A website for Preserved Aircraft of All Eras
Yesterday, April 7 of 2024, I took an afternoon walk to Medlánky airport in Brno, Czech Republic and found it pleasantly active with the usual assortment of gliders and light aircraft.
While I do a bit of spring cleaning on the website before the next article, I’m happy to share some pictures from yesterday afternoon:
March 4 of 2024 marks 70 years since the first flight of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, an unmistakable symbol of NATO airpower in Europe during the Cold War.
By most accounts, it was an unforgiving and difficult aircraft to master, but a very rewarding aircraft to fly for those who could master it.
The last military operator of the Starfighter was Italy, who retired the type in 2004. A few Starfighters continue to fly in civilian hands today.
Here are some pictures I’ve taken of Starfighters in Museums in Canada, germany and Spain:
Brothers on the Wing
The Caudron aircraft company was established in 1909 and was among the earliest of French aircraft manufacturers.
The company was named after the Caudron brothers, Alphonse “Gaston” (1882-1915) and René (1884-1959), who founded it.
Caudron operated from 1909 until 1944 and produced a number of aircraft designs of both civilian and military categories. The company became quite famous internationally and several Caudron aircraft types saw great success on export markets or built under license.
Caudron became most well known for sports and training aircraft. The company operated a flying school as early as 1910 and were a major player in various categories of air racing in the 1920s and 1930s.
During the interwar period, the French Air Ministry wanted to consolidate the nation’s aviation industry from numerous smaller companies to a smaller and more managable number. The auto manufacturer, Renault, was starting to branch into aviation in the interwar period and the air ministry put pressure on Caudron to join forces with Renault.
In 1933, Renault purchased a majority share of Caudron and the aircraft manufacturer became a subsidiary of Renault. In 1937, Renault bought the remaining Caudron shares.
During the Second World War, Caudron-Renault produced the German designed Messerschmitt Bf-108 and Siebel Si-204 aircraft as well as members of their own Simoun and Goéland utility aircraft families.
The Caudron-Renault aircraft factory was destroyed by Allied bombing in September of 1943.
In 1944, the French government nationalised what was left of Caudron and merged it into SNCAC (Société Nationale de Construction aéronautique du Centre), a company that was created in 1936 by nationalising and merging the Farman and Hanriot aircraft companies.
The story of the Caudron aircraft company came to an end with it being merged into SNCAC.
Throughout its existence, Caudron was well respected as an aircraft manufacturer. Its aircraft were known to be well designed with good handling characterstics and performance.
An early example of the quality of aircraft that Caudron could produce was their model G.3. The G.3 was one of the first mass produced French designed aircraft and it enjoyed popularity with pilots of many nations both during the First World War and for several years following the conflict.
Let’s spend some time with the Caudron G.3:
Able and Available
The Caudron G.3 first flew in late 1913 and entered French air force service in early 1914. As such, at least one squadron of the type was active at the outbreak of the First World War in late July of 1914.
The G.3 was designed primarily as a reconnaissance platform. It was a job that the aircraft was well suited to as it could climb well and was very stable and controllable.
The performance and handling of the G.3 made it a widely popular aircraft and it was ordered in large quantities shortly following the outbreak of the conflict. This included Caudron granting licenses for production of the type in Great Britain and Italy. Almost 2,500 examples of the G.3 were built between French, British and Italian production lines.
The popularity of the G.3 is not surprizing when one considers that it was a well developed aircraft design at the outbreak of World War One.
The G.3 was part of Caudron’s G series of aircraft. The initial Type G prototype and the more developed G.2 had their first flights in 1913. Only one Type G prototype was built, while ten of the G.2 model were constructed. By the time the G.2 was developed into the G.3, the aircraft was a well refined and matured flying machine with the bulk of its shortcomings already addressed.
The G.3 represented the mid point of G series development and was the last single engined member of that aircraft family. The G.3 was used as the basis of the much larger two engined G.4 bomber of 1915 and the G.6 reconnaissance aircraft of 1916.
