I was on the way to work today when I took the picture earlier, so I didn’t have much time to elaborate.
The picture is in the parking lot of the Proud Bird restaurant, located on Aviation Blvd, which makes the Eastern border of Los Angeles Airport (LAX). It’s got an aviation theme, and planes landing fly right over it.
Back in my advertising days, when we had high dollar clients come to town, we’d take them there right from the airport. This was in the days of lavish expense accounts…
It closed a while back, but I had heard that it reopened, so I stopped to check it out on the way to the museum this morning.
The picture with the fence in the background is the other side of Aviation Blvd. You’ve seen it in the movies… in every 80s and 90s Brian De Palma film set in L.A., there’s an obligatory shot of an airliner touching down into a sunset, on the other side of this fence.
Wow, Gone ... you can almost touch the wings. Thankfully you don't need to with the ol' CB1100 available at the wrist.
Oh man, I love those old warbirds! Great shots!
Thanks for these, Gone. I am a BIG fan of the Corsair. In the late 90s I was at an Experimental Aviation Association fly-in in Florida and looking at a beautifully restored and flying one when two older gentlemen started talking about flying them in the Pacific in WWII. As they talked, they realized they had flown together in the war. Quite a reunion. I met another Corsair pilot, Russ Hobbs in the late 90s in Phoenix. He was quite the character. Retired USMC Major. Great guy. That plane is a great tribute to great men. Thank you.
I'm a huge fan of big radial engines, as well as the Merlins and their variants. Last year, I got to go with a friend to the Reno air races, and probably will go again as my travel schedule allows. The sounds were amazing!
If I am not mistaken, the V-twin, especially older ones, as on Harleys and Indians, are simply two cylinders out of a radial engine, which is what makes them so cool.
(04-07-2022, 09:39 PM)tommymck_imp Wrote: [ -> ]I'm all for a ....challenging....challenge...but I'm a pilot and I'd be...challenged....to come up with this photo. Hoping that ferret wins this one so that we can get graded on a curve again! Otherwise next month it'll be a photo of your bike being chased by a three legged dog on Wednesday, and the dog needs to occupy exactly 1/3 of the photo in the horizontal direction and the fact that it's Wednesday needs to be clearly conveyed in the photo 
Our neighbor has a three-legged dog. I'll see what I can arrange for ya!
Well, guess I didn't have to go all the way to LAX to get a photo. Yesterday, I was running errands on the way home from work in Irvine. I hadn't stopped by "The Great Park" in quite some time, and wanted to see how the progress was coming.
This is the former site of MCAS El Toro, and when it shut down years ago, there was a very contentious battle over what was to be done with this now huge vacant land parcel in the middle of a quickly developing section of Orange County. There were proposals for airports, super jails, multi-use sports complex... heck, I signed a petition to turn it into a giant race track. For years, the land languished.
Eventually, it was agreed to turn a large portion of it into "The Great Park", with home development thrown in. A small park was put up in one corner of the property, with sketches and models of future plans for expansion of the park. I hadn't taken a look at it in a long time, and now there are several sports fields, an amphitheater, and what looks like a water park being built.
Due to the aviation heritage of the land, there's still sort of a flying theme to the new developments. I should have figured that they'd have an old airplane or two on display.
Granted, I wasn't on the CB1100 yesterday, but here's a gimmee to anyone else in the Orange County area who wants to participate in the challenge!
(04-11-2022, 03:32 AM)Nachodaddy_imp Wrote: [ -> ]If I am not mistaken, the V-twin, especially older ones, as on Harleys and Indians, are simply two cylinders out of a radial engine, which is what makes them so cool.
Architecturally, you're correct. If you took a radial engine and sliced out two cylinders, you'd have a v-twin.
I think they sound much cooler with nine or 18 cylinders, and will run outside my office and stare at the sky when I hear one fly over.
About the radial engines, I know what you mean. On rare occasion I will hear one and absolutely have to get outside to try to see it.