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GEOAvia

@bclemens

May 29, 2023 • 6 tweets • 6 min read • Read on X

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A self-storage company in west London puts eye-catchers atop its tower that overlooks A-40. A July 2013 G.E. image caught them placing one on display. Thankfully they understand what they have… 1/6 #planespotting #avgeek #aviationdaily #aircraft #aviationlovers #aviation #milair

…so in 2021 they removed it and commissioned a thorough restoration. It's Hawker Hunter WT555, the 1st production F.1 and a very important airframe. First flown on 16th May 1953 from Hawker's plant at Dunsfold, it was retained by them for handling and performance trials. 2/6

It then retired to ground instruction duties at RAF Locking, then to the RAF Museum at Cosford with a camo livery it never had in operation. Incredibly, the museum decided to dispose of it. The owner of Vanguard wasted no time snapping it up as an eyecatcher. 3/6

At the end of July 2021, WT555 was removed from display at Vanguard and moved to North Weald Heritage Aviation for restoration. 4/6

In May 2021, the restoration project was complete, including its original overall silver livery. WT555 was moved by road from North Weald to Vanguard's building at Staples Corner, in London, where it is now inside, suspended from a ceiling on display. 5/6

It’s a fine new facility which does justice to this rare machine, now out of the weather and displayed as it deserves. Albeit in quite an unorthodox venue! Not a museum, but It looks more like the atrium of a luxury hotel than a self-storage business. 6/6

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GEOAvia

@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

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

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

Read 9 tweets

GEOAvia

@bclemens

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

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

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

Read 10 tweets

GEOAvia

@bclemens

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

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

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

Read 9 tweets

GEOAvia

@bclemens

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

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

The night of February 2nd brought them to the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa which still exists. 3/12

Read 12 tweets

GEOAvia

@bclemens

Sep 22, 2024

Why is there an all-white B-52 at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas? 1/9 #planespotting #aviationdaily #aviationlovers #aviation #milair

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

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

Read 9 tweets

GEOAvia

@bclemens

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

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

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

Read 14 tweets

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