HANGAR SWEEPINGS by Harold Mills

HANGAR SWEEPINGS by Harold Mills

World’s Worst Airplanes

Another Christmas has come and gone and here I sit, wondering wot-in-heck I’m gonna write about in the coming months. Fortunately my beautiful Granddaughter gave me a book for Christmas that’s right down my alley. It is a small book, fairly thick and just as wide as a regular book but half as tall and it is called “The World’s Worst Aircraft” by Jim Winchester.

Some of the flying machines listed in the book I had heard of such as the Bell Airacuda which was a twin engine fighter bomber with Allison engines mounted as pushers in nacelles with a manned 20mm gun in a Plexiglas enclosure at the front. It was a pretty slick machine but the engines tended to run hot and no one could figure how the gunners could possibly bail out with a whirling prop right behind them. Remember, no ejection seats in those days. The Airacuda was also handicapped by the fact that it was slower than the bombers it was supposed to escort.

There are probably more British airplanes in the book than any other nationality although the Russians and the United States are well represented. I had never heard of the Armstrong Whitworth “Ape.” Really, it was officially named “Ape.” It was commissioned by the Royal Aircraft Establishment (back in 1928-29 this was) as an “infinitely adjustable” aeroplane. The length of the fuselage could be changed by inserting or removing bays. The entire tail unit including rudder and fin would tip forward and back when the stick was moved forward and back and the wing stagger could be changed because the fuselage was suspended on struts between the wings. All the control wires, pulleys, bell cranks and such like were external. With only 180hp the thing would barely fly and only three were made for which old time RAF pilots could be thankful.

I mentioned a few months back the Beardmore Inflexible as possibly the ugliest airplane ever built and I’ll stand by that. At the time I thought that the Inflexible was the ONLY airplane the company ever made. I stand corrected. They also built the Beardmore Inverness which was an all metal flying boat. In their concern for safety, the Inverness was supplied with two masts and sails so the crew could sail home if forced down at sea.

There are lots of other flying machines whose names you may never have heard like the De Bruyere C-1, or the Breda BA.88 Lince, or the Snecma Coleptere, or the PZL Mielec M-15 Belphegor, or the four wing Pemberton Billing Nighthawk.

Other’s you are probably familiar with like the Vought F7U (Gutless) Cutlass, or the Ryan FR-1 Fireball which attempted to combine radial engine power with a small jet. There are also a few listings that I haven’t read so I don’t know why this author dude listed them as “Worst Aircraft” such as the Beechcraft Starship and the Gee Bee racers. Anyhow, in coming months, providing Jack doesn’t tell me to take a hike, if I seem to be stuck on old and useless airplanes you’ll know it’s because the old brain is stuck in neutral.

In the meantime: HAPPY NEW YEAR Y’ALL

News and Notes

Lance Berrier

HondaJet Progress May Help Greensboro Economy

Honda Aircraft hopes to have multiple conforming HondaJets in the air this summer for use in FAA certification testing, still aiming for first customer deliveries by late 2010. The company's research and development facility was completed at Piedmont Triad International Airport in early December and plans to build its production facility while working with the FAA toward certification. Honda facilities at the airport will eventually capture 400,000 square feet as the result of a $100 million Honda investment that should produce about 500 full-time positions (each averaging $75,000/year) when production begins. A local community college is being tapped to establish training programs for future Honda facility staff. The presence of Honda at the airport is hoped to encourage area business expansion and has already resulted in at least one company move to the area. A recent count listed more than 50 companies doing business near Piedmont Triad, injecting the local economy with $1 billion annually and supporting 4,000 employees. Local officials are hoping those numbers are on the rise.

Companies already showing a presence at Triad include Cessna, B/E Aerospace, Timco Aviation Services and Atlantic Aero, Inc. FedEx is a major contributor, expecting to open a new facility at the airport in the middle of 2009. "Our aviation inquiries are up as far as other aviation-related companies looking in the area," Dan Lynch, president of the Greensboro Economic Development Alliance, told the Winston-Salem Journal.

