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Subdeacon Joe

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Posts posted by Subdeacon Joe

  1. Navy Style

     

     

    The first shipboard landing of an aircraft via arresting gear occurred aboard the Pacific Fleet’s armored cruiser USS Pennsylvania (ACR 4) off the coast of San Francisco, Calif. on 18 January 1911, by Eugene B. Ely aboard his Curtiss Pusher biplane. Capt. Washington I. Chambers, the Navy’s aviation officer, capitalized on Ely’s earlier historic success following “successful” launches from the scout cruiser USS Birmingham (CL 2) and Pennsylvania, and proposed to Ely that he double-down in the history books by becoming the first pilot to both launch and land an aircraft on a ship. (Ely actually damaged his aircraft during the launch from Birmingham, as the plane buzzed the water, damaging his propeller, and forcing him to land on nearby Willoughby Spit after nearly five minutes of flight.)

    A showman to the end, Ely saw an opportunity to generate interest and fanfare for his aerial exhibitions, as he was also a test pilot for aircraft manufacturer Curtiss Pusher. Ely excitedly accepted Chamber’s offer and plans were made to turn Pennsylvania from the first ship altered to launch an aircraft, to the first ship altered to land one.

    First, a landing deck aboard Pennsylvania had to be designed and built. The design wasn’t complex: ropes, anchored at their ends by 22 pairs of sandbags, each weighing approximately 50 lbs., were stretched across the ship’s 120-by-30 ft. deck. The aircraft’s landing gear was equipped with hooks to catch the ropes stretched across the deck, where the weight of the sandbags would slow the plane down until it eventually stopped. In case of an overrun, or a swerve off the ship’s edge, canvas awnings were rigged in front and to the sides to catch the plane and pilot.

     

  2. Sometimes a bit too low.

     

    DownLow00.jpg

     

    "On a particularly hot day, a Royal Australian Air Force English Electric A84 Canberra bomber drops to within 25 feet as thrill-seeking mechanics get ready for the visceral experience of 13,000 lbs of Rolls-Royce Avon power full in the face."

     

     

    Lowdown58.jpg

     

    A USAAF P-47 Thunderbolt at extreme low level. Note that the sweep of the camera’s pan has bent the buildings in the background.

     

     

    LowDown148.jpg

     

    It appears that this and the previous photo of a PR Spitfire were taken at the same time and by the same photographer—here an 81 Squadron Photo Recce Mosquito beats up RAF Seletar, Singapore after the war. The navigator stares out the side window at the photographer.

     

    Lowdown30.jpg

     

     

    Some aircraft, such as this Spitfire, reach that fine line between crashing and flying low… about 12 inches too low in the case of this 64 Squadron Spitfire with shattered wooden blades. The aircraft, no doubt shaking badly, was nursed back to the safety of an Allied base.

  3. Jill Stein Demands Recount Of Army/Navy Score

     

     

     

    “There’s no way Army could have beat Navy on their own. Army may have won the electoral score, but they are way, way behind in the popular score. I’m hoping that if we can get some of the game electors to change their votes, we can still give Navy the victory the nation needs right now. And that’s why I’m officially demanding a recount.”

     

  4. The Union had no shortage of coffee they in fact drank copious quantities when they had the time to boil it. On the march they just chewed the beans. When the armies were close coffee was traded for tobacco

     

     

    Federal quartermasters were quite generous in supplying the CSA for the first two years of the war.

  5. Now, that is just the hard crackers. Add in the meat, the "desecrated" vegetables, flour, salt, sugar (if they were lucky), coffee, soap, candles, clothing, munitions, tools, arms. and lord knows what else, and you have quite a load out.

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