Champlain Flying Club's 1946 Aeronca Champ.
See also the Aviation Humor page.
(11 May 06)
Nota bene - I am a passenger; NOT a pilot! Although I logged many hours in the Link trainer at NYC's late (and, by many, lamented) Museum of Science and Industry, I only had the command controls once, ca. 1980, in the right-hand seat of a Cessna 210, when our pilot seemed determined to B-25 the Empire State Building and I conned us away from that fate.
You might visit my other pages which are replete with aviation-related historical information, such as railroads, Emile Berliner and his son Henry A. Berliner*), Chrysler and SS and Jaguar, the ordnance page, and the Fairchild Aerial Survey page.
All-Time Favo(u)rites
My Choices
(moved here from main page on 29 Mar 2002)
How can one choose from so many? Well, I started off with the Hubley FM-1 Airacuda toy, then the P-40 (I had a bunch of Strombecker kits but only built one), then a bunch of Strombecker's Boeing Stratoliner* models (again only completing one). Next, Dad and I built a flyable Waco CG-4A glider, with 6' wingspan and movable control surfaces, a hinged cockpit with bell-cranks to carry control lines across the joint, and a balsa-and-cardboard Jeep as cargo; it got damaged in a move and ended up heavily loaded with flammables and explosives, towed on a 1,000' of saltpetre-soaked fishline behind my bicycle at what later became Idlewild Airport (JFK), and ignited in a spectacular aerial display!
After that, at around 11, I built a "StromBecKer-like" wood SE-5a which I still treasure; that is by far my favorite WWI plane (see Frontispiece, at top). The model, at 6¾" wingspan, came with a stamped sheet aluminum prop, which I still have in my junkbox but replaced with a carefully hand-carved wood prop I had always thought I'd carved backwards; looking at the USAF Museum illustrated catalog (undated, but ca. 1995? - Air Force Foundation, Inc., P. O. Box 66324, AMC Branch, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio 45433), I decided it was carved for the correct rotation (clockwise). Unfortunately, now that I've unpacked it (13 Aug 99), it is wrong after all! I guess the SE-5a (or the American version, the Eberhart SE-5E - see Museum SE-5E page) may well be my all-time favo{u}rite old plane. The WWI SE-5a was designed by the Royal Aircraft Factory in Britain. I am advised (28 Feb 00) that it may have been a CavaCraft model.
(Ca. 1946 model and 1999 photo by - and © 1999 - S. Berliner, III)
That's she; the 50+-year-old model still looks reasonably good (although the OD paint is much too dark), all the rigging is intact, the wheels run freely, and the prop still spins easily (if backwards!). The roundels, tail stripes, and radiator are printed paper, glued on, and the very bottom of the tail skid is chipped off.
[DISASTER STRIKES! - in Apr 01, an errant breeze snapped a window shade hard enough to knock the SE-5a off a shelf onto a table only two feet below; the old Ambroid joints, hard as glass now, shattered, and the model broke into several dozen pieces. I don't know if I can get it back together again.]
The original propellor from the SE-5a
kit turned up!
(03 Feb 08)
Want a laugh? On 12 Aug 02, looking for a P-40 for my grandson (he loves it without my prompting!), I ran across this Daron "HotWings" 3" wingspread die cast "scale model" (HA!):
(12 Aug 02 Daron SE-5 photo by and © 2002 - S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
Each "model" in this series comes with a segment of "connectable" runway!
[* - DISASTER STRIKES AGAIN! - on 28 Mar 2002, the world's only surviving complete Boeing 307 Stratoliner hit the water in Seattle! See the main page.]
My second-favorite old plane is unquestionably the Boeing 247, with the Ford Tri-Motor and the giant Boeing B-15 and Pan Am Clipper a close third, fourth, and fifth, underpowered as the Boeings were, and the B-17 Flying Fortress and B-25 Mitchell. The Lockheed P-38 Lightning and the North American P-82 Twin-Mustang come next (I wonder where my twin from two Strombecker P-51 kits ever went?) and I had a thing (briefly) for the P-39/63 Airacobra/King Cobra. While in Army ROTC, I made a rather good Wright Flyer, which is (or was) on display in the ROTC office at MIT.