Charlotte Class B expansion could impact GA airports

The FAA has announced plans to modify the Charlotte Class B airspace to help contain aircraft on approach to the Charlotte Douglas International airport, but the proposal ignores many of the consensus recommendations from an ad hoc airspace user committee that included AOPA.

The proposed changes would establish Class B airspace over two heavily used general aviation airports, Lancaster County-McWhirter Field and Chester Airport, which is used primarily for skydiving.

“It is important to identify an airspace plan that preserves all of the current operations at these airports,” said Peter Lehmann, AOPA manager of air traffic services. “The FAA should consider alternatives that eliminate the need to establish new sectors of Class B airspace.”

Pilots have until Feb. 9, 2009, to submit written comments to Mark D. Ward, Manager Operations Support Group, Air Traffic Organization, Eastern Service Area, Federal Aviation Administration, P.O. Box 20636, Atlanta, GA 30320.

A380 too quiet, moan Emirates pilots

Airbus A380 operator Emirates has encountered an unexpected problem with the aircraft - it's "too quiet" for pilots to enjoy a quick nap in the crew rest area.

According to Flight International, the company's flyboys complain the lack of background engine noise means they can hear every wailing infant and flush of the vacuum toilets from their sanctuary situated at the back of the cattle-class main deck. To add to pilots' woes, passengers also mistake the rest area for a toilet and continually pull on the door handle.

Emirates senior vice-president, fleet, Capt Ed Davidson, said: "We're getting a lot of complaints. It's not something we expected. On our other aircraft, the engines drown out the cabin noise. [On the A380] the pilots sleep with earplugs but the cabin noise goes straight through them."

Emirates opted to move the rest area from its traditional location behind the flight deck as that "would have compromised the design of the airline's upper deck first-class cabin". The cargo hold was rejected as an alternative because crew might find it claustrophobic.

The airline has ruled out insulating the walls of the rest area on extra weight grounds, and has asked Airbus for another solution. One option on the cards is to install "lightweight generators to create ambient noise".

Harassed By Hurricanes? Send In The F-4s

A researcher at the University of Akron in Ohio says he may have found a way to suppress potentially damaging hurricanes -- send in a couple of F-4 fighter jets to fly supersonic loops around its eye while it's still at sea, and the resulting sonic booms will break it apart. A patent application filed by Prof. Arkadii Leonov and his colleagues states that "two F-4 jet fighters flying at approximately Mach 1.5 are sufficient, [in theory], to suppress, mitigate and/or destroy a typical-sized hurricane or typhoon." The airplanes must follow a specifically designed trajectory, so as their wake propagates downward it both counteracts the hurricane's rotation and increases the air pressure near the eye of the storm. "This creates high-level local disturbances that can eliminate, reduce and/or mitigate a major rotational aspect of a hurricane/typhoon, thereby disrupting and/or eliminating the functioning of such a weather feature," says the patent application. One scenario shows the two aircraft flying an elliptical track about 200 miles long, intercepting the eye of the storm and spiraling down into it until fairly close to the ocean surface.

The sonic booms have the potential to be very efficient at this task, and the flight would not cause any harm to the jets or pilots, the application says. "There are plenty of sites along typical hurricane paths that are in the international waters where the jet supersonic booms could be generated in order to confirm that such booms destroy hurricanes," the application states. The sonic-boom theory is far from the first suggestion for finding mechanical means to suppress hurricanes. The Hurricane Research Division of the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory lists a series of proposals, from seeding the storms with silver iodide, to cooling them off with icebergs, to exploding nuclear bombs. "As carefully reasoned as some of these suggestions are, they all share the same shortcoming," says Chris Landsea, "They fail to appreciate the size and power of tropical cyclones."

