# The Great Ongoing Aviation Thread (general and other) (Part 1)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [October 23, 2011, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499 "2011-10-23T02:17:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 320
### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2024, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/6383 "2024-07-12T14:59:01Z")
I was on the Space Shuttle Support Team starting with STS-2. I have a certificate from the mission somewhere with Joe Engle’s and Richard Truly’s signatures/autographs on it.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2024, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/6384 "2024-07-13T01:25:18Z")
I don’t know if this is true, so I’ll share it in case anyone knows.
> What is the highest passenger capacity for a turboprop aircraft?
>
> The last C-130 out of Saigon, at the end of the Vietnam War, left with 452 people on board. 32 of them in the cockpit.
>
> Later it was determined that it took off about 10,000 pounds over the maximum gross weight for a C-130.
>
> The plane survived and is now on display in Little Rock, Arkansas.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2024, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/6385 "2024-07-13T01:27:00Z")
I’d consider a .mil site trustworthy:
[https://www.littlerock.af.mil/News/Art/igphoto/2001063315/](https://www.littlerock.af.mil/News/Art/igphoto/2001063315/)
> In all, 452 people were on board, including the 32 in the cockpit. It was estimated the aircraft was overloaded by at least 10,000 pounds.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2024, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/6386 "2024-07-13T02:34:59Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> …All the fighters of that era [WWII] were single seat.
Not all: there were the Messerschmitt Bf 110 and the Grumman F7F Tigercat.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2024, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/6387 "2024-07-13T02:36:07Z")
The coolest USAF propeller plane today IMHO:
> **[Flying aboard the Ghostrider, a deadly aircraft carrying America’s biggest...](https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/09/asia/korea-ac130j-ghostrider-gunship-biggest-gun-intl-hnk-ml/index.html)**
>
> The AC-130’s presence for drills in South Korea was designed to send a simple message to its belligerent neighbor North Korea – deterrence.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2024, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/6388 "2024-07-13T03:39:55Z")
And the Black Widow.
> **[Northrop P-61 Black Widow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_P-61_Black_Widow)**
>
> The Northrop P-61 Black Widow is a twin-engine United States Army Air Forces fighter aircraft of World War II. It was the first operational U.S. warplane designed as a night fighter.
> Named for the North American spider Latrodectus mactans, it was an all-metal, twin-engine, twin-boom design armed with four forward-firing 20 mm (.79 in) Hispano M2 autocannon in the lower fuselage, and four .50 in (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns in a dorsal gun turret. Developed during the war, the first test...
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### Author:  [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2024, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/6389 "2024-07-13T13:05:04Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
>
> I was on the Space Shuttle Support Team starting with STS-2.
Amazing!
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2024, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/6390 "2024-07-13T13:12:43Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#):
>
> Amazing!
Not really. I (and a few others in the company) just got rawinsonde data from the Air Force and transmitted it to JSC. But I did get a [jacket](https://imgur.com/a/ZsdGASf).
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### Author:  [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2024, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/6391 "2024-07-13T13:20:02Z")
Oh. Still pretty cool.
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### Author:  [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2024, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/6392 "2024-07-13T19:40:27Z")
That beats the 100 otters flown by MJN airways.
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2024, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/6393 "2024-07-14T00:55:00Z")
Brilliant.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2024, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/6394 "2024-07-14T02:12:51Z")
> [@JacobSwan](#):
>
> That beats the 100 otters flown by MJN airways.
Or the [76 beavers flown by the State of Idaho.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B)
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### Author:  [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2024, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/6395 "2024-07-14T02:38:32Z")
The unofficial C-130 motto is:
“IF IT FITS, IT FLIES”
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2024, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/6396 "2024-07-14T03:05:00Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#):
>
> > [@JacobSwan](#):
> >
> > That beats the 100 otters flown by MJN airways.
>
> Or the [76 beavers flown by the State of Idaho.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B)
D’oh! Fixed link: [Beaver drop - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver_drop)
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2024, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/6397 "2024-07-15T13:57:26Z")
Ambitious… but unrealistic?
> **[Fully electric 90-passenger plane could fly 500 miles | CNN](https://www.cnn.com/travel/elysian-electric-plane-90-passenger-spc/index.html)**
>
> Elysian has designed an electric regional aircraft with a range of 500 miles and space for 90 passengers, which it aims to fly commercially within a decade.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2024, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/6398 "2024-07-15T14:05:43Z")
A 90 passenger 500 mile range battery plane I can (barely) believe.
This part is raging fantasy:
> aims to fly commercially within a decade.
A new company could not bring a 100% bog standard RJ or turboprop to commercial service in a mere decade. There’s just too much to do, and much of it at government speeds. 20 years is more realistic, but your / their first round angel investors don’t want to hear that.
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### Author:  [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2024, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/6399 "2024-07-15T23:23:19Z")
you fail to reckon that they are …
.
ahem
.
…disruptive ;o)
maybe they go full “that-imploded-titanic-submarine (who’s name escape me now)” … and fly domestically in central africa, somalia, or so … circumenting those pesky pencil pushers
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2024, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/6400 "2024-07-15T23:27:26Z")
I bought a raffle ticket today. Grand prize is a [Piper PA-28-140 Cherokee with a Millennium 160 hp engine](https://www.flightclub502.org/airplaneraffle/), or $75,000 cash. [Per the FAA](https://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/Search/NNumberResult), it appears to be a 1966.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2024, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/6401 "2024-07-16T00:25:23Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
>
> [Per the FAA](https://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/Search/NNumberResult), it appears to be a 1966.
The link doesn’t go to the aircraft’s registration page. N4117J has an airworthiness date of 12/20/1966. Could be a '66, or it could be a '67.
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### Author:  [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2024, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-ongoing-aviation-thread-general-and-other-part-1/600499/6402 "2024-07-16T02:40:31Z")
**Joby makes landmark 523-mile hydrogen-electric flight**
> Joby Aviation has successfully [flown](https://www.jobyaviation.com/news/joby-demonstrates-potential-regional-journeys-landmark-hydrogen-electric-flight/) a first-of-its-kind hydrogen-electric air taxi demonstrator 523 miles, with water as the only by-product. The aircraft, which takes off and lands vertically, builds on Joby’s successful battery-electric air taxi development program, and demonstrates the potential for hydrogen to unlock emissions-free, regional journeys that don’t require a runway.
[https://www.greencarcongress.com/2024/07/20240713-joby.html](https://www.greencarcongress.com/2024/07/20240713-joby.html)
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