A shared design aspect of the G series that was a contributing factor to the G.3’s performance and handling was the wing design.
The G series aircraft all had wings of sesquiplane design. the term sesquiplane comes from Latin and translates into “one and a half wings”.
Unlike a tradtional biplane, where the wings are of identical or near identical size, sesquiplanes had the lower wing much reduced in size compared to the upper wing. In a sesquiplane, all lateral control of the aircraft comes from the upper wing, while the lower wing is limited to providing lift. In the case of traditional biplanes, lateral control of the aircraft could be done with both wings.
Through the First World War and the early interwar period, sesquiplane designs offered some advantages over biplane and monoplane designs of the time.
The two main advantages sesquiplanes had over biplanes of the day were weight savings through using less material in construction and the elimination of airflow interference between upper and lower wings.
In biplanes of the era, the airflow of the upper and lower sets of wings interfering with each other could create control issues. With sesquiplanes, the control surfaces on the upper wing were well clear of any airflow interference from the lower wing and this resulted in better control of the aircraft by the pilot.
Early monoplanes tended to be quite fragile and their wings required external bracing with wires to give them structural strength. Sesquiplanes had advantages over early monoplanes as they could provide a level of weight savings similar to monoplanes, but still had the structural strength advantages that biplanes had over monoplanes of the time.
For the reconnaissance role, the sesquiplane design gave an improved downward view as the result of the much smaller lower wing.
In the case of the G.3, the better lateral control provided by the sesquiplane design was important as lateral movement of the aircraft was still controlled by wing warping rather than separate ailerons on the wings. Wing warping was an older method of controlling the aircraft that was done by physically twisting the the wing. It worked, but reduced the useful life of the wing significantly.
Separate ailerons were eventually designed into the G.3 and aircraft from later production batches benefited from that change. The main benefit was that the wing could be built stronger as the fexibility required of the wing structure for warping was not needed with ailerons.
On the Front Lines
The Caudron G.3 served widely on the front lines of the First World War until the summer of 1916, when France withdrew the type to second line duties.
The fact that the G.3 was already in service at the outbreak of the First World War meant that it was outclassed and became obsolete rather quickly. In spite of this, the aircraft gave a good account of itself in the conflict.
The climbing ability of the G.3 made the type very popular with Italian military units who were tasked with flying over the alpine regions in the northern reaches of the country. Italian forces used the G.3 widely until 1917.
As with the Italian forces, the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), and Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) of Great Britain also used the G.3 as late as 1917.
The G.3 was operated on both the Eastern and Western fronts of World War One, as well as the Middle East Theatre of Operations and the Balkan regions.
While France, Great Britain and Italy were the main users of the G.3 during the war; the aircraft was also used by Australia, Romania, Russia and the USA during the conflict.
While the G.3 was generally operated in an unarmed configuration, it could be fitted with defensive guns and a light load of bombs.
From mid 1916, the G.3 was withdrawn from the front lines as it had become outclassed by newer aircraft and very vulnerable to attack from both air and ground fire.
As it left the role of reconnaissance, the G.3 was converted to training duties and continued to give good service in that regard well past the end of the war.
Fledglings and Firsts
The First World War showed the benefits that aircraft could bring to a military and many nations formed air arms. In early years, those air arms were typically branches of a nation’s army or navy; fully independant air forces were not so common at the time.
Through its years in service, the G.3 was flown by air arms of around 30 nations. For some of those nations, the G.3 was their first military aircraft. One example of this is the Colombian air force, which was established with the G.3 aircraft as trainers in the early 1920s.
A particularly interesting chapter in the G.3 story took place in Portugal. Just after the First World War, the Portuguese Army Military Aeronautical Service was established and the G.3 was one of that service’s main training aircraft.
Part of the Portuguese Army Military Aeronautical Service was Parque de Material Aeronáutico (PMA), which translated into Aeronautics Material Depot in English. PMA was responsible for providing, storing, repairing, and manufacturing aeronautical material for the service.
The G.3 was very popular in Portugese service. Good handling and undemanding maintenance made it popular enough that PMA built 50 fresh examples of the type between 1922 and 1924.