Yet again courtesy of the CAF's Air Group One, is another WWII classic, the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, and, from "Rob"'s WWII WarBirds site, a B-25 at Air Expo 2000, Eden Prairie, MN, Jul 00:
In foreign planes, my top choice of the oldies (not counting that A-W Ensign toy) has to be the stupendous, 12-engined Dornier DO-X flying boat of the '30s. The Junkers Ju-87 Stuka always fascinated me (I had a spotter's model); it was SO ugly! Ditto "Tante Ju", the Junkers Ju52/3m tri-motored transport. That twin Heinkel He-111 tow plane was quite an eye-catcher, also, as was the Messerschmidt Gigant, originally a monster high-winged glider towed by that twin Heinkel and later a powered aerial blob, both with two long rows of wheels set into the lower fuselage sides. Boulton-Paul's Defiant, with its mid-ships turret also always appealed to me.
Here's a Defiant doctored from an image on Stefan Julins' Scandinavian (Norse or Swedish?) site and a detail of the turret from Thomas Wilberg's Virtual Aviation Museum:
I'll have to get more photos from the CAF and elsewhere.
You know, I forgot all about Grumman's old twin-radial-engined, twin-tailed USN F5F, which developed into the USAAF XP-50 Skyrocket, with a long droop snoot! I remember the original Navy version, with a stubby nose 'way behind the props; after the prototype XP-50 crashed, the AF later further developed the design as the XP-65 and the Navy as the sleek, in-line F7F Tigercat production fighter:
[These images are misindexed and must be reloaded.]
[P-50/F5F photos from Dave's Warbirds.]
F7F photographs from "Rob"'s fantastic WWII WarBirds site.
I get annoyed when ladies describe machines as "cute" but that F5F is definitely cute!
There's a P-40 and B-25 nearby; see American Airpower Museum on page 5.
MARINE AIR TERMINAL
at La Guardia
[Most of these images are lost and must be reshot or found.]
(30 Nov 04)
Having dropped someone off at La Guardia on 26 Apr 01 and having the digital camera with me, I decided to document my favorite spot there, the 1930's Art Deco Marine Air Terminal, once the East Coast home of the Boeing Clippers. So, for a few quarters in the parking meter, here we go; the first picture is of the main terminal, looking north from the lot, and the second is of the original administration building and hangar (now La Guardia's administration building):
(All photos taken 26 Apr 01 by and © 2001 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail images; click on the pictures for larger images.]
Next, we see the main entrance, resplendent in 1930's stainless steel, and the waiting room beyond the entry lobby:
[Thumbnail images; click on the pictures for larger images.]
Inside the waiting room, which is also the ticketing area, there is the original newsstand, only slightly modernized, and four of the original wood-and-stainless benches, arranged around a statue of the "Little Flower", NYC's Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, whose foresight and tenacity created the Airport and the Marine Terminal:
[Thumbnail images; click on the pictures for larger images.]
The spaciousness of the waiting room is enhanced by a fabulous 1940 WPA (or WPA-style) mural, "Flight", by James Brooks, and a large-scale model of the Boeing 314 Clipper hanging from the dome, above the Little Flower; a close-up of the Departure Gate may be misleading - there is only a corridor beyond, leading directly to the doors to the parking slots (there are no gate lounges as in modern airports):
[Thumbnail images; click on the pictures for larger images.]
A closer view of those benches in the center to show their elegance and then the Restaurant facade, diagonally across from the Newsstand and matching it in 30's chic:
[Thumbnail images; click on the pictures for larger images.]
