The Navy’s precision flight team is part of Seafair, the largest summer celebration in the region that combines parades, hydroplane races on Lake Washington, and an airshow. The event is held the first weekend in August and this year marked its 75th anniversary.

The Blue Angels team stages from King County International Airport-Boeing Field (KBFI).

Despite temperatures hovering in the 90s and poor air quality due to forest fires in eastern Washington, fans turned out in droves to watch the famous blue jets. The balcony at the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field was packed with those straining to see the launch and recovery of the Blues.

• READ MORE: Soaring with Blue Angels: IMAX Documentary Release Date Set

This year little girls and not-so-little girls were delighted to see the aircraft flown by Lieutenant Commander Amanda Lee, the first woman to perform as a Blue Angel flight demonstration pilot.

According to the Blue Angels information page, Lee joined the team in September 2022. She flies as a slot pilot in the No. 4 four jet using the call sign “Stalin.” Lee’s experience includes more than 1,360 flight hours and over 225 carrier-arrested landings.

According to the Navy Times, Lee is just the second woman on the Blue Angels team since U.S. Marine Corps Captain Kate Higgins Cook joined in 2015, flying the C-130 transport known as “Fat Albert” in 2015.

• READ MORE: Blue Angels Name First Female Fighter Jet Demonstration Pilot

Other aerial acts taking part in the Seafair celebration (June 29-August 4) included the U.S. Army Golden Knights parachute team, a Marine F35b, an Air Force F35A, and a PBY-5A Catalina. The demonstration flights take place over Lake Washington located south of Seattle.

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On Wednesday, Claudia Simpson Jones and Graham Simpson received the FAA Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award during a special ceremony at the Museum of Flight in Seattle. The award is part of the agency’s recognition of safe pilots.

To be eligible for the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award, the applicant must hold a U.S. Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) or FAA pilot certificate, have 50 or more years of piloting experience, or 50 or more years combined experience in both piloting and aircraft operations.

Applicants are required to submit three letters of recommendation from someone in the industry along with a detailed account of their aviation experiences. 

The application packets for Simpson Jones and Simpson were a little over an inch thick, and according to an FAA representative, “enjoyable reading.”

Simpson Jones, 79, started her aviation career with her first solo on December 3, 1967. As if that wasn’t enough of a memorable experience, an aviation luminary was in attendance. 

“William T. Piper was there the day I soloed,” Simpson Jones said. 

She earned her private pilot certificate in March 1968 and continued training, earning a helicopter rating, commercial certificate for airplane, seaplane rating, Airline Transport Pilot and CFI certificates, and type rating in a Boeing 737. She was one of the first women to be hired by a major airline when she became a first officer for Continental Airlines in 1977.

Eventually her career took her to Southwest Airlines and the captain’s seat as well. She became an simulator instructor for Alaska Airlines for a time, eventually retiring from aviation in 2000 with 24,000 hours logged.

Among her aviation accolades, she served as the first president of the International Society of Women Airline Pilots (ISA+21).

She didn’t learn to fly to get to the airlines, she said. Also a musician, she originally learned to fly as a means of transportation, flying her band around in a Piper Cherokee Six.

“I had maybe 40-something hours at the time, and the band would just jump in the airplane and we’d go,” she said, noting that music remains a big part of her life.

She was working as a CFI when she intercepted her younger brother Graham on his way home from high school. Ten years his senior, she was in charge, she said. Simpson said he remembers her telling him, “We’re going to the airport for an hour,” and she then gave him a flying lesson.

Graham Simpson soloed on September 23, 1970, in a Piper Colt and earned his private pilot certificate in 1971 right after his 17th birthday. Like his sister, he spent the next few years adding ratings, including commercial, helicopter, instrument, CFI, Flight Engineer, ATP, and type rating in a B-737 and Airbus A320. 

Simpson spent 41 years at the airlines, racking up more than 30,000 hours. Some of those were flown in the former Piedmont Airlines 737 now on display at the Museum of Flight. 

“The last time I was in this airplane was in 1985,” said Simpson, taking the left seat for a photo op with his sister.

The post Brother, Sister Receive FAA Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Jackets on Display

Aviation museums have become repositories for flight jackets, including one of the most storied, the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. According to Alex Spencer, curator of European, British, and Commonwealth military aviation, military flight clothing, and memorabilia, the museum boasts 25 flight jackets in its collection, most from World War II and a few from later conflicts and wars.

Three of Spencer’s favorites are the A-2s worn by Claire Chennault, Thomas Weems, and Kenneth Williams. Chennault was a U.S. major general who commanded the U.S. Army Air Forces in China during World War II and created the American Volunteer Group (AVG), best known as the “Flying Tigers.” Weems served as a navigator aboard Martin B-26 Marauder Winsockie in the 69th Bombardment Squadron at the Battle of Midway in 1942. Winsockie was one of five B-26s sent to attack the Japanese carrier fleet. Only two of the aircraft returned. Williams was a member of the crew of the B-17 Murder Inc.

