Gemini St. Louis Post Dispatch Article

A short article on the Gemini capsule as published in the St. Louis Post Dispatch newspaper on September 30 1962.

Download here or here or here (38.7 Megs)

National Museum of Nuclear Science and History Photos

Formally known as the National Atomic Museum.

This is the nation’s only congressionally chartered museum in its field. An intriguing place to learn the story of the Atomic Age. Exhibits spanning the early research of nuclear development through today’s peaceful uses of nuclear technology.

Mark Nankivil took a trip to Albuquerque, NM last July 20 2017 and sent these 215 photos. Lotd of aircraft and missiles! Credit: Mark Nankivil

Download here or here (159 Megs)

Douglas C-124 Globemaster II Photos–Part I

A group of 106 photos of the Douglas C-124 Globemaster II aircraft. Credit: As noted

Download here or here (72.5 Megs)

Additional info here

Lockheed P-38L-1 Army Erection and Maintenance Instructions

A copy of the Army Erection and Maintenance Instructions for the Lockheed P-38L-1 aircraft. Dated 1945.

Download here or here (65.9 Megs)

Jane's World Aircraft Recognition Handbook

A copy of the Jane's World Aircraft Recognition Handbook, dated 1982. A standard in the field!

Download here or here (49.8 Megs)

Phantom FGR Mk. 2 Aircrew Manual–Book 1

A copy of the UK AP.101B-0902-15A Aircrew Manual for the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II FG Mk 2 aircraft, dated March 1990.
Download here or here or here (23.8 Megs)

McDonnell XF-85 Goblin Walk Around #2

Another set of 97 photos of the XF-85 at the National Museum of the USAF, Dayton, OH. Credit: Vladimir Yakubov and John Heck

Download here or here

McDonnell XF-85 Goblin Walk Around #1

A set of 76 photos of the XF-85 at the Strategic Air and Space Museum, Ashland, NE. Credit: Vladimir Yakubov and John Heck

Download here or here (54.3 Megs)

Jane's All the World's Aircraft-1987 & 1988

A copy of the iconic aircraft "bible" for 1987 and 1988.

Download here or here

Bomber and Transport Aircraft Posters

A set of 52 great bomber and transport aircraft posters from the artist/publisher D-Agostini.

Download here or here (172.1 Megs)

Fighter Aircraft Posters

A set of 98 great aircraft posters from the artist/publisher D-Agostini.

Download here or  here (144.7 Megs)

Curtiss P-40 Warhawk Pilot Training Manual

A copy of Pilot’s Training Manual for the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk aircraft, dated 1943. Credit: Scribd.com

Download here or here or here (51.9 Megs)

Republic P-47N Thunderbolt Pilot Training Manual

A copy of Pilot’s Training Manual #AAF 51-127-4, for the Republic P-47N Thunderbolt aircraft, dated 1945. Credit: Scribd.com

Download here or here or here (42.2 Megs)

Aviation Art by Nicolas Trudgian

Examples of Nicolas Trudgian’s aviation art (262 paintings). WWII and modern.

Download here or here  (290 Megs)

The Aviation Art of Roy Grinnel

A portfolio of 122 aviation paintings by Roy Grinnel.

Download here or here (61.5 Megs)

Douglas X-3 Stiletto Photos–Part I

Some nice photos of the Douglas X-3 Stiletto.
Download here or here (11.2 Megs)

Douglas X-3 Stiletto Walk Around–Part I

Douglas X-3 Stiletto Walk Around Photos. (64 photos.) Some nice detail shots of a Douglas X-3 Stiletto at the National Museum of the Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.. Credit: Randy Ray, John Heck

Download here (43.1 Megs)

Additional X-3 walk around by Howard Mason here

Castle Air Museum Photos- Part I

Mark Nankivil, president of the Greater St. Louis Air and Space Museum, sent 88 photos taken by himself at the Castle Air Museum. Castle Air Museum is a military aviation museum located in Atwater, California. Dated May 8, 2017.

Download here (74.3 Megs)

Castle Air Museum video tour here

President George H.W. Bush Tribute

Jean from the Box Art Den posted a nice recap of President George H.W. Bush’s military service.

“ (The US) is mourning the death, at 94, of the 41st President of the US.
George H.W. Bush finally gave in to the ravages of time, and passed away on Friday.
He was quite a man, and one of his many accomplishments occurred during WWII.

George Bush was a pilot in the US Navy, and flew Grumman TBF Avengers in combat.
He had the misfortune of having one shot out from under him and spent some time floating in the Pacific in a small life raft.
The rest of his crew were killed in the exchange, and he was rescued by a US submarine.
This week we pay homage to him. I collected a handful of images of the Avenger, and found a few of George during the war.”

