CyberHeritage

Steve Johnson has an interest in, amongst other things - fireworks, armaments, advertising, submarines and greeting cards. [Quite a few broken links I'm afraid]. Link…

Clyde Edward Pangborn

"Rosie Gordon, stuntwoman, jumped from Pangborn's plane as a featured attraction of the Gates Flying Circus's "Thrilling Aerial Demonstrations." However, her chute didn't open, leaving her dangling at the end of 15 feet of rope tied to one of the wing struts. Milton Girton and Pangborn try to pull her up by the rope but only gain a few inches. Tommy Thompson and Freddie Lund approached Pangborn's plane in their own plane. Pangborn motioned Lund onto the left top wing of Thompson's plane where he braced himself against the strut supporting the top wing overhang, and then stepped across to Pangborn's plane. Still unable to pull her up, Lund slid into the plane to fly it and Pangborn lowered himself to the undercarriage and draped himself around the right rear landing gear strut. Pangborn and Girton pull the girl to safety." Link…

Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky

Aviation (multi-engined and helicopter) pioneer.
"Sikorsky, who was virtually unknown in the United States, was working on the S-29A (�A� for America), a twin-engine, closed-cabin, 14-passenger transport. At that time, his �factory� was set up on a chicken farm owned by his friend Victor Utgoff, a former lieutenant in the Russian navy. The obstacles faced by the company seemed insurmountable. Aside from the money problem, the work had to be done by hand, since the farm did not have appropriate machinery. Sikorsky and his workers, mostly Russian immigrants, were raiding junkyards for parts for the airplane, which had to be constantly redesigned depending on the equipment and materials they found. The main structure of the fuselage was built with angle irons from discarded bedsteads. Turnbuckles, which were used to adjust wire tension, were found in a Woolworth�s five-and-dime. The landing gear was installed with the help of Sikorsky�s nephew, Dmitry (Jimmy) Viner, who was a ditch digger. �Since there was no jack to raise the fuselage,� Frank Delear wrote in Igor Sikorsky: His Three Careers in Aviation, �Jimmy dug under it to make space for the wheels and landing struts. With the gear installed, the plane was then pulled out of the ditch.�
Since the work was done outside, cold weather brought it to a standstill. The enthusiasm of Sikorsky�s men, who had worked for weeks without pay, was at its lowest, and the workforce dropped to a mere handful. The few dollars that could be raised by selling stock in the company were spent mostly on food.
One Sunday, a chauffeur-driven limousine drove up to the chicken house. A tall, slender figure in a long black coat stepped out of the car and walked up to the airplane. In total silence, he inspected the aircraft.
Everyone on the farm got greatly excited,� says Sergei Sikorsky, Igor�s son and the retired vice president of Sikorsky Aircraft, who remembers well how his father described the event.. "They all immediately recognized Sergei Rachmaninoff as their guest. My father went up to him and they began to talk. After about a half-hour visit, Rachmaninoff said, �I believe in you and your plane and I want to help you.� � The composer sat down and wrote a check for $5,000 (approximately $100,000 today). With a smile, he gave the check to the stunned Sikorsky and said, �Pay me back whenever you can."� Link…

Spitfires in Russia

An interesting piece of history. On the shortcomings of the Spitfire on the Eastern front:

"In the first place, air war on the Eastern front by its nature differed significantly from the war in the Western theater of military operations, and many factors influenced its role in the East. Because aerial engagements in the East were conducted at low and medium altitudes, the engines of the “Russian” Spitfires did not develop the same horsepower as they provided on the Western front at higher, working altitudes, for which the aircraft and its engine were designed. As a consequence, the speed of the fighter was lower. In addition, in Russian conditions, the Spitfire had to function largely from primitive airfields. Its low chassis frequently did not withstand the unevenness of the airfields—the aircraft got stuck, went nose-over, and broke their wooden propellers, and therefore the pilots had to be extremely careful during taxi on the ground.

After flying our Soviet-manufactured aircraft [most of which had center-line weapons], our pilots were uncomfortable with the wing mounting of all the weapons—two cannons and four machine guns—of the Spitfire Mk. Vb. “The aircraft’s weapons are spread along the entire width of the aircraft, resulting in insufficient centralized fire” says one evaluation. Despite the fact that there was experience in the Soviet VVS of the employment of the I-16 with the ShVAK wing cannons, Soviet fighter pilots were more used to armaments located in the nose portion of the aircraft. In conditions of high-maneuver engagements, which were in the character of our fighters, such weapons gave superiority. The weight of a salvo was concentrated and directed to a specific portion of the enemy aircraft. In the case of the wing-mounted weapons of the Spitfire, it was necessary in the first place to become accustomed to the great dispersion of the weapons; and in the second place, to diligently shoot them, so that the tracers go to a single point. If gunnery skill is not developed, the shells and rounds may not hit the target.

However, most of all the technical personnel of the regiments were dissatisfied with the power plant of the British fighter—the Merlin 45 and 46 engines. In particular, the summaries say that the “engines function fully satisfactorily. The strong side of the Merlin engine is the fact that a PRD has been mounted on it, a regulator for the quality of the [fuel] mixture. ”The engine had another quality as important to technical personnel as simplicity of service—assembly and disassembly of the engine was simple; there were no particularly difficult approaches to it. The engine started easily, its RZ-5 spark plugs worked for up to 50–60 hours which, as the mechanics noted, was also a good indicator. However, these same spark plugs had a “very weak electrode.”

Adjustment of the engine itself, according to the testimony of specialists, was simple. The qualities that the pilots liked, and which were very important in aerial combat—transition to various regimes of power of the Merlin were smooth. The engine had good acceleration—it is obvious that this quality substantially assisted Spitfire pilots in combat with Messerschmitts, which thanks to the power of the Daimler-Benz engine had good speed dynamics.

A negative quality of the Merlin was the absence of a two-speed supercharger, which reduced the ceiling [altitude range] of the engine. The engine broke down after 50–60 hours of use, after which it was necessary to change out the piston rings, along with other assemblies: hydraulic systems, fuel pumps, and air compressor. The water pump was very complex in its design and, as a rule, broke during use. “There were cases in the process of use of breakage of piston rings, broken connecting rods, the consequences of the leak of coolant in places where the cylinder sleeves were press-fitted. There is no method for starting the engine from a wheeled vehicle”, says a summary of technicians of the 57th GIAP." Link…

Harry Houdini Downunder

Harry Houdini made the first controlled, powered flight of an airplane in Australia, at Digger's Rest in Victoria, Australia. Link…

Aircraft

This collection contains digitized photos of many of the unique research aircraft flown at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards, California. These images date from the 1940s to the present. Link…

The Hindenburg Airship

Zeppelins in Frankfurt. Link…