Indy Transponder 30-DEC-2013 1330z

Pilots Confirmed For Jet Racing Warbirds Over Wanaka International Airshow · Warbirds News | PRESS RELEASE- A NASA astronaut who has completed six space shuttle flights has been confirmed as one of the pilots taking part in high-speed jet racing at the Warbirds Over Wanaka International Airshow next Easter.Colonel Curtis Brown of the United States was flight commander on two of his six space missions and is also a five times Reno Jet Air Race Champion.Alongside Curtis in the “Reno” team contesting the #GigatownWanaka Jet races will be three times Red Bull World Air Race champion, Mike Mangold.

Happy Birthday To The Consolidated B-24 Liberator · Warbirds News By Aviation Enthusiasts LLC | Seventy-four years ago today, the Consolidated B-24 Liberator took flight for the first time.  Newer, more efficient and more versatile than the B-17 Flying Fortress, more Liberators were built than any other military aircraft in American history.  In addition to being used as a heavy bomber, the B-24 also served as a long-range maritime patrol and transport aircraft...

Remembering another war hero - Bayou Renaissance Man | Those who inspired the World War II generation are leaving us faster and faster now, as they get on in years.  A few weeks ago we lost Wing Commander James 'Jimmy' Flint of the Royal Air Force, at the age of 100...

Remembering aviator Alex – Spitfire-testing extraordinaire - East Lindsey Target | It was following the Kings Cup Air Race of 1933 that people began to take notice when he won the Siddely Trophy flying a Comper Swift. The Comper Aircraft Company, while based at Hooton Park Aerodrome near Ellesmere Port in Cheshire, has an...

Rare Rutan aircraft donated to the Institute for Aerospace Education · General Aviation News Staff By SaVannah Rash | Spirits were high at the Mayer household in Nelson County on Saturday, Nov. 2. Students from all across Kentucky were scrambling in frenzied excitement over the generous donation made by John Mayer to the Institute for Aerospace Education, a rare Rutan Defiant...

Exploring the Wright Stuff in Ohio - Philly.com | Start out in the West Side neighborhood at the Aviation Trail Visitor Center, a unit of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park. It's located across a brick plaza from the ... With a little exploration, the stone foundations of the ...

America’s first airplane factory reappears · General Aviation News Staff | After nearly a century in obscurity, America’s first airplane factory began to reappear in 2013 as demolition crews peeled away surrounding buildings in Dayton, Ohio. The original Wright Company factory began to emerge on the 54-acre, former Delphi Home Avenue plant in west Dayton as demolition crews razed other buildings to prepare the site for redevelopment. The Wright Company factory was the first in the United States built for the purpose of producing airplanes...

Spitfire Mk FR.XVIIIe SM845 (G-BUOS) Made Its First Flight · Warbirds News | As reported on Global Aviation Resource Spitfire Mk FR.XVIIIe SM845 (G-BUOS) made its first flight from IWM Duxford . On Tuesday, 17 December 2013, Richard Lake’s Spitfire Mk FR.XVIIIe SM845 took to the skies for the first time since summer 2010, following its rebuild to flying condition by Historic Flying Limited (HFL) at IWM Duxford in conjunction with Airframe Assemblies Ltd on the Isle of Wight.  Both have been responsible for several high-profile Spitfire restorations in recent years, with their projects now flying in the UK, Europe and USA...

Antique Airfield:

• Time - 2013 Fly-In Video by Brent Taylor
• J-2 On Skis - Last Flight of the Year at Antique Airfield
• American Eaglet Project Fuselage Paint

DISCOVERY CHANNEL SERIES by: Donna Flynn - December 28th, 2013  | Unveiled at the International Council of Air Shows, new documentary series produced by Great Pacific Television will be airing on Discovery Channel and it will be starring Showline Airshow Services, Super Dave Airshows and others!!!  The show will be premiering in March 2014!!! Check back for more information.

