I was out tinkering with the T today and I heard this sound.
"Can't be" I thought, as I stepped out to get a view of the sky.
"Oh yes it can" I told myself.
A C47(DC3) cruising overhead at about 2,000ft.
Beautiful sound, beautiful sight.
Thank you Veterans.
Bob
Any time I hear those great old radials thundering overhead I have to take a look. Usually a Gooney Bird.
The sound I remember the most and know I will never hear again is the unique sound and vibration of the B36... they used to fly over our house daily when I was a kid...
Gotta' agree with you guys on that one! My oldest son was a jet engine mechanic in the USAF and he calls the radial engines that you're talking about,....."recips"! Whatever ya' call them, I sure like the sound too! Whether they're flying overhead, roaring their guts out on take-off, and even when they belch, backfire and sputter when starting from cold. Actually, maybe I like to hear them on start-up the best! Sound like they really don't want to run at all! I guess it's because they're designed to roar away at something near full throttle for hours on end.
No, there are just a few things that really "light my fire" and the modern jet engines are neat and all, but somehow, they just don't give me quite the same "goosebumps" that those old "recips" do!
And I gotta' say, a big steam locomotive, struggling up a hill or trying to start a heavy train does it too!
And, to keep this "model "T" related, another goosebump thing is that first start of a newly overhauled "T" engine!
(....hopefully, something I'll experience soon if my shoulder heals up to the point that I can re-install my newly "Tomasaficated" depot hack engine!)
I flew the Gooney Bird in VN, in Psychological Warfare (a BS Bomber), dropping leaflets and we had a 2000 watt loud speaker to talk to the folks on the ground. We didn't get shot at too often because our airplanes looked the same as the gun ships. That aircraft never failed to do what it was asked to do!!
Love the sound of Radials in the morning. Two weeks ago, I was helpin' a friend move some stuff around at his place in Pacific Palisades. Heard the unmistakable sound of a Merlin Engine, looked up to see a P-51 fly over. Probably flying out of Van Nuys Airport.
Ah, John, I remember the B-36s flying late at night when everything was quiet. I guess it was the six engines plus the pusher props gave them a sound that sort of stirred the heart. Then, at a certain point in the flyover the engines would sort of resonate with the house and for a few seconds the windows would rattle and glasses dance around in the cupboard. Then that racket would quiet down and you could hear the bomber droning on away for a while. Been lonesome for that sound for long time.
Is this anything like, although on a lesser scale?
http://avanimation.avsupport.com/sound/B36.wav
Here in Long Beach, CA. The DC 3's fly to Catalina Island several times a day on round trips and we get to hear those radials humm at least six times a day over our house. It's like going to the good old days all of the time. Some times there is lot of fog and the shuttle boats can't operate from the coast but the airplane can because the Catalina Airport is up in the air and out of the fog. Sometimes they run the twin tailed Beachcraft D18's that are smaller and cheaper to operate. The Catalina Island in the Sky Airport has a hump in the middle of it because it was built between three mountain tops and the middle one was taller. Any way that is sweet music and we love to hear it all of the time except in bad weather.
Dick, That's the sound of the B-36 that we long for. Thanks
That's it Dick!
When the B36's flew over, they were usually pulling full power to gain altitude and the final sound would be the roar of the four jet engines as they passed overhead. During daylight hours the jet engines would pour out miles of black smoke as I recall.
Robert, I can remember them shaking the windows and my teeth!
Four jet engines?
Six Turning-four burning!
I worked on B-29,s B-47 and the B-36,s ( good old SAC ) flying around D-M Tucson Ariz. in the first half of the 50s, I still like the sound of the R-4360s and R-3350. Some things you never forget. But there was no comfort flying in them.
Bob
I like to tell people that like Clark Kent, I come from another planet which no longer exists, called the United States of America, 1950. The B-36 is one of the sounds heard in that world. Some other sounds heard there: P.E. red car (interurban); steam locomotive (Bro-mo-selt-zer, Bro-mo-selt-zer, Bro-mo-selt-zer); Baby Snooks; wind-up movie camera; Bill Boyd's laugh; the high-pitched electronic whine of a tube TV set (old people couldn't hear it); Bulova Watch Time.
I lived there once as well....
