C R Smith Museum: August 2015

Saturday, August 29, 2015

The Lady has a NEW polish job. Isn't she pretty.??

Friday, August 21, 2015

NMB= MINEBEA

This is the aircraft I flew on after I retired from American as a Flight Engineer ....Randy Foster

A Flight Engineer's panel on the Boeing 707.

Flight Engineer - A Dying Breed

by Major Kong Follow

I had the opportunity to ride the jumpseat on one of our 727s recently. Watching the Flight Engineer go about his job, I was reminded of just how busy that job could be.
Flight Engineers are a rare breed these days and won't be around much longer. Flying as a passenger, you probably haven't seen one in 10 years or so. The passenger airlines retired their three-person aircraft years ago and even the freight carriers are phasing out their 727s, DC-8s and 747 "Classics". When we retire the last of our 727s that will be it for our Engineers.
Many in the airline business started out their careers as Flight Engineers, also called Second Officers (a holdover from back when airliners had larger crews).
I am no exception, my first introduction to airline life was as an Engineer on the 727

The most famous statement made in the cockpit. Blue Sky Ahead. WOW

An interesting story. about ORD....Chicago

Randy, please publish this story to the blog. It’s from Don S., one of our Friday morning volunteers:

---

We all know ORD comes from the word ORCHARD an Orchard Field was an aircraft manufacturing plant at the end of Orchard road in Chicago - BUT do you know where the OHARE comes from?

Read on. It is interesting.

EASY EDDIE and AL CAPONE STORY NUMBER ONE…

Many years ago Al Capone virtually owned Chicago. Capone wasn’t known for anything heroic. He was notorious for involving the windy city in everything from bootlegging booze and prostitution to murder.

Capone had a lawyer nicknamed “Easy Eddie”. He was Capone’s lawyer for a good reason. Eddie was very good. In fact Eddie’s skill at legal maneuvering kept Big Al out of jail for a long time. To show appreciation, Capone paid him very well. Not only was the money big, but Eddie got special dividends as well. For instance, he and his family occupied a fenced-in mansion with live-in help and all the conveniences of the day. The estate was so large that it filled an entire Chicago city block. Eddie lived the high life of the Chicago mob and paid little attention to the atrocity that went on around him. Eddie did have one soft spot, however. He had a son that he loved dearly. Eddie saw to it that his young son had clothes, cars and a good education. Nothing was withheld and price was not an option. And despite his involvement with organized crime, Eddie tried to teach him right from wrong. Eddie wanted his son to be a better man that he was.

Yet, with all his wealth and influence there were two things he could not give his son; he could not pass on a good name or a good example. One day, Easy Eddie reached a difficult decision. He wanted to rectify the wrongs that he had done. He decided he would go to the authorities and tell the truth about Al “Scarface Capone”, clean up his tarnished name and offer his some semblance of integrity. To do this he would have to testify against “The Mob” and he knew that the cost would be great. So he testified.

Within the year, Easy Eddie’s life ended in a blaze of gunfire on a lonely Chicago street. But in his eyes, he had given his son the greatest gift he had to offer, at the greatest price he could ever pay. Police removed from his pockets a rosary, a crucifix, a religious medallion, and a poem clipped from a magazine. The poem read:

“The clock of life is wound but once, and no man has the power to tell when the hands will stop, at a late or earlier hour. Now is the only time you own Live, love, toil with a will. Place no faith in time. For the clock may soon be still.”

STORY NUMBER TWO – OR AS PAUL HARVEY WOULD SAY: THE REST OF THE STORY

World War II produced many heroes. One such hero was Lt. Commander Butch O’Hare. He was a fighter pilot assigned to the aircraft carrier Lexington in the South Pacific. One day his entire squadron was sent on a mission. (at this point there is a difference in the telling of the story and I will relate it as written by the unknown author of this article) After he was airborne, he noted that someone had forgotten to top off his fuel tank. He would not have enough fuel to complete his mission and get back to his shop. His Flight Leader told him to return to the carrier. Reluctantly, he dropped out of formation and headed back to his shop.

