Thursday, February 18, 2021

Lex Anteinternet: February 18, 1921. Œhmichen helicopter no 1,

Lex Anteinternet: February 18, 1921. Œhmichen helicopter no 1, ship...

February 18, 1921. Œhmichen helicopter no 1, ships, Egyptian self rule, and Argentine arms.


The early history of the helicopter is complicated, and therefore capable of dispute.  Most early flights weren't that, but hops.  

This is the first "lift" of an Œhmichen helicopter. The gas bags were for stabilization.  Obviously, this would have been a completely useless design but it was pioneering, and the inventor went on to some significant developments in helicopter features.  Etienne Œhmichen was a biologist by training and employment.

Wednesday, February 10, 2021

Lex Anteinternet: February 10, 1941. Threats from the sky.

Lex Anteinternet: February 10, 1941. Threats from the sky.

February 10, 1941. Threats from the sky.

Short Stirlings, bombed Rotterdam, their first combat use. The four engine bomber first flew in 1939.

The British, on this day, engaged in their first airborne commando type raid, dropping paratroopers in Calabria, Italy, to destroy on aqueduct.  I learned that here:

Today in World War II History—February 10, 1941

All 35 paratroopers were captured.

The operation was called Operation Colossus.

The men of the unit had all been drawn from No. 2 Commando of the Special Air Service and were in fact commandos, so they were not a conventional paratrooper unit.

More on the raid:

First British Airborne Raid

The RAF raided Rotterdam.  The Luftwaffe raided Iceland.

Saturday, January 23, 2021

Green Aviation

Boeing announced that it's aircraft will be 100% capable of flying on biofuel by the end of the decade. For reasons that I don't grasp, biofuel would reduce aviation's carbon emissions.

This follows Airbus announcing some months ago that it intends to be 100% emission free by 2035, with hydrogen as the eyed fuel.

Tuesday, January 5, 2021

Lex Anteinternet: January 5, 1941. The death of Amy Johnson.

Lex Anteinternet: January 5, 1941. The death of Amy Johnson.:   

January 5, 1941. The death of Amy Johnson.

 


Amy Johnson.

Pioneering aviatrix Amy Johnson died on this day in the service of the British Transport Auxiliary, the British air ferrying service that was created in order to allow civilian pilots, including women, preform this service during war time.

She was flying an Airspeed Oxford in poor weather when it went off course and is generally believed to have run out of fuel.  She bailed out over the Thames Estuary and was sighted descending by vessels of the Royal Navy, which went to help.  She was sighted in the water in heavy seas and the commander of one of the vessels, Lt. Cmdr Walter Fletcher went over the side to rescue her but was unable to, soon becoming unconscious himself.  He died a few days later.  Her body was not recovered.  

Her loss remains controversial in the UK.  In 1999 a crewman of a wartime anti aircraft batter claimed his gun had shot her down when she had failed to reply to an identification signal and that the crew had believed they had shot down an enemy aircraft until they read of her death the following day, at which time an officer ordered them not to speak of the event.  That's possible, but in my view unlikely as the claim of a hit would have been made at the time and likely records of it might still remain.

And a crewman of the ship that was nearest to her claimed many years later that she was sucked into the ship's screw which killed her, although the crewman did not witness it.  Given the way that ships generally work and the depth of the screws, that's also quite unlikely.

In any event, two heroes, Johnson and Fletcher, who lost their lives that day.

More on events of this day including the Commonwealth victory in Bardia.

Today in World War II History—January 5, 1941

Day 493 January 5, 1941

Thursday, December 31, 2020

Practice Fire Suppression Airplane Mock Up, Casper Wyoming


These are all photographs of a very realistic looking mock up of a mid sized passenger jet being built out of steel at Pepper Tank in Casper, Wyoming.


Upon completion, it will be located at a fire practice facility at the Natrona County International Aiport.














 

Monday, December 28, 2020

Lex Anteinternet: December 28, 1920. Famous Aviator and Aviatrix, C...

