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Nathan Finneman: Airlander 10, the world's largest aircraft, crash lands after 2nd test flight

8/24/2016

Airlander 10, the butt-shaped airship that just flew for the first time last week, crashed earlier this morning on its second test flight, damaging the cockpit.

Nicknamed "The Flying Bum," the helium-filled aircraft took off from its central-England airfield last week to begin its initial testing, and was flying this morning for a second round of test flights. The aircraft completed its tasks for the day during its hour and a half flight before coming in for a landing.

Video posted to YouTube from witnesses on the ground show the aircraft’s slow descent, nose first.

Photos published by the BBC show that the crash damaged the cockpit. According to a tweet from Hybrid Air Vehicles, there were no injuries in the crash, but the company denied that it had been damaged in a collision with a telegraph pole, as had beenreported earlier by eyewitnesses:

Bone Chilling Footage Of A B-17 Going Down

8/11/2016

The Intercom Dialogue Really Puts You There!B-17 Flying Fortresses, the most iconic bomber planes according to many, were sent to some of the most dangerous enemy territories during World War II. Designed to travel long distances and drop up to 8,000 lbs. of bombs, they were used extensively in the European Theater. Their missions typically involved destroying strategic targets such as bridges, factories, airfields and oil refineries. With such high value targets, one can imagine that the Axis would protect their assets at all costs and did so through intercepting fighters and heavy flak.

This Fortress is hurt…drifting into the flak alone and helpless. In a minute Nazi fighters will swarm in like buzzards for the kill. You can watch, but you can’t go down to help.

As you’ll see in this historical footage, a B-17 squadron gets attacked by Nazi fighters. Though tough to watch, the audio from the intercom will really show you to horrors these brave crews faced every time they flew out on missions. They see one of their B-17 hit, with an engine catching fire. It then begins to plummet towards the earth, while you hear the other crews hoping for them to bail out. They see five parachutes deploy, however, B-17 crews typically consisted of 10 men.

These Two Warbirds Will Give You Goosebumps

8/1/2016

A Spitfire And Bf 109 Make Lots Of NoiseThese were the ultimate rivals during the Battle of Britain. To be fair, Hurricanes did a tremendous amount of fighting as well, but unfortunately this video does not include one. The Spitfire and Bf 109 chase each other through the air and come in hot towards the ground buzzing the cameraman.When it comes to seeing two planes reenacting a dogfight nowadays, that’s one of our favorites.

At the beginning of the war, the greatest advantage the Bf 109s had over British fighters was fuel injected engines.

Until 1942 when Spitfires were fitted with pressure carburetors, Luftwaffe pilots had one major advantage over Spitfires and Hurricanes. When having a RAF fighter on their tail, their fuel injected engines allowed them to simply make a nosedive to avoid them. Since Spitfires used carburetors, giving chase would cause initial fuel starvation which later led to overflowing the carb due to negative ‘gs’. Before remedying the issue, RAF fighters were taught to half-roll their planes in order to feed the engine before diving.

The Astronaut who took this photo, is the only human, Dead or Alive that isn’t in the frame of this 1969 picture

7/23/2016

This picture of the Lunar Module was taken by Michael Collins. It contains Buzz Aldrin and Neal Aldrin and of course the Earth in the Background. This picture was taken during the Apollo 11 mission, and it makes him the only person to have ever lived who was not inside this photo.

Because Matter cannot be destroyed nor created, it means that every human that ever lived up to the moment in time that this picture was taken, still exists, in some form that is. It also means that every person that was born afterwards is also in this photo, again in some form. Even if you were not born yet, the matter from which you are made off is in this picture.

Collins, in his second and last mission, served as the command module pilot for the Apollo 11 mission. As Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first to make a manned landing on the surface of the moon, Collins waited in the command module for over 21 hours for their return. When the command module drifter behind the moon, losing all communication with the Earth, he wrote:“This venture has been structured for three men, and I consider my third to be as necessary as either of the other two. I don’t mean to deny a feeling of solitude. It is there, reinforced by the fact that radio contact with the Earth abruptly cuts off at the instant I disappear behind the moon, I am alone now, truly alone, and absolutely isolated from any known life. I am it. If a count were taken, the score would be three billion plus two over on the other side of the moon, and one plus God knows what on this side.”

The Guardian interviewed Collins in 2009, and he revealed to be anxious about Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s safety. Fearing that in the case of a calamity he would have to return to Earth alone. Being the sole survivor of a failed mission, he would be “a marked man for life”.