FlightTime Radio Show 310 | Milford and Charlie were in the Renegade Light Sport Studio for their 310th FlightTime Radio Show!! Spent a lot of time talking about all the different places we have broadcast from and the exciting people we have talked to! We talked a bit about the companies that stand behind us, propping … no pun intended… us up through the years. We are excited about some great news for FlightTime Radio coming up soon!... Stay tuned!!! We’ll be right back to start our 7th year on the air!!

"Bowing Boeing" UCAP #342 - Uncontrolled Airspace: General Aviation Podcast | A Triple-Seven makes a successful go-around… Shell has an idea… and transitioning to ultralights. All this and more on the Uncontrolled Airspace General Aviation Podcast. Recorded December 8, 2013. Alt titles: "Hit the TOGA button", "other-illities", "drag monsters"

The Curse of the Cargomaster - Air & Space Magazine | They’d fly it again, if they had the chance. Among the group gathered at Delaware’s Dover Air Force Base, there’s a man for every crew station at the ready. They flew, maintained, navigated, and sometimes cursed one of the least understood aircraft in the history of the U.S. Air Force, the Douglas C-133 Cargomaster. In a conference room at Dover’s Air Mobility Command Museum, papers are shuffled—Where was that article from the base news? Smudgy documents, their margins trailing off the page from copy-of-a-copy-of-a-copy Xeroxing, are offered. A small stack of VHS tapes forms a centerpiece. The men, some slowed by age and ailment, chatter and argue. A clamor of “There I was” stories fills the room, accompanied by hand flying. Then, with quiet authority, Hank Baker, a retired C-133 flight engineer, holds his hand up, as if to take an oath...

The Bomber on the Golf Course - Air & Space Magazine | On the night of may 31, 1944, my brother and I were awakened by engine noise—overhead. We were up and outside in an instant. I was nine, and in my mind, nothing ever happened in Enterprise, a small town in northeastern Oregon. Hearing what sounded like a big multi-engine airplane circling Enterprise in the middle of the night was thrilling. The few airplanes we had seen were small, single-engine varieties. Our father ran to the car and drove off...

Fighting Hitler’s Jets by travelforaircraft | ...This is not a book which discusses in-depth the grand strategy the Allies developed to defeat  the Luftwaffe's jet powered aircraft in the latter part of World War II in Europe. Fighting Hitler's Jet's is a text rich with historical insight, experiences of American as well as German pilots, and knowledge of aircraft and their designers not commonly found in other books...

The usefulness of IRST - Bayou Renaissance Man | A reader asked me whether the IRST (infra-red search and track) sensors mounted on many modern fighter aircraft (such as the Eurofighter Typhoon, the Russian Sukhoi Su-27 family, the Swedish Saab Gripen and the US F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and F-35 Lightning II) was of any real utility compared to radar and other sensors.  Here's a picture of the IRST sensor (circled in red) on a Eurofighter Typhoon...

Indy Transponder 28-DEC-2013 2045z

Back in the air: Thunderbirds plan 66 shows in 2014 - AirForceTimes.com | The Thunderbirds, grounded last spring by sequester-driven budget cuts, will be back in the air in 2014. The Thunderbirds schedule will begin New Year?s Day with a flyover at the Rose Bowl Parade in Los Angeles, followed by a year of airshows and flyovers across the country. In December, the team announced a schedule of 66 demonstrations at 34 locations this year, its 61st season...

Time-Lapse Video Of The Seat and Canopy Refitting On Vulcan XH558 · Warbirds News | The recent newsletter we received from the Vulcan XH558 organization pointed out that the team is ahead in the schedule as they strive to complete the winter service in good time to allow the wing modification work to begin in earnest from the middle of January. Last week both ejection seats and the canopy were delivered enabling the aircraft to be put up on jacks a good two working weeks ahead of plan. The time saved will...

Handley Page Victor | The Handley Page Victor was a British jet bomber aircraft produced by the Handley Page Aircraft Company. It was the third and final of the "V bombers" which...

Airliners In Slow Motion... Artsy Video From Simon Lowe (Must See) - AirPigz | It's another great airliner video from Simon Lowe's youtube channel and it's got just the right amount of art, music, and airplanes. This is definitely a good one for 1080p HD and full screen...

