Day ONE for US Airmail........It didn't work.

		How it Began Flashback to May 15, 1918, to Washington, DC. It’s early Wednesday morning, a blustery day. President and Mrs. Woodrow Wilson are in the grandstand. So is Assistant Navy Secretary Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Postmaster and second assistant Postmaster wouldn’t have missed this day for anything. Members of Congress arose early to be there, too, pondering whether to allocate additional funds for this new service. Lt. Boyle has just mounted his Curtiss Jenny biplane, four sacks of mail weighing 150 lbs secured in the front cockpit. All eyes are on the frail World-War-One aircraft in Washington’s Polo Grounds, anticipating the great event. Airmail service will be inaugurated on this day. And the Army and Post Office Dept. have been jointly charged to provide that service. In only moments flights will simultaneously disembark from Washington and New York’s Belmont Park Race Track. Each will stop at Philadelphia to deliver and pick up mail, refuel, change pilots, and then continue on to the other destination. A large crowd mills about at Philadelphia’s Bustleton field, too, excited to be part of this highly-publicized history-in-the-making. In Washington, mechanics hover near Boyle's aircraft, ready on the signal to "prop" the plane, to bring the engine to life. Boyle gives the thumbs-up, shouts "Clear," then "Contact!" The mechanics take their cue with a swift pull on the prop ... nothing. They try again ... still no roar of the engine. Repeatedly they try, without success. The honored guests in the grandstand become restless. A holler comes from the side "Check the fuel!" The mechanics do and, embarrassed, find the tanks dry. Quickly filling the tanks, they again prop the plane. The engine’s roar reaches the grandstand. A cloud of blue smoke envelops all standing nearby. Worried frowns by those from the Post Office Dept. turn into broad grins. Army personnel reappear from behind the grandstand. Everybody is friends again. In but moments, the Jenny leaves the ground, struggling for altitude, anxious to clear the trees that rim the sports park. News reporters and photographers race back to their offices to begin work on the front-page coverage planned for the afternoon editions. Less than twenty minutes into the air on his way to Philadelphia, Boyle gets lost, lands in a farmer’s field, and severely damages the plane's prop. The Army rushes a new prop to the site. But the airmail will not go through that day. It is returned

What are these rotating beacons.??

The first nighttime airmail flights started on July 1, 1924. By eliminating the transfer of mail to rail cars at night, the coast to coast delivery time for airmail was reduced by two business days. Eventually, there were 284 beacons in service.^[3] With a June 1925 deadline, the 2,665 mile lighted airway was completed from New York to San Francisco. In 1927, the lighted airway was complete between New York and Salt Lake City, Los Angeles to Las Vegas, Los Angeles to San Francisco, New York to Atlanta, and Chicago to Dallas, 4121 miles in total. In 1933, the Transcontinental Airway System totaled 1500 beacons, and 18000 miles^[4]

 

Just pretty, Oct. 27,2015

Halloween 2015

I am doing a little test......Question, Had you rather be the RABBIT or the FOX..

Flight Engineers WINGS we wore on our Jackets.

                                      Notice that the eagle is being powered by a JET engine.

Installed on all Pilot and Flight engineers CAPS....

Big party on November 6...Come one come ALL.

Andrew's fancy little airplane

If you have seen my brick you will look to the right of mine to see the father of Andrew... Grady is one of our retired flight engineers.
Andrew is now a Test Pilot for Boeing Aircraft in Seattle.

A couple photos to rest your eyes.....Beautful.

This explains how the Fan up front is well worth the MOD..

Pratt & Whitney’s new PurePower Geared Turbofan aircraft engines are impressive beasts. Scheduled to enter commercial service before the end of the year, they burn 16 percent less fuel than today’s best jet engines, Pratt says. They pollute less. They have fewer parts, which increases reliability. And they create up to 75 percent less noise on the ground, enabling carriers to pay lower noise fees and travel over some residential areas that are no-fly zones for regular planes. Airbus, Bombardier, Embraer, Irkut, and Mitsubishi have certified the engines for use on their narrowbody craft. JetBlue, Lufthansa, Air New Zealand, Malaysia’s Flymojo, and Japan Airlines are among the engine’s 70 buyers in more than 30 countries.
To people outside the aircraft business, what may be most remarkable about the engines is that they took almost 30 years to develop. That’s about 15 times as long as the gestation period of an elephant and unimaginably longer than it takes to pop out a smartphone app. Could Pratt have gotten the hardware out faster? Probably. But industrial innovation on the scale of a commercial jet engine is inevitably and invariably a slog—one part inspiration to 99 parts perspiration.
In Pratt’s case, it required the cooperation of hundreds of engineers across the company, a $10 billion investment commitment from management, and, above all, the buy-in of aircraft makers and airlines, which had to be convinced that the engine would be both safe and durable. “It’s the antithesis of a Silicon Valley innovation,” says Alan Epstein, a retired MIT professor who is the company’s vice president for technology and the environment. “The Silicon Valley guys seem to have the attention span of 3-year-olds.”

This is Fantastic...

This is going to be FUN. Come ONE come ALL.

Randy Foster's home in ww-2.

A ball turret was a spherical-shaped, altazimuth mount gun turret, fitted to some American-built aircraft during World War II. The name arose from the turret's spherical housing.
It was a manned turret, as distinct from remote-controlled turrets also in use. The turret held the gunner, two heavy machine guns, ammunition, and sights. The Sperry Corporation designed, ventral versions became the most common version, thus the term "ball turret" is most specific to these versions.

