Model Airplanes

Airplanes are to Wichita what cars are to Detroit. Ask just about any of the 390,000 residents of this Kansas town. They either build airplanes for a living or know someone who does or did. From economic boom to bust and back again, few industries have helped shape an American city more than aviation has in this self-proclaimed Air Capital of the World.

Nearly a century ago, American commercial aviation manufacturing was born here. It is where legends like Walter and Olive Ann Beech and a Kansas farm boy named Clyde Cessna launched aviation empires and where, during World War II, Boeing constructed a plant to mass produce B-29 Superfortresses bound for the Pacific. That history envelops today’s Wichita like air, touching public programs as well as corporate goals and helping to sustain the city’s sense of itself.

Last March, in the factory where B-29s once rolled off the line, Spirit AeroSystems, which fabricates fuselages and other major components for Boeing and Airbus airliners, celebrated the plant’s 10,000th delivery to the Boeing 737 program, the first time any commercial airliner has reached that milestone. More than a quarter of all single-aisle commercial jets flying today are 737s, which entered service in 1968 to become the best-selling airliner of all time. Spirit, which acquired the Wichita business and other Boeing plants in 2005, manufactures about 70 percent of each jet’s structure. The parts are then shipped on flatbed railcars for assembly at Boeing’s factory in Renton, Washington, just south of Seattle.

Sit down with

Article source: https://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/04_sep2018-spirit-of-wichita-1-180969914/

The Link Trainer, aka Blue Box or Pilot Trainer, was the world’s first commercially built flight simulator. It was designed and built by Edin Albert Link in the 1930s and was based on revolutionary techniques and equipment pioneered by Edward in the late 1920s.

The Link Trainer would form an integral part of pilot training programmes the world over and was instrumental for the final Allied victory during WW2.

Who was Edwin Albert Link?

Edwin was born on the 26th of July 1904 and would grow up to become a pioneer in aviation, underwater archaeology, and submersibles. Edwin had his first flying lesson in 1920 and by 1927 he had obtained the first Cessna airplane ever delivered whilst making a modest living by barnstorming, charter flying and giving lessons.

In his youth, Edwin’s father ran an automatic piano and organ factory, The Link Piano and Organ Company. By scavenging equipment from his father’s factory, Edwin managed to cobble together an advertising plane. 

This plane had a punched roll and pneumatic system from a ‘player piano’ to control a sequence of lights on the underside of the wings to spell out advertising messages. He added a set of small but loud organ pipes, also controlled by the roll.

Using the skills he’d learned making his advertising plane Edwin saw the potential for making a

Article source: https://interestingengineering.com/the-worlds-first-commercially-built-flight-simulator-the-link-trainer-blue-box

Built in Havelock, this 1929 Arrow Sport retailed for about $3,000. Now fully restored, it’s for sale for nearly $90,000.

Article source: https://journalstar.com/news/local/for-k-a-flying-piece-of-havelock-history/article_96cea3d0-6791-5a30-8d03-37b1f14990c2.html

A 54-year-old man from Cambridgeshire has built the ‘world’s first’ flight simulator for the F-35B fighter jet.

The grandfather built the replica in his garden shed and spent a total of £30,000 and three months on the endeavour.  

Kenneth Mockford says he assembled the model plane by Googling images of the jet and piecing it together from thousands of tiny parts. 

Mr Mockford shut himself away ‘from dawn until dusk’ in his garden shed to finish the project that he started back in April.

The persistent inventor, who quit his job as head of engineering at Baxter Healthcare UK to concentrate on his simulator business two years ago, credits his Asperger’s syndrome for his dogged determination, calling it his ‘superpower’.

The RAF has received a number of F-35B stealth aircraft, but they have yet to be approved for operations. 

The high-tech jets are based at RAF Marham and are flown by RAF and Navy pilots. They will ultimately be operated from the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth. 

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Kenneth Mockford (pictured), 54, says he assembled the model plane by Googling images of the jet and piecing it together from thousands of tiny parts

The level of detail Cambridgeshire-based inventor Mr Mockford has gone to is highlighted in this graphic showing 26 cockpit controls on the F-35 fighter simulator which he built in his shed

The predecessor to the jet, the F-35, is currently being used by the Royal Navy and the RAF and the F-35B

Article source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6082223/Autistic-grandad-spends-30-000-three-months-building-worlds-F-35B-flight-simulator.html

Q: Greg, I really enjoy “Cars We Remember” and would like to know more about Chrysler during the war years and also about two cars my grandfather owned, a 1957 Chrysler New Yorker and then a 1958 Chrysler Imperial. Both were beautiful cars that I remember as a teenager.

— Francine S., Philadelphia

A: Francine, first let’s talk about the Chrysler and Imperial, both top offerings from Chrysler Corporation. Back then these beautiful cars produced during 1957 to 1959 not only looked good, they packed some real punch under the hood.

The New Yorker was Chrysler’s full-size, 126-inch wheelbase luxury model, joined by siblings albeit less luxurious Saratoga (also 126-inches) and entry level Windsor, which rode on a smaller 122-inch wheelbase. However, if you wanted the true top-end MOPAR luxury car those years, it had to be an Imperial which rode on a 129-inch wheelbase while the Crown Imperial limousine stretched out to 149 inches.

These Imperials sat atop the Chrysler lineup in luxury appointments and special, upper-class opulence. As for corporate pecking order, Chrysler competed with cars like Buick and Mercury while Imperial went head-to-head with Lincoln and Cadillac for consumer dollars (and did quite well).

In my early 1950s memories, if you pulled up to my grandfather’s economy and grocery store in Ranshaw, Pennsylvania, in a New Yorker or, better yet, an Imperial, you were held in high esteem. I most remember the dual headlights that began appearing those years and also the rear tail fins, which grew bigger every

Article source: http://www.sleepyeyenews.com/business/20180820/cars-we-remember-chrysler-imperial-and-war-years