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Have you ever seen a plane being washed? It’s just like washing a car, except it takes a bigger crew with rain gear and fire hoses. Here you see a plane getting spruced up before an inspection. -via the Presurfer
On April 7, 1994, pilots Captain David Sanders and Captain Jim Tucker took off in a FedEx cargo jet from Memphis. Andy Peterson was their flight engineer. Also aboard was Auburn Calloway, a FedEx flight engineer who was just hitching a ride. But getting a ride wasn’t his entire plan, which became evident only a few minutes into the flight.
Auburn Calloway had swung a hammer with great force into the top of Andy Peterson’s head several times in rapid succession. Jim Tucker turned to see what the commotion was about just as one of Calloway’s hammers landed a crushing blow to the left side of the co-pilot’s skull, driving bone fragments into his brain. Having temporarily incapacitated 2/3 of the crew, Calloway turned his attention to the pilot. Captain Sanders managed to deflect some of the hail of hammer strikes, nevertheless several blows penetrated his confused defenses and rendered him bleeding and disoriented.
Calloway withdrew back into the galley as the mauled crew members attempted to disentangle themselves from their seats with sluggish limbs and excruciating pain. The instrument panels were spattered with blood and all three men bled profusely from head wounds. Co-pilot Jim Tucker, unable to get out of his seat, repeatedly urged “Get him!” to his more mobile crew mates. Engineer Andy Peterson could barely hear due to a loud ringing in his ears.
Before Sanders and Peterson could mobilize, Calloway reappeared holding a spear gun.
Flight 705 never made it to its destination in California, but did not crash. How the crew managed to land the plane while sustaining terrible injuries is a story told at Damn Interesting. Link
The Dole Air Race of August 16, 1927 was from Oakland, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii, for a prize of $35,000. Fifteen planes were registered. Eleven qualified to start. Two crashed on the way to the starting point, and another crashed during a test flight before the race. Things only got worse once the race began.
On the morning of August 16, the eight remaining planes queued up for their opportunity. They drew lots for flight order and took off one by one. As people cheered, things went bad in a hurry.
One plane, the El Encanto, simply shot off the edge of the runway, and tumbled over her wing. Another the Pabco Flyer got into the air… until she didn’t, landing some 7000 feet away in a marsh. Three more planes took off only to promptly return with technical difficulties.
Of the fifteen planes that had entered the race, only four planes, the Golden Eagle, Aloha, Woolaroc, and Miss Doran, were actually able to attempt the journey. The results of the ill fated race would soon be known.
The carnage didn’t stop there. Nor did it stop once the race was over. Read more about the deadly Dole Air Race at Atlas Obscura blog. This story is part of a regular feature they call Morbid Monday. Link
While searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, US Forces found some pretty interesting things in the desert, like this MiG-25 Foxbat interceptor. It was hidden underground with its wings removed. Military personnel dug it up by hand in 2003 and transported the jet to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio for examination. Eventually, it will go on display to the public. Read the story of this reclamation project, and see more pictures at Urban Ghosts. Link
Vimeo user aaron_gx flew through the spinning blades of a wind farm. With a remote-control plane, of course.
This kind of stunt is typically frowned upon in the industry, to the point that the person(s) responsible for aiding him were probably fired, if they were caught. I would never allow such a thing to happen on my watch, but… it’s fun to watch.
Link (embedded vimeo clip)
This video from 2009 shows an emergency landing of a single-engine plane on a street in Winter Haven, Florida. Kyle Davis, the pilot, and Joe Surowiec, his passenger, were recorded on camera during this frightening experience:
The landing of the dual-seat SkyRanger airplane shortly after 10 a.m. was caught on video by Surowiec, a professional videographer, and was posted on YouTube.[...]
Deputies were called to the scene, but there wasn’t much for them to do. Officials from the National Transportation Safety Board cleared the incident, Wood said.
Two cameras on the plane captured the drama. One focused on the cockpit, taping their conversation, and the other was facing the plane’s engine.
Ken and Carol Marcoux of Boulder, Colorado were parked on the side of a road to watch planes take off from the local airport. They saw a small plane approach, buffeted by the wind.
To the couple’s horror, the plane — whose pilot was later identified as Joe Curtis, 67, of Commerce City — was pointed right at their car and approaching at what Marcoux estimated was 100 mph. Carol Marcoux screamed “Ken!” and her husband stepped on the gas, moving the Prius forward just enough to spare them a potentially fatal hit.
Carol Marcoux said she heard “a big sound of glass breaking” as the right wingtip of the plane slammed into the back of the car — shattering the rear passenger window and denting the rear quarter panel — just inches behind her head.
The plane stopped in a field. Pilot Joe Curtis grabbed a mysterious bag, jumped out, and ran toward the airport! Curtis contacted the FAA about the accident hours later. Link
(image credit: Marty Caivano)
Photo: Tim Bullen Photography
Environmental Graffiti has a beautiful set of photographs depicting various shots of planes and rainbows. Starting things off is Tim Bullen‘s amazing picture of the aerial display group, The Red Arrows.
The Red Arrows are the crème de la crème when it comes to aerial displays, but as they tear through a rainbow, coloured smoke trails resplendent, is it a case of man outshining mother nature’s best efforts – or is the opposite true?
Also at the EG post, learn about glories – rainbows formed from a plane’s silhouette and viewed from the aircraft on the top layer of cloud cover.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) pilot and out-of -work electrical engineer Cy Brown strapped a camera to his GPS-enabled plane and had some friends launch fireworks at it. A rural farmland becomes a miniature war zone, as Cy pilots and swivels the lens, hunting down the active thrillseeker sect’s base camp.
An Israeli woman paid $32,000 for the entire Business Class of an El Al flight to allow her dog (and an accompanying vet) to fly with her. She told reporters any price was worth it to keep her pet free from the stress of cargo travel:
“All that mattered to me was to have my baby with me during the flight so that I can take care of him.”
El Al told the Haaretz newspaper in Israel it had never had such a request before. “But after the lady explained her special relationship with her dog and expressed her willingness to pay extra in order to fly with him, we agreed.”
Link – via boingboing
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by coconutnut.
It looks awesome but will it fly … or will it blend? I do believe this is what we all wanted as a kid … lucky guys!
A group of daredevils set sail on the ultimate magical childhood dream adventure today, traveling in a flying car for a 42 day journey from London to Timbuktu — a place that’s had a mystical, “middle of nowhere” reputation for decades. The ‘Parajet Skycar’ can change from ground to flying mode in a mere 3 minutes, and will make the epic 3,600-mile (5,800-kilometer) journey by both land and air.
On March 1st 2008, passengers aboard an A320 had a close call when their plane nearly crashed landed during severe crosswinds as they approached a Hamburg airport.
Link: LiveLeak