Download Bush and general Avenger photos here or here (3.5 Megs)

Northrop YF-18 Prototype Photos–Reloaded

Fixed the ZIP file to include all of the photos!

See here for correct ZIP file.

Royal Canadian Air Force Review Today

A copy of the RCAF review magazine for 2018.

Download here or here or here (21.6 Megs)

Lockheed P-38H/J/L-1&L-5/L-5B Flight Manual

A copy of the Pilot’s Flight Operating Instructions (Flight Manual) for the Lockheed P-38H/J/L-1&L-5/L-5B aircraft. Undated.

Download here or here or here

An Illustrated Guide to Prepping and Loading an Atomic Bomb

A nice, short article written by Ryan Crierie on the prep and loading of the first Atomic bombs onto B-29 bombers. Published in the April 2014 issue of the IPMS Forida chapter’s Pelikan Newsletter. Credit: Pelikan Club

Download here or here (3 Megs)

Large scale photos and article here

Messerschmitt BF-109 G-2 Flight and Maintenance Manual

A copy of the Messerschmitt BF-109 G-2 Flight and Maintenance Manual (In English), dated March 1943.

here or here or here

Japanese Aeroplane Identification Manual

Part five of the Aircraft Identification series of books printed by Aeroplane Magazine. This manual is for Japanese aeroplanes. Dated February 1943.

Download here or here or here (22.1 Megs)

High Altitude Evaluation of the Bell 47G-3B Helicopter

Army Aviation Board report ATBG-SEC AVN 2461.1/62 on the High Altitude Evaluation of the Bell 47G-3B Helicopter.

Download here or here or here

Douglas A3D Skywarrior Photos and Info

A few factory photos of the Douglas A3D Skywarrior and several fact sheets.

Download here or here (52.2 Megs)

An Overview of Autogyros and the McDonnell XV-1 Convertiplane

NASA/CR booklet No. 2003-212799, An Overview of Autogyros and the McDonnell XV-1 Convertiplane, dated October 2003. Written by Franklin D. Harris. Credit: NASA.

Download here or here or here (13.9 Megs)

Military Aviation of Russia (Central Air Force Museum at Monino)

A description of all the exhibits in the Russian Monino Museum. Lots of nice details. Dated 2008.

Download here or here or here (36.7 Megs)

Bell P-63 Kingcobra Flight Manual

A poor xerox of the Bell Company preliminary Flight Manual for the P-63 aircraft.

Download here  or here (36.6 Megs)

AV-16A/Pegasus 15 Advanced Harrier Report

McDonnell Aircraft report No. A2908, dated 30 May 1974, for the proposed advanced Harrier concept using the Pegasus 15 engine. Credit: The Greater St. Louis Air and Space Museum

Download here or here or here (3.6 Megs)

Japanese Aircraft Booklet

An introduction to and descriptions of Japanese aircraft in WWII. Dated 1945. Written by John Stroud. Lots of good illustrations and marking info.

Download here or here or  here (16.7 Megs)

Lockheed P-3 Orion Article

A large (22 page) article on the Lockheed P-3 Orion aircraft. From the MDC Phantom Flyer magazine. Written by Bob Pukala and Fred Roos. A background history and many colors and markings.

Download here or here or here

Northrop YF-18 Prototype Photos

Some Northrop YF-18 prototype photos taken at Edwards Air Foce Base by F. B. Mormillo.

Download here or here (18.5 Megs)

McDonnell Douglas AV-16 Advanced Harrier Article

An advanced Harrier proposal from 1973. The Advanced Harrier project gained the unofficial designation of AV-16 while Hawker Siddeley assigned the designation of P.1184 to it.

From Wikipedia: “In December 1973, a joint American and British team completed a project document defining an Advanced Harrier powered by the Pegasus 15 engine. The Advanced Harrier was intended to replace the original RAF and USMC Harriers, as well as the USMC's A-4. The aim of the Advanced Harrier was to double the AV-8's payload and range, and was therefore unofficially named AV-16. The British government pulled out of the project in March 1975 owing to decreased defense funding, rising costs, and the RAF's insufficient 60-aircraft requirement.[9][11][12] With development costs estimated to be around £180–200 million (1974 British pounds), the United States was unwilling to fund development by itself, and ended the project later that year.”

See article here

A very good Harrier development article is here

F-4 Modernization Program for the Twenty First Century

A copy of the McDonnell Douglas Proposal for the F-4 Modernization Program for the Twenty First Century, Vol III – Past Performance. Report MDC A8977, dated 4 January 1985.

