For February the 3rd 2015 we have the Lockheed P-3 Orion anti-submarine aircraft and intel recon plane! First flight on November
1959 it has served the U.S. Navy for 50 years about 757 have been built at about $36 million dollar's each (1987)! although
there are a couple of programs to overhaul the Orion it is being replaced by the 737 twin pure jet Boeing P-8 Poseidon which
cost between $201 million and $270 million dollar's each about 15 have been built since 2013! And also for the 3rd of February
2015 we have the F3F-Brewster Buffalo an early WW2 navy carrier plane!
February
the 4th we have the Grumman F4F -Wildcat which was another early WW2 carrier fighter plane that was the first American fighter
plane to be able to keep up with the Japanese Zero fighter plane!
From WW1
we have Glenn Curtiss JN-4 Jenny which was an easy to fly trainer that were built in the thousands and sold war surplus to
barnstormers in the 20's and 30's! Glenn Curtiss di-vested and sold his stock in his aviation company for 32 million dollars
and moved to Florida retaining a design management role in the company later they merged with the Wright company to become
Curtiss Wright! Curtiss died in an apondectomy attack as he was in court in 1931!
For the 5th of February 2015 we have the Consolidated PBY-5 Catalina sea plane that first flew on March 28th 1935 3,305 were
built at $90,000 dollars in 1935! In the early 60's someone modified a couple of PBY's into bush planes with a STOL
variant kit on it and called them Bird Innovators!
For the February 6th-7th
8th and 9th we have Grumman fighter planes the F6F hellcat and the F7F Tiger cat a twin engine fighter bomber and the F8F
Bear cat which was used in Vietnam and two jet fighter planes used in Korea the F9F Panther and the F9F Cougar these were
a straight wing jet and a swept wing design!
February the 10th is the Martin
B-10 Bomber which entered service in 1934 it was with its all metal skin faster then most pursuit planes at the time! The
11th of February we have the Fleet Consolidated PT-11 of which only 41 were built they were used by the Army air corps
and the coast guard as training planes in 1931-32!
At the top of the page Tinker
decided to put a picture of a WW1 all metal aircraft that was developed by the Junkers company in 1918 the year the war ended!
Variation's on the basic design of the Martin B-10 (1934), led to the B-12, B-13, B-14, A-15, and the 0-45 all these
different aircraft had different power plant installation's with Pratt & Whitney engines Tinker think's! Reading about
older Junkers airplanes and looking at their performance charts Tinker wonders what would it take to build the aircraft today?
During the 1930's and 40's over 600 W-34 Junkers single engine transport aircraft undoubtedly they were used as a back
bone of military aviation in Hitlers Germany!
In Tinker's world today the use
of early dura-aluminum has been replaced with better more expensive aluminum alloys along with this is the research into carbon-fiber
materials that are lighter then aluminum and stronger then steel! Never the less the pliability of aluminum to be formed and
shaped and the light weight brings in the cost analysis side of the aerodynamic venture and one wonders of the cost today
to produce an old Junkers aircraft from the mid 1930's design era!