The Caudron G.3 was used in some notable “firsts” in aviation. Three of those came with Swiss aviation pioneer, François Durafour (1888-1967), at the controls.
In May of 1919, Durafour used a G.3 to make the first commercial flight between Paris and Geneva; it was an air mail flight and lasted four and half hours.
On July 30 of 1921, Durafour flew a G.3 from Lausanne and landed it on the slope of Dôme du Goûter, next to Mont Blanc, in the Western Alps. At 4,331 metres (14,209 feet), it was the highest that an aircraft had landed at and taken off from. It was also the first time an aircraft had landed on and taken off from snow. It was a record that stood for 30 years.
A G.3 was used by French aviatrix, Adrienne Bolland (1895-1975), in a highly risky crossing of the Andes mountains in 1921. While it was not the first crossing of the Andes by aircraft, it was a significant contributor to Bolland going down in history as one of France’s most accomplished and decorated female aviators.
Bolland was employed by Caudron to demonstrate the company’s aircraft in South America. On April 1 of 1921, she flew a G.3 from Argentina to Chile. The flight lasted just over four hours and, in many ways, it was a miracle that the flight did not end in tragedy.
Bolland knew the G.3 was far from ideal to undertake such a flight in unforgiving surroundings and she requested Caudron provide her with an aircraft better suited to the task. Caudron told her it was not possible to send her a different aircraft and so she had little choice but to use the G.3.
She had no map and little knowledge of the area she had to fly through. Additionally, she would need to fly through treacherous valleys as the maximum operating height for the G.3 was well below the summits of many mountains she would be flying near to.
In spite of very nearly colliding with a mountain side, Bolland completed her flight successfully. To her good fortune, she did not need to repeat the flight in the opposite direction. The aircraft she flew was sold in Chile and she was able to return to Argentina via train.
What Remains and Learning More
The Caudron G.3 had remarkable staying power for an aircraft that was already in service at the outbreak of the First World War. Examples of the G.3 were still known to be flying in military service in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The Portuguese military, for example, retired the last of their G.3 fleet in 1933.
The G.3 not only served a long time, it also served very widely. Beyond having many operators in Europe and South America, the G.3 was also used by the armies of Republican China and Imperial Japan. The G.3 was also operated in Australia and New Zealand.
Original examples of the G.3 are preserved in museums in Belgium, Brasil, Finland, France, Great Britain and Venzuela.
Flying replicas of the G.3 exist in the Czech Republic, France and the USA.
These two links will take you to articles about François Durafour and Adrienne Bolland. The articles talk about their accomplishments with the Caudron G.3 and more.
This article at the Museu do Ar website talks a bit about the G.3 in Portugal.
This article at the Aeropedia website gives a lot of detail about the G.3 in Australia and New Zealand.
Keeping History from Becoming History
The museum business is not an easy one, and museum visitors often have no idea what goes on behind the scenes to keep all that wonderful history on view and presentable.
In my hometown of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, the Alberta Aviation Museum is facing a quite uncertain future. The City of Edmonton, who owns the historically significant hangar the museum occupies and the land it sits on, have decided to put both the land and hangar up for sale.
While the museum has worked very closely with the city to ensure that the advertisement of sale clearly states that it is only the hangar and land for sale and that any buyer will need to honour the museum’s current lease until 2028, that only keeps things safe for a while.
The pictures I present here were from a visit I made to the museum in 2012, the last time I visited Edmonton. During that visit, I marveled at how far the museum had come since I had left Edmonton in 2004. A visit to the museum’s website or social media pages will show that they have certainly come a long way since I paid my last visit.
I remember when the museum was practically invisible, in a hangar across the now gone Edmonton City Centre Airport from the museum’s current location. I remember when the museum got approval to move into the current hangar and the excitement of the potential it presented. The museum has certainly made the most of that potential.
Edmonton is a major component of Canada’s aviation history and the Alberta Aviation Museum has done a tremendous job of presenting that history for many years. It would be a true pity if a group with the tenacity and passion this museum has were forced to close their doors permanently or to relocate to someplace possibly less ideal.
