Through The Mist Darkly

Wilbur Wright flies the first complete circle in an airplane.

A long tiring day at Vintage Wings of Canada at Gatineau Airport.  Good crowd, great weather and no problems.

Nice to see lots of beautiful aircraft flying around, like their Hawker Hurricane shown above.

Most were old favorites that I’ve seen before but a few, like this Canadair water bomber, were new to me.  The organizers frowned on volunteers lugging cameras around so I was only able to get a few shots.

The first piloted helicopter rises above the ground.  It attains an altitude of 2 feet.  Piloted by Volumard in Douai, France.

Hello from lovely Gatineau Quebec.  Well, I suspect it’s lovely but you can’t tell from where I am.  Just checked in to the Comfort Inn which should come with its own air quotes – as in “Comfort”.  A little seedy.  Hell, a lot seedy but the price is right and I won’t be spending much time here.

The flight from Toronto to Ottawa was quick.  Less than an hour and quite pleasant as the only seat I could get was in Business Class.  Nice cheeses and a glass of merlot to pass the time.  First off the plane.

Now what the hell do I do in Gatineau on a Friday night?????

The 1^st flight of a delta-wing jet airplane is made with the Convair XF-92A.

Just printed the boarding pass for tomorrow night.  Off to Ottawa (thank you Aeroplan miles!) and then to Gatineau Quebec.  Saturday, I’m helping out at Vintage Wings of Canada as they hold their open house.

VWOC is the brainchild of Michael Potter who years ago built a company called Cognos that created a business intelligence application which he later sold for a hefty chunk of change.  Potter, now with time on his hands, fulfilled his dream to obtain, restore and fly some of the great aircraft of the last 100 years. Spitfire, Hurricane, Mustang, Sabre – they have them all and they fly!

I visited their facility last year and jumped at the chance to help out when they sent out a call for volunteers.  Nothing glamorous – security – but it’s still a chance to see these beauties in flight.  Here’s a few pictures from my visit.

Can’t wait!

The North American X-15 rocket plane makes its 1^st powered flight at Edwards Air Force Base in California.  Carried aloft by a B-52, a single rocket engine generated 57,000 pounds of thrust.

In 1967 on it’s 188th flight, the X-15 piloted by Pete Knight reached a top speed of 4,159 mph, a record that still stands to this day.  Astronaut Neil Armstrong flew the X-15 in 1962.

Someone stop Kayne West before he highjacks everything.

The Canadian Aviation Corps is authorized by the Minister of Militia and Defence to be formed. This is the beginning of Canada’s military air force.  The Corps consists of 2 pilots and a mechanic. The aircraft, a Burgess-Dunne, never sees military service and the Corps is disbanded a year later.

The CAC was:

Capt. E.L. Janney, Lt. W.F.N. Sharpe and Lt. H.A. Farr. 

Passengers on board an Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Paris certainly received mixed messages.  A flight attendant made an announcement in English asking that seat belts be fastened due to turbulence.  They then played a recorded announcement in French that warned that the plane, which was over the Irish Sea, was about to ditch.

Quoting from an article in the online version of the Telegraph.UK;

Terrified French passengers, who made up most of the 70 travellers on board, were said to have “freaked out” with many crying out and bursting into tears.

A spokesman for the airline said:

The was a malfunction of the public address system and we apologise to our passengers. This sort of thing happens very rarely.

I would say that’s probably a good thing.  The event occurred on August 4th.