Sunday, December 04, 2005

Multi-Signed photographs














Development Jaguar in-flight signed by BAC Test Pilots John Cockburn,Peter Ginger,Reg Stock and Jerry Lee
Canberra in-flight signed by English Electric Test Pilots Roland Beamont,Dennis Watson,Peter Hillwood,Johnny Squier,Don Knight,Dick Whittington and Jock Still
North American XB-70 Valkykrie

The XB-70 Valkyrie was a large two seat Mach 3+ 6 engine plane built by North American. Originally conceived as a long range intercontinental bomber, the program evolved into a high speed flight test platform.

Two vehicles were built. The second ship, AV/2, was an improved version based on the experiences learned from bulding the first plane, AV/1.

First Flight AV/1 serial # 62-0001 September 21st, 1964
First Flight AV/2 serial # 62-0207 July 17, 1965
First Mach 3 flight October 14, 1965 with AV/1
Last flight of AV/2 June 8, 1966, lost due to mid-air collision
Last flight of AV/1 February 4, 1969

Total flights AV/1 - 82
Total flights AV/2 - 46

Total flying time both aircraft: 252 hours, 48 minutes
Total flying time Mach 1 - Mach 1.9: 55 hours, 50 minutes
Total flying time Mach 2 - Mach 2.9: 49 hours, 32 minutes
Total flying time Mach 3: 1 hour, 48 minutes

This is one of my favourite photographs, which has been signed by
4 of the XB-70 Pilots, Al White, Joe Cotton, Don Mallick and Fitz Fulton
X-22A in flight picture, kindly sent to me and signed by Jack Beilman (1920-2013) (X-22A Project Manager). Also signed by X-22A pilots Nello Infanti (1921-2010) and Rogers Smith.
These photographs of the LTV XC-142A have been signed by 6 of the Test Pilots who evaluated the aircraft for the military, they are : Jesse Jacobs, Bob Chubboy (1931-2009), Roger Rich, Sam Barratt,Gay Jones(1926-2010) and Billy Odneal (1925-2006)

Nice colour photograph of the X-4 which has been signed by Chuck Tucker and Fred Ascani
Inflight image of the X-4 Bantam signed by 4 of its pilots, Scott Crossfield, Fred Ascani, George Cooper and John Griffith.

Northrop X-4 Bantam
The X-4, a single-place, swept-wing, and semi-tailless airplane designed and built by Northrop Aircraft, Inc. Two X-4s were built to investigate the value of this configuration at transonic speeds. The Ship 1 (46-676) maiden flight was on Dec. 16, 1948, and proved to be a mechanically unsound airplane, but Ship 2 (46-677) was very reliable. While being tested from 1950 to 1953, the semi-tailless configuration exhibited inherent longitudinal stability problems (porpoising) as it approached the speed of sound, but the data derived from this research aircraft was important in the development of other high-performance designs such as the X-15.