An accessible and well run museum is a privelage to any community, regardless of the subject it presents.
We should never take such places for granted.
November 4 of 2023 marks 55 years of the Aero L-39 Albatros.
Aero’s follow on to their very successful L-29 Delfín trainer, the Albatros has been every bit the worthy heir to the Delfín.
Versions of the Albatros have served in the air arms of more than 50 countries over the years and several have found second lives in the civilian world.
Here’s a selection of L-39s I’ve photographed at various times and places in the Czech Republic:
A Pioneering Airliner for a Pioneering Airline
In 2023, Czech Airlines celebrated their 100th anniversary. As such, they are one of the world’s oldest still operational airlines.
With that fact in mind, it should come as no surprize that the long history of Czech Airlines and the Czech aviation industry would have some points of close connection between them.
One of those close connections is the Aero A.10 airliner. It was one of the first aircraft types flown by Czechoslovak State Airlines (ČSA), the initial name of today’s Czech Airlines. It was also one of the world’s first aircraft purposely designed as an airliner from the start.
Aero was founded in 1919 and is one of the oldest Czech aviation companies. Like some other early Czech aircraft companies, Aero started operations at Prague’s Letňany airport. By the early 1920s, Aero had moved from Letňany to a larger facility built to their own specifications in Prague’s Vysočany district. Both Letňany and Vysočany are adjacent districts to Kbely, where ČSA operated from in their early days. Quite literally being neighbours, it was not difficult for the manufacturer and the airline to work together in that era.
Aero is still in operation today as Aero Vodochody. Their current name comes from the town of Vodochody, a short distance north of Prague, which is their current base of operations.
Something to Prove
The First World War had proven that aircraft could serve practical purposes. Prior to the conflict, many people were openly dismissive of aircraft and considered them nothing more than amusements for eccentric dreamers or the wealthy.
The idea of passenger air travel took hold early as a faster alternative to land travel. However, in the interwar years, travel by air was very much the territory of the wealthy and it would not be until after the Second World War that it came within financial reach of the masses.
Some of the earliest aircraft to be used for passenger air travel were modified military utility aircraft of First World War vintage. They were neither comfortable nor ideal to the purpose of carrying passengers.
The air travel business began in earnest in the early 1920s, as it was in that period that airlines were being established and were demanding something tailored to their needs rather than an improvised solution.
Czechoslovakia, being one of the newly emergent nations in the wake of the First World War, had already proven it had domestic aircraft producers capable of designing and producing modern and capable military and general aviation types.
It was a time to prove the aircraft was a technology with the potential to move the masses.
It was also time for an aircraft producer from a newly created nation to show they were up to the task of creating larger and more complex flying machines.
The A.10 would be the first Czech designed transport aircraft.
Made to Order
While ČSA was the sole user of the Aero A.10, we must go back a few years prior to the creation of that airline to find the impetus that brought the aircraft into existence in the first place.
In spite of ČSA’s longevity, they were not the first Czechoslovak airline. Before ČSA, there was the Czechoslovak Aviation Joint Stock Company (ČsLAS), it was an order to Aero in 1921 from this earlier airline that lead to the Aero A.10.
ČsLAS specifed an aircraft with a crew of two, pilot and mechanic, that could carry between three and five passengers in a completely enclosed cabin. Five aircraft were ordered with the intent of being used on routes from Prague to various cities in Germany.
The size of the ČsLAS order, though tiny by contemporary standards, made the A.10 the world’s first purpose designed airliner to see series production.
As it was, ČsLAS would never make use of their order. By the time the prototype A.10 first flew in January of 1922, ČsLAS had gone bankrupt.
With ČsLAS out of the picture and ČSA not yet formed, there was the very big question of what to do with the aircraft order. Much work had already been done and there was a lot riding on the success of the aircraft from standpoints of commercial and technological advances as well as national pride.
