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Wings on the Discovery Channel

Stephen

Stephen

Who Dares Wins
Moderator
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Never Far From Nowhere
When I was a kid, and we first got cable TV I wasn't so much interested in the latest cartoon on Nickelodeon or the Disney Channel, I found a show called Wings on the Discovery Channel. I watched it religiously every night it was on. A few days ago I was reading an article about the air intakes on the F-111 Aardvark, (because that's what you do while you are running BIOS updates on servers) and that article had the F-111 Wings episode embedded in it. Man, the music and the narrator took me back! So I went and found a YouTube Channel that has ALL the Wings and Great Planes episodes. I figured that there are some other aircraft nerds here on RME that might appreciate them, so here it is:

www.youtube.com

Discovery Wings

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
 
RockChucker

RockChucker

Well-Known Member
Location
Highland
Sweet. I'm always up for aviation goodness. If you haven't, you ought to read or listen to Skunk Works by Ben Rich. Very cool to learn about the engineering and testing of some amazing planes in our history. The Skunk Works podcast is great as well.
 
Stephen

Stephen

Who Dares Wins
Moderator
Location
Never Far From Nowhere
Just watched the episode on the XB-70 Valkyrie. Man! What an incredible piece of machinery that was!
When I was at the National Museum of the United States Air Force back in 2016, seeing the only remaining air-frame was the highlight of my trip for sure.

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Stephen

Stephen

Who Dares Wins
Moderator
Location
Never Far From Nowhere
Any time there is an aviation museum nearby, I stop at it. While I was in Oahu last week I went to the Pacific Aviation Museum on Ford Island. Its a pretty small museum, occupying two pre-WWII hangers next to the old control tower and operations building. As with my taste in cars, my interest in aircraft is often for the strange, obscure, and unloved. So after going through the main exhibit, I was pleasantly surprised to come upon a group of aircraft parked outside the second hanger waiting restoration. Among them was a Douglas A-3, specifically the NTA-3B, a one off configuration used as a radar testbed for the F-14D upgrade program. I've now seen three variants of the A-3, the YEA-3A electronic countermeasure prototype at Pima and an EKA-3B tanker/electronic countermeasure variant on the USS Midway in San Diego.

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There was also an OH-58 Kiowa Warrior. I've seen these flying, but never up close. These are kinda nifty scout/light attack helicopters. Shame that the Army has retired all theirs without a proper replacement.

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They had a pretty impressive lineup of helicopters in general. Back to front, a SH-34, SH-3, CH-53, CH-46, SH-60, UH-1, AH-1, and OH-58.

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Stephen

Stephen

Who Dares Wins
Moderator
Location
Never Far From Nowhere
A remastered 4K clip from Strategic Air Command with some amazing footage of a B-36.


If you haven't seen Strategic Air Command its an interesting 1955 film that was produced with heavy assistance from the USAF to help promote recruitment. Think of it as pre-cursor to Top Gun in that sense. Its worth a watch just for the stunning aerial photography of period aircraft.
Its also interesting that Jimmy Stewart was certified to fly the B-36, having been a B-24 pilot during WWII flying actual combat missions over Germany. He ultimately retired from the Air Force Reserve as a Brigadier General. Impressive guy.
 
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