Showing posts with label Aircraft. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Aircraft. Show all posts
Sunday, May 25, 2025
Wednesday, May 21, 2025
Lex Anteinternet: The Aerodrome: Air Force One.
Lex Anteinternet: The Aerodrome: Air Force One.: The Aerodrome: Air Force One. : Air Force One. Air Force One has been in the news a lot recently, and it started before the Qatari proposa...
So the US has in fact accepted the Qatari 747.
Simply embarrassing.
Saturday, May 17, 2025
The Aerodrome: Air Force One.
The Aerodrome: Air Force One.:
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Air Force One.
Air Force One has been in the news a lot recently, and it started before the Qatari proposal to give the United States, or Donald Trump (it isn't clear which) a luxury outfitted Boeing 747.
Technically "Air Force One" is a call sign, and merely denotes an airplane the Chief Executive is a passenger in. If a President rode in an Air Force Cessna, that would be Air Force One. But everyone knows that it refers to one of two Boeing VC-25s, militarized 747s, that are designated for the Presidents use.
RD-2
Interestingly, the first aircraft designated for Presidential use was a Navy airplane, an amphibious Douglas Dolphin RD-2 that was luxury outfitted for use by President Roosevelt. It was used from 1933 to 1939, and obviously not for transglobal flight. The President didn't really do extensive travel until World War Two.
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Roosevelt's once used VC-54C.
In spite of concerns over commercial aviation being used to carry the President during the war, it was in fact used and it wasn 't until 1945 that a new designated Presidential aircraft was acquired, that being a Secret Service reconfigured a Douglas C-54 Skymaster (VC-54C) which was named the Sacred Cow. It contained a sleeping area, radiotelephone, and retractable battery-powered elevator to lift Roosevelt in his wheelchair. It's only use by Roosevelt was to fly the then dying President to Yalta. Truman used it thereafter, but it was replaced by military DC-6 (VC-118) thereafter.
Truman's VC-118.
President Eisenhower, who of course knew planes well, to Lockheed C-121 Constellations, Columbine II and Columbine III. The Constellation was a very popular airplane at the time, and Douglas MacArthur also had one, that one spending many years after its service at the Natrona County International Airport on an abandoned runway.
Columbine II was the first Presidential aircraft to receive the designation Air Force One.
At the end of Eisenhower's Presidency Boeing 707s came in, in part because the Soviets were using a jet to transport their Premier. 707s remained through the Nixon era, giving good service in this role.
747s, as VC-25s, entered specialized manufacture for use as Air Force One during Reagan's administration, although the first one would enter service after that. They've been used ever since.
These aren't normal 747s. They are packed with communications and electronic warfare equipment in order to have combat survivability.
Replacing the current two aircraft that are used as Air Force One is a topic that the Air Force started looking at quite a few years ago. The 747 variant which the VC-25 isn't made anymore. Production of 747s stopped in 2023 in favor of more modern aircraft. Still, the airframe remains useful in this role, and after the Air Force started to look into options, updating a 747-8 appeared to be the best option. Only Boeing was interested in the project anyway, and it will take a massive financial loss to do it.
The aircraft that are being retrofitted for this role was built, originally, as a commercial airliner. The projected is a massive one, and the delivery date will be in 2027.
What the new Air Force Ones will look like.
Enter Qatar.
Qatar has offered to give the US (I guess) a luxury Boeing 747-8 for use as Air Force One until the other 747-8s are complete. But here's the thing. Boeing has been working on the complicated task fo converting the two existing 747-8s for this use for several years. After all, it's basically a combat aircraft. All accepting the plane would do is give Boeing a third one to convert, which wouldn't be ready for years.
Trump is being childish about this, as he is about a lot of things. He doesn't seem to grasp the nature of the aircraft, and likely a lot of other people don't as well. In his case, this is inexcusable. It's a combat airplane.
Frankly, it's a Cold War combat airplane.
Which gets to this.
The 747 was a big massive airliner in an era in which it was the queen of the sky. That era is over and airlines have moved on to more modern aircraft. The world in which Ronald Reagan ordered 747s is gone as well. It's still useful to have an aircraft that can be used in a global thermonuclear war, which is what it is, but that's not going to happen and it makes no sense to use it to go on weekend golfing trips to Florida.
But that's what Trump tends to use it for.
That raises an entire series of other questions, many of which have little to do with aircraft, but some of which do. It's notable that other Presidents have used lighter aircraft for more mundane trips. In November 1999, President Bill Clinton flew from Ankara, Turkey, to Cengiz Topel Naval Air Station outside Izmit, Turkey, aboard a marked C-20C. In 2000, President Clinton flew to Pakistan aboard an unmarked Gulfstream III. In 2003, President George W. Bush flew in the co-pilot seat of a Sea Control Squadron Thirty-Five (VS-35) S-3B Viking from Naval Air Station North Island, California to the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, with that latter obviously being an exception. Barack Obama used a Gulfstream C-37 variant on a personal trip in 2009.