“The B-17 was named after a mafia group in New York City in the 1920s and 1930s,” says Spencer. “The guys on the airplane thought it was a good idea. When the airplane was shot down by the Germans, the propaganda arm took the name of the aircraft to show they had ‘absolute proof’ [that] the Americans were terror fliers out to murder civilians. It became an international incident and, when it got back to General Hap Arnold, he ordered a review of all airplane names. Anything to do with murder or killing or such were ordered to be erased and renamed.”

Williams was captured and sent to a POW camp.

“He scratched the name of the airplane off the jacket. After the war he had the jacket repainted,” says Spencer, adding that it is not uncommon for the families of the veterans to visit the museum to see a flight jacket that belonged to a relative.

The WASP Jacket

The latest jacket to be placed in the care of the Smithsonian Institute is an A-2 that belonged to Janice Christensen, a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) class of 43-W-5.

According to Dorothy Cochrane, curator for general aviation and aerial photography at the museum, Christensen flew many aircraft, including the B-24, until the WASP program was disbanded in December 1944. After her WASP service, Christensen worked at the U.S.

Airway Traffic Control Center in Chicago and at various weather stations in Ohio, then transitioned to a career in medicine. She continued to fly as a member of the Civil Air Patrol, and in 1949 she joined the Air Force Reserve with the rank of first lieutenant. She received an honorable discharge with the rank of captain on November 7, 1963.

Christensen died in 1965, so she did not live to see the WASP granted veteran status. Her jacket, donated to the museum by her sister, Dagmar Joyce Noll, is scheduled to undergo preservation and restoration before being displayed.

Museum of Flight Jackets

One of the challenges of exhibiting flight jackets is deciding how much history to share, says Matthew Burchette, senior curator at the Museum of Flight in Seattle. The MOF has several jackets on display in the Personal Courage wing that include details of what company made the jacket.

“Not many people realize that there were several manufacturers of A-2s during World War II, ” Burchette says.

Burchette’s favorite jacket on display comes from Richard Jacobson, who was the copilot of the B-17 5 Grand.

“The aircraft was the 5,000th B-17 built since the attack on Pearl Harbor, and nearly every Boeing employee signed it as it rolled off the line,” Burchette says. “Covered in signatures, it flew 78 missions over Germany. I love how the Boeing workers took such great pride in their work that they were willing to sign an object that might not come home. 5 Grand did come home but was scrapped after the war.”

Burchette believes it is important that people realize flight jackets are more than just clothing or protective gear for pilots and crewmembers.

“They are an extension of the planes they flew and took pride in,” he says. “The flight jacket is an item of uniquely American clothing, and the artwork painted on many is even more so. Looking at the jackets on display, it is clear that the owner was proud to wear them. Some show signs of much wear after the war, while others are nearly pristine, showing they were treated with respect and reverence.”

Post-WWII Jacket

Leather flight jackets were still worn up through the Vietnam War. Many military pilots kept their jackets when they separated from the service. Rusty Sachs, a flight instructor for airplanes and rotorcraft, and executive director of the National Association of Flight Instructors (NAFI) from 2004 to 2007, is one of those. Sachs still has the leather jacket issued to him when he was a cadet in the U.S. Marine Corps. He enlisted in 1964 and became a helicopter pilot. According to Sachs, the jacket was handed to him in Pensacola, Florida, in February 1965 upon completion of preflight training.

Sachs, who served in Vietnam, tells the story of an enemy attack that had the soldiers running for cover in the bunker. Sachs left his jacket in the tent. A few weeks after the attack, he noted his jacket “had a few small holes in it made by shrapnel.” He had the jacket relined in 1969 when he entered the Marine Reserve, making the holes more difficult to find. After Sachs separated from the Marines in 1970, the jacket went into the closet but was recently sent out for restoration.

Family Heirlooms, Legacy

John Niehaus, a 5,500-hour airline transport pilot and the director of development for NAFI, wears a jacket that belonged to a Marine helicopter pilot in Vietnam who was a good friend of his uncle.

Niehaus decided on a career in aviation while in high school and received the jacket as a graduation gift.

“The note inside read, ‘I know I haven’t been the uncle you always wanted or needed, but this jacket was earned by my best friend who was a pilot in the military. It served him well, and he left it to me after he passed away. He would have wanted me to pass it on to you. I hope it serves you just as well. Good luck living your dream.’”

Unfortunately, the uncle died before he had the opportunity to share more about his friend. The name “Barthel” is stenciled inside the jacket.

Niehaus says he is very careful about where and how he wears the jacket because he doesn’t want people to assume he served in the military. “I never wanted to misrepresent myself to be something that I am not,” says Niehaus. “When I wear it, people ask questions to which I reply that it is continuing a family legacy of honoring a family friend. The person was special to my uncle as a friend, and…knowing that my uncle parted with something of such high sentimental value as a show of support to me was so incredibly special.”

Someday, the jacket will likely be handed down to Niehaus’ son, who, at age 4, already loves aviation and wears a jacket that looks very much like his father’s.