Hen-reee, Henry Aldrich!! Coming, Mother...
I also like to hear the old planes with their recip and V12 engines, but what really sets the hair standing up on the back of my neck is a CH47 Chinook coming up to flight RPM and then flying over. Just my thoughts. (Chinook door gunner and crew chief, Viet Nam) Dave
I have a question for you folks, this thread got me thinking and reminiscing. I grew up near CFS Debert, a former RCAF base in Nova Scotia, and remember a number a number of large 4 prop planes taking off there, but have no idea what they were. late seventies, early eighties, any thoughts? I do remember their very distinct sound, you could hear them taking off ten miles away
In 1968/69 I was in the USN stationed at Naha, Okinawa. Every now and then a couple of us would go up to Kadena Air Base to watch and listen to the B-52's taking off. Boy, talk about thunder!
One of the most interesting parts of these trips was watching the Okinawan people who would raise vegetables on any strip of land they could find, including little strips just outside the runway fence. They could be seen tending their garden only 100 or so yards away from a B-52 at full trust for takeoff, and were completely oblivious to it.
I think Steve dusted off his ol' Spike Jones albums.
It's Mother-in-Law nagging at the rear, Cabbage by a head, and coming up fast in the rear turn it's BEETLE BOMB!
Smells and sounds from the past…
It is impossible to explain what they do for us..
I relate to almost everything said about airplanes
It was magic when I got the T a few years ago. The small and sounds made me remember doing parades and car shows with my dad. The smell just sitting in the garage is special.
This thread reminds me of the time I went to a short track for the first time after a hiatus of 30 years (I stopped going because a friend was killed at Martinsville.)
As I entered the spectator area at the start-finish line within a few feet of the racing surface a 455 Cu in alcohol fueled ISMA Supermodified was passing by at full throttle.
The smell, noise and rumble in my bones due to the horsepower brought memories flooding back. It must have been a full 30 seconds for me to recover and by then it was coming around again.
Today I look forward to the Supers coming to our track and enjoy every minute, every smell, every sound, and the internal rumble of the horsepower.
I get chills during the wave lap.
The only person I envy at the track is my friend the flagman during the first lap of the feature when 30 of the beasts almost blow him off the starter’s stand.
Fred,
I've read and heard it said that our sense of smell is our greatest memory trigger. I have certainly experienced this myself. I served on an old diesel/electric submarine for about 2 1/2 years. Anyone who has been on one has experienced the very unique combination of smells present on these old boats. About 35 years after leaving the navy I had the opportunity to visit an old decommissioned diesel/electric submarine that was on display. As soon as I climbed down the ladder into the boat and got one whiff it brought back a flood memories I had not thought of for years.
Harold,the B-36 had four small jet engines, two to the pod, that were normally used only for take-off and climb out. They may have been about the same engines later used on B-47s but not sure. Six big radial pushers plus four jets, hence, six turning and four burning. Mighty impressive airplane in it's day. Mighty impressive even now.
Henry, I served a hitch in the Air Force during the mid sixties tooling on B-52s. Another impressive airplane. The flightline where we worked was only 100 or 125 yards from the runway. Those bombers would come thundering down the runway, gobs of black smoke pouring out the back, maybe crabbing into a crosswind (so he's pointing at us instead of down the runway), upwind wing is already flying, downwind wing still rolling along on it's tip gear wheel, a sight that would make you want to go somewhere else.
When I was at Little Rock AFB (1963-67), at one point I had responsibility for some testing we were doing for the AF Academy. I remember a colonel from the Academy came to visit and discuss the program, so I was - of course - given the task of escorting him around the base. In the officers' club one evening, we ran into the B-58 wing commander, also a colonel. They started speaking colonel to each other while I stood by. The wing commander said that a squadron of B-58s was going to be doing a minimum-interval take-off exercise early the next morning and invited us to come down to the flight line and watch. I don't think I've heard more noise anywhere, before or since.
There is nothing like the sound of a "Three" as my Dad called them. He was a mechanic with American Airlines. He ended up at Proctor and Gamble as chief mechanic at the aviation Headquarters in Cincy. In 1965 when he went to work for them they had two DC-3's "Molly" and "Ann". One of them was really a converted C-47 and was sold and later used in "Band of Brothers" You tube has that sound recorded.