Air Force warns: We could start running out of pilots - News Tribune |  The Air Force is flying into gale force winds as commercial airlines start a hiring spree while military aviators struggle with low morale due to cutbacks and idle jets. And the Air Force may see a shortage as pilots vote with their feet. Over the next year, the commercial airline industry is going to begin hiring tens of thousands of new pilots as aging flyers retire and the industry regains its economic footing. That could put...

'NORAD Tracks Santa' Program Says 2013 Was A Record-Breaker - Aero-News Network | Over 117,000 Calls From Kids Along with Nearly 10,000 Emails | The North American Aerospace Defense Command's NORAD Tracks Santa Program exceeded its own records in the number of calls, emails and social media followers this year...

Space shuttle Discovery ready for voyage to museum - Beatrice Daily Sun | CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Space shuttle Discovery has one last mission to complete. At daybreak Tuesday, the oldest of NASA's retired shuttle fleet left its home at Kennedy Space Center for the final time, riding on top a modified jumbo jet. Its destination: the Smithsonian Institution's hangar outside Washington, D.C...

NASA Employees Receive Presidential Early Career Awards - Aero-News Network | President Obama named five NASA researchers Monday as recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). These recipients, and 97 other federal researchers, will receive their awards in a ceremony early next year in Washington. The PECASE awards represent the...

LiveAirShowTV Rides Along In Shockwave

PFLUGERVILLE, TX – December 27, 2013 -- LiveAirShowTV wraps up 2013 at nearly 350mph! Except for the Reno Unlimited racers, that’s fast in almost anyone’s book. When you put that speed on the ground in a jet truck, words simply cannot describe it. That’s exactly what happened at the 2013 Wings Over Houston Airshow with LiveAirShowTV’s president Jeff Lee. He rode along on the last run during the Friday practice day, and it was all captured on video (of course).

“You have no idea what 300mph is like. There’s just nothing to compare it to”, said Lee. “We’ve worked with Neal Darnell for many years and he wanted airshow fans to have a better understanding of what it’s like INSIDE the Shockwave Jet Truck.”

Check out the story at: http://liveairshowtv.com/video.php?vid=163

It has been an amazing year for LiveAirShowTV with three live events, many more reports from airshows, the launch of Careers In Aviation, and performer profiles. We will kick off 2014 with a new series “Inside Airshows” with an in depth look at Team Goulian as they wrapped up the 2013 season in Houston as well. Many more shows are planned for 2014, and announcements on each will happen as soon as they are confirmed.

Until then, follow us on Facebook and Twitter for daily updates from the world of aviation and airshows. Happy New Year from the entire LiveAirShowTV Team!

Indy Transponder 27-DEC-2013 1245z

'Rock Star' Air Show Performer Sean Tucker Energizes Endeavor Awards - PR Web |  The 1st Annual Endeavor Awards welcomes popular air show performer Sean Tucker to the Host Committee of the gala event. Tucker joins another legendary aviator Clay Lacy; Endeavour Astronaut Scott Parazynski and his fellow astronauts; and, Hollywood luminaries, Robert Zemeckis and Ed Asner as they honor the true heroes of flying, the individuals and organizations who have demonstrated their commitment to Public Benefit Aviation....

Airshow Highlights 2013 - TakeOffTube.com | Many thanks to all pilots, friends, spotters and towercrew for a lovely aviation year 2013! Whish you all a brilliant and healthy 2014!...

Benoist XVII replica ready to leave the hangar and fly by travelforaircraft | Flight 2014 of the Florida Aviation Historical Society — the flying re-enactment of the World's first airline flight on a regular schedule — is slated for January 1st on the centennial of that progressive flight by pilot Tony Jannus in his Benoist XIV Air Boat. The flying replica was...