Receive and Bestow

I have been on both sides of the heirloom equation. In my collection, I have jackets given to me by gentlemen who will never be a size 40 again but who want theirs to be appreciated and occasionally worn on “military days of remembrance and obligation.” A recent acquisition is a pre-WWII A-2 that belonged to Captain Jack L. Martin, U.S. Army Air Forces pilot and father-in-law of Anne Palmer Martin, a college friend and my chosen family. Captain Martin went West in 1970 decades before his son Robert married Anne Palmer.

We’re still trying to determine what Captain Martin did in the war. We’ve been able to figure out that the patch on the jacket is the early version of the 760th Bombardment Squadron, but we don’t know if Martin went overseas. We do know after the war he flew for Flying Tiger airlines.

Recently, I gifted my first flight jacket, a 1980s era distressed leather A-2, to my niece Sophie Keene. My aviation and journalism careers began concurrently. My first “big paycheck” was used for flying lessons and the purchase of the jacket from the Smithsonian catalog. Top Gun had been released, and leather jackets were in style, worn by reporters in the Persian Gulf War. I was known in that small market as “the reporter who flies.” A few years later when I decided to make aviation a career, I upgraded to a new A-2, putting the distressed one into the closet. The day Sophie was born, I packed away the jacket for safekeeping. The jacket was gifted to her for her 18th birthday.

Since we are an aviation family, Sophie grew up hearing stories about my flying adventures and about grandma Kay (my Mom), who took flying lessons during WWII and loved the P-38 Lighting. I am hopeful Sophie values the jacket as more than a fashion statement.

Tribute Jackets

Most vintage jackets are too valuable and fragile to wear every day, but if you are set on sporting a piece of history, consider a replica often known as a “tribute jacket.” Kevin Wisniewski, a skilled artist from Milwaukee has been painting these jackets since 1987. According to Wisniewski, tribute jackets are often designs commissioned by someone to honor a person or commemorate an event.

For replica jackets, he often works off photographs because the original jacket has long since disappeared. Pinup girls are popular.

“They painted these on their jackets and aircraft as good luck, reminding them of what they were fighting for back home,” says Wisniewski. “We have to remember these were young boys in their late teens and early 20s who, if not for the war, would be courting these women and planning futures. Other paintings of aircraft or cartoon characters depicting giving the enemy what they had coming were also a morale booster.”

He has two favorite reproduced jackets.

“One…I painted a while back with the likeness of my wife, Beth, in a classic period ‘nose art’ pose as was on an original aircraft, Bottom’s Up! The other is a jacket that was given to me by a fellow reenactor and friend, George Bruckert’s estate. He had painted it himself quite well and very authentically. He passed from cancer way too young, and I think of him when I see it.”

Wisniewski uses only hand brushes and brush-texture techniques.

“This is how they were done during the war,” he says. “Airbrushing is a bad word in my dictionary. One modern improvement is that I use acrylic leather dyes that, unlike original acrylics, won’t crack over time or chip off.”

Another Kind of Tribute

The A-2 that I wear today falls under the heading of a “tribute jacket,” but instead of paint, it has patches to honor a person and commemorate an event. The first patch was Fifinella, the mascot of the WASPs, and a gift from Florence Shutsy Reynolds, WASP class of 44-W-5. The next patch is from the “Lost Squadron” P-38 Glacier Girl, gracing the jacket to honor Mom and cover a hole I acquired when I rescued a kitten from a tree. There also are multiple patches for my mentors. For Dean Boyd, the man who made an instructor out of me, I display the 8th Air Force. Boyd enlisted at the age of 17 and made a career of it.

There is also the Tico Tiger from the USS Ticonderoga in honor of aviation journalist and retired naval aviator Captain Thomas F. Norton, who flew off the carrier during Vietnam and taught nuggets to fly. There are patches from Lockheed to honor Dad, as well as ones for every B-17 I have been aboard: Memphis Belle, Texas Raiders, Yankee Lady, and Nine-O-Nine. And there are patches for Red Tails and Hemlock Films, which continues to share the stories of vintage aviation.

Aviation education is marked with a patch from the Society of Aviation Flight Educators, as I am a founding member of the group, and it was from it that I earned the master CFI designation several times over. On one pocket there is a vintage Moffett Field (KNUQ) patch to commemorate attending Zeppelin NT school in California in 2009. We are also an airship family, and putting that patch on was a must. I have found the jacket to be an excellent conversation starter. It encourages people to share their aviation stories with me. And I gladly listen.

Protecting Your Jacket

No matter how old the jacket is, if it means something to you, it’s valuable.

Protect it by nourishing it with professional leather care products. You can get these from shoe repair stores. If it is an heirloom, consider storing the jacket flat in a box or footlocker. It will last you a lifetime or more.

If you intend to sell it, have the jacket appraised by a reputable dealer. Authentic World War II jackets in good condition can fetch $1,500 or more.

