The plane was designed and developed by Ben Howard and Gordon Israel, who later became an engineer for the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation.
Wednesday, May 06, 2026
OUTSTANDING WW2 history! Truk Lagoon, April 30th to May 1st, 1944, in the Caroline Islands
Carrier strikes in the area had left several U.S. aviators downed inside the lagoon, a place still firmly within enemy territory. In response, a Vought OS2U Kingfisher floatplane from the USS Indianapolis (CA-35) had been dispatched on a rescue mission and had recovered a downed pilot, but while loading him aboard the plane, the Kingfisher was swamped and capsized.
Another Kingfisher from the battleship USS North Carolina (BB-55) piloted by Lt. j.g. John A. Burns with Radioman Aubrey J. Gill, saw their capsized compatriot and landed to pick up the three aviators. The Kingfisher could have just taken off with one downed pilot on board, but with three, it was too overloaded. Burns made the decision to taxi out of the lagoon and rendezvous with the lifeguard submarine USS Tang (SS-306) who took the three men aboard.
But Burns wasn't done yet.
After delivering his first three rescues, Burns took off for the lagoon again. Over the next few hours, he located seven more downed airmen scattered across the choppy waters. As he kept picking up survivors with no hope to take off again, Burns packed men into the fuselage, onto the wings, and even towed one of the downed aircraft's rafts to carry all the survivors.
He taxied for five hours through heavy seas, finally returning to the submarine. By the time they rendezvoused with the Tang, the Kingfisher was nearly out of fuel, listing badly from a leaking pontoon, and battered by the waves. The survivors as well as Burns and Gill all were transferred by raft to the sub.
Once the survivors were safely aboard the Tang, the damaged Kingfisher was sunk by gunfire. For his extraordinary persistence and resourcefulness, Burns was awarded the Navy Cross.
Tuesday, May 05, 2026
Ken Miles, Cooper Porsche, Palm Springs, 1957
I posted about the car 15 years ago... how weird to say "oh, just happened to have learned about this 15 years ago, and did a decent job putting the info on this blog"
15 years... that's a LOT of years
Monday, May 04, 2026
British Airways is recruiting “taxi crew” pilots at Chicago O'Hare @ $100,000 per year to move aircraft on the ground, as part of the airline’s efficiency drive to reduce delays and improve turnaround times at one of its busiest North American hubs.
By introducing dedicated taxi pilots, British Airways is attempting to streamline aircraft movements between gates and runways.
The move reflects a wider industry push toward operational specialization and improved on-time performance.
They will not be involved in takeoff or landing phases, which remain the responsibility of flight crews, potentially luring back retired pilots who are willing to live in Chicago
Sunday, May 03, 2026
Western Union had a timekeepers railcar to maintain the massive telegraph infrastructure that ran along railroad tracks. Starting around 1914, Western Union established specialized cars, often converted from old Pullman coaches, to serve as foreman/bunk and kitchen/dining cars for their crews.
In 1877 Western Union first received time signals via telegraph form the US. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. after hiring a clockmaker to transmit U.S. Naval Observatory time on the hour over the company’s network.
A system sent signals over the telegraph lines several minutes before each hour of the day, followed by a pause and finally a last “click” directly on the hour. Every hour, on the hour, minute hands on clocks across the nation would snap to “12”, ensuring accurate, standardized time everywhere.
Stations clocks received that signal from the railroad head quarters from the master telegraph clock, keeping station clocks on calibrated time for each time zone.
The station manager would make adjustments to the other clocks and watches as needed and document the adjustments. The traveling time piece keeper stopped to maintain the clocks to keep them oiled and running perfectly, and serviced railroad employee pocket watches as well.
Yard masters and station masters collected broken watches and got them fixed or exchanged when the Western Union timekeepers car stopped.
The station manager would make adjustments to the other clocks and watches as needed and document the adjustments. The traveling time piece keeper stopped to maintain the clocks to keep them oiled and running perfectly, and serviced railroad employee pocket watches as well.
Yard masters and station masters collected broken watches and got them fixed or exchanged when the Western Union timekeepers car stopped.
for those of us that grew up watching OLD movies, Maureen O'Hara was a familiar star. Famous for starring in 5 John Wayne movies, and 2 Jimmy Stewart movies, and being an Irish BEAUTY, but I just learned she married a retired USAF general (similar to Jimmy Stewart) who had a very smart business, flying amphibs between the Virgin Islands
She married Charles Blair (I've never heard of him before) who had this seaplane airline, and she helped run the airline business in Saint Croix, and edited a magazine, but later sold them to spend more time in Glengarriff in Ireland.
Thanks Doug!
The original Lupin the 3rd anime series (Part I) first aired in Japan on October 24, 1971, and ran until March 26, 1972. Like Tin Tin, it's loaded with cool vehicles
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This is the actual opening credit sequence... how can this not be admired?! Mercedes-Benz SSK (W06, 1928-1932 thank you CoSC!)
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and the 1st scene in the first episode, is a Gran Prix
according to the cartoon, it's a Ferrari 312 (312 = 3 liters, 12 cylinders)
The character Fujiko that is either Lupin's girlfriend, or double agent spy, drives an Alpine in episode 1
and the bad guy in episode 2 drives a Messerschmitt
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