grandmother was in the orders department of the Pentagon. She wrote the orders for the Enola Gay to drop the H bomb on Japan. She said it was a coded message, but she was able to decipher enough on her own to know that it was something 'big' and could end the war, and was going to a B-29 crew. She told me this in passing a few years before she died like it was no big deal.

 

My grandpa said that there were aircraft constantly in the air over the US carrying H bombs. The general public was kept in the dark for obvious reasons.

We had a guy do a series of interviews to video him asking questions. He asked my grandpa about his activities as a civilian with the military during WWII and he wouldn't answer him. The guy kinda shrugged it off and asked again...my grandpa told him "I have never been cleared to discuss that, move on".

 

The top is a Requa Gibson 1911 propeller. They were the first propeller manufacture in America, starting in 1909.
It's off my Grandfather's Curtiss pusher type airplane. Gibson went out of business in 1911...

The cowl is off his 1918 Standard J-1 WW1 Biplane. He bought a number of these after the war, put OX5's
on them, shortened the wings, and sold them to Barn Stormers. They used them to take people on rides at
County Fairs. Then in 1926 the Gov. stopped all wooden air craft rides for safety reasons. That was the end
of his Aircraft business.

 

I've had this for years It's a heavy medal model.

 

In 1989 I was a young Marine stationed in Panama City Florida. I had gone thru civilian flight school and had my private pilot license and was doing just fine renting Cessna 172's every once in a while. Then one day at a local regional airport setting out behind one of the hangers I spied this crazy looking old plane. Didn't have a clue then what it was but I wanted it. Turns out it was a Beachcraft Staggerwing model 17c. I never could come up with the money to buy that old wreck but damn it was cool.

Later that same plane was purchased by a guy in Oklahoma and he completely restored it and it is flying today I am told. The original purchase price for the wreck was $4,250 a lot of money to a Marine. The restoration cost the Oklahoma guy $285,000 and that plane today is valued at well into 7 figures. Guess I am glad I didn't have that $4,250 to begin with.

Here is a picture of "A" staggerwing I do not have a clue if it is the same one but it is what they looked like.

 

I saw the build of the Stagger wing on the internet, beautiful job. Odd thing, a guy from Fresno
crashed his Beechcraft 17 yesterday. Pilot and plane both lost. There are fewer then 100 of these
still air worthy. Sad....

 

I have been a aircraft mechanic for 30 years and I have never wanted to get my pilots license. I have flown quite a bit, but never desired to pilot one. But, If I had a staggered wing Beech or a Stearman I would.

 

Being as how I live directly across the street from the Meyers Aircraft Company of Tecumseh Michigan I am usually privilege to a lot of aircraft comings and goings.
Meyers started out in the 1930's building biplanes and proceeded to low wing monoplanes before stopping production in the 1950's. In all about 115 aircraft were produced altogether and many of them are still flying.
When Keith Diver purchased the airport(his father worked for Meyers from the beginning)he would host a reunion of Meyers aircraft devotees every 5 years which was quite an event. He would also support the pilots who did the Memorial Day flyovers every year. Sadly Keith is gone now and the airport in new hands and has fallen pretty much into disuse.
As today is Memorial Day I thought I would show some pics of vintage aircraft that make the flyover every year.Mostly AT-6 Texans they come in a variety of liveries. When I have more time I will post some pics of the Meyers reunions.
As an aside the last pic remind me a lot of what it might have looked like over Hawaii on December 7th 1941. Use your imagination!

 

Great post, thanks for that SAFARIKNUT!!!

 

Glad you liked it. Here are a few more before I hit the sack tonight.This particular Meyers reunion had 32 aircraft if I remember correctly and 11 were biplanes. Some of the pics were taken from the roof of the hangar. The HU-16 belonged to a local guy and they had a real chore getting enough runway to get it off the ground! What I loved about the Memorial Day fly-ins was there were usually a lot of people looking at the aircraft and when they started to take off and ran up their engines all the car alarms in the parking lot would go off!

 

The first picture looks like a scene from Hell's Angels. An early Howard Hughes film for those that aren't familiar with it. I've been fortunate to take two flights in bi-planes. Love the sights and sounds.

 

During WWII over England pilots would fly their Spitfire's along side a German V1 rocket and use their planes wing to tip the wing of the V1 to change it's course all while moving at around 400 miles an hour. Here's a V1 Rocket and a blurry picture of the tipping move.

 

Knuck, That picture is really something. Thanks for posting that!

 

Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing .a
Any landing you can fly the plain again is a excellent landing.
This happen to me in November 1965 in a land far far away. The bird was repaired and we did fly it out of there. So I guess it was just a OK landing. Frank

 

Here is a Sky Rader we called a SPAD the best at close in air support.
Here is a picture of a Cessna Sky Master we called push me and pull me, they told us where the bad guys were and directed Artillery and Air Support after they marked the spot. Marine or Navy air was our preferred help.
Can any one tell me what this is ?

Fishing trip. Answer to the Question is Puff The Magic Dragon Giveing fire support. FYI every 6th. Round was a tracer now that's what a Air show is All About. Not static displays

 

… Here is one of a few of the US Army Air Force 1940s aviation tribute items in my Deuce Coupe. 1942 US Army Air Force 3rd Corps- Officer Base Pass Badge. from what I have been told these are the first guys to prep the P51 Mustangs – first in Tampa Florida, then Europe, Africa and destination complete - Ramstein Air Base in Germany; may they never be forgotten.
.

 

Looks like puff firing, was the caribou from 92nd avn

 

Dad sent this home while training for the 3 years he spent at Great Ashfield in England, too bad the outer edge is in poor shape. Bob

 

Close a C-47 with 3 General Electric Gattelin Guns at 6,000 rounds per. minute

 

We called it puff, sounded like an electrical short

 

Had this blimp ladder for a while. Supposed to be 30's.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^ That is really cool!


Bob

 

The old war birds.....so cool... I have many war time National Geographic magazines and the always have really nice war bird pictures in them ..and seeing the posting of the plane's on here reminded me of the June 1943 edition where the had all of the war aircraft insignia's...they also had the uniform ones ... I thought it be ok to show them here I found them interesting.... I hope it is ok to post them....

Sent from my QTASUN1 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

That is so neat!