They were, and maybe still are (I moved from there 20 years ago) mosquito planes in southwest Florida for many years. Flying over the city at treetop level releasing mountains of skeeter fog.
It's also the first plane I ever flew on, in 1974 when I joined the army and flew from Fort Myers, FL to Miami. Entered the plane on the rear-side and walked "uphill" up the aisle that what appeared to be old schoolbus style seats with shredded cloth seatbelts. I had a window seat right behind the right wing and saw 3 diff colored liquids running down the wing while we were in flight. Yeah, them big radial engines have a sound don't they?
They are to me the physical manifestation of the word “airliner”. Beautiful lines. About the time you were worrying about fluids running down the wing, my father (a nervous flyer at the best of times) took a short haul flight on one and he said the wrinkles on the skin of the wings terrified him. Then at Expo 86 they had a 50th anniversary flight with 50 of them! Amazing.
They were, and maybe still are (I moved from there 20 years ago) mosquito planes in southwest Florida for many years. Flying over the city at treetop level releasing mountains of skeeter fog.
ReplyDeleteIt's also the first plane I ever flew on, in 1974 when I joined the army and flew from Fort Myers, FL to Miami. Entered the plane on the rear-side and walked "uphill" up the aisle that what appeared to be old schoolbus style seats with shredded cloth seatbelts. I had a window seat right behind the right wing and saw 3 diff colored liquids running down the wing while we were in flight. Yeah, them big radial engines have a sound don't they?
They are to me the physical manifestation of the word “airliner”. Beautiful lines. About the time you were worrying about fluids running down the wing, my father (a nervous flyer at the best of times) took a short haul flight on one and he said the wrinkles on the skin of the wings terrified him.
ReplyDeleteThen at Expo 86 they had a 50th anniversary flight with 50 of them! Amazing.