If you want to buy one, modern flight jackets are not cheap. Expect to pay close to $300 or more for a basic A-2 and as high as $2,000 for an RAF bomber jacket. Beware of scammers who claim to have new authentic A-2 and shearling-lined RAF jackets for ridiculously low prices (less than $200). They may have the design of the jacket, but the materials are subpar. Instead of leather with a sheepskin lining, it looks more like someone tore up a faux leather couch and skinned a muppet.

Save your money and go for the real deal.

Where to find vintage? Prowl swap meets and even garage and estate sales near military bases.

This feature first appeared in the November 2023/Issue 943 of FLYING’s print edition.

The post All Flight Jackets Tell a Story appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The talents of One-G Simulation, the makers of FAA-approved flight training devices, and education technology company Cignatec have created two Sopwith Camel simulators as part of the Museum’s World War I exhibit.

The museum commissioned One-G to design and build the devices to give museum visitors an immersive flying experience through a range of user-activated scenarios.

About the Simulators

One-G produces FAA-approved professional grade aviation training devices. The company began in a Seattle-area garage when One-G CEO Xylon Saltzman, an engineer, flight instructor, and charter pilot was forced to travel to Arizona for type-specific recurrency training. He realized that there was a market for better access to equipment and the company was born. According to Saltzman, One-G received its first letter of authorization from the FAA in 2011. Today, One-G has approximately 100 devices in the flight training world ranging from primary training units that simulate round-dial and G1000 cockpits to the more advanced devices that are used for training by companies such as air ambulance providers that utilize TBM and PC-12s.

“As a longtime resident of Seattle, it has been a pleasure collaborating with the Museum of Flight, successfully bringing the experience of flying a Sopwith Camel into the hands of the general public,” said Saltzman.

• READ MORE: When the Nose of a Camel Starts to Wander

Cignatec is devoted to creating learning experiences through the application of technology. Josh Swanson, president of Cignatec, is enthusiastic about collaboration with One-G and the MOF. “As a long-time member of the Museum of Flight, and advocate for STEM education, supporting the museum with this project has been a privilege and a lot of fun — and of course, it’s always great to work with One-G.”

According to Drew Pine, chief simulation engineer for One-G, “We hadn’t done anything like this before. It was quite a departure from FAA projects that we mostly develop. We wanted to make it enjoyable for non-pilots.” To that end, the units have elevator and aileron control and auto-rudder. “It is more along the lines of an arcade educational device rather than a training device,” he said.

There are three scenarios: takeoff and landing practice, follow the leader (another Sopwith Camel), and flying through rings. The flights take place over rural Europe, circa 1917. The scenarios are selected by pressing a button, and last for approximately two minutes.

About the Sopwith Camel

The Sopwith Camel is an open-cockpit single-seat biplane from World War I. Introduced by the Sopwith Aviation Company in 1917, it became one of the best-known fighter aircraft of World War I. The airplane was also immortalized in the Peanuts comic strip as Snoopy, the cartoon Beagle with the rich imagination, pretended to be a WWI flying ace at the controls of a Sopwith Camel while sitting atop his doghouse.

About the Museum of Flight

The Museum of Flight is located at King County International Airport/Boeing Field (KBFI). The museum collection contains aviation artifacts that predate the Wright Brothers and extend through the space program. The MOF is one of the largest aviation museums in the country and has the added bonus that pilots can fly in to visit.

For more information visit https://www.museumofflight.

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Approximately 2,500 scale models were on display at the event, which is known as the largest model show in the Northwest.

Airplanes, cars, boats, rockets, and spaceships, along with movie monsters and anime figures were on display. The display scales ranged from 1:72 to microscopic, where a dime was used to provide perspective.

Starfleet and the U.S. Navy were particularly well represented at this year’s show.

Model builder Dan Carey, who has several models already on display at the Museum assembled a model on-site and answered questions. The event is part workshop and seminar. Throughout the weekend, there were demonstrations on technique painting and detail and even on building dioramas to display the models.

The post Celebration of Flight, in Miniature appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The Blue Angels joined the festivities in 1972 flying F-4J Phantom IIs.This year, for the first time the team will be flying F/A-18 Super Hornet E/Fs. 

The team has not performed in Seattle since 2019. They’ll be staging out of King County International Airport/Boeing Field (KBFI).

“Our tradition is back,” said Ted Huetter, senior manager, public relations and promotions for the Museum of Flight (MOF). The Blue Angels arrived in Seattle earlier this week. They practice each day, and Heutter noted that the museum parking lot was filled with spectators and the road next to the airport was lined with cars.

“The first flight was delayed because of weather, but it was a great time. There were little kids and old-timers and overall it was a festival feeling as people waited for the airplanes to take off, and when it happened, it was wonderfully, wonderfully loud! There was applause—and, of course, car alarms going off.”

The Seafair Airshow is sponsored by the Boeing Company.

During the weekend, the MOF hosts the Jet Blast Bash, which entails the west campus of the museum hosting an outdoor festival complete with food trucks, bounce houses, a beer garden, community booth, and a live remote from a local radio station. Jet Blast Bash activities are included with the price of museum admission.