Team Hopes To Fly Benoist Seaplane Reproduction January 1- Aero-News Network | It is said that the modern airline was born in Florida on January 1, 1914, when a company called the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line flying a Benoist XIV seaplane flew one passenger at a time between the two cities for five dollars each way. It was the first scheduled passenger service. On January 1st 2014, a team from the central Florida aviation attraction Fantasy of Flight hopes to recreate those flights on the first flight's 100th anniversary...

Happy Birthday To The North American Aviation FJ-2 Fury · Warbirds News By Aviation Enthusiasts LLC | The North American Aviation FJ-2 Fury flew for the first time sixty-two years ago today.  The FJ-2 and FJ-3 Fury aircraft were navalized versions of the F-86 Sabre with the primary differences between the FJ-2 and the -3 being the powerplants.  A single-seat carrier-based fighter, the swept-wing Fury became one of the Navy’s first fighters to carry missiles and served widely in the 1950s.  All 200 FJ-2s were delivered to Marine Corps fighter units from January 1954, with the FJ-3 going to the Navy beginning in 1955...

C-17 Globemaster III - CNET | After two decades, the US Air Force has reached the saturation point with its big C-17 Globemaster aircraft. C-17 builder Boeing earlier this month delivered its 223rd and final Globemaster to the Air Force...

Rest assured, Mackay’s Tiger Moths are safe and sound - The Morning Bulletin | THE Mackay community can rest assured the region's two Tiger Moths are in tip-top condition, despite a fatal crash in the south...

Herven Exum, Tuskegee Airman - Washington Post | ..A Tuskegee airman, Exum was among a now-dwindling generation of African American men who made history with their prowess in flight. Almost 1,000 black men trained to be pilots through the Tuskegee program during World War II. Exum, who died Aug. 18 at age 91 at the Washington Veterans Affairs Medical Center, was one of the last living. According to estimates from Tuskegee veterans groups, fewer than 100 remain...

Wings of Rescue airlifts 500 dogs - General Aviation News | More than 500 shelter dogs enjoyed a true Christmas Miracle at the Third Annual Wings of Rescue Holiday Airlift as they were whisked away to 11 cities in the Pacific Northwest aboard 14 flights leaving Van Nuys Airport (VNY) in Southern California...

This Flying Ambulance May Save Wounded Soldiers From Certain Death - Gizmodo | The AirMule, as its called by its creator, Dr. Rafi Yoeli, CEO of Urban Aeronautics, is a VTOL UAV measuring 20 feet long, over 6 feet wide, and weighing one ton. It rides atop a pair of ducted fans powered by a Turbomeca Ariel jet engine — similar to Germany’s “flying Jeep” concept from the 1950's. The AirMule is directed and controlled via via a series of 200 directional air flaps and can fly both remotely or autonomously while carrying up to 880 pounds of cargo...

Spacewalkers Complete Installation Of Ammonia Pump Module - Aero-News Network | Spacewalkers Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins completed a second spacewalk to install a spare ammonia pump module on Christmas Eve. The U.S. Quest airlock began repressurization at 1423 EDT Tuesday signaling the official end of their spacewalk...

Indy Transponder 26-DEC-2013 1630z

Local Hero: Excitement soars as Flathead graduate visits air-show organizers - Daily Inter Lake | Excitement about next summer’s Mountain Madness 2014 Airshow began to soar Monday as Capt. Jason Curtis stopped in to visit with show organizers. Curtis, a Flathead High School graduate and member of the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, is home for a couple of days over the Christmas holiday before heading out for a Thunderbirds flyover during the Rose Bowl parade on New Year’s Day. “Man, we are excited as anything to be coming back to the valley,” Curtis said. “This is a special treat for the entire Thunderbirds team.”...

Aviation buffs of Condor Squadron keep vintage WWII aircraft flying - Los Angeles Times | On the west side of Van Nuys Airport it's like World War II never ended. Vintage propeller planes once flown by U.S. Navy, Army Air Forces and Royal Air Force pilots are parked wingtip to wingtip along the taxiway. Nearby buildings are painted in camouflage. The sound of swing music sometimes drifts across the tarmac, and olive drab flight jackets are de rigueur...

