Adventures of the Blackgang
Thalassophilia, Nautical History, Culture, and Art
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Obit of the Day: “The Fastest Woman On Earth”
Betty Skelton had no fear. Whether in the cockpit or the driver’s seat, Ms. Skelton focused on one thing only: speed. Taking flying lessons beginning at age ten, she found her first thrills in the twists and turns of “aerobatics.” Ms. Skelton could do things with a plane few had seen before, especially by a woman. She would fly upside down, ten feet from the ground, and cut a ribbon with her propeller to open an event. She would take a non-pressurized, non-insulated Piper Cub to the highest altitude ever, over 29,000 feet. (“I usually fly bare-footed, so my feet darn near froze to death.”) She flew a Mustang P-51 at an unoffical speed of 421 MPH, but after the engine exploded and she was able to bring the plane down the record didn’t count since she didn’t land where she took off. Her first open cockpit plane, “The Little Stinker,” hangs in the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center - upside down.
When she stopped flying, she began driving, and the milestones kept piling up. She was the first woman to drive a pace car at the Indianapolis 500 in 1957. She set long-distance driving records from New York to Los Angeles (56 hours, 57 minutes) and Argentina to Chile (41 hours, 14 minutes). She became the first female test driver for Chevrolet, beginning with the Corvette. (She drove a red model for the rest of her life.) She set land speed records at both Daytona Beach, FL and the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.
In the miscellaneous category, Ms. Skelton became the first woman boat jumper (see above) at Cyrpress Gardens in Florida. While the first seven Mercury astronauts were undergoing rigorous tests to prepare them for space flight so was Ms. Skelton. She passed them all, and the Mercury 7 dubbed her “7 1/2.” Ms. Skelton, who was 85, was inducted into eleven different halls of fame, including the National Aviation Hall of Fame and the Motorsports Hall of Fame.
She joins Faye Blackstone (trick horserider) and Mary Alfonsi (professional wrestler) in the coincidental “Awesome Women & High-Risk Activities” triumverate.
(Image courtesy of allhatnocattle.com)
(via coolchicksfromhistory)
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Late 1950s Cubana Airlines/Cubana de Aviacion
Back reads: Giant Super “G” Constellations are an important feature of Cubana Airlines’ superb service. Cubana routes radiate from Havana–encompass destinations such as New York, Miami, Mexico City, Haiti, Nassau, Bermuda, the Azores, Portugal and Spain.
posted by Peachhead (Loretta Killian)
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“Flak bursts around Boeing B-17 ‘Flying Fortresses’ of the 15th Air Force, enroute to bomb enemy installations at Debreczen, Hungary, 21 Sept. 1944” (via)
(via mudwerks)
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(via Aeronaut: 1910 | Shorpy Historic Photo Archive)
New York or vicinity circa 1910. “J.M. Johnson in Bleriotype.” The aviator: dashing. His attire: natty. Bain News Service glass negative. View full size.
(via mudwerks)
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“Pilot to Bombardier!”
watching:
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), Director: Mervyn LeRoy, Running time: 138 minutes.
The amazingly detailed true story of “The Doolittle Raid” based on the novel of the same name. Stunned by Pearl Harbor and a string of defeats, America needed a victory—badly. To that end, Colonel Jimmy Dolittle, a former air racer and stunt pilot, devises a plan for a daring raid on the heart of Japan itself. To do this, he must train army bomber pilots to something no one ever dreamed possible—launch 16 fully load bombers from an aircraft carrier! This movie is remarkable in it’s accuracy and even uses film footage from the actual raid.
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Royal Dutch Air Service. Fiction becomes Fact. (1920)
English text version for the worlds oldest airline company (KLM) still in operation.
By Anthonius M. Guthschmidt (1887-1958)
(via thewidowflannigan)
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feastingonroadkill (the nastiest muvva on teh intarwebs)
Truth is stranger than pulp fiction.
“The Messerschmitt Me 264 Amerika was a long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft developed during World War II for the German Luftwaffe. It was intended to support U-boat operations far into the Atlantic, serving both as a scout to direct the attack, as well as launching attacks of its own.
The design was later selected as a competitor in the Reichsluftfahrtministerium’s (the German Air Ministry) “Amerika Bomber” programme, which intended to develop a strategic bomber capable of attacking New York City from bases in France or the Azores, although it is highly doubtful that this would have been achieved with a meaningful payload, if at all.”