Video of an old friend

[Ric Gillespie]

Back in 2014, as part of our 2-2-V-1 research we visited a Lockheed 10 under restoration at Wichita Air Service.  The Model 10A was being restored to airworthy condition for the Bata Shoe Company of Prague, Czech Republic.  It was a great opportunity and we took many measurements of the airplane inside and outside. The restoration was eventually completed and the airplane was ferried to Europe.
I recently stumbled upon a video of the same airplane doing a flight demonstration. It really demonstrates what a beautiful, perfectly proportioned airplane the Electra is. Be sure to have the sound turned up and, remember, the 10E with bigger engines was even louder.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYbpo20M64A

[Bill Mangus]

Terrific video.  Great sound and camera work!!

[Martin X. Moleski, SJ]

Terrific video.  Great sound and camera work!!

Nice, smooth, centered landing, too.


The pilot seems to know what he is doing with the airplane.

[Ric Gillespie]

Nice, smooth, centered landing, too.

He "wheeled" it. There are two techniques for landing a conventional gear (i.e. tailwheel) aircraft.  The traditional way is to hold the aircraft off until it stalls, preferably close to the ground, and all three wheels plunk down simultaneously. This is known as "three-point landing" for obvious reasons and it's the quickest way to get a plane down and stopped. The other way is to fly the main wheels onto the ground before the plane stalls and let the speed bleed off until the tail comes down.  This is known as a "wheel landing."  These days just about everybody does wheel landings because it's easier to hold the airplane straight. It makes for a longer landing roll but the higher speed gives you better rudder control so it's easier to hold the airplane straight – and runway length is seldom an issue.  In Earhart's day, and right up through WWII, three-pointing was standard, but in probably a hundred airshows, I've never seen anyone three-point a P-51.

[Martin X. Moleski, SJ]

He "wheeled" it.  ...

Ah!

Thanks for explaining the two different techniques.

Makes sense.

[Dale O. Beethe]

Nice!  No ground loop there!