Navy aviator surprises family Christmas morning - abc13.com | HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A Navy aviator is back home with his wife and three children just in time for Christmas. They were not expecting him home. But he arranged it so it would be a surprise. And our cameras were rolling to see it all unfold...

Living History Day slated at Pacific Aviation Museum · General Aviation News Staff | HONOLULU — History comes alive at Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor, Saturday, Feb. 1, 2014, when visitors can experience the people, the aircraft, and the stories of Pacific aviation “stars”— from the early years of flight to today’s space age. The event is free to museum members and free with museum admission. For those who become a museum member that day, the event is also free...

Museum slates Open Cockpit Day · General Aviation News Staff | WINDSOR LOCKS, CONN. – The New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks, Conn. will hold its next Open Cockpit Day on Sunday, Jan. 19. On that day, visitors will be permitted to climb into the cockpits of up to 12 vintage aircraft, a full-motion flight simulator and two static flight simulators. Aircraft include the P-47 Thunderbolt, the North American F-100 Super Sabre, a DC-3 airliner, several helicopters and more...

One more payment will settle Spruce Goose title - McMinnville News-Register | Evergreen Aviation Museum of McMinnville and the Aero Club of Southern California agree that one more payment is required before the Aero Club will relinquish legal ownership of Howard Hughes' famous wooden airplane, the Spruce Goose...

Italian Reggiane RE.2000 Update · Warbirds News | Few weeks ago we reported the successful rescue of an Italian Re.2000 which  had sunk in the waters of Portovenere (La Spezia) in 1943 . The operation was carried out for free by the company Micoperi (the same company which  has completed he straightening of the cruise ship Costa Concordia).The Falco, originally discovered  in April 2012, was about twenty feet deep and it crashed off the Liguria coast during a training mission...

Too Hot to Handle: McDonnell XP-67 Moonbat - Air & Space Magazine | Damn Continental engines. No matter how advanced an airframe is, and the McDonnell XP-67 was plenty advanced, you can’t fly a fighter fast and hard if its engines are the product of one of the biggest weapons-procurement boondoggles of World War II...

Winter Arrives for Old and Cold Warriors at St. Louis Museum of Transportation By Fred Harl, The Aero Experience | Winter in the Midwest is difficult to predict, and a distance of just a few miles can make the difference between a foot or an inch of snow.  On a recent foray north following a significant snowfall, it was a little easier to catch the aircraft outside of the St. Louis Museum of Transportation with just a few inches of snow for this photo shoot.  Although mostly a haven for historic trains, the museum also features two aircraft...

New details about the epic B-52 mission to rescue a Cessna in Alaska - The Aviationist | As we reported few weeks ago, on Nov. 10, two B-52s, launched from Minot and Barksdale AFB for a training mission, flew hundreds of miles off course to give assistance to a Cessna plane that had lost radio contact with Anchorage Air Traffic Control Center in bad weather, over Alaska. While all the details about the successful rescue mission were released by the U.S. Air Force and can be found here, little was known about the mission the two Buffs were flying when they received the distress call...

Avenger - Apron 6

Too Ugly to Print in a Magazine - Air & Space Magazine | Four aircraft so ugly they could only be published on the web...

Book Review: Unknown Rider by Major Scott D. Anderson, USAF By Carmelo Turdo, The Aero Experience | ...Unknown Rider is the fictional manifestation of Major Scott D. Anderson's experience of achieving the title, "Fighter Pilot."  Anderson sums up his writing process in the Acknowledgements page: "When I was training to fly the F-16 at Kingsley Field in Oregon, each evening, after a day of flying fighters, I sat down and typed a little bit of this book...All I had to do was invent a few characters, put them in an airplane, and make them the...

Indy Transponder 24-DEC-2013 1900z

 

 We, the staff of the Indy Transponder, 

would like to wish all of our readers a 

Merry Christmas!

Thank you for being loyal readers,

May the joy of this season stay with you

throughout 2014!

