Via BoingBoing, I'm reminded of Fritz Leiber's classic story Catch That Zeppelin! when I see these images.

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This week's entry is the first Russian jet bomber, the Ilyushin IL-28 (nicknamed the "Beagle" in NATO jargon):

(Images found here and here).

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Swedish planes are a lot sexier than their cars, if not their women. The Saab 37 Viggen is no exception, although I think it looks better from the top or bottom than in profile:

Images found here and here.

(Incidentally, the word viggen means thunderbolt, particularly one issued from Thor's warhammer, Mjölner).

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(Images found here and here).

After more than 30 years of distinguished service to the US Navy, the last two squadrons of F-14 Tomcats ended their final combat deployments about two weeks ago. A couple of nice articles about this milestone event can be found here and here.

Check out this nice tribute video, too:

Q: Why is this awesome war machine being retired without (according to many) an adequate replacement (the Super Hornet lacks the range and power of the F-14)?

A: Maintenance expenses and age (the two are related).

Check out this comment from a former jet mechanic, giving a hint of the issues he (and other mechs) would face. Note also his love for the plane:

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The F-22 Raptor (all images via FAS):

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America's first swept-wing multi-engine jet bomber, the Boeing B-47 Stratojet:

Rocket-assisted takeoff:

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We return, briefly perhaps, after an extended hiatus...

The unconventional, tail-sitting Lockheed XFV-1 was the prototype for a proposed U.S. Navy vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) point-defense interceptor. Designed to take off vertically, transition into conventional wings-level flight and then transition back to the vertical for landing, the airplane was powered by a 5,850 horsepower turboprop engine driving a pair of huge, three-bladed contra-rotating propellers. Fitted with a temporary undercarriage, the XFV-1 was first flown in a conventional mode at Edwards on June 16, 1954. Although, while in flight, it did demonstrate successful transitions from conventional into the vertical mode and back, its engine lacked sufficient power to guarantee safe VTOL operations and the whole concept of tail-sitting aircraft was soon abandoned in favor of designs employing vectored jet thrust.

- Photo and text via Edwards AFB

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Test pilot Marta Bohn-Meyer died last week in a crash of an aerobatic plane in Oklahoma.

Sadly ironic that she would die in a little single-engine prop plane after a career that included flying one of NASA's SR-71s at three times the speed of sound in high altitude tests at Dryden Flight Research Center in California.

RIP.

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I know that I have been remiss in posting the regular Sunday Aircraft Cheesecake around here, and for that I apologize.

I hope to get some decent images from the reports on the just-opened MAKS 2005 (the seventh annual International Aviation and Space Salon in Moscow).

Here are several articles to get up to speed on the events for the coming week.

Just one little pic so far -- the new MiG29OVT, the first twin engine jet fighter to employ multiaxis (versus 2D) thrust vectoring. At least according to this article, from which I grabbed the pic.

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As a tribute to our good friends in the UK who have suffered much this week, this week's cheesecake serving features some images of the Royal Air Force's Red Arrows aerobatic team:

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Made only in Texas.

Part prop, part jet.

All badass.

The B-36 Peacemaker:

For an idea of just how frickin' big this plane was, check out this side-by-side photo, which makes the B-29 bomber look like a toy:

(Image found here).

Neat story describing the experience of a low flyover.

Loads of interesting history here. (Double-take: Nuclear propulsion testbed?)

Even more history here.

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Wow. Jeff at Gravity Lens found a really cool helicopter: the CarterCopter.

So far, it's just a prototype technology demonstrator, but it has already achieved a milestone for rotary-wing craft: a mu of 1 for the first time in history (achieved on June 17, 2005).

Yeah, I didn't have the faintest clue what that meant, either, but read more about it here and keep your eyes peeled for these very attractive rotorcraft.

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The Kawasaki Ki-61 Tony:

(Image from Stof's "Virtual Flying" Page).

If you read the linked pages above, you'll see why it's no accident that this plane resembles the German Me-109.

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The first jet fighter in history to see battle, the Messerschmitt Me-262:

The Me-262 Project is a private effort to create reproductions of this historic and beautiful aircraft. Interesting to me, much of the initial work was done in Fort Worth, Texas, just about an hour and a half southwest of here. Here's a picture of one of their creations in flight:

Update: The Country Pundit wrote a nice piece about this airplane, with more detail and history than I typically use in these kinds of posts.

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I apologize for the approximately month-long hiatus in this feature. Let's kick it off again with a bit of an odd duck suggested by Alan Brain.

We start with the conventional, versatile cargo/transport airplane, the De Havilland DHC5 Buffalo. Here is a typical shot of the aircraft:

(Image from http://www.xdh.ca/DHC_Aircraft/DHC-5/dhc-5.html).

In the 1970s, NASA contracted with Boeing to modify the DHC5 to investigate new technologies for STOL aircraft.

Boeing rebuilt the plane with new avionics, new wings and tail, and a quartet of jet engines mounted above the wing to generate "upper surface blowing" in order to increase lift. The plane made its maiden flight at Boeing's Seattle plant in 1978, then flew to Ames for continued flight tests. The short takeoffs and quiet operations of the aircraft yielded much information for application in both civil and military design. One intriguing series of tests led to a successful landing and takeoff from an aircraft carrier-- the first four-engine jet plane to accomplish this feat.

Source.

The result was quite interesting:

C8A Buffalo Augmentor
Close-up of top-mounted jets
Takeoff

Full-sized, restricted, and watermarked photos available here.

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This week, we feature the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt (sometimes known as the "Warthog"). One of my long-time favorites, this craft simultaneously straddles the aesthestics of WWII bombers and modern jets. Though named after the WWII US P-47 fighter, this flying tank-killer is much closer in spirit to the WWII Soviet IL-2/IL-10 Shturmovik.

Here's a nice view of the 30mm gatling gun around which the rest of the plane is built:

And a view of the plane in flight:

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I just recently discovered that Rutan Aircraft Factory (Burt Rutan's pre-Scaled Composites company) designed, built, and flew a ground attack aircraft similar in mission to the USAF's A-10 Warthog, the ARES (Agile Responsive Effective Support). First designed in 1981 as a turboprop in response to an Army request for a low cost battlefield attack aircraft, the ARES was built in 1986 as a turbojet. Similar to the A-10, the ARES is literally built around a gatling gun, in this case the GAU-12/U 25mm gun. Check out the size of the gun port on the fore starboard side of the plane:

Despite meeting all requirements, the plane never found a purchaser and remains a prototype. Find much more information about it at the Scaled Composites website.

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In case you haven't gotten enough, this page has a great collection of tasty photos from the 2003 Chicago Air and Water Show. My favorites are the B-1 buzzing an apartment building and the "heritage" photo of the P-51 with the A-10. Good stuff.

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Via a post that referenced my earlier cheesecake entry on the German Arado Ar 232 "Millipede," I present the Antonov An-225:

Note the many wheels along the rear bottom of the plane, much like the Arado Ar 232:

To get an idea of just how big this plane is, take a look at how small the Russian Buran shuttle is in comparison:

The Buran is about the same size as the US Shuttle orbiter, which takes up quite a bit more space on the back of a Boeing 747.

(All images courtesy of Lockett Photography Card Catalog).

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Virginia Postrel points to a fascinating site that mines old patents for examples of striking industrial design. They have a "what's new" blog, too, which I have added to the "Between Planets" section of the blogroll.

I also found a mother lode of incredible early aircraft designs via the site.

Some examples in the extended entry:
more...

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