Today In Wyoming's History: November 1

Today In Wyoming's History: November 1:

November 1

November is Aviation History Month.

November 27, 2017

National Aviation History Month

Somehow I managed to miss the fact that November is National Aviation History Month.

Something that would have fit in well as a topic here on our blog.

Lex Anteinternet: October 31, 1968 Peace talks, bombing halts, . . .

October 31, 1968 Peace talks, bombing halts, UFOs, and elections.

1.  Lyndon Johnson announced that actions over North Vietnam would cease the following day, citing progress in the Paris Peace talks.  Air operations had been going on over North Vietnam since 1965.

 F-105s bombing and being lead by a B-66.

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.