Robins AFB Air Museum
AT ROBINS Air Force Base near the center of Georgia, where dogwood trees and azaleas bloom in the spring and camellias brighten the landscape in winter, lucky visitors can stroll through the indoor and outdoor collections of the fastest growing military aviation museum in the Southeast. The Museum of Aviation traces its roots to World War II. On August 8, 1941, the U.S. War Department negotiated a contract for the construction of an Air Corps supply and repair depot. Completed a year later, the installation was officially named Robins Field, after General Augustine Warner Robins (1882-1940). The name later was modified to Robins Air Force Base.
The National Stearman Fly-In
Open-cockpit flying, especially in a biplane, may seem old-fashioned, but once it has been experienced it is still the most magnificent way to travel. The one airplane that comes into any conversation about fabric covered bi-wing airplanes is the Stearman. From 1937 to 1945, the Boeing Airplane Company's affiliate, the Stearman Aircraft Company of Wichita, Kansas, assembled 8,428 Boeing-Stearman Model 75 airplanes, with spare parts production accounting for the equivalent of another 1,918 aircraft. The Model 75 was used as the primary trainer for thousands of Army and Navy students (mainly during WW II). Many Allied students were also taught the basic elements of flight in the Model 75.
TAC Fly-in & Picnic
The Tri County Aero model airplane club of Vincennes, Indiana tries to get young people interested in model airplanes. At the TAC's Annual Fly-In and Picnic on October 24, 1998, a new and very successful, yet very simple idea was employed. In the June 1997 issue, Model Aviation published a construction article on how to build simple hand-launched gliders from foam egg cartons, which abound at many homes. It takes about three minutes, a sharp X-Acto knife, a penny in the nose for counterbalance, and you have an instant flying machine!
Mr. Gulfhawk
WHEN THE joy-packed 1937 Christmas issues of aviation magazines hit the newsstands, they proclaimed the Comet Model Airplane and Supply Co.'s one-inch to one-foot scale Grumman Gulfhawk a sensation. Even by today's exacting scale standards, it was indeed heralded correctly, with the controls moveable from the cockpit, retractable landing gear, and detailed engine. However, the fame of this faithful reproduction could be traced to one of America's immortal aviators-Maj. Al Williams. Williams made the name "Gulfhawk" synonymous with precision aerobatics, but prior to his Gulfhawk fame, Al had pursued other careers. Born in New York City in 1896 and reared in the Bronx, Alford Joseph Williams, Jr. would graduate Fordham University in 1915. Having been noticed by the New York Giants' scouts during his Fordham baseball team days, Al would sign up with the Giants, after receiving his A.B. Degree.
The Tipsy Junior
LIGHT AIRCRAFT creations have always caught the fancy of the aviation world, and this is due, perhaps, to the imaginative, yet practical, designs. Should an American designer submit for evaluation his prototype light aircraft to the U.S. Air Force Test Center at Edwards A.F.B., California, one might wonder what the ensuing result would be, yet this was precisely what Ernest O. Tips confidently subjected his Tipsy Junior aircraft to in England. The itinerary of E.O. Tips' aeronautical career certainly has proved him to be one of the great light plane pioneers, spanning back to 1908 when he and his brother Maurice built and flew their first airplane. This canard biplane featured shaft-driven reversible propellers, which was a very advanced innovation for that time.
