Lex Anteinternet: October 24, 1968. The last flight of the X-15

Lex Anteinternet: October 24, 1968. The last flight of the X-15:

October 24, 1968. The last flight of the X-15

The final flight of the fastest airplane ever built, the rocket propelled X-15, took place on this day, with the plane achieving Mach 5.38.

The North American X-15.

The plane was piloted by NASA pilot William Dana. NASA's logo can be seen on the side of the plane's fuselage in the photograph above.  The plane achieved altitudes of 50 miles high in some flights, qualifying the pilots of those flights for astronaut wings as the flights technically achieved space flight.

Blog Mirror: Airport board partners with development firm to attract unmanned aircraft businesses

From the Laramie Boomerang about their airport:

Airport board partners with development firm to attract unmanned aircraft businesses

Frankly, I have a really hard time getting excited about something like this.

Railhead: Blog Mirror: Lost Rail

Railhead: Blog Mirror: Lost Rail

I honestly thought I had posted a link on the side bar here to Lost Rail.

I hadn't.

My failure to do so is absolutely inexcusable.  Lost Rail is art, both visually and in terms of the beautiful writing that it features.

Well, I corrected my oversight, but it's an inexcusable omission.

If you are going to check out one railroad blog, check out Lost Rail. 
If its a contest between this one, and that one, it's no contest.  Lost Rail is great.

Boeing E-6 Mercury, Natrona County International Airport.

This is a U.S. Navy Boeing E-6 Mercury at the Natrona County International Airport.

The Mercury is an electronics command and relay aircraft that's associated with ballistic submarines.  In other words, it has a role in communications for the nation's nuclear arsenal.  It's based on Boeing's 707.

Fire Bombing Air Tractor AT-802s at the Natrona County International Airport

A common summer site in the Rocky Mountain states.

Today In Wyoming's History: September 12

Today In Wyoming's History: September 12: 1925   Beacon light construction for Rock Springs to Salt Lake City air route begins.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

Helicopter Stocking 2018

Lex Anteinternet: The Big Picture: Love Field, Dallas Texas, August, 20, 1918

The Big Picture: Love Field, Dallas Texas, August 20, 1918.

A milestone in aviation history: Aviators parachute from from moving aircraft in France. . . .and Texas.

It was reported that on this day, in 1918, a French aviator, and an American one, both experimented with parachuting from moving aircraft.

Like all things aviation,  parachutes were advancing fairly rapidly under the pressure of World War One. They'd already been introduced for balloon crewmen, who could parachute out of balloons in combat scenarios.  Indeed, they typically did so when it became apparent a balloon was about to be attacked, as they had to put the parachute harness on in order to get out. They did not simply routinely wear it.  But up until this point in the war, it had not been the case that aviators wore parachutes or even could.

Indeed, it would not become standard until after the war.  While these experiments proved it could be done, it remained the case that wearing an early parachute in an early airplane was not easy to do, and indeed, was largely impractical for the most part.

A larger view of the same newspaper can be seen on our Today In Wyoming's History site for this date.

Holscher's Hub: Casper Balloon Festival, 2018.

Holscher's Hub: Casper Balloon Festival, 2018.

The Hanger. Wardell Field, Bar Nunn, Wyoming.

This is, and isn't, what it appears to be.

This is "The Hanger", a restaurant in Bar Nunn, Wyoming.  But originally it was what it looks like, an aircraft hanger.

Radial engine on display in The Hanger.  A decommissioned small airplane hangs from the roof.

Wardwell Field was Natrona  County's second airport (the first sits down in what is now Evansville).  The field served from 1927 up until the early 1950s when what had been the Army Air Force's training base west of Casper was turned over to the county. That latter facility, with its much larger runways and much flatter surface was obviously superior, so Wardwell was abandoned in favor of what is now the Natrona County International Airport.  During the boom of the 1970s the old runways were developed into streets and the town named in a playful fashion after the developer.

The fact that it was built on what had been runways was never forgotten and the town uses it as its symbol.  The old central hanger remains, but its now this restaurant.