As he was returning to the mother ship, he saw something that turned his blood cold. A squadron of Japanese aircraft was speeding toward the American fleet. The squadron was on a mission and the fleet was all but defenseless. He couldn’t reach his squadron and brick them back in time to save the fleet. Nor could he warn the fleet of the approaching danger. There was only one thing to do. He must somehow divert them from the fleet. Laying aside all thoughts of personal safety, he dove into formation of Japanese lanes. Wing-mounted 50 caliber’s blazed as he charged in, attacking one plane and then another Butch wove in and out of the now broken formation and fired at as many planes as possible until all his ammunition was finally spent. Undaunted, he continued the assault. He dove at the planes trying to clip the wings or tail in hopes of damaging them so they were unfit to fly.

Finally the exasperated Japanese planes took off in another direction. Deeply relieved Butch O’Hare and his tattered fighter limped back to the carrier.

Upon his arrival he reported in a related the events surrounding his return and the gun cameras showed the extent of Butch’s efforts to protect the fleet. He had in fact destroyed 5 enemy aircraft. This took place on February 20, 1942 and for the action, he became the Navy’s first Ace of WWII and the first Naval Aviator to win the Congressional Medal of Honor.

A year later, Butch was killed in aerial combat at the age of 29.

SO WHAT DO THESE TWO STORIES HAVE TO DO WITH EACH OTHER?

BUTCH O’HARE WAS EASY EDDIE’S SON.

Special notes: Orchard Depot was renamed O'Hare International in 1949

http://www.snopes.com/glurge/ohare.asp

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Day is done....Gone the Sun.......sunset

The Flagship Knoxville getting a polish job..

One of OUR best.

Pretty

OUT front.the Museum.

Drop by and shop !!!!

yes

Bill has 8.5 minutes til the next movie.

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Inside the CR Smith museum.

Plan Your 2015 Holiday Event

at the C.R. Smith Museum

and save 10% if you book

by September 18^th

Image Blocked

Contact: Shane Melvin at 817-967-5910 or Shane.Melvin@aa.com

Saturday, August 15, 2015

The dime on the tail of the DC-3 story is forth comming!!!

A year or so ago I was standing near the DC-3 and a gentleman comes up to me and asks if I was familiar with the coin under the DC-3?
Needless to say I had no idea of what he was referring to.

He went on to say when these type planes were manufactured by Donald Douglas his mechanics would rivet a dime under the fuselage
near the tail,in case " you bought the farm" (crashed) and survived you had a dime to call for help. He went on his way and as soon as he was out of sight I just has to look. Sure enough there was the dime riveted near the tail. (you have the picture of ours)

In October of that year I was visiting my son in Florida and there was an air show at the Stuart airport. The Flagship Detroit was there and I asked one of the AA people showing the aircraft if he had ever heard the story of the dime riveted to the aircraft. He had no knowledge of what I was talking about. I asked him if I could crawl under and take a look.. No dime there BUT in the exact spot where it would have been there was a piece of aluminum about 2 inches square riveted to the aircraft. To me it looked like someone removed it and patched the hole.

Several years ago I met the sons of Donald Douglas,Don and Jim. Had I known about the dime at the time I would have asked them and I bet they would have had the answer.

I have no idea if there is any truth to this but the dime is there on our DC-3.

Don Smith

Day is DONE.

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Top of the Wright 3350 engine.

It's the air inlet for the fuel injection.

Our Wright 3350 Engine

This is the powerful 3,400 horsepower Curtis-Wright R3350/TC18 engine which was donated by the Golden Wings, an association of professional Flight Engineers in about 1991 and powered our Douglas DC-7 aircraft.

It was the last type of reciprocating engines purchased by American Airlines and the most challenging one for flight engineers because it was so complex.

Marsh Stern, Golden Wings President at the time, raised $35,000 through donations from active and retired Flight Engineers. Acquisition and restoration was managed by Golden Wings member Don Williams and parts procurement by AAer Jim Connaughton, a Phoenix based line mechanic.

Because none of American’s original DC-7 engines survived, the organization purchased a similar engine from a later SABENA DC-7C and Williams modified it to the DC-7 Standards.

You will note that ours sits on a mirror and some would not recognize it as a TC18 engine as there was always a puddle of oil under the engine while at rest.

When introduced in 1953, American’s four engine DC-7s were the first to fly non-stop service coast-to-coast in both directions.

Their careers were cut short by the advent of jets and the last of AA’s DC-7s became freighters and were eventually retire in 1966.