Monthly Archives: May 2009

Admiral Towers spent his life battling the US Navy in his attempt to steer the Navy away from its battleship-mentality to carrier-necessity. Admiral Towers died of cancer in 1955 at the age of 70. He was one of our country’s first naval aviators. Towers knew seaplanes had to accomplish something very large, some event that would grab headlines around the world;.some spectacular happening that would even catch the eye, and maybe the pocketbooks, of the existing “Battleship Navy.” Continue reading →

In actuality, World War II did not “sneak up” on the United States, even though Pearl Harbor is always referred to as a “sneak attack”. Not so. If certain politicians had removed their head from the sand, the attack should never have happened. Chalk it up to “denial”, not sneak attack.” During the mid 1930s, other countries had already designed, flown and even tested many different fighter aircraft in combat. Germany sent squadrons into Spain for some real fighter training. Their Bf-109 was right in the heat of battle, with engineers tweaking the aircraft, and pilots learning real life fighter pilot skills. Continue reading →

The First picture taken of the Thunder Chicken.  Sitting on the ramp at Winnemucca waiting to be fueled for it’s journey home. By: David Leiter This past year I had the opportunity to own an aircraft for a day or … Continue reading →