“It is also a flight line event, we will have Blue Angel No. 8 on display along with some other specialty aircraft, including a Growler of NAS Whidbey to the north. We’ll also have a car club with some vintage Corvettes.” said Huetter.

The Blue Angels have multiple shows which are weather dependent. They have a “low show” and a “high show,” which are both predicated by the cloud ceiling.

Special Guest

Seafair is such a popular event that people come from out of town to partake in it. Getting the award for traveling the farthest distance is 17-year-old Mac Rutherford, a Belgian-British pilot who is attempting to set a record for being the youngest person to fly around the world solo. Last year, his sister Zara, 19, became the youngest woman to fly around the world solo.

Mac Rutherford is flying a Shark.Aero Shark microlight. He began his journey on March 23, 2022, from Sofia, Bulgaria, and as of 9 a.m. August 5, he was on his way to Seattle from Alaska. According to Heutter, Rutherford will be stopping in Seattle this weekend.

About Seafair

The first Seattle Seafair started as a 10-day festival focusing on water activities and music. There were concerts, clowns, parades, and a symbolic coming ashore of pirates. People dressed up and spent days on the water.

When the team is performing, often bridges and roads are closed and a temporary flight restriction shuts down local airspace. Many flight schools and FBOs host barbecues and parties for their clients during the event. 

The post Blue Angels Return to Seattle’s Seafair Celebration appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

You can see it for yourself at the Museum of Flight (MOF) in Seattle in the new exhibit The Walt Disney Studios and World War II. The exhibit is made possible through a partnership with the MOF and The Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco. 

Housed in the Red Barn, the exhibit walks visitors through time, telling the story of Walt Disney Studios and its extensive contributions to the Allies’ war effort.

The exhibit includes 550 examples of rare historical objects and film clips. Exhibit curator Kent Ramsey—a self-described aviation and Disney enthusiast—describes the exhibit as a labor of love, one that he has a very personal connection with because his uncle, Captain John G. Austin, was part of an aviation reconnaissance group during World War II.

“Disney’s insignia design team created two clever insignias for my uncle’s photo reconnaissance group,” Ramsey explains. “Unfortunately, my uncle was shot down and killed one month before the war ended in Europe, and for me, the exhibition serves as a salute to his supreme sacrifice.”

How Disney Supported the War Effort

The war in Europe began in September 1939. Although the U.d S. did not officially enter World War II until 1941, the Disney company was already feeling the impact of the conflict as early as 1940. That year, the studio released Fantasia and Pinocchio, two full-length features. Both movies proved to be financial flops. 

Walt Disney, like so many other Americans, was at home on Sunday morning, December 7, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, drawing the U.S. into the conflict. Within hours of the attack, an anti-aircraft gun was placed in the parking lot of the Disney Studio in Southern California to protect the Lockheed aircraft factory next door. 

Disney, born in 1901, was too old to be drafted. He was, however, eager to serve his country. During World War I, he dropped out of school at the age of 16 and tried to enlist, but he was rejected for being too young. He was able to find work as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross and would spend a year in France, but by the time he arrived there, the war had ended. 

When World War II began, Disney pledged the studio would focus 90 percent of its wartime output to the war effort and this work would be done not for profit.

Cartoons with a Message

As most people associate Disney with fun and games, the cartoons with a message shown in the MOF exhibit are very much an eye-opener. The Disney Studios produced cartoon films that taught technical skills such as welding and riveting, vital skills for the ship-building and aircraft-manufacturing industries. With a cartoon, images could be rotated for a three-dimensional X-ray view. For the armed forces, Disney produced training films on everything from how to navigate a ship, basic aerodynamics, and the dangers of airframe icing. 

For the home front, Disney produced comic strips and cartoons to explain what was happening in Europe, and lots of propaganda and morale posters, covering everything from nutrition (the importance of eating a balanced diet so you would have stamina to do your war work) to the civic duty of paying your taxes.

Disney also used cartoons to foster good relations with South America, which was ostensibly neutral during the war. A whole slew of geographically appropriate anamorphic animal characters were also created.

Cartoon Characters Become Unit Mascots

Disney’s anamorphic animal characters went from entertaining to inspirational, as they became insignia patches for various military units. The patches were created on request. Disney had a special squad who would field the letters sent from various military outfits asking for a custom patch. A pencil drawing would be created, often using existing Disney characters, then colors would be added to create the insignia. The finished work was sent back to the unit, and kept as a template. The most skilled artist in the outfit would then paint the design on aircraft, buildings, jackets, water towers—you name it.

The Disney insignia squad turned out more than 1,300 unit patches—and a great many of them have been recreated and are on display as part of the exhibit. 

Disney did a lot of art for aviation—as noted in a 1940s issue of FLYING, which is a part of the exhibit as it carries a story about the unit insignia that graced airplanes as nose art. There is also a model of the B-17 Wabash Cannonball sporting an image of Disney’s Goofy character.

