JAL Flight 123 Contributor: Barry Fetzer Sources: History.com, Wikipedia Suffering a mishap that takes control away from pilots is perhaps the most frightening of mishaps. No one of us humans like to lose control of anything (although the old adage that “Man plans and God laughs” applies here), but when a pilot and copilot can…
Nagasaki, August 9, 1945 Contributor: Barry Fetzer Sources: History.com, New Yorker Magazine, This Day in Aviation, National Archives The recently released movie Oppenheimer highlights the history of the development of the atom bomb and the drive to beat the Germans at developing a nuclear bomb, the moral dilemmas and political affiliations that tore at some…
The Atomic Age Begins Contributor: Barry Fetzer Sources: History.com View of “The Bomb” over Hiroshima, August 6, 1945 Debate rages even 78-years later and will continue to rage for decades, even centuries, (if we don’t first blow ourselves back to the Stone Age) about whether Americans should have used its terrible weapon against Japan during…
Operation Tidal Wave Contributor: Barry Fetzer Sources: History.com and NBC Universal, Inc. While I’m quite certain there were many individual cases of what we once called “shell shock” (now PTSD) amongst the aircrewmen (with 10 in each aircraft’s crew, a total of some-1770 men in the aircraft and countless numbers of men in the support…
End of July Twofer Contributor: Barry Fetzer Sources: History.com and Wikipedia As we transition to the month of August from July, what is it about July? Perhaps we should be glad today is the last day of the month given the tragic aviation history of this month. Today we have a Sunday evening “twofer” for…
Crossing the Pond Contributor: Barry Fetzer Sources: Oleg Makarenko, Simplyflying.com, and History Press It’s hard to imagine a world without commercial jet aircraft. But, like everything, there was a first and, in this case, it was not in America, arguably the world’s most prolific aviation innovator. It was our friends in Great Britain who were…
Wiley Post Contributor: Barry Fetzer Sources: History.com and Wikipedia Hello again fellow lovers of aviation history. This historical vignette reminds me of the story of “Lucky”, the mangey, stray, three-legged, castrated, one-eyed, “Heinz-57” (mixed breed) dog that despite his adversities somehow was still making it in the canine world…somehow had found a way to survive…
Apollo and Viking Contributor: Barry Fetzer Sources: History.com and Wikipedia Good morning. Today we have an outer space “twofer” to celebrate our aviation heritage: Apollo and Viking. “The most Greek of the gods”, according to Wikipedia, “Apollo was the god of archery, music and dance, truth and prophecy, healing and diseases, the Sun and light,…