Anyone have Vo I and II?

Download here or here or here (2.1 Megs)

North American P-51-5/Mustang IV Pilot’s Flight Operating Instructions

A copy of the AN 01-60JE-1 Pilot’s Flight Operating Instructions for the North American P-51D-5 and Mustang IV aircraft. Dated 5 April 1944.

Download here or here (32.2 Megs)

B-24D Liberator Flight Manual

A copy of the Consolidated Aircraft Company’s Flight Manual for the B-24D Liberator aircraft. Dated 15 September 1942.

Download here or here (34.6Megs)

Bell 47G Illustrated Parts Breakdown

A copy of the Bell Helicopter Company Illustrated Parts Breakdown for the 47G-5 and –5A helicopter. Dated 15 January 1981.

Download here or here

Blog Posting Note

After over four years of posting a new blog entry (1633 so far) everyday except vacations, I find that time and age are not my friends anymore!
Therefore, I will not publish a new blog entry on Saturdays or Sundays from now on.
Increasing family commitments and new ills are taking up the time I need to generate a new post each day!
Mr AA
BTW: As a reminder, this is what it takes to publish this material.
1. First, I have to find the material (Photos, articles, booklets; etc.) This takes a lot of time as I have 11 five-drawer file cabinets and 4 large book cases crammed with material!
2. Then the scanning, at an average of 2 min per scan - well, you do the math - another long process.
3. This is followed by dividing the scans into subject matter folders.
4. After that, each scan goes through a photo manipulation process (Think Photoshop) for cropping, sharpening, color balance and contrast correction, defect elimination; etc. Also, on pages that are larger than my scanner bed, I have to use stitching software to combine 2 or 3 scans into 1 image.
5. When I am happy with this outcome, I need to generate PDF's for some subjects and reduce the PDF size for up and downloading.
6. Next I have to upload the scans to an image service or my own website and obtain shortcut links for use in the blog.
7. The blog entry can now be written.
8. All is uploaded to the blog servers.
So, take a minute when you read a blog and appreciate all the (unpaid) work that goes into each entry!!

Note on My Image Holder PostImg message "server not found"

Postimg.org had a registry problem about a year ago and they had to move to Postimg.cc.
All photos are still available; but, the "CC" must be subtituted for "ORG" in the corresponding URL address to get to the proper place. (Hold cursor over link to get URL address or change in address line.) Postimg.org becomes Postimg.cc.
Also... any URLs with the prefix "old." need to have that removed completely as well. IE, old.postimg.org/ should be amended to postimg.cc
Let me know if I need to fix any links beyond the several dozen that I have already fixed.
Mr. AA

Bell X-3 Videos

Several videos of the Bell X-5 in flight. Credit: YouTube

Click here to download videos in one ZIP file (76.3 Megs)

F-4E Phantoms at DaNang Air Base

421st BLACK WIDOW F-4E’s at Udorn Air Base in Vietnam, circa 1969 . The squadron was briefly re-equipped with the RF-4C reconnaissance version of the Phantom, before being equipped with the F-4E, the last and most advanced version of the Phantom. Combat missions continued in Southeast Asia until the cease-fire on 28 January 1973, in Laos until February 1973, and in Cambodia until 15 August 1973. Credit: Tim White

Download photos as one ZIP file here or here (2.g Megs)

Douglas Skyraider Photos

A number of  photos of the Douglas Skyraider family. Credit: William Rudolph Collection.

Download here or here (4.9 Megs)

Aircraft Recognition for the Ground Observer

A copy of AF manual 355-10 covering Aircraft Recognition for the Ground Observer. LOTS of info and aircraft characteristics. Dated March 1955.

Download here or here (20 Megs)

Jane's All the World's Aircraft-2004 & 2005

A copy of the iconic aircraft "bible" for 2004 & 2005.

Download here or here Note: This is a large file at 256 Megs.

Bell 47G Flight Manual

A copy of the Bell Company Flight Manual, for the Bell 47G Helicopter.. Dated 28 May 1958.

Download here or here or here or here (2.1 Megs)

Bell 47G Booklet

A Bell Helicopter company’s sales booklet on the Bell 47G helecopter. Circa 1955. Credit: William Rudolph collection

Download here or here (6.7 Megs)

Good description on Bell 47 helo’s here

British Aircraft Recognition Handbook

A copy of the British Aircraft Recognition Handbook, dated September 1942.

Download here or here (23.7 Megs)

America's Harriers–AV-8A

A Hawker Siddeley Aviation factory reprint of the Flight International’s 15 October issue on the America's Harriers, the AV-8A for the USMC.

Download here or here (1.4 Megs)