Thanks to Tam for the heads up.
Yesterday was the 104th anniversary of the first powered flight, made by the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk. Thanks to Orville and Wilbur, over the next 104 years, we would develop aviation from a tiny plane that flew for 12 seconds into the massive aircraft that can carry tanks across the ocean. We would see some of the most graceful psychical representations of human engineering take shape in steel and wood…and invariably with piston engines.
Click to embiggenate.
That picture makes me feel all tingly.
Gotta love a Sea Fury. That shape screams “power” like a flying bicep.
Hawker Sea Furies are one of the things that makes going to the National Championship Air Races at Reno so amazing. Along with the P-51, it’s the most common platform for Unlimited racers.
There really isn’t anything quite like watching a line of souped up P-51s and Hawkers flying 20 feet off the deck at 450 mph…all trying to catch a gold and white F8F Bearcat.
Thus proving that the race does not always go to the sleek. 😉
For what it’s worth, however, I’ll always love the Bearcat, if only for fond memories of the old Dynamix game Aces Of The Pacific.
Oh my god, that game was awesome.
Almost as great as the old-school LucasArts flight sims. I miss Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe.
Powered flight probably would have occurred even without those two, though they did speed things along and made a great many advances.
Wings of Glory was probably one of the better WWI sims, but it unfortunately lacked multiplayer.