One of the most famous designs in the exhibit is Fifinella, the shapely she-gremlin in aviation gear that is the mascot of the Women Airforce Service Pilots. Fifi, as she is known to her friends, was created at the request of WASP founder Jacqueline Cochran. At the time, Disney was exploring the idea of turning Gremlins, a children’s book by Royal Air Force pilot-turned author Roald Dahl, into a movie. Gremlins were mythical creatures blamed for aircraft mishaps. Fifi was created from one of the gremlin sketches. A superstition held that when a WASP flew with Fifi on her wings, she was protected.

Although today Mickey Mouse is the most popular Disney character, Donald Duck was the most-often used character in World War II insignia. He appeared in no fewer than 146 designs. The Duck, who even in peace time was usually depicted wearing a sailor’s blouse and cap, was a natural for the armed forces because of his reputation for patriotism—not to mention his willingness to fight. He also starred in a number of morale and training films, such as Commando Duck.

Disney Loses Animators to the War

The war cost Disney some animators. Most of its artists were men who were either drafted or enlisted. In addition, those of Japanese descent were forcibly relocated to internment camps by Executive Order 9066, which removed the Japanese from the West Coast. 

The exhibit notes that there were few women in the animation department when the war began, and like they did in so many other industries, women were called upon to fill these non-combatant jobs. At the end of the war, Disney offered the now-skilled women animators and artists the option to stay.

The exhibit opens at the MOF on July 9 and will remain until February.

The post When Walt Disney Was a War Hero appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Urban Sketchers is a global community of artists who practice drawing specific locations in cities and towns all over the world. The group’s motto is “show the world one drawing at a time”.

Drawing was a dormant hobby for Buike when she joined the group in 2012. She had recently retired and now that she had more time, chose to resurrect the hobby. She eased back into it.

“It’s like riding a bicycle…I remembered the basics of drawing and it just took time and practice to regain my former skills,” she said.

Around the same time she joined the Museum of Flight in Seattle as a volunteer. This gave her free access to the museum which is filled with subjects—namely the museum artifacts waiting to be drawn. When she joined the MOF, they were about to install a new space exhibit.

“The Full Fuselage Training, a.k.a Space Shuttle Trainer,” Buike recalled. “I’d been following the NASA space program from childhood as my mother watched every launch on TV from Mercury on.”

The day FLYING met Buike she was at the MOF waiting for the B-29 Doc to arrive from Wichita, Kansas. It was a sunny day, and Buike was sketching one of the aircraft on outdoor display while we waited for the B-29 to arrive. There were not many people waiting for the aircraft’s arrival, as the announcement of its visit to Seattle had not been made available to the general public.

“What I enjoy most is sketching special events at the Museum of Flight,’ said Buike. “As a volunteer, I often hear about things happening that aren’t announced to the public, such as the arrival of an aircraft or moving them around. I make a point to go over to watch and sketch from observation.”

Yes, There Are Rules

Some museums have very specific rules about capturing images of their artifacts. Sometimes this is done to protect the integrity of the artifact so that it cannot be copied, other times it is because flash photography can be damaging or distracting to other visitors.

When it comes to drawing, the challenge can be the materials used in the creation process.

Some museums permit colored pens, others only allow pencils to be used. Buike’s full kit includes pencil, pen, and watercolor applied to sketchbooks.

Buike often uses line-and-wash drawing, which is when a drawing is marked out by a pen and then tinted with diluted ink or watercolor.

 “I work in small sketchbooks, most of my own making—especially during “Inktober”—I use a tan toned paper with various kinds of black ink and white gel pens,” she says.

One of Buike’s favorite subjects to draw is the Space Shuttle trainer. The shuttle trainer is a mockup of the shuttle that was used to train astronauts on procedures they would need to use in space. It is one of four ships that went to museums when the shuttles were retired in 2011. 

 “I thought it would be fun to have an insider’s view of it being assembled,” said Buike. “I’ve sketched that more than any other craft.” she said.  

Sometimes Buike has an audience when she works.

“I’ve never drawn what I’d call a crowd but people do stop to look and chat. Often they are hesitant to interrupt me, but I always say, ‘That’s alright, I’m waiting for paint to dry.’”

Buike noted she had a moment when a father and a little girl were watching her work. 

“We chatted a little. As she left, she said, ‘I want to be like you.’”Buike keeps track of her drawings—approximately 3,500 in all—on her Flickr photostream “That’s the total sketches since 2012, not all aviation. Most of my aviation ones are in the ‘Museum of Flight’ album where there are about 275. I have a few more, done other places, but most are there.”

The post Aviation as Sketch Art appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

“Wolf gets to fly aboard Doc…”

About the Aircraft

Doc is owned by Doc’s Friends, Inc. a nonprofit organization based in Wichita, Kansas. A total of 3,970 Boeing B-29 Superfortresses were built during World War II. Doc is one of 1,644 built at Boeing’s plant in Wichita. 

The aircraft is on tour, offering rides for a price. They are not cheap or easy to get—the Museum of Flight rides had sold out before the Superfortress had even touched down at King County International/Boeing Field (KBFI) in Seattle this week. Seating is very limited as passengers occupy the same seats that were once used by crew members of the B-29, which was designed for a crew of 10.

