This week we feature yet another De Havilland aircraft, the DH-4.

I saw a plane very similar to this one, the Boeing 40B-2, at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry last week. The exhibit was accompanied by the following letter from Leonard B. Hyde-Pearson, an airmail pilot who died in a plane crash in a De Havilland mail plane on March 7, 1924:

"To Be Opened Only After My Death:
Capt. Leonard Brooke Hyde-Pearson, USAMS

"My Beloved Brother Pilots and Pals"

I go west, but with cheerful heart.
I hope whatever small sacrifice I have made
May be of some use to the cause.

When we fly we are fools, they say.
When we are dead, weren't half-bad fellows.
But everyone in this wonderful aviation service
Is doing the world far more good than the public can appreciate.

We risk our necks; we give our lives;
We perfect a service for the benefit of the world at large.
They, mind you, are the ones who call us fools.

But stick to it, boys. I'm still very much with you all.
See you all again.

It's always risky to open a new frontier. The next time you buckle into a commercial jetliner, remember these words of Captain Hyde-Pearson, since you owe safe, routine, air travel in large part to pioneers like him.

Posted by: JohnL at 08:15 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 230 words, total size 2 kb.

With thanks to Your Maximum Leader for the recommendation, I present another De Havilland airplane this week, the Mosquito:

Quite an incredible aircraft. As a result of its molded plywood and balsa wood construction, this twin-engine plane, which was originally specified as a bomber, became one of the fastest, longest-range multirole fighters of World War II.

It packed quite a punch: in its typical night-fighter package, it carried four 20mm cannon in a belly mount and four .303 machine guns in the nose.

Posted by: JohnL at 09:58 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 91 words, total size 1 kb.

This week's airplane is the De Havilland Sea Vixen:

As will become apparent in future servings of aircraft cheesecake, I find the twin-boom tail an attractive feature on airplanes.

Posted by: JohnL at 08:47 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 39 words, total size 1 kb.

This week's entry is much more of an "interesting" than a "beautiful" plane. In fact, the plane is pretty homely but attractive in that odd way that only straight-wing jet fighters can be. The F-89 Scorpion:

This fighter, aside from having an interesting profile and decent performance for a non-swept-wing jet, was the USAF's first interceptor to be armed with air-to-air nuclear rockets.

You heard me right. In the 1950s, the Air Force developed an air-to-air missile (the AIR-2 Genie) with a nuclear warhead designed to take out an entire squadron of Russian bombers at a time.

The F-89 carries the distinction of being the first (and only) plane ever to fire and detonate a nuclear-armed air-to-air missile, on 19 July 1957. I've looked for pictures of the test-firing but can't find any.

Earlier Aircraft Cheesecake entries here, here, and here.

Update: One of Jonah Goldberg's "military guys" is holding an ugly plane contest. Check it out.

Posted by: JohnL at 10:57 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 165 words, total size 2 kb.