{"id":770,"date":"2019-03-25T23:09:03","date_gmt":"2019-03-26T04:09:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/charles-oneill.com\/blog\/?p=770"},"modified":"2019-04-23T23:47:23","modified_gmt":"2019-04-24T04:47:23","slug":"aircraft-at-battleship-memorial-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/charles-oneill.com\/blog\/aircraft-at-battleship-memorial-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Aircraft at Battleship Memorial Park"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The aircraft collection at the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park (Part 1 here<\/a>) is quite special. There are several gems hidden among the more ordinary museum pieces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The OS2U Kingfisher is the aircraft most identifiable with the USS Alabama. However, it is rather poorly highlighted given the special nature of its connection and rarity (1 of 8 in the world).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This next aircraft is a rare gem (1 of 2 existing); it is NOT an F-18. I have been looking for an example since 2000 when my future advisor, Dr. Arena<\/a> at OSU, asked his stability and control class to identify the aircraft. I didn’t get it right. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One tell to know this is not an F-18 is the landing gear; this straight gear isn’t designed to survive a carrier landing. Another set of tells are the forward fuselage, chines, and canopy shape. The cobra insignia on the forward fuselage seals the tells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The museum has an A-12, one of three (!!!) in Alabama. The other two are in Huntsville and Birmingham. For my logging purposes, the A12 has it’s own page<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There are examples of modern fighters, an F-15 and F-16, and some other examples spread across the 1950s-1980s including an AD-1 Skyraider and an A4 Skyhawk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The museum does include a B-52. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Students of aerospace structures<\/a> should notice the buckling in the forward fuselage. This is normal given the thin walled construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The B-52 is also unique in that it is one of the few aircraft designed where the gear’s “yaw” angle is changed to allow a cross-wind landing. Can you name the other 3 aircraft that I have found over the years with main gear that rotate? Can you up my count of three? Let me know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The aircraft collection at the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park (Part 1 here) is quite special. There are several gems hidden among the more ordinary museum pieces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/charles-oneill.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/charles-oneill.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/charles-oneill.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/charles-oneill.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/charles-oneill.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=770"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/charles-oneill.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":873,"href":"https:\/\/charles-oneill.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770\/revisions\/873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/charles-oneill.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/charles-oneill.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/charles-oneill.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}