Strombotne.com » flying

Wright-Patterson Area B

cs — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 23:20:17 +0000

Pictured is one of the more unusual aircraft at the National Air Force Museum; a Northrop YC-125 Raider. It must be said however, that there are many very interesting retired machines here that I’d never seen before — not to mention knew about, e.g. Douglas A-20G Havoc of which 2,850 copies were built. Very cool looking: a B-36 Peacemaker, the sleek and sexy B-58 Hustler, and bizarre: F-82 Twin Mustang “Betty Jo” ( last of piston propeller fighter planes delivered to the military at the dawn of the jet age ). All of this hardware presentation is enclosed indoors along with historic memorabilia and display from early aviation, War time and Cold War years. A single day is not long enough to take it all in.

historical connections

cs — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:04:05 +0000

While browsing a dusty photo album I was pleased to find an early photo of my Uncle and Aunt taken in the Spring of 1946. The backdrop airplane, a Spartan Executive Model 7W, was owned and flown at the time by movie consultant and stunt pilot Paul Mantz. Uncle was a licensed Airframe and Powerplant mechanic and may very well have turned wrenches on the aircraft. Impressively, a search reveals that NC17656 S/N 25 (N47W) survives to this day.

It was built 10/31/1939, the 25th of the 34 produced. First sold to Luziers of Mississippi. It was one of sixteen Spartan 7W’s impressed into service as Staff transports as a UC-71 (USAAF 1942 serial 38288) during the war years. It was returned to civil registry in 1945 as you see it here.

filling in a blank

cs — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 16:36:40 +0000

Stumbling upon a photo set from the Castle Air Force Museum my attention was captured by a static display of an old Convair 240. In reading the descriptive caption I realized that I was looking at some aviation history that I had been close to. Further searching revealed documented early days of this Convair 240-11, c/n 133:

1949 – delivered new to Swissair and registered as HB-IRT
1956 – purchased by Mohawk Airlines and leased in the short term to Transocean Air Lines as N1018C
1957 – operated by Mohawk as the Air Chief PEQUOT in scheduled service for the next 10 years
1966 – purchased by Fairchild Hiller
1968 – purchase by Southwestern Skyways re-sold to Permian Skyways and re-registered N280P
1969 – bank repossession stored and mothballed
1975 – seized by the Sheriff of Salt Lake County

From this Museum find, the end of the story is now complete. But as with most accountings there is usually a gap from when a machine becomes unprofitable, aged and rejected until it is scrapped or rescued. In the instance of this old plane however, I can complete the story.

1977 – an adventure, by my account: continue reading about c/n 133 and the Great Valley Travel Club…

Moribund in Montreal

cs — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:43:05 +0000

The distinctive blue bubbles on this CRJ gave away its former identity and a close up revealed the old Blueridge tail number unchanged. Evidently the aircraft had a 2 year fling with Georgian National aka SKY georgia in Tbilisi until being replaced by a larger but older DC-9-51. Russian and separatist hostility broke out shortly thereafter and It was returned to its lessor.

Dominicana de AviaciÃ³ns

cs — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 16:10:44 +0000

Braving snakes, and lizards in the tall grass and with an eye open for Santo Domingo security which might take exception to my off airport excursion, I explored this Boeing 707 gone to pasture.

This workhorse belonged to an airline that went from boom to bust with a somewhat sad safety record enroute. [ reference ]

There are other photos of HI-442 taken during happier times.