Indy Transponder: Indy Transponder 8-APR-10 2345z

Blues arrive to prep for fall air show - Jax Air News
Another logistics concern is how the Blue Angels work with Jacksonville International Airport during the show. "We've worked with them in the past," he said ...

'Whoa, ho, ho,' it's the pros for Fat Albert Airlines repair By Bill Orndorff (309th Flight Wing Public Affairs)

Fat Albert Airlines, the support plane for the Navy's "Blue Angels" Flight Demonstration Squadron and a Navy recruiting enhancement symbol, received a new center wing "rainbow" fitting from the 572nd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron (C-130).
The center wing rainbow is one of the most critical areas on this aircraft's airframe; it attaches the outer wing to the center wing and endures tremendous stresses.
The Lockheed-Martin C-130T Hercules had developed cracks where the left wing attaches to the aircraft, so the 572nd is replacing the arc-shaped "center wing rainbow fitting" where the wing connects.
The repair involves the removal of the outer wing, ....

Thunder Funder Preview Party Set For Tonight - WLKY
Thunder Over Louisville is eight days away, and on Thursday night, the community-wide Thunder Funder preview party takes place at Bowman Field.
In this economy, it's difficult at best for events like Thunder to thrive, but the McDonalds Thunder Funder helps defray some of the costs.
Lt. Josh Ketterer with the Kentucky Air National Guard said the downturn in the nation's economy has air shows being canceled all over the United States, but not here. ...

See the World's Only Privately Held Harrier at Oshkosh from www.airventure.org
Among the many unique aircraft aviation enthusiasts get to see up close in Oshkosh this year will be the world's only privately owned, civilian-flyable Harrier jump jet. Its owner, retired Marine test pilot Lt. Col. Art Nalls, EAA 689513/Warbirds 549224, plans to arrive at Oshkosh in his BAE Sea Harrier F/A2 on Sunday before opening day, then make several flying demonstrations throughout the week.
He purchased the completely demilitarized aircraft in 2006 from a broker who had obtained it from Britain's Royal Navy surplus. It's the second Sea Harrier ever manufactured, Nalls said, and at 31 years old, the oldest surviving one.

Bhuva: Area residents learn with the Golden Knights - Pioneer Press Online
Karen and Susan flew to Miami and went to the Homestead Air Reserve Base in Florida to take part in a tandem jump with the Army Golden Knights. ...

Leap Frogs perform during Padres' opening ceremony - San Diego Daily Transcript
Aircrew Survival Equipmentman 1st Class Thomas Kinn, assigned to the US Navy demonstration parachute team, the Leap Frogs, waves to spectators after a ...

Two become one from Aerial Sports Feed
Austrian Paul Steiner and his glider team Blanix have created flying history. At a height of more than 2000 metres, they performed a breathtaking stunt. Watch Video

Red Bull Air Race Returns To Perth With Growing Field Of Favorites - AVStop
The Red Bull Air Race World Championship battle will heat up in Perth, Western Australia on 17/18 April with the second stop of the eight-race season where defending champion Paul Bonhomme of Britain will be trying to stay in front of a growing pack of challengers. Matt Hall, a former Royal Australian Air Force fighter pilot, will be flying in front of his sports-mad compatriots for the first time in the high-speed, low-altitude race through Air Gates set up on the Swan River.
The 15 Red Bull Air Race pilots are looking forward to a return to the city in the sun on Australia's western rim and the enthusiastic crowds. Perth, which has one of the most difficult tracks in the world, previously hosted what turned out to be thrilling season finales in 2006, 2007 and 2008 before being moved forward towards the start of the season this year. ...

Hartzell Introduces Advanced-Composite Aerobatic Propeller for Extra 300/330 ... - AMTOnline.com
Former US Unlimited Aerobatic Champion Michael Goulian used an experimental development version of this propeller on his Extra 330SC during the 2009 airshow ...

World War II bomber offers rides over French Valley - Southern California News
During World War II, Henry Rivas flew more than 20 missions over German towns, including Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt. Sometimes he flew; other times he dropped the bombs.
Flying in a restored B-17 bomber on Tuesday, the Murrieta man was brought instantly back.
"It was like being on another mission," Rivas said after the flight. "The only difference was we were over Lake Elsinore instead of over Germany." ...

B-17 Pink Lady grounded at La Ferté-Alais from Aeroplane Monthly News [photo by wurzel.pete via Flickr]
The world's only airworthy combat-veteran Boeing B-17G, Pink Lady, arrived at La Ferté-Alais airfield near Paris on March 19, at the end of what may well be its last flight.

Grace Spitfire gets new sponsor from Aeroplane Monthly News
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the first post-rebuild flight of Supermarine Spitfire Tr.9 ML407 by the late Nick Grace, the converted combat-veteran fighter has been resprayed in the same No 485 (New Zealand) Squadron marks in which Nick completed restoration of the aircraft in 1985.