For the first flight in Seattle, Mark Novak was the pilot in command, assisted by co-pilot Ken Newell, and flight engineer Don Obreiter. In the rear of the aircraft—in the compartment separated by a 41-foot tunnel—were crew members Brett Schauf and Josh Wells. They are known as scanners; their job is to keep the passengers safe and keep an eye on the engines, which are located aft of the cockpit and out of the pilot’s view.

Wells is also the executive director of Doc’s Friends. He noted that Doc could not be flying were it not for hundreds of thousands of hours of volunteer labor, including that of the flight crews.  

“There are nine left-seat certified pilots in the world on a B-29, and just two B-29s flying today. We primarily use three or four of [those pilots],” Wells explained. “There are maybe a dozen and a half right-seaters, copilots. We use 10 of them. They are retired airline pilots, retired military, all have multiengine experience. And they love warbirds, and they are very good at what they do.”

According to Wells, the crew attends annual training and the pilots are required to maintain currency in a B-29—three takeoffs and landings within 90 days in an aircraft that burns approximately 450 gallons of 100LL per hour, or costs about $4,000 to $5,000 per hour just for fuel and oil. If that’s not enough to give you a nosebleed, chew on this: Wells estimates the total cost for the restoration of the aircraft was close to $30 million.

None of it would be possible without the volunteers, says Wells. “It took 16 years and 450,000 volunteer hours in Wichita, Kansas, to take the airplane apart and put it back together. Without those volunteers, those heroes, there isn’t an aircraft.”

How Doc Came to Be

Doc is one of those Superfortresses built during World War II in a factory that is now occupied by Spirit AeroSystems—a company that still supplies parts for Boeing aircraft.

Doc rolled out of the factory in March of 1945, too late to see combat. Between 1945 until 1956, the aircraft flew as part of a radar calibration squadron based on the East Coast. The name of the squadron was the Seven Dwarfs.

“Doc towed targets for a while, then was given to the Navy to be retired,” says Wells. “It became a ballistic missile target [at] China Lake Naval Station in the Mojave Desert of California. It spent 40 some years there, then in 1987, it was rescued by a man named Tony Mazzolini.”

It was Mazzolini who had the idea to remove the aircraft from the desert with the intent of restoring it to airworthiness to make it a flying museum. Because it was produced so late in the war and spent so many years in the dry climate, the airframe and engines were in relatively good condition.

According to Wells, Jeff Turner—the retired Spirit AeroSystems CEO who today is the chairman and founding member of Doc’s Friends—told Mazzolini, “If you figure out a way to get it back to us, we will figure out a way to put it back together,”

Restoring any aircraft, especially one that was formerly used by the military, is neither quick nor inexpensive. For starters, there is a lot of red tape to cut through when acquiring a former military asset, and it can be too much for one person to handle. Then there are the logistics of where the work will be done, where spare parts will come from, and sometimes curveballs, such as when Boeing divested its Wichita facilities.

“The project was going to take about two years, then Boeing sold its Wichita facilities,” Wells explained. “The aircraft moved around a bit, then in 2012, Doc’s Friends was founded. Doc’s Friends is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 corporation. It took another four years to finish the project. Doc flew again in 2016 and we went out on tour in 2017.”

Tour season begins in March with ground school for the all-volunteer crews. They fly from April to November, putting approximately 120 to 130 hours on the airframe. At every stop, the aircraft undergoes a preflight inspection between flights. Spare parts, if needed, come from serviceable B-29 parts that still exist—many come from airframes stored in the desert—or else they can be remanufactured, if need be.

The revenue flights—$600 for the cheapest seat—cover the cost of aircraft maintenance, fuel, oil and insurance for both the aircraft and the hangar at Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport (KICT).

The Flight

Each B-29 Doc Flight Experience flight has nine passenger seats: 

• Bombardier ($1,500)
• Cockpit/Pilot Observer ($1,200)
• Navigator ($1,200)
• Six Gunner seats ($600 each)

The bombardier, cockpit/pilot observer, and navigator seats are in the forward section of the aircraft. The six gunner seats are in the aft section of the aircraft. Before we were allowed to board the aircraft, the passengers were asked to sign the flight manifest and assigned positions in the aircraft. We were told not to crawl through the tunnel connecting the two parts of the aircraft during flight, because there are no seatbelts in the tunnel.

Novak, a retired U.S. Air Force, business jet, and glider pilot advised, “This aircraft is licensed as experimental. It was built to military standards, not airline standards, so you can bump your head on something or snag something.” 

That was his polite and friendly warning to the passengers to be careful going in and out of the hatches. Bumping your head on something or grabbing the wrong thing when you are trying to maintain your balance in a moving aircraft is a real concern.

Novak pointed to the ladders on the rear and front hatches, and noted those means of egress as is the window over the flight engineer’s position “if you are really motivated” and the bubble windows. Seatbelts were required to be fastened during taxi, takeoff, and landing.

