GEOAvia Profile picture
May 28, 2023 5 tweets 5 min read Read on X
The Walter Soplata Aircraft Collection deserves a long thread of its own, which I am working on. Meanwhile I am looking for one particular airplane that he had…Ahh here it is…this one. 1/5 #planespotting #avgeek #aviationdaily #aircraft #aviationlovers #aviation #milair ImageImage
Douglas Skyraider 09103 was one of several prototypes Douglas built in 1945-46. Originally called “Dauntless II” It was first designated XBT2D-1 in the USN’s clumsy pre-1946 designation system. It then became an XAD-1 Skyraider. 2/5 Image
Mr. Soplata was a visionary who saw value in acquiring important aircraft the military didn’t want. He was a working man, not rich, and was tenacious in buying and moving these relics to his Ohio farm throughout the latter half of the 20th century. 3/5 ImageImageImageImage
After his passing, his family began selling off some of the collection. This rare prototype Skyraider was one. It is now in the possession of a private owner in Pinehurst, North Carolina who is selling it on Trade-A-Plane for only USD 100 Grand. 4/5 Image
He claims it is the only one in the world that, with all his spare parts, is rebuildable to flying. A rare piece of aviation history. What do you think? Should it fly or be preserved safely on the ground in perpetuity? I have my opinion. What is yours? 5/5 ImageImageImage

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More from @bclemens

Apr 10
Imagine strolling on a long empty beach in Mexico- no one else for miles; the fresh sea breeze; the waves kissing the pristine sand; the cry of gulls…then you come across this: 1/8 #milair #avgeek #aviationdaily #aircraft #aviationlovers Image
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This is ill-fated Grumman SA-16 Albatross XB-JHH slowly being consumed by sea wind, salt water and sand at Playa de la Ventanilla, near Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico. Here’s its story. 2/8 Image
In 1949 it was built for the U.S. Navy as PF-1A 124297 but went to the USAF instead as SA-16A 49-0074. From 1958 to 1980 it flew for the Brazilian AF as SA-16A 6530. From 1980 it was in storage. It came back to the U.S. in 1994. 3/8 Image
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Read 9 tweets
Mar 23
Sometimes I still get a “What the…?” moment. This happened recently when I was looking through snapshots someone posted from an airshow at Reading Regional Airport in Pennsylvania. This was a new one to me! 1/10 #milair #avgeek #aviationdaily #aircraft #aviationlovers Image
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In the 1940s American inventor Willard Ray Custer was working on a novel concept for a very slow flying STOL aircraft. He called it a “Channel Wing”. The channel was shaped like a half venturi with a pusher engine sucking airflow through it. 2/10 Image
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His rationale was that if a full venturi creates a low pressure zone at its center, a half venturi would create low pressure that would create lift toward the open half. His test flights seemed to bear this out with his claims that he could fly at 20mph and land at 11mph. 3/10 Image
Read 10 tweets
Feb 7
Near the intersection of two suburban streets, one of hundreds in the U.S town of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, there is a small brass ring imbedded in the road. This marks the exact point where, in September 1962, the Space Age came to Manitowoc. 1/9 Image
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On May 15, 1960 the unmanned Korabl-Sputnik 1, known as Sputnik 4 in the West, left Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan for a 4-day mission to study life support systems & the stresses of flight. The craft radioed both extensive telemetry and prerecorded voice communications. 2/9 Image
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Although the mission was a success, there was a problem on reentry. The spacecraft was not in the correct attitude when its retro fired, & the spherical descent module separated from the instrument module but neither reentered as planned. They remained in orbit for years. 3/9 Image
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Read 9 tweets
Dec 2, 2024
There is a reason this farmer’s crop rows take a bit of a curve here. This spot at the end of a long footpath in rural Iowa is hallowed ground. For the thousands that come here it is a shrine to a loss of more than lives in a small plane crash. It’s where the Music died. 1/12 Image
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In the winter of 1958-‘59 Buddy Holly and several other musicians were on a “Winter Dance Party” tour of Midwest U.S. on a bus with a broken heater. Temps were below zero F. Holly’s drummer actually had to leave in the middle of tour because he got frost bite on the bus. 2/12 Image
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The night of February 2nd brought them to the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa which still exists. 3/12 Image
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Read 12 tweets
Sep 22, 2024
Why is there an all-white B-52 at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas? 1/9 #planespotting #aviationdaily #aviationlovers #aviation #milair
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1981 B-52H Stratofortress 61-0025 flew routine missions with the 23rd Bomb Squadron, 5th Bombardment Wing (Air Combat Command), located at Minot AFB, North Dakota until 2001. 2/9 Image
At that time, another Buff, the last B-52B in service, was retiring. It was the famous “Balls 8”, NASA 008, which was the primary launch aircraft for the X-15, lifting body programs and other test platforms for 45 years. 3/9 Image
Read 9 tweets
Aug 18, 2024
Giant Rock. The bizarre story of the world’s largest free-standing boulder; the man who built an airport next to it then blew himself up beneath it, and the Lockheed worker who bought it, communed with aliens and made it into a mecca for UFO followers. Mojave Desert, Calif. 1/14


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Frank Critzer was a German immigrant prospecting for gold in the Mojave Desert in the 1930s. He discovered this massive boulder, and it became his prospecting home base. He eventually excavated a home beneath it using dynamite and pick. 2/14

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Living isolated in the middle of nowhere, Critzer hoped to attract occasional visitors by dragging a runway adjacent to his subterranean home and allowing folks to fly in and enjoy some eccentric hospitality. He painted a smaller boulder white and erected a wind sock. 3/14
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Read 14 tweets

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