Heroes: Glenn Curtiss - Irish Independent
It's little wonder that he would win the first air race. A bicycle builder, as were the Wrights, Curtiss was a powerful pedaller of local repute. ...

Friend shares memories of Walmsleys - NRToday.com
He was president of the China-Burma-India Hump Pilot's Association, and was a member of the Warbirds, a local organization of former military aviators. ...

The Richmond Report: The Flying Gonzales Brothers - The San Francisco Appeal
This week I stumbled across some fascinating aviation history about the Richmond District. Back in 1912, two 15-year old twin brothers built and flew their ...

Local officials preparing for WWII tribute - Springfield News Sun
A B-25 bomber is being restored at the Champaign Aviation Museum in Urbana. In one week, about 20 B-25 bombers will fly into Grimes Field in Urbana. ...

VFP-62 Home Page
This site is dedicated to the officers and enlisted men who served with VFP-62. | The VFP-62 Mission: |Before satellite intelligence gathering, the United States relied upon aerial photographic reconnaissance to gather intelligence to assist the fleet in guarding our country. This progressed from the early days when a Navy Photographer (Photomate) would hang out of the open doorway of a plane, with a heavy camera strapped to his neck, to a supersonic jet manned only by the pilot. VFP-62 flew the RF-8 Crusader, to gather high quality aerial photography for that purpose. ...

90th Anniversary of the Laird Swallow - Fearless Leader
... of its very own Swallow, hand-crafted by highly skilled Kansas Aviation Museum volunteers over the past three years. Join us in this celebration as we recognize the amazing aviation heritage of the Air Capital of the World. ...

Alaska Guard forms first all-female aircrew - Alaska National Guard
Four Alaska Air National Guard members with the 249th Airlift Squadron made history as the first all female aircrew to fly an Alaska Air National Guard aircraft April 2.
The mission included Capt. Allison Snow, aircraft commander; Maj. Krista Staff, instructor pilot; Capt. Laura Grossman, co-pilot; and Staff Sgt. Christina Cordes, loadmaster.
The four-person crew, accompanied by Brig. Gen. Deborah McManus, assistant adjutant general ...

RAF jets make last flight plus VIDEO - Lutterworth Today
The footage was taken at an airshow last year. Richard Clarke, spokesman for airfield owners C Walton Ltd, said: "The two Vickers VC10 aircraft are true ...

National Naval Aviation Museum, Pensacola, Florida - Day 1 from blog.seattlepi.com
It was time to visit the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida. Since the Blue Angels were practicing at 8:30 AM, I thought I go and watch them. ...

Luftwaffe and RAF Pilot Team In First Ever Joint Combat Patrol from Defense Tech
This is kind of a cool item from the UK's Daily Mail, for the first time since World War II, an RAF flight lieutenant piloted a Tornado GR4 fighter-bomber on a combat mission over Afghanistan with a Luftwaffe navigator in the rear seat. British and German airmen ...

Warbirds Online has some great photos posted from days gone by!

Vintage TBM Aerial Fire Fighting Footage - Jim Betts
Prowling the Pacific
P-38L 44th FS 18th FG 1945
P-38L Lightning "Pacific Prowler" of the 44th FS/18th FG, 1945.
Capt bobby Corbett 44th FS geared up for a mission to Rabaul
An aptly named P-40 Warhawk

Pair of authors to present Selfridge's aviation legacy - Detroit Free Press
Air racing continued and was a regular occurrence after World War II. Many pilots, including Lindbergh, Jimmy Doolittle, Emmett (Rosie) O'Donnell and Curtis ...

April 8 from Cut and Paste Aviation
... 1971 -- Fritz von Opel died at Switzerland. Automobile manufacturer and rocketry enthusiast. Grandson of Adam Opel, founder of the Opel car company, educated at the Technical University of Darmstadt. After graduation, he was made director of testing for Opel and also put in charge of publicity. In this connection he was persuaded by Max Valier of the newly-formed Verein für Raumschiffahrt VfR (Spaceflight Society) to fund a series of rocket-propelled motor vehicles and aircraft.
In 1928 he purchased a sailplane named the Ente (duck in German) from Alexander Lippisch¹ and attached rocket motors to it, creating the world's first rocket plane on June 11. The aircraft exploded on its second test flight, before von Opel had a chance to pilot it himself, so he commissioned a new aircraft, also called the RAK.1 from Julius Hatry², and flew it at Frankfurt-am-Main on September 30, 1929. In the meantime, another mishap had claimed the RAK.3, a rocket-powered railway car powered by 30 solid-fuel rockets and which reached a speed of 254 km/h (157 mph). ...

'Houston, we have liftoff' - Wicked Local Rochester
... history's first space rescue, at the US Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC The two remaining astronauts from the Apollo 13 mission, Commander James ...

Spacewoman asked about career, hair on talk radio - The Associated Press
Wilson, among only a handful of black women to fly in space, turned serious when answering Joyner's questions about how she got into "the business of space ...