A little zen for the aviators...

By The Armorer on December 27, 2006 | | Comments (10)

A bad day at the office, Bill-style.

This OH-58 Kiowa, damaged during training in Hawaii in February, was successfully landed by pilots Capt. John B. Davis and Chief Warrant Officer Steven K. Huiton despite severe damage to its main rotor.

This OH-58 Kiowa, damaged during training in Hawaii in February, was successfully landed by pilots Capt. John B. Davis and Chief Warrant Officer Steven K. Huiton despite severe damage to its main rotor.

H/t, Strategy Page.

Speaking of Bill, I found another picture of aviation-related Bill-adaptations... Back in his late-middle-age, Bill apparently had a problem with making hard landings. Here we see one experimental method of dealing with this problem...

Tires for the guy with no flare...

Mebbe that's why he found himself in helos...

BTW - if anyone knows the real story (I assume it has to do with rubber shortages and experiments to reduce rubber usage) I'd love to hear it. As well as what the test pilot thought!

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10 Comments

By Rod Thorsen on December 27, 2006 12:34 PM
C-rat crackers undergoing durability testing?
 
By Justthisguy on December 27, 2006 6:44 PM
No, Rod, they were having a rubber shortage then. All those horny young Rosy-the-Riveter types, ya know. Sorry about that, Chief. No, really, it's rare to see a photo of a Mustang when it was an Apache, let alone with wooden wheels. Let me guess: The new tires were a weird size and they got the airplane finished before the tires.
 
By Rod Thorsen on December 27, 2006 9:21 PM
OK, OK, OK, I got it!! This photo illustrates the approved method of resizing c-rat crackers to fit in the little can.
 
By Rod Thorsen on December 28, 2006 6:14 PM
SpongeBob's first job? All right, I know, I'm having entirely too much fun with this.
 
By Rod Thorsen on December 28, 2006 6:21 PM
Sadly, he was mustered out after he became too square to perform his duties.
 
By haji0matic on December 28, 2006 9:58 PM
OPERATION FORTITUDE...decoys across from Calais? Gen George Patton's ficticious Army?
 
By John of Argghhh! on December 29, 2006 8:08 AM
I'm pretty sure that's an actual aircraft.
 
By Rod Thorsen on December 29, 2006 2:01 PM
Seriously now. This ac is unarmed, the cannon protruded several feed from the fairings. Both folks in the photo appear to be civilian. If I had an assembly line going, would I shut it down while waiting for the boxcar of tires to show up? I think this was just a way to get mostly completed ac from blocking the assembly line while awaiting parts.
 
By John of Argghhh! on December 29, 2006 2:48 PM
Rod - that's the best explanation I've seen yet.
 
By Rod Thorsen on December 29, 2006 4:34 PM
justthisguy had it, I was just going with it