Here's the 314 Clipper up close and the wall display about the Termnal and the Clippers:
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Close-ups of the Clipper write-up and the photo (with key numbers to the Clipper's features):
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The numbered list of features of the Clipper to match the photo (I will transcribe this list one of these days) and a shot of a Clipper at anchor in a brisk chop:
[Thumbnail images; click on the pictures for larger images.]
The opening day ceremonies at the Marine Air Terminal on 30 Mar 1940, with Pan Am founder Juan Trippe speaking and an aerial view of the vast expanses of the Terminal and LaGuardia in those days (it's jam-packed in, now):
[Thumbnail images; click on the pictures for larger images.]
Close-ups of the texts referred to above:
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Views of the western of twin stairwells flanking the entrance lobby (a modern sculpture blocks a clear shot of the eastern stairwell):
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Leaving the Terminal building, I strolled over to the hangar/administration building and took a picture of it's majest:ic central facade, replete with Art Deco aviation embellishments and a grand stainless eagle and then a telephoto shot of the eagle, silhouetted in all its grandeur angainst a cerulean sky!
(All photos taken 26 Apr 01 by and © 2001 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
[Left image is a thumbnail; click on the picture for a larger image.]
- - Erkki Mikola (erkki.mikola@kotiportti.fi), secretary of Finland's "Friends of Malmi Airport", advises that the historic old 1930s Malmi Airport in Helsinki is in danger of being razed for redevelopment (there's no need; the surrounding area has lots of open land); if you wish to help him and his cohorts save this "very precious aviation culture monument in middle of Helsinki"; check out "a pearl of 1930's functionalism under threat".
Speaking of the Marine Air Terminal, many of the seaplanes (other than flying
boats) that frequented the facility were mounted on floats from Edo
Corporation. Now, most people involved in any way with aviation know of
Edo, but how many know that "Edo" (according to NEWSDAY on 13 Dec 2004, page
A28) stands for Earl Dodge
Osborne, great-grandson of the founder of Phelps-Dodge Corp. (the
great primary metals, especially copper and molybdenum, producer)?
Casey Jones' ACADEMY of AERONAUTICS
While documenting the Marine Air Terminal on 26 Apr 01, I decided to run across Grand Central Parkway to Casey Jones' old Academy of Aeronautics and take some photos of that as well. Easier said then done; one way streets and heavy construction along the south side of the GCP made this little caper into quite a chore. First of all, I didn't even recognize the place; it's changed drastically and is now the College of Aeronautics. here is the main (and old) building from the south-west, the newer part on the east end looking northeast at the "control" tower, and then the newer part looking northwest at the new main entrance:
(All photos taken 26 Apr 01 by and © 2001 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail images; click on the pictures for larger images.]
Dinky Meccano Aircraft Models
Moved from the main Aviation page here and then to the
Meccano Dinky page on 12 Feb 2004.
A Hollander, Henk Timmerman, has a site featuring the "
Great Patriotic War Museum" in Kiëv, Ukraïne, with a Yak-9, a Mig-17, and a
Mig-23, plus many others.
Comet "Authenticast" 1:432 Aircraft Recognition ("Spotter") Models
I completely forgot about the Slonim's line of tiny Comet
"Authenticast" 1:432 aircraft recognition ("spotter") models!
The full set of original brass masters (NOT the dies!)
are (or were) )for sale! See the separate
Comet/Authenticast page.
See also Mike's Tanks for pix of these models at
Authenticast Airplanes.
As you are obviously air-minded (take that as you choose), you must see the Lion Air site! I'd be Lion if I didn't warn you to keep your tongue in your cheek on this one!
On a more serious note, if you like aero engines, see Steve Vardy's Aero Engine Central.
Because of page size limitations,
this page is a continuation of Aviation Continuation Page 2 and Aviation Continuation Page 3 and continues on Aviation Continuation Page 5.
Visit them and the Main Aviation Page.
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S. Berliner, III
To contact S. Berliner, III, please click here.
of this series of Aviation pages.
© Copyright S. Berliner, III -
1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006,
2008
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