How about "Hi, John Cameron Suayze here for timex"
I put in a little over 400 hours behind this 3350. They were sure quite when you forgot to switch tanks.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v337/johnoder/Career%20Related/Navy%20Days/joh nny.jpg
R.G.H. - Thank you sir; if I ever knew that, I had forgotten, but then I seem to be forgetting more and more! In fact, I can 't remember what all I've forgotten!
Regarding "ol' reliable", the DC-3, growing up near Chicago, my dad and I used to drive out to O'Hare Field (now O'Hare International of course) to visit a friend of his that was a mechanic for "Slick Airways"! I don't know what type planes they mostly used, but I do remember some DC-3's and how much I liked to hear and watch them start up from cold. Cough, pop, belch, smoke and shake at first like it would finally start, but on that first try, maybe it would start and maybe it wouldn't. I remember thinking at the time that it seemed strange that even tho' all those radial engines were the same, you'd think they'd all start about the same way, but nope! Most would be pretty stubborn, and some would be very stubborn. (I liked those the best,....more goose bumps!) Ha,ha,.....harold
I got my tail wheel endorsement (J-3) at a little field that had a fleet of old C-47's that still flew cargo almost daily. This was in the mid 90's. They also had two cargo versions of the DC-4. I don't know what that designation would have been.
My days in the RCAF I flew a 4 engine ASW bird called the Argus. It was a big mother with 4 r 3350 turbo compound engines. I did one patrol which lasted 22.5 hours non stop. My head was still vibrating for 1.5 days after.
Wilf, would they hove flown those in Shearwater and into Debert occasionally?
Hal, I think the cargo version of the DC-4 is C-54. Don't get mad if I'm wrong.
Wilf, My longest mission in the RC-121 (Connie, also 4each 3350 super compounds) was 16 hours, 20 minutes. Our normal mission ran around 12 hours, any weather, day or night, off of Cape Cod, Ma.
Hal - Did you fly out of Otis AFB?
I remember going "on base" in the 50's with my aunt's boy friend and getting close to those "big airplanes"
Robert, The DC-4 AKA C54 was known as the Douglas Skymaster which morphed into the DC-6 then DC-7.
Was working in the basement on a T and a 1910 Rambler this past weekend and heard this lovely rumble. A B-26 was flying over the house
Harold mentions Slick Airways. Sounds like a joke but I flew with them across the Atlantic once in 1957.
They were hauling anybody they could and the government sent a bunch of people back and forth that were miltary or dependants that were being moved at government expense. I got a free ride because there was a seat available.
I worried about the company with such a name but all went well.
I also flew free on a MATS plane (Military Air Transport). They were great with nice planes and nice stewardesses.
I waited in New Jersey two weeks for that one, it was a 4 engined turbo prop. Nice, smoooth and a lot faster than the piston jobbies.
I remember when they shut two engines down when we landed in Frankfurt and taxied in the two props were still turning when we stopped by the terminal.
Fred, Yes I was at Otis for 10 years, 59 to 69, Great duty. I also flew the B-26, B-25, C-47, C-123, C-45, T-6, and KC-135 beside the RC-121. The B-26 was the most fun and I ferried one from the Philippines to Tucson. The whole time I was in the Air Force my T was in storage in a tumble down shack in Wisconsin, making a bunch of mice happy.
Yeah Aaron,....."Slick Airways",.....no joke! Sounds more like a Used Airplane Lot doesn't it?
OH, and the MATS Airplanes had all the seats so the passengers faced backwards.
They said at the time it was a government rule when carrying government people or U.S. military.
It is indeed safer. I took one of those free (Or was it $10?) hops back from Germany once. C-141. Loud and cold. Only a couple of windows but you had to get up and walk around to see out of one, so you really didn't notice you were going backwards except on take-off and landing.
More aviation.
Barnstorming.
http://beforeitsnews.com/conspiracy-theories/2012/10/was-sandy-planned-back-in-1 997-1997-drill-was-based-upon-1938-killer-hurricane-2445656.html 10 minutes.
See other films that appear after this one is through.
Gene
Wrong URL
Try this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6wwizIzkmY 10 min.
Gene