I was in the coveted bombardier’s position in the nose of the aircraft for most of the flight. The seat has a traditional military-style seatbelt, the wide canvas strap with a lever-type buckle. Newell showed me how to lower the seat back, step into the position, and put the seat back up. He made sure I knew how to work the seatbelt, then handed me a Bose headset, and pointed to the push-to-talk switch. I could hear everything being said in the cockpit. I was impressed by the way they ran through each checklist item using challenge and response.

One of the interesting parts of air tours like this is that they often go into airports with complicated airspace, like Boeing Field, which is in Class Delta sitting below the Class Bravo of Seattle-Tacoma International (KSEA) and is flush against Class Delta occupied by Renton Municipal Airport (KRNT). 

Novak and Newell discussed the options for heading to the north for the 20- to 30-minute flight, carefully noting the floor of the Bravo and the proximity of the Class Delta belonging to Renton and Snohomish County-Paine Field (KPAE) to the north. 

When Novak asked for a particular departure, the controller responded with one that referenced local landmarks, to which Novak responded that the crew was not familiar with the area. There was a brief pause, then the controller issued instructions for a left downwind departure from Runway 14R.

Engine run-up is a three-person event. Novak issued the challenges, and Newell and Obreiter replied in response. According to Novak, Obreiter, as flight engineer, had the task of “fixing things” the pilots did. One of my dear friends and mentor Dean Boyd was career Air Force and had been a flight engineer on several multiengine aircraft, and I could not help but think of him and his stories about crew coordination and teamwork in the cockpit as I watched and listened to these men do their jobs.

A few minutes later, the aircraft was configured for takeoff and the final checklist run. The crew checked in, all ready to go.

Novak, as pilot flying, verbalized power up and the behemoth airplane started down the runway.

My camera was rolling as the pavement that I am oh so familiar with sped by. I teach at KBFI, and I have to say there’s a big difference between the Cessnas I’m normally in and the B-29. We used a lot of runway, then a lightness in the nose told me takeoff had begun. 

When the runway ahead of us diminished to non-usable and flying speed was assured, Novak intoned “gear up,” and I heard and felt the landing gear retract.

When I fly that particular departure in the mighty Cessna 150, it takes much longer to reach 700 feet agl before turning crosswind. There is a hill over there you want to avoid. The B-29 had no issues, and soon we were turning downwind, heads on a swivel, being careful not to encroach on other airspace, and watching for traffic because it was a VFR afternoon and, therefore, the skies were filled with small aircraft.

When Doc reached cruising altitude, we were permitted to remove our seatbelts to wander around the aircraft. I kept my belt on as I turned to watch what was happening in the cockpit. Novak, his hands on the yoke, remarked, “There are people in the tail,” as he carefully adjusted the pitch and trim. 

The B-29 is a fly-by-cable machine. The controls are heavy and you can feel the pilot inputs. Wells summed it up by saying, “Anything you put in, you will have to take back out.”

I promised another photographer that he could have the bombardier position during the landing, so I carefully removed the headset and climbed out of the nose compartment and onto the flight deck. 

Despite the fact the engines are located after the front compartment, it was LOUD without a headset, so I quickly installed the earplugs I always carry in the pocket of my A-2 flight jacket.

I took the opportunity to look down the tunnel at the rear compartment—it is a 41-foot crawl, remember—then stepped up on the ladder that leads to the tunnel to look at the observation bubble. When you are as short as I am, you don’t see much.

For landing, I took the navigator’s position next to the table behind the left seat. There is a map of Japan on the table, preserved under a piece of plexiglass, as the B-29 was used by American forces against Japan.

There was a headset there, as well, and I was soon hearing the crew’s discussion of the approach to KBFI’s Runway 14R.

From the navigator’s seat you get a great view of the flight engineer position. The flight engineer is responsible for the fuel and propeller configuration of the aircraft. Just like on takeoff, there is a lot of verbalization and teamwork as the checklist is used.

A smooth landing and taxi later we were back on the ramp next to the Museum of Flight. Once the aircraft was shut down and chocks in place, we were allowed to explore the aircraft. I took the opportunity to crawl through the tunnel, the rear compartment and back again. A member of the crew remarked that the tunnel is the most popular part of the aircraft, especially to the younger crowd, so much so that at the B-29 Doc Hangar Education and Visitors Center in Wichita, they built a replica of the tunnel that is popular for crawling through.

You crawl in the tunnel head first, get to the next compartment, get out, turn around, and crawl back from where you came from. Or so I was told. Full disclosure: I am small enough and flexible enough to do a complete course reversal inside the tunnel. 

A visit to the pilot’s seat and the flight engineer’s station followed the tunnel crawl.

I have to give a big shout out to the crew of Doc’s Friends for the opportunity to take this flight along with that a big thank you to Ted Huetter, senior public relations manager at the Museum of Flight, for taking the time to offer me the opportunity—with the help of a former employer, Ben Sclair, who knew where to find me.

If you have the opportunity to see Doc or take a ride, don’t pass it up.

You won’t be disappointed.

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