Voluntary Error Reporting Dropped

Pilots at American Airlines, Delta (the nation's two largest carriers), and Comair have opted out of the Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP) that allows them to self-report mistakes without disciplinary action, because it might not be working that way. Safety advocates believe the program has helped uncover and resolve potentially dangerous situations before they caused damage or loss of life. But according to The Associated Press, at American, the company has broken faith with the program's intent and has punished pilots who inadvertently allowed lapses in safety and then reported them through ASAP. So, the pilots, backed by the Allied Pilots Association, sought changes to the program's language to assure their protection. Union representative Kevin Cornwell told the AP that his members will not accept a system that "labels our pilots as reckless." Meanwhile, a representative from AMR (American's parent company) has said management prefers to leave the provisions programs as is, saying that NASA's safety reporting system, ASRS, already addresses the pilots' concerns. The short-term result is lack of participation in ASAP by the pilots and a heap of criticism for both the airlines and pilots from a slew of safety experts.

Acting FAA Administrator Bobby Sturgell called it "disheartening," while Bill Voss, president of the Flight Safety Foundation, told USA Today, "There are at least two sides to every story, but I couldn't care less about either. Safety systems do not belong on the bargaining table. There is simply no excuse."

Pilots survive night on Hudson Strait ice sheet

Two pilots spent 18 hours floating on an ice sheet after their aircraft suffered twin engine failure on a flight from the US to Sweden, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

Australian Oliver Edwards-Neil, 25, and Sweded Troels Hansen, 45, ditched their Cessna Skymaster in the Hudson Strait, just south of the Arctic circle at around 5pm on December 4th. Edwards-Neil recounted: "We were flying over the north of Canada across a waterway when we had a double engine failure, which is pretty uncommon. We sent a distress signal and issued a mayday, and in five to seven minutes we were ditching in the water.

"There were these little ice sheets everywhere, and we managed to ditch the plane next to one of those - an ice sheet about five by 10 metres. As soon as we touched down in the water the plane started sinking like a rock.

"But one wing had rested itself on the ice sheet, the plane had bridged itself to the ice sheet and we managed to climb out onto that. We were lucky to get out. By the time we got out, the water was up to the ceiling."

The aircraft quickly sank. Edwards-Neil continued: "So now we were on this ice sheet not having a clue if it would support our weight, hoping to death that it would. We didn't have any survival gear, or rockets or flare guns because we didn't have time to get it out of the plane."

It was already dark by the time the pair were left stranded on the ice sheet, and they listened as search helicopters responding to the mayday vainly attempted to spot the stranded men. Edwards-Neil said "After they stopped flying...I guess it was midnight but we had no watch...we were just trying to survive everything.

"It was -20 degrees and we had these survival suits, which were fantastic and saved our life. But I never thought I could freeze that much. I was shivering non-stop. I was sure that I was not going to make it but my mate said 'You're going to get there.'"
After a harrowing night without food or water, the morning brought renewed hopes of rescue, but Edwards-Neil told the SMH: "Daylight came and we said: 'This is our chance to be found.' But half an hour later there were no rescue choppers, which was strange. We didn't know they'd called the search off.

"We started to think about how to save ourselves. We knew we couldn't survive another night on the ice because there was no shelter. We were all frostbitten on both feet because we were standing non-stop on ice. So we started to hop from one ice sheet to another to get to shore."

Half an hour later, they were rescued by fishing vessel the Atlantic Enterprise, based in Nova Scotia, which had responded to the mayday and steamed 180 miles, at maximum speed, to offer assistance. Captain Bo Mortensen told local media: "They were crying and all that. They were happy to see the boat. They looked good. They were in good shape. They were a little bit frostbitten on the feet, but they were in good shape."

Edwards-Neil concluded: "We were out of our heads [with relief]...they'll be getting a case of something from us."

The two men were taken to hospital in Iqaluit, Canada. The pilots had taken off in Labrador and were on their way to Europe.

On the Fly

December was one of those months where it is hard to pick just a few stories to include in the newsletter. As a result, I’m going to add a section to the newsletter page on the website called On the Fly. It will have a list of internet links to the stories presented in each month’s newsletter, as well as other stories that I just didn’t have enough room to include. Go to and click the newsletter link, or point your browser directly to

The stories presented above have been collected from recent Aviation News.

If you have an article, notice, etc. that you would like to see here please email it to or send via snail mail to:

Lance Berrier

1954 Thomas Rd.

Lexington, NC 27295