Lex Anteinternet: December 28, 1920. Famous Aviator and Aviatrix, C...

December 28, 1920. Famous Aviator and Aviatrix, Committees, Soviet Subjugation, the Roar from the 20s.

On  this day in 1920 a young Amelia Earhart rode in an airplane piloted by Frank Hawks at the California State Fair in Los Angeles.  She was 23 years old and her father paid the $10.00 charge for the ten minute flight.

Earhart in 1928.

It was the beginning of her interest in aviation.

We're all familiar with the Earhart story, of course, so I'll not go into it here.  Frank Hawks, however, is likely less well known to a modern audience, and of course there's no enduring mystery surrounding his death.

Frank Hawks.

Hawks had been an aviator in World War One and then was a record setting aviator after the war.  He retired from air racing in 1937 to become an executive in the Gwinn Aircar Company, being in charge of sales.  He flew around the country in that capacity demonstrating the safety features of the aircraft, but died in 1938 piloting one.

Gwinn Aircar.

Only two of the aircraft was ever made, and the Gwinn company subsequently folded.

Women in Washington D.C. who were on the inaugural committee were photographed.


Unlike now, the inauguration was in March at the time.

On the same day the Ukrainian communist party surrendered its independence to Russia's, which it probably had little choice but to do, in the Workers Peasant Union Treaty.  

Self determination of nations was a declared policy of Lenin's, but it was clearly not one that the Russian Reds meant.  At this point in time they were busy reassembling those portions of Imperial Russia that they could grab, and Trotsky was already proposing that the revolution should be taken to neighboring states.

General John T. Thompson received the first of his patents on his submachine gun.  The gun would go into production the following year but initial sales were poor.  The U.S. military did buy some, and it was intended as a military weapon, but overall it was a new gun in an era which didn't seem to require it.  The first real military application by the United States of the initial model, the M1921, came at the hands of the Marines in the Banana Wars.  The United States Postal Service bought some for guards and there were some police sales.  An early indication that it might acquire some infamy came in the form of sales that ended up being for the Irish Republican Army.

1921 advertisement for the expensive Thompson Sub Machine Gun.   While the gun may have been advertised as "sold only to law and order", it quickly came to be used by the unlawful and disorderly.


It would be the spate of Prohibition related crime, followed by Depression era crime, that would make the gun famous and which would in part lead to the National Firearms Act regulating the sales of automatic weapons.  A new improved version was introduced in 1928 which is the most famous various of the gun, outside the M1 version used during World War Two.

Lance Corporal of the British East Surry Regiment with M1928 Thompson Sub Machine Gun.

Of interest here, in redesigning the weapon for military use during World War Two it was discovered that part of the patented mechanism in the gun was unnecessary and it was omitted.  By that time soldiers were stripping the "H piece" from the earlier variants and leaving it out given that this slightly reduced the weight of a very heavy weapon.  M1A1 Thompsons remained expensive to produce and the military sought to supplant them during the war, but some remained in use as late as the Vietnam War.

And the Laramie Boomerang (from Wyoming Digital News Paper Collection) let the public know that it was flu season.



Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Lex Anteinternet: December 23, 1940. Aviation construction and disaster

Lex Anteinternet: December 23, 1940. Aviation construction and disa...:

December 23, 1940. Aviation construction and disaster.

On this day in 1940, a photo was taken of some new construction benefiting aircraft at a Naval Air Station in Rhode Island.


On the same day, famous aviator August Eddie Schneider was killed in an aviation accident.

Schneider was a well known daring aviator and had won multiple aviation speed records.  He'd also flown for the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War.  On this day he was training a student when his plane was struck by a Navy aircraft, taking it down and killing him.

And of course the war raged on:

Day 480 December 23, 1940

Today in World War II History—December 23, 1940

On this day in the war, Winston Churchill addressed the Italian people and urged them to rebel against Mussolini and take Italy out of the war.  The overall poor performance of Italian troops in combat was already effectively achieving that result.