Who Likes Aircraft ?

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[dadsbee]

Wife good on the camera today and caught me coming home. Proper social distancing, I never stepped foot anywhere but our own yard!

 

[MoparGuy68]

Bachem Natter vertical take off rocket interceptor. Half disposable, half reusable, desperate late war design to shoot down Allied bombers. Design almost never got off paper. Eric Bachem was able to interest Heinrich Himmler in the concept who helped approve and finance this bizarre project. I’ve always found it to be a strange and fascinating aircraft.

 

[MoparGuy68]

Komet 163B. My favorite plane, really a rocket powered glider. Used the same rocket engine as the Natter. T-Stoff and C-Stoff, hydrogen peroxide based fuel. Rate of climb was astounding. “Like a flea, but wow!”

 

[Basket case]

"Like a Farting Flea" The fuel was very corrosive, and liked to explode. Had enough fuel for three minutes of power.

 

[MOPOWER871]

Is it me or is this pilot of this L-39 wearing a baseball cap, no helmet?

 

[Photon440]

That Ba 349 did use the same liquid fuel rocket as the 163 Komet, but it also had four solid fuel boosters. No other country since these were made has fielded a pure rocket powered fighter or interceptor. The test pilots who actually got these in the air (the first pilot crashed and died, presumably after blacking out) were the first people to achieve rocket flight, years before the Soviets launched Yuri into space.

 

[MOPOWER871]

Parked at Stewart International Airport New Windsor N.Y.Stewart has 2 runways one 6,000 ft. the other 11,817 ft. that near 2 1/2 miles long ! In 1981 when the 52 American Hostages held by Iran where freed they landed at Stewart.

 

[68gtxman]

Is it me or is this pilot of this L-39 wearing a baseball cap, no helmet? View attachment 954618 View attachment 954619 View attachment 954620

I saw a privately owned L39 at Summit airfield in Delaware in the mid 1990’s when I was doing my long solo cross countries. It was nearing it’s complete restoration and was beautiful. The story that I recall was the owner bought it from a former USSR country and had it shipped here for $25K. Then he spent $100K to restore it to A1 flying condition. $125K for a beautiful high performance jet is peanuts.

 

[Dipstick]

Is it me or is this pilot of this L-39 wearing a baseball cap, no helmet?

Some civilian warbird pilots think of helmets the way "antis" think of face masks.

 

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[Swampdog]

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I retired from that company 5 years ago with 38 years. What a ride,

 

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