Corsair & Spitfire Flying Low And Fast Over Channel

6/20/2016

The music’s great but we would love to hear the roar of the engines better. Those war birds are BEASTS! Such lucky camera men! We’d totally be in aircraft heaven listening to the sound in one fly by. The Spitfire pass was incredible. Can’t think of anything more amazing than this. Check out 1:12 — music to my ears! Just imagine standing at the edge of that canal watching this (That’s currently at the top of my bucket list). 10/10 who have seen this would want to do the same.

The Corsair may be the best looking plane but, I bet we all agree with this one, the Spitfire definitely has the nicest sound (can’t beat the Merlin for sure)! This looks a whole lot better than any special effects from movies. Those wings man, those wings! They’re all utterly beautiful and this low level flying is simply epic.

Corsair And Lightning Like You’ve Never Seen Them Before–Absolutely Stunning!

6/13/2016

If This Isn’t The Most Beautiful Thing You’ve Ever Seen, I Don’t Know What Is.This visually stunning footage from multiple vantage points will probably make your jaw drop. In preparations for a 2015 airshow, this team of pilots practiced formation flying and allowed us to see some of that footage.

What’s more, for one reason or another they looped and barrel rolled in the skies over, wait for it…the Alps. What’s better than two of the best looking fighter planes flying over one of the most beautiful mountain range in the world? That’s right, nothing.

Besides the P-38L Lightning and F4U-4 Corsair, Red Bull has also restored a B-25J Mitchell which they found at a U.S. aircraft cemetery.

These two iconic warbirds are expertly flown by two Red Bull pilots, Raimund Riedmann and Eric Goujon. Both these guys always had a passion for flying but also love historical aviation.

Now, to touch on that subject which splits our readers pretty much in half, Red Bull does put their big, red, non-historical logo on the planes we love the most. They also pump an average of about $1 million in restoration per aircraft. Feel free to discuss.

C-160 Pilot Makes HUGE Mistake–Nearly Wipes Out Family

5/27/2016

Well, That Ended Better Than It Should.We don’t even know how to begin explaining this. Was it a sporadic downdraft of sorts which made this pilot come short? Or was the pilot inexperienced? Maybe he was distracted by the dozens of people which were waiting right next to the runway? If you have any ideas of what the heck happened here, let us know.

This video captured a C-160 Transall approaching base in Germany. This plane might look familiar, but it’s nothing U.S. made although it looks similar to many military cargo planes.

This transport aircraft was a joint venture between France and Germany. It’s a twin turbo prop aircraft which, like the C-130 Hercules, withstood the test of time. 214 of them were manufactured and they are used not only by France and Germany but were eventually exported to South Africa and Turkey as well. A small number of civilian operators got their hands on them as well.

Now that you know what you’ll be looking at, you’ll also see that this resilient plane can take quite a hit. On approach, it came in a bit too low and hit an embankment before the runway. The plane bounced up like a yoga ball, but the pilot seemed to stay collected and set the bird down when it recovered.

We’ve included a picture from the point of view of another spectator. Those people were nearly killed actually. Now, the pilot might have made a mistake, but standing in front of the glide path like that is not a smart idea. They almost became deadly proof of that.

It looked bad, but thankfully no one got hurt.

tags: Nathan Finneman finneman colorado breed of speed breedofspeed airplane crash c160 mishap hit landing

A Royal Navy helicopter accidentally turned 10 porta-potties into a sky carnival of fecal confetti.

5/11/2016

Of all the possible objects to be sent tumbling across a hillside, a porta-potty is a close second to being the worst thing. The worst thing is ten port-a-potties, which a Royal Navy Merlin helicopter in Okehampton, Dartmoor scattered everywhere while transporting field guns for Britain'sTen Tors walking event.

tags: nathan finneman breed of speed helicopter porta potty

Someone Strapped A GoPro To A Rocket And It's Jaw-Dropping

5/6/2016

Maybe one day we'll think that rockets and space aren't that cool, but it's not today.

tags: Nathan finneman breedofspeed breed of speed rocket gopro space cool colorado finneman

Why ride IN a balloon when you can ride ON a balloon? nathan finneman

5/4/2016

Despite what it might look like, this is one of the most unique and tranquil ways to enjoy the wonderful world of ballooning in Vermont.

tags: nathan finneman breedofspeed breed of speed cool awesome balloon riding on top of balloon

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