Trump can use something else than a 747 for what he uses Air Force One for in almost every single instance.
Indeed, the entire topic brings up a lot of things about the risks of having an airplane like this, a luxury airliner inside, which is really a combat aircraft. It makes it easy to forget what it really is, and it makes a President feel like an Emperor, which he is not.
Friday, May 2, 2025
The Aerodrome: This Day In Aviation, May 2, 1925. The Douglas C-1
The Aerodrome: This Day In Aviation, May 2, 1925. The Douglas C-1: This Day In Aviation, May 2, 1925.
Friday, April 25, 2025
Wednesday, April 25, 1945. Elbe Day.
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In a staged photograph, 2nd Lt. William Robertson and Lt. Alexander Silvashko clasp each other on April 25, 1945.
US and Soviet troops met at the Elbe near Torgau. The first contact came when First Lieutenant Albert Kotzebue crossed the Elbe in a boat with three men of an intelligence and reconnaissance platoon and met the forward elements of a Soviet Guards rifle regiment of the First Ukrainian Front, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Gordeyev.
Kotzebue had been born in Puerto Rico and remained in the service, retiring as a Lt. Col and dying in 1987 at age 63.
Image description: Black soldiers sit back on the exterior of a small tank with a white star on the turret. They are in front of the Coburg Stadthaus, an ornate building with a statue of Prince Albert–and some piles of rubble–in front of it.
The East Prussian Offensive and the Samland Offensive ended in Soviet victories.
Today In Wyoming's History: April 25: 1945 Last Boeing B-17 attack against Germany.
Hanna Reitsch flew Luftwaffe General Robert Ritter von Greim from Munich to Berlin by Hanna Reitsch for a meeting with Hitler in which he was given command of the Luftwaffe and promoted to Field Marshall. Anti aircraft fire resulted in Greim being injured during the flight.
Reitsch lived until 1979 when she died at age 67. There's some speculation that she may have committed suicide with a cyanide capsule she was given at the bunker, but this is speculation based in part on a cryptic letter she sent to former British test pilot and Royal Navy officer Eric Brown. She remained an unrepentant Nazi until her death in some ways, but lived for a time in Ghana where she recanted racist views on Africans. She was a fantastic pilot and remains a fascinating figure, being a woman who succeeded in a male field in the 30s and 40s and in an environment that was hostile to working women. Additionally, she excelled in flying even after the war.
The Luftwaffe's last air victories in World War Two occurred when five Allied bombers were shot down over Aussig.
Italian partisan Miotero Geninetti, age 40, Italian partisan leader, was executed.
Walter Gross, age 40, racist German physician and Nazi politician committed suicide.
Last edition:
Tuesday, April 24, 1945. Berlin surrounded.
Thursday, April 24, 2025
Thursday, April 24, 1975. Wings of Freedom
The last Pan Am flight out of South Vietnam occured.
Episode 4: Evacuation of Saigon, Wings of Freedom Mission
Six terrorists of the Baader-Meinhof Gang (the "Red Army Faction") seized the West German embassy in Sweden. They took eleven hostages and demanded the release of Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof, which the German government refused. They after killed two of the hostages before a bomb they took in the embassy accidentally exploded, allowing the hostages to escape and fatally injuring two of the terrorists.
The Swedish army took the rest prisoner.
The change in policy on negotiations with terrorists marked the beginning of the decline of domestic terrorism directed at West Germany.
Colorado Attorney General Joyce Murdoch invalidated all six marriage licenses for same-sex marriages that had been issued by Boulder County Clerk Clela Rorex.
Last edition:
Wednesday, April 23, 1975. Ford addresses Vietnam at Tulane.
Tuesday, April 15, 2025
Sunday, April 15, 1945. Race to Berlin.
The Zhukov-Konev Race to Berlin began.
The British 11th Armored Division liberated Bergen-Belsen under an April 12 agreement to allow the Germans to surrender the camp without resistance.
The 1st Canadian Army captured Arnhem.
A Japanese air raid destroyed many US aircraft on the ground on Okinawa.
Task Force 58 launched fighter sweeps over Kyushu, shooting down 29 Japanese aircraft and destroying 59 on the ground.
Franklin Roosevelt was interred at Hyde Park.
The F-82 Twin Mustang had its first flight.
The U-285, U-1063 and U-1235 were sunk by Allied warships in the North Atlantic.
Joachim Albrecht Eggeling,age 60, German Nazi Gauleiter committed suicide, something that was becoming something of an epidemic amongst Nazi officials.
Gen. Friedrich von Rabenau, age 60, former German officer and Lutheran pastor was executed at Flossenbürg concentration camp for his minor role in the July 20 plot. He had been retired due to his Christian beliefs in 1942.
Last edition:
Saturday, April 14, 1945. Operation Teardrop.
