- 16,320
- 23,157
- 113
- Location
- Burgkunstadt, Germany
You are sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo lucky!
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I was very fortunate to be included on this ride. I know the rides aren't exactly cheap but they are worth every penny.You are sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo lucky!
When you think of what it must cost to keep those monsters flying, the $450 a flight is totally reasonable (almost cheap even).I was very fortunate to be included on this ride. I know the rides aren't exactly cheap but they are worth every penny.
The flight engineer told us it costs about $4500/hour to operate.When you think of what it must cost to keep those monsters flying, the $450 a flight is totally reasonable (almost cheap even).
The fuel, the maintenance, the hangar fees, parts (and on and on). It must cost a pretty penny to keep that bird airworthy.
Both the Ohio and the Canada ships look like they're both the same variant (the G-type I think it is). Very cool!
The flight engineer told us it costs about $4500/hour to operate.
tobyS, great story about your Dad. My son was assigned to a sub during his silent service days, the (City of Corpus Christy) I believe.Talked to my dad and looked at lots of pictures. He was in the 34th Bomb Group and we think it was Crew 509. His date of entry was July 1943 and date of separation Sept 7, 1945. When he entered, he was to go to Mass. for engineer training, but ended up in N. Carolina at aircraft mechanic and gunner 748 training (top gunner and crew chief). He was released early because of exceeding the mission requirements. He was stationed at Mendlesham airbase, Ipswitch England.
On their crew's first mission they were doing recon and got off the flight path. They had to drop below clouds to get a visual and when they did, were over a German held area with extremely heavy flack. He showed me a piece of flack that he said is a broken up engine cylinder liner that hit the bottom of his seat (top gunner), but didn't go through. The plane had only one engine left and they made it to the English Channel to ditch. They spotted a convoy, not knowing if it was friend or enemy and went in near it. He has photo of the plane in the water (reminds me of Sully Sullenberger), taken by the freighter crew. The entire crew lived and were brought aboard a freighter.
The crew got a new plane and they named it the "Flying Fish" after their ordeal on the first mission. Pictures of the plane and crew show the fish painting, which is the strangest fish I have ever seen. I noticed it resembled a locust, more than a fish.
He flew 38 missions on Germany after that.
Most of his life he lived with hearing loss due to the sustained high altitude flights, but recently the VA has helped him with hearing aids and cochlear implant, which about killed him on the install and hasn't been as helpful as hoped, but he's doing better with the combined implant and exterior aid.
I'm trying to get him to stop mowing his yard with his push mower (at 92), but can't find a kid to do it (and he almost always beats me to it). He was married to my mom for 62 years and while having a woman friend, misses her terribly. We've stayed in the community to help him and (when home from college) my children visit regularly (except son in sub service).
We got the Howard Hughes Medical Institute headquartered here in the DC area (in Bethesda MD).Photos 7 and 8 are of the military version of the 307, the C-75. Howard Hughes was so impressed with the 307 that he ordered one, and turned it into a flying penthouse, with a bedroom, office, 2 lavatories, a wet bar, and more. That historic 307 aircraft ended up in photo 9. Being converted into a house boat.
Oh, man, take a pic when you get there.View attachment 695036 The famous picture of Howard in the left hand seat of the Hughes H-4 (spruce goose), was taken just hours before his famous flight across Los Angeles harbor. I have always wanted to visit the H-4 in person, just to see if I can sneak in, and sit in that left hand seat........just so I can say I dun it!!
That almost is alone a work of art.View attachment 695092 Howard Hughes other famous aircraft, the Hughes H-1 Racer. 1. A young Howard Hughes with the H-1 racer, 2. Howard going over the pre-flight check list before a test flight. 3. Howard sitting on the prop spinner of the H-1 after running out of fuel, and then successfully belly landing the aircraft in a bean field at Santa Ana Calif.. 4. The H-1 today on display at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. Still beautiful after all these years.