aviation feats

[iowa]

what were the greatest aviation feats?
what do you think?

#1 lindbergh's transatlantic flight

#2 wright brother's 1st flight

#3 ?

iowa

[Indopilot]

#3 George's 170 building enough speed to lead the flight of 170's to
Oshkosh?

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

I think the flights leading up to and including Yeager's flight breaking the speed of sound and helping to usher in the space program.

Of course George leading a pack of 170's to Oshkosh might be pretty high as well.

[johneeb]

This link makes very interesting reading regarding the first person to break the sound barrier.

http://home.att.net/~historyzone/Welch1.html

[bsdunek]

what were the greatest aviation feats?
what do you think?

#1 lindbergh's transatlantic flight

#2 wright brother's 1st flight

#3 ?

iowa

Agreed. How about Beryl Markhams flight as described in 'West With The Night'?

[blueldr]

With all due consideration, when I look back to the fact that I managed to solo in the PT-22 at Morton Air Academy in Blythe, California, in 1942, without killing myself or giving my instructor, John J. Raptis, a heart attack, I have to consider that an accomplishment worthy of selection as the third most significant milestone in american aviation annals.
Modesty precludes further details. I was an Aviation Cadet and Uncle Sam was paying the bills. I guess he thinks he got his moneys worth. He's been paying me faithfully every first of the month ever since.

[edbooth]

The flight back in 1958 in las Vegas where two guys remained aloft in a 172 for 64 days, 22 hours 19 minutes and 5 seconds gotta be there someplace. usually about three hours at a time is enough for me.

[cessna170bdriver]

I think flying around the world non-stop, non-refueled was a pretty remarkable feat.

Although I'm unable to verify it, I have heard that before the Voyager flew, Chuck Yeager proclaimed that flight would be impossible. Then after Voyager's success he likened it to driving across the country un-refuled, saying all you needed was a large enough gas tank.

Miles

[edbooth]

Several years ago taking off in a Cherokee 140 with four guys, full fuel and overnight bags on a 90 degree day was pretty memorable. Yes.....we made it!

[GAHorn]

I think the flights leading up to and including Yeager's flight breaking the speed of sound and helping to usher in the space program.

Of course George leading a pack of 170's to Oshkosh might be pretty high as well.

This link makes very interesting reading regarding the first person to break the sound barrier....

Contrary to popular opinion...my airplane has never actually broken the sound barrier. Sound-judgement barrier a few times...but never the sound barrier.

[Robert Eilers]

I have an 80 year old hangar neighhbor who has spent the last eight years building his own airplane. He test flew it for the first time a month ago. Now that is an aviation feat!

[Iceman07]

#3? Not an individual flight, but the entire X-15 program.

No other single aircraft (Ok, three) has ever contrubuted more to modern high-performance aircraft and spacecraft. The most succesfull test program in aviation history.

[johneeb]

I think the flights leading up to and including Yeager's flight breaking the speed of sound and helping to usher in the space program.

Of course George leading a pack of 170's to Oshkosh might be pretty high as well.

This link makes very interesting reading regarding the first person to break the sound barrier....

Contrary to popular opinion...my airplane has never actually broken the sound barrier. Sound-judgement barrier a few times...but never the sound barrier.

Who among us has been through the Sound Barrier. I have by taking advantage of a discounted ticket on British Airways Concorde. My thought was that the life of the Concorde was coming to an end and it was unlikely that I would ever have another chance to go that fast or that high. On my flight the pilots did a constant Mach 2 cruise and the max Altitude was 58,600'. Way

[GAHorn]

When I flew for British Aerospace, it was not uncommon for the company to send employees travelling on business on the Concorde if flights were not full. Usually cockpit visitation privileges would be extended to company employees and my fellow workers would get a ride on the second jumpseat.
I never got a chance to do it, but the guys I worked with loved to re-tell the story about the favorite practical joke to play on a new Concorde Flight Engineer:
The airplane grows between 7-9" in cruise due to heat. The favorite joke was, for one of the pilots to find an excuse to go to the lavatory and while exiting the cabin to find a reason to take the engineer's flight bag and reposition it to a place between the engineer's table and the aft cockpit bulkhead, usually with a remark to the engineer "You don't mind if I move this do you?" (as if it were in the way sitting on the cockpit floor.)
Any courteous engineer would defer to the captain or first officer agreeably, of course.
It would only be evident after touchdown (after the airplane had cooled down an shrunk back to normal length) while trying to vacate the cockpit at the end of the duty period that the engineer would discover that his 8"-wide flight bag (now squeezed between the desk and bulkhead) could not be removed from the cockpit until the airplane was airborne again.

[rupertjl]

I've been fortunate enough to break the sound barrier on a few occassions, a couple times in the F/A-18 Hornet and most recently the USN Test Pilot School T-38C. After the first time, it kinda looses it's luster, I'm not sure why I thought it would be any different but it does smooth out the ride and the only indication you get is the Mach meter reading 1.0.

As for aviation feats, how about the tiltrotors and helos? I still don't trust them to fly in them but there has to be some type of aviation magic happening there right?