Sunday, April 13, 2025
Friday, March 28, 2025
British QF 3-inch 20 cwt anti aircraft gun. National Museum of Military Vehicles.
This is a British QF 3-inch 20 cwt anti aircraft gun. Entering service in 1914, they remained in service in various uses, including naval, until 1947.
Last edition:
Japanese Type 95 Ha-Go light tank. National Museum of Military Vehicles.
Friday, March 21, 2025
Wednesday, March 21, 1945. Ohka.
The first attempted use of the the Yokosuka MXYZ Ohka suicide jet failed when the flight of Betty bombers carrying them towards their target, the US fleet off of Okinawa, was intercepted and all the bombers shot down.
The RAF hit Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen, which also resulted in 125 civilian deaths.
The Royal Air Force hit Venice harbor from the air.
Last edition:
Tuesday, March 20, 1945. Hitler's last appearance in public.
Sunday, March 2, 2025
Monday, March 2, 1925. Delta Air Lines. . .
Huff Daland Dusters Inc., a crop dusting company, which would ultimately become Delta Airlines, was founded.
The United States and Estonia signed an agreement for mutual most-favored-nation treatment in customs.
Last edition:
Monday, March 1, 1915. Locusts.
Tuesday, February 25, 2025
Sunday, February 25, 1945. Smoke in the village.
"Clouds of black smoke pour from a German oil refinery in Wehrden, Germany, after an attack by American P-47 planes turned it into a roaring holocaust. 25 February, 1945. Ludeweiler, Germany, 101st Cavalry Reconnaissance Group.:
GI's ponder graffitti in Belgium celebrating the Red Army. February 25, 1945.
The Marines experience heavy losses on Iwo Jima.
Wednesday, February 12, 2025
Thursday, February 12, 1925. Arbitration and Execution.
President Coolidge signed the Federal Arbitration Act into law, allowing contractual facilitation of resolving private disputes through arbitration.
For some reason, I don't see the GOP supporting that today.
Imperial Russia's last Prime Minister Nikolai Golitsyn was arrested by the Soviets. He'd be tried and, of course, executed.
German miners in Dortmund stopped work in sympathy with the victims of the Stein mine explosion and a protest against dangerous mining conditions.
The Belgian airline SABENA (Societé anonyme belge d'Exploitation de la Navigation aérienne) started the air travel between Europe and Central Africa, the first airline to do so.
Last edition:
Tuesday, February 10, 1925. A concordat.
Sunday, February 2, 2025
Monday, February 2, 1915. Serum run concludes.
The serum run ended in success with Balto and Kassen, and team, coming in at 5:30 a.m.
President Coolidge signed the Air Mail Act of 1925 turning over air mail to private contractors, which in turn was a boon for US civil aviation.
Up to then mail order entity Sears, Roebuck, & Co. opened its first department store at 8:30 a.m. in the morning at its its headquarters at Homan Avenue and Arthington Street in Chicago.
Actress Elaine Stritch was born in Detroit.
I don't think there's any thrill in the world like doing work you're good at.
Elaine Stritch
M'eh.
Last edition:
Sunday, February 1, 1925. Balto, the future King Zog, wild party in Laramie.
Labels: 1920s, 1925, 1925 Serum Run, Agriculture, Alaska, Albania, Crime, Disease, Food, Ireland, Irish Free State, j, Laramie Wyoming, Personalities, Women, Wyoming (Laramie)
Monday, January 6, 2025
Equipment of the Vietnam War, National Museum of Military Vehicles, Dubois Wyoming.
A reader might feel that today must be Vietnam War Day here on this blog, and not without good reason.
For one thing, we've started what will undoubtedly be a series of posts of the closing months of the Vietnam War, with this daily entry:
Monday, January 6, 1975. The Vietnam War resumes in earnest.
For another, I bumped up this old item, or reran it:
And now, of course, the following from my visit to the National Museum of Military Vehilces.
UH-1 "Huey", a helicopter synonymous with the Vietnam War.
Hueys came into use in a major way during the war, and remained in use for many years thereafter. They were still the predominant helicopter when I was a National Guardsmen in the 1980s, and even now I'll occasionally see an Air Force example in Cheyenne in operation.
They remain one of the greatest helicopters of all time.
I wasn't even aware of the M-422's existence as a actual service item. I've seen them on a television series from the 60s and assumed they were just a studio item substituting for a real Jeep. Offhand, I think that was from The Lieutenant which only had one run, that being in 1963.
The "Gamma Goat", an incredibly unstable vehicle. One of the guys I was in basic training with was latter killed in a Gamma Goat roll over.
The M151 Jeep. Also very unstable, but long serving. It was the last 1/4 general purpose truck of the US Army used on a widescale basis.
M109 howitzer. I trained on one of these at Ft. Sill, where I had the "No 1" position on the gun. A much updated version is still in service.
Last edition:
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