Just out of curiosity - Airplane Guys

Well crap... meant to post this yesterday..

April 18th, 1942. The Doolittle raid on Japan.

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Thanks @Jim . I came across this the other day. Synopsis if you don't click the link. Sometime after the war, (50s?) the raiders established a reunion. One member commissioned 80 small goblets with which the group could toast the departed. Each goblet had the members name engraved right side up and upside down. Another member built a portable carrying case to hold each goblet. As members passed on the his goblet was turnd upside down in the case and his name was still easily read. The goblet collection, now all upside down is displayed in the portable case at the Airforce Academy Museum. Apologies if I mixed up some facts here.
https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/V...-raiders-toast-the-doolittle-raiders-goblets/
 
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Amazing to think that in the 60s, we were seriously thinking of 4xMach by the 80s for mass transport.
Instead, we got 4x the passengers going sub-sonic. Progress.

Innovation in a capitalist society is driven by potential profits and efficiency, and limited by the laws of physics and thermodynamics.
 
The faithful Gooney Bird. C-47, DC-3... DST... whatever you choose to call it, it was and still is an amazing airplane. This December it will be 90yrs old and still going strong. I'm pretty sure it will be the first aircraft (in human history anyway :wink2: ) still flying cargo and passengers for a living at one hundred years old.

3 May 1952: A ski-equipped United States Air Force Douglas C-47A Skytrain, piloted by Lieutenant Colonels William P. Benedict and Joseph O. Fletcher, USAF, was the first airplane to land at the North Pole. The navigator was 1st Lieutenant Herbert Thompson. Staff Sergeant Harold Turner was the flight engineer and Airman 1st Class Robert L. Wishard, the radio operator.
Also on board was Arctic research scientist Dr. Albert P. Crary and his assistant, Robert Cotell. Additional personnel were Fritza Ahl, Master Sergeant Edison T. Blair and Airman 2nd Class David R. Dobson.


https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/
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