Aviation & Avionics, Thursday, October 23

[crazypilotman.livejournal.com]

Murdock was in a good mood as he started scribbling some notes on the chalkboard.

"Hey guys," he grinned at the students. "Hope y'all had a nice break. Not including that one weekend which won't be discussed at all during class. Right?" He glanced at the class, and in particular at Jack.

"Cool. So let's get to it then!"

(ocd up! coming)

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Lecture part I

[crazypilotman.livejournal.com]

"Harriet Quimby (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Quimby) was the first female to gain a pilot license in the United States. In 1911 she earned the first U.S. pilot's certificate issued to a woman by the Aero Club of America, and less than a year later became the first woman to fly across the English Channel. On April 16, 1912, Quimby took off from Dover, England, en route to Calais, France and made the flight in 59 minutes, landing about 25 miles (40 km) from Calais on a beach in Hardelot-Plage, Pas-de-Calais. She had become the first woman to fly the English Channel. Quimby's career ended on July 1, 1912. She was flying in the Third Annual Boston Aviation Meet at Squantum, Massachusetts. William Willard, the event's organizer, was a passenger in her brand-new two-seat Bleriot monoplane. The plane unexpectedly pitched forward for reasons that are still unknown. Both Willard and Quimby were ejected and fell to their deaths, while the plane glided down and lodged itself in the mud."

"Amelia Earhart (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Earhart) was invited by Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon to accompany them on a transatlantic flight, which made her the first woman to cross the Atlantic by air. And, in 1932, she became the first female to cross the Atlantic Ocean alone, which she did in record time; 13 hours and 30 minutes. She was awarded honors from the French and American governments and she was also the first female to fly from Hawaii to California, across the Atlantic Ocean, in 1935. In the same year she also set a speed record for flying from Mexico City to New York City in 14 hours and 19 minutes. Amelia Earhart had intended to fly around the world east to west, starting in Oakland, CA. However, she decided to try another plan when her plane crashed in Hawaii. The company who made the plane, Pratt & Whitney, shipped it back to California to be repaired. Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, started their journey again, this time going from west to east. On July 2, on the leg from Lae, New Guinea to Howland Island, Earhart and Noonan disappeared in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. This area has been thoroughly searched by U.S. Navy ships and planes many times, but no sign of the two flyers has ever been found."

"Jacqueline Cochran (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacqueline_Cochran), known by her friends as "Jackie," flew her first major race in 1934. In 1937, she was the only woman to compete in the Bendix race. She worked with Amelia Earhart to open the race for women. That year, she also set a new woman's national speed record. By 1938, she was considered the best female pilot in the United States. She had won the Bendix and set a new transcontinental speed record as well as altitude records. By this time she was no longer just breaking woman's records but was setting overall records. She was the first woman to break the sound barrier, with Chuck Yeager right on her wing, the first woman to fly a jet across the ocean, and the first woman to fly a bomber across the Atlantic. She won five Harmon Trophies as the outstanding woman pilot in the world. Sometimes called the "Speed Queen," at the time of her death, no pilot, man or woman, held more speed, distance or altitude records in aviation history, than Jackie Cochran. Before the United States joined World War II, she was part of "Wings for Britain" that delivered American built aircraft to Britain and she became the first woman to fly a bomber across the Atlantic. In Britain, she volunteered her services to the Royal Air Force. For several months she worked for the British Air Transport Auxiliary, recruiting qualified women pilots in the United States and taking them to England where they joined the Air Transport Auxiliary. In September 1940, with the war raging throughout Europe, Jackie Cochran wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt to introduce the proposal of starting a women's flying division in the Army Air Forces. She felt that qualified women pilots could do all of the domestic, noncombat aviation jobs necessary in order to release more male pilots for combat."