TALESPINNERS - January, 2002

Hangar Flying
with Stu Faber

PASSING THOUGHTS. What happens when you fly circles around the North Pole? On each circuit you pass the international date line. Do you lose or gain a day each time, depending on which way you circle, so that your calendar gets way off? Yes, I know.

    A lot of people don't understand why, if you are flying against the wind, you don't fall out of the air when you do a 180 degree turn.

    Others ask if you need a windy day to fly a glider. Just in case - You don't.

    On the theory of relativity. Have you seen the watches which automatically adjust to whatever time zone they are in? GPS?

    The Bleriot XI had swivel landing gear for cross wind landings. "What goes around comes around" or perhaps lands sideways?

    The three exhaust driven turbines, similar to turbo chargers, that were geared to the R-3350 radial engines added 300 HP for each turbo.

    The Allison engines used in the early P-51s and P-40s and P-39s were limited to lower altitudes. GE turbo chargers were tried but early on they were undependable and in the P-39 added too much weight and it had no room for one. The P-39 was even too tight for a two stage geared supercharger. The P-38s, which came a little later, used turbo chargers to good advantage. Why were they never tried on the early Allison powered P-51s. Too early? What about two speed or two stage geared chargers?

NEWS CLIPS VIA GEN. AVIATION NEWS 7/01. To my great delight a man named Kim McCutchen has started The Aircraft Engine Historical Society for us engine nuts. While researching material on engines he found little has been published and saw that a forum for others to share information and interests would be useful. Initial membership was under 100 and growing. Memberships (4 annual news letters) are available for $34 from P.O. Box 278, Brownsboro AL 35741-9988. Online at www.EngineHistory.org. A good website. I have joined.

AMELIA EARHART SEARCHES. Two organizations are continuing the searches. TIGHAR, The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, has found a few artifacts on Howland Island which was Earhart's next stop. They might or might not have some bearing on the case. The Nauticos Corp. is planning a sea search such as that which located the Titanic.

ANOTHER HERO PASSES. New York Times. WW II pilot and holder of the Victoria Cross, Bill Reid, completed bombing missions against unbelievable odds. On one mission his Lancaster was twice shot up by German fighters which killed most of his crew. In spite of multiple wounds of his own he flew more than 200 miles to the target and dropped his bombs. On the return trip with windshield out and no instruments and with the help of the flight engineer and a portable oxygen supply, and after losing all four engines and restarting over the channel, he crash landed at an American base and was back flying 5 weeks later. On a later mission his Lancaster was hit by bombs from an out of position plane above. He bailed out and survived 9 months in a prison camp.

SMALL SILVER LINING. Although the recent airliner hijackings and crashes caused a major drop in traffic it may be benefiting the makers of business aircraft and charter operators. Their use also makes it possible to travel at one's own schedule and to and from airports closer to the passenger's needs. For small groups costs are close to first class airline fares. The jet set find the convenience of avoiding major air terminal's delays worth the costs. Leasing and time shares reduce the costs of having planes available as needed. Auto rental companies are finding people use rentals for trips. A mixed blessing.

TESTING COMPOSITES. Following the crash of the plane taking off from Kennedy the airlines are beginning to use ultra sound to test for flaws. A six year old A319 Airbus has shown problems following such a test. Might be a great way to check out a composite homebuilt providing you have an in with a doctor or hospital. Might become a routine inspection of airlines.

Copyright © 2001 by Stu Faber.  All rights reserved.