Presentation: November 2021

This month's AE presenter: Jeff
Date of presentation: 29-Nov-2021
Subject: The Vought F4U Corsair
Description: In this month's ordeal presentation, Jeff talked a bit about one of the most prominent fighter aircraft ever to see service in World War II - the F4U "Corsair".  Noting its "gull-wing" shape and its powerful capabilities, it is possible to lose sight of the fact that due to several initial flaws, including a nasty tendency to stall one wing (but not the other) on short final, this aircraft almost didn't see service at all.  But these flaws were quickly worked out, and the plane went on to have the longest production run of any piston-engined military aircraft, not to mention a very impressive career as both a fighter and a bomber.  The last ones in military service were used (by BOTH sides!) in the so-called "Football War" between Honduras and El Salvador in 1969.

Presentation: June 2019

This month's AE presenter: Jeff
Date of presentation: June 2019 (exact date TBD)
Subject: Strange Aircraft
Description: For June, Jeff dusted off his old Strange Aircraft presentation, which was actually one of the first ones he gave upon being appointed Squadron AEO.  (It's a good presentation and I'd hate for it to be forgotten!)

This time around, there were several people knowledgeable about specific planes mentioned, and a lively discussion (the best kind!) ensued.

Presentation: November 2015

This month's AE presenter: Jeff
Date of presentation: 16-Nov-2015 (? - not sure, could be a week either way)
Subject: Strange Aircraft
Description: For this presentation, Jeff scraped the dust off an old favorite that he's given at least once before and which proved popular again this time.  Over the century plus that mankind have been building heavier-than-air craft, some designs have definitely worked out better than others.  This presentation "celebrates" some of the less-successful designs throughout aviation history.  Note that these are not necessarily all "bad" designs, although most of them were, and several had fatal flaws (literally) that resulted in spectacular failures.  But they were all unusual designs by today's standards.

Download a zipped PDF of this presentation (1839 KB).

Presentation: October 2014

This month's AE presenter: Jeff
Date of presentation: 20-October-2014
Subject: The Lockheed Vega - History Comes To Life
Description: Jeff's October 2014 presentation talked about the Lockheed Vega, a record-setting airplane from the 1920s and 1930s, its history, significant accomplishments, and the efforts made by one man to restore the last one still flying to its original condition.

Most of the information and images were taken from Air & Space / Smithsonian Magazine, Oct/Nov 2014 issue, a corresponding article on their website, and the Wikipedia article on the Lockheed Vega.

Download a zip file containing both a PDF file of this presentation and the accompanying video that should (but doesn't) display as frame #2 in the presentation (1220 KB).

Aerospace Minute by David

On 16-September, David talked about the recent sea trials with the F-35B. According to Aviation Week, the aircraft recently went through night crosswind vertical landing trials. Also discussed were highlights of the aircraft's fly-by-wire flight controls, and the system was contrasted with the AV-8 Harrier's mechanical systems.

Presentation: August 2013

This month's AE presenter: David
Date of presentation: 12-August 2013
Subject: Pan American Clippers
Description: This presentation gave an overview of the history of the Pan Am Airlines company - how it got its start, expansion into first the Caribbean, then the Pacific Ocean, and eventually the Atlantic Ocean as well, then it discussed how the company fared following the end of World War II.  From its start, it was a complete system of exclusive routes, custom-built aircraft, navigation and weather stations, and ports of call on both land and sea.

Download PanAm Clippers (PDF, 3.1MB)

Aerospace Minute by David

On 5-August, as part of his new intended "Aerospace Minute" feature, David brought up an article in Aviation Week which discussed possible reasons why the pilots of the doomed Asiana flight might have made the mistakes they did that contributed to the crash.  Among the hypotheses advanced in the article was that the auto-pilot modes available might have proven very counter-intuitive and, in a moment of panic and/or indecision, a pilot may have made a very wrong decision based on how he thought the auto-pilot would behave.  (At least, that's my interpretation - David can probably shed more light on this.  I do not have the URL for the original article, if any.)

Presentation: May 2013

This month's AE presenter: David
Date of presentation: 20-May-2013
Subject: An Introduction to Delta Aircraft
Description: This presentation provides an introduction to the concepts and history
of delta-winged aircraft.  Its goals are to:

• Discuss the aerodynamics of a delta wing;
• List some advantages and disadvantages;
• Identify some different types of delta wings;
• Provide a brief history of delta aircraft.

Download zipped PDF files (15.8MB)

Presentation: March 2013

This month's AE presenter: Jeff
Date of presentation: 4-Mar-2013
Subject: The Solar Impulse - Across America
Description: The Solar Impulse is a plane built to fly solely with solar power.  This presentation was somewhat abbreviated, due to my being seriously under the weather (and I do mean seriously - 102 deg. fever).  It consisted mainly of three short videos, one giving some background on the Solar Impulse project, and the other two showing time-lapse footage of the disassembly process required to prepare the plane for transport from its native Switzerland to Moffett Field in California, which will hopefully be its departure point for its 2-3 stop flight across America to Washington DC and New York.  Departure is scheduled for 1-May (time unknown).

Presentation: February 2013

This month's AE presenter: David
Date of presentation: 11-Feb-2013
Subject: A Brief History of Cessna Aircraft
Description: This presentation is an exploration of the rich history of the Cessna Aircraft Company, including a discussion of Clyde Cessna and his company, and a look at some significant aircraft produced by the company over the years.

Download PDF file (5.3 MB)

Presentation: November 2012

This month's AE presenter: Jeff
Subject: (no actual title)
Description: This presentation consisted of several Jeopardy-like quizzes on various AE-related subjects.  Among them were an aircraft identification quiz, a quiz about basic knowledge of the Solar System, and a quiz on space-related terminology.

Presentation: May 2012

This month's AE presenter: Jeff
Subject: Research Aircraft
Description: This presentation discussed various aircraft that have been used for various forms of research.  Information about their research functions as well as an identification quiz were the core of the presentation.