NORAD to track Santa's global journey - ACC | 12/23/2013 - WASHINGTON -- On Christmas Eve, tens of thousands of children around the globe will gather around their family telephones and computers to track the path of Santa Claus as he makes his rounds delivering gifts on his sleigh led by tiny reindeer...

Tusker Air Show Dazzles Nairobi - AllAfrica.com | The Wilson Airport in Nairobi, which is more famous as an airport for smaller aeroplanes, hosted the Tusker Air Show this past weekend. The event, which had been postponed because of bad weather, returned as the skies turned blue skies with some of the most exciting actions in the air that Kenyans have seen...

Sywell Airshow to get WWI theme in 2014 - Minuteman Press | As next year marks the centenary of the First World War, it was recently announced that an airshow near Print company in Northampton printing services Northampton will be delivered with a distinctive Great War theme. The 2014 Sywell Airshow – which is held every two years – will feature a unique line-up of biplanes that soared over the battlefields of one of the most significant conflicts of the 20th century...

Women pilots of WWII will get grand recognition in Rose Parade - LA Times | After waiting decades for military status and honors, several WASPs, all around 90, will ride atop their own float in the Rose Parade.

Red Tail Pilot Monument Dedication | The first monument in the nation to specifically honor the Red Tail pilots of the Tuskegee Airmen was dedicated on November 11, 2013, at the Orlando Science...

Join The AirPigz 'Naval Aviation Museum' MeetUp (Pensacola January 24-26, 2014) - AirPigz | This is your official invitation to make a trip to sunny Pensacola Florida for the AirPigz Naval Aviation Museum MeetUp on January 24-26, 2014...

Navy pilot who performed heroic blind landing during Korean War dies - Stars & Stripes | The stunned Navy pilot was gripped in pain, blood was pouring down his face and a good part of his warplane was destroyed. But worst of all, Ensign Kenneth Schechter couldn't see. An enemy shell had smashed into his Skyraider and fragments pierced his eyes. Hurtling over the Korean coast at 200 mph, Schechter was suddenly enveloped in blackness...

B-25 “Sandbar Mitchell” Update · Warbirds News | Moose Peterson reports. It took flight February, 1945 and in June, 1969 it came to an end. The B-25J 44-30733 saw military life as a trainer and civilian life as a fire bomber. July of 2013, the B-25J took flight again underneath a sky crane that lifted it off the Tanana River sandbar where it has rested for the last forty-four years. Patrick Mihalek had a child age dream of working with warbirds and at age 30, now heads the Warbirds of Glory Museum that is taking the Sandbar Mitchell back to the skies...

A Very Special F-104 Starfighter-Ferrari · WarbirdsNews | The F-104 was officially retired from the Aeronautica Militare Italiana ( Italian Air Force)  service during a large ceremony at Pratica di Mare in 2004. Almost ten years later this aircraft is still the favorite of many pilots, officers and aviation enthusiast in Italy, as well as around the world. In the...

Post flight - Apron 6 | Some more shots made at the first day of the A2A Academy. Shortly after the sunset flight...

USAF planes going to boneyard cited in rubbish report - Arizona News | The Air Force’s preference to mothball a swift of mint load planes — unclosed in an I-Team review in Oct — done this year’s list of a tip 100 examples of supervision rubbish in America, published annually by U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. Coburn’s Wastebook 2013 notes, as a I-Team reported, that Congress destined a Air Force to continue purchasing a planes even after a Air Force Chief of Staff pronounced it didn’t need them...

Day 7 - December 21, 2013 - TeenFlight! | It is exciting to see the progress and the excitement around the TeenFlight hangar on Saturdays.  The TeenFlight 3 crew is really getting into the build.  The mentors divided the students into four teams: Purple, Red, Green, and Blue.  Each of these teams consists of three or four students.  The teams have...

Astronauts make rare Christmas Eve spacewalk from RGJ.com | CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Astronauts wrapped up urgent space station repairs during a rare Christmas Eve spacewalk Tuesday, braving a 'mini blizzard' of noxious ammonia as they popped in a new pump.