Jackie's Lucky Number 13

Today is Friday the 13th... oooohhhh, spooooky...

This-here cyber-rag has absolutely nuthin' to do with big ugly machete-wielding old-school hockey goalies who come up with increasingly innovative and interesting ways to slay hapless teenagers at the local haunted lake. So if you're hoping to see anything like that, we're afraid you'll be somewhat disappointed.

However, if you wanna see a Beechcraft D17W Staggerwing with the number 13 on its side which was used by aviatrix Jacqueline Cochran to set an altitude record of 30,052 feet on March 24th, 1939, you came to the right place!

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And here's a look at the gal herself, with the ship in question, which was one of two D17Ws to be built and just one of several aircraft that Cochran flew which were adorned with her lucky number 13. This Staggerwing later served with the USAAF under the designation UC-43K and was assigned the U.S. Army serial number 42-107277. At the moment, we haven't a clue as to what happened to this little ship after her time in service with Uncle Sam came to an end.

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M'emmener à Tokyo

Today on 'TWW' we've got an obscure one for ya'll... 'tis a Dewoitine D.33, a bird about which your blogmeister knows squat. So we'll simply let the story be told by the news tag from the reverse of the photo, which is dated September 11th, 1931:

French Fliers Off In Race For New Endurance Mark

Paris.... Here is the French plane 'Hyphen-2D' which left Le Bourget Airport with a crew of three on an attempt to establish a new mark for distance. The plane carried as crew, Marcel Doret, Joseph Lebrix, and Rene Mesmin, who hope to reach Tokio without a stop and thus better the nonstop flight record set by Russell Boardman and John Polando, who flew from New York to Turkey. A second team of fliers left at the same time from Le Bourget in a race to achieve the new honor.

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Great Bloody Heinkel

Today on 'TWW' we present a super-freakin' groovy photo of a Heinkel 111, taken from the nose of another...

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Eye of the Hurricane

They call the calm center of a hurricane 'the eye'. Well, this is about as close to the 'eye' of a Hurricane as your blogmeister will ever come...

S.Donacik photo

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Belgian Delta

Today we present a rather atmospheric photo showing a Mirage 5BA of the Belgian Air Force, circa 1972. This was one of sixty-three of the type to be built for the BAF, sixty-two of which were constructed in Belgium, under license, by SABCA (Sociétés Anonyme Belge de Constructions Aéronautiques).

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