Contents

• 1 Sperry ball turret
• 2 ERCO ball turret
• 3 Popular culture
• 4 References
• 5 External links

Sperry ball turret

Interior of the Sperry ball turret of a preserved B-17 (2008)

Sperry and Emerson Electric each developed a ball turret, and the designs were similar in the case of the nose defense version. Development of the spherical Emerson was halted. The Sperry nose turret was tested and preferred, but delayed until later aircraft. The Sperry-designed ventral system saw widespread use and production became sourced to several manufactures to meet the defense needs on several aircraft after the unacceptability of remotely-manned ventral turret systems. The predominant use was on the B-17 Flying Fortress and the B-24 Liberator, as well as the United States Navy's Liberator, the PB4Y-1. The ventral turret was used in tandem in the Convair B-32, successor to the B-24. Ball turrets appeared in the nose and tail as well as the nose of the final series B-24.
The Sperry ball turret was very small in order to reduce drag, and was typically operated by the shortest man of the crew. To enter the turret, the turret was moved until the guns were pointed straight down. The gunner placed his feet in the heel rests and then crouched down into a fetal position. He would then put on a safety strap, close and lock the turret door. There was no room inside for a parachute, which was left in the cabin above the turret. A few gunners wore a chest parachute.
The gunner crouched in a fetal position within the turret with his back and head against the rear wall, his hips at the bottom, and his legs held in mid-air by two footrests on the front wall. This left him positioned with his eyes roughly level with the pair of light-barrel Browning AN/M2 .50 caliber machine guns which extended through the entire turret, and located to either side of the gunner. The cocking handles were located too close to the gunner to be operated easily, so a cable was attached to the handle through pulleys to a handle near the front of the turret. Another important factor relative to the guns was the fact that not all stoppages could be corrected by simply charging (cocking) the guns. In many cases, when a gun failed to fire, it was necessary for the gunner to "reload" the gun, which required access to the firing chamber of the guns. Access to the firing chamber of the guns was severely restricted by the guns location in the small turret. Normally, the gunner accessed the firing chamber by releasing a latch and raising the cover to a position perpendicular to the gun but this was not possible in the ball turret. To remedy that, the front end of the cover was "slotted". The gunner released the latch and removed the cover which allowed a few inches over the firing chamber for the gunner to access and clear a stoppage. Small ammunition boxes rested on the top of the turret and the remaining ammunition belts fed the turret by means of an elaborate chute system. A reflector sight was hung from the top of the turret, positioned roughly between the gunner's feet.
The directional control was by two hand control grips with firing buttons incorporated. The left foot controlled the reflector sight range reticule. The right foot operated a push-to-talk intercom switch. The turret was normally electrically powered in azimuth and altitude. An emergency hand crank could be attached to reposition the turret from inside the aircraft fuselage. In the event of a power failure another crewman would use this to crank the turret into the vertical position to allow the gunner to exit.^[1]

A B-24J's Sperry ventral ball turret in its retracted position for landing, as seen from inside the bomber.

On the B-17, the A-2 turret was close to the ground, but had enough clearance for takeoff and landing. However, the gunner did not enter the turret until well into the air, in case of landing gear failure. During take-off and landing, the turret had to be positioned with its guns horizontal, pointing aft. As the guns had to be vertical before the gunner could enter or leave the turret, a set of external controls were fitted so the turret could be repositioned while unoccupied.^[2]
In the case of the B-24, the Liberator's tricycle landing gear design mandated that its A-13 model Sperry ball turret have a fully retractable mount, so that the ball turret would always be retracted upwards into the lower fuselage while the aircraft was on the ground, providing ground clearance with it in the stowed position.

ERCO ball turret

An Erco ball turret

Erco Ball turret, on display at National Museum of Naval Aviation, FL.

After testing in mid-1943, the ERCO ball turret became the preferred bow installation in the Navy's Consolidated PB4Y-1 Liberator and PB4Y-2 Privateer patrol bombers although other types continued to be installed. Earlier designs appeared in other patrol seaplanes. It served a double purpose, defense against bow attacks as well as fire suppression and offensive strafing in antisubmarine warfare. Since this turret is of the ball type, the gunner moves with his guns and sight in elevation and azimuth by means of control

Capt Herb checks over a B-17 many years after.

Herb flew the B-17 in ww-2

During his flying career he flew 50,000 hours.

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Armstrong first step on moon but Buzz was next to walk on moon.

The book signing was a big success.

Edwin Eugene "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. (born January 20, 1930) is an American engineer and former astronaut, and the second person to walk on the Moon. He was the Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing in history. He set foot on the Moon at 03:15:16 on July 21, 1969 (UTC), following mission commander Neil Armstrong. He is also a former U.S. Air Force officer and a Command Pilot.

Buzz and Wells the future Astronaut.

Buzz Aldrin and Rena Son Wells.

Bill, Rena and Rena Son Wells getting his book signed by Buzz.

Sun the Moon and the star in between. Can't be, can it.

                                                                    A Mystery OR, OR.

I see an airplane ,... Do you CR......How about you Shane.

A good time was had by all....Included ME.

The little lady is my "niece" Cindy.. Randy said that..?????