The A.10 was a well designed aircraft. The passenger cabin, immediately behind the aircraft’s single engine, was double walled and had laminated windows to reduce engine noise intruding into it. Extra space between the engine compartment and cabin provided an added safety measure for the passengers in case of an engine fire.
The pilot and mechanic sat side by side in an open cockpit above and behind the passenger cabin while space in the fuselage under the cockpit was used for luggage and cargo.
The aircraft’s performance was decent for the day. It had a maximum operating height of 6,000 metres (20,000 feet), a cruising speed of 140 kmh (87 mph) and a maximum speed of 160 kmh (99 mph). In ideal conditions, it could stay aloft for four hours and had a range of around 520 kilometers (323 miles).
A Point of Pride
To the good fortunes of both the aircraft and its maker, the Czechoslovak government took over the aircraft that were built for the ČsLAS order.
The state understood how important an aircraft like the A.10 was to cementing the new nation’s place in aviation. Being a landlocked nation, air mindedness came early to Czechoslovakia and the phrase “Vzduch je naše moře” (The air is our sea) was a well established part of the national psyche even in those early days. It’s a phrase that lives on today as the motto of the modern Czech air force.
In the time between the government taking over the aircraft and the establishment of ČSA, the aircraft were kept active and were tested in a variety of ways.
The strength of the aircraft was shown in highly risky fashion in December of 1922, when an A.10 loaded with 17 people took to the air for a short flight. Aside of the extra people crammed into the passenger cabin and cockpit, a number of people were riding on the wings or otherwise holding onto the exterior of the aircraft. It was not only proof of the strength of the aircraft, but also the control that could be maintained over it by the pilot in extraordinary circumstances.
The quality of the design was shown again in July of 2023 when an A.10 made a flight in stages to Gothenburg, Sweden to take part in an airshow. In spite of some mechanical issues with the engine radiator, the aircraft made the trip successfully.
ČSA was established in October of 1923, and they used the A.10 on the Prague to Bratislava route. ČSA had a fleet of four A.10 aircraft, one of the five built was written off following a non-fatal crash in 1923, and used them only to June of 1924.
The reason for the short service life was directly attibutable to the Maybach Mb IVa engine that powered the aircraft being unreliable and temperamental. It required extremely fine throttle and carburetor control from the pilot to keep the engine from losing power.
The engine’s temperamental nature led to a number of emergency landings during the A.10’s short time with ČSA and to the airline discontinuing use of the type.
After retirement from ČSA service, the aircraft were placed in storage and eventually struck from the civil flying register in 1928. All but one were scrapped.
In their short service lives, ČSA’s Aero A.10 fleet had an accumulated 19,878 kilometers (12,352 miles) and 167.22 flying hours between them.
ČSA finished their 1924 season using their fleet of Aero A.14 aircraft, a somewhat modified version of the obsolete German designed Hansa-Brandenburg C.I utility aircraft of First World War vintage.
For the 1925 season, the airline had a combined fleet of domestically designed Letov Š-19 aircraft and DeHavilland DH.50 airliners license built by Aero.
The Aero A.10 had proven both that the aircraft had the potential for passenger service and that the young Czech aviation industry was a capable and competent one.
The Aero A.10 Today
Given that only five examples were ever made and only one survives to the present, you will need to visit the Kbely Aviation Museum in Prague to see the sole surviving Aero A.10.
That specific aircraft was the third one built and it was the aircraft used to make the last ČSA A.10 flight.
It is nothing short of a miracle that the aircraft is still with us at all. It languished in storage for many years and passed through many hands before the Military Historic Institute (VHÚ) that oversees the Kbely museum took possession of it in 1973.
There was very little of the aircraft left intact when the VHÚ got it. In 1975, a very intensive restoration and reconstruction of the aircraft was started. The completed restoration was put on display at the museum in 1977.
Today, the aircraft takes pride of place in the museum’s interwar collection.
Further Reading
Not surprizingly, the vast majority of information available on the Aero A.10 is in the Czech language. Happily, the information in the following links responds reasonably well to online translators.
This link will take you to an article at the idnes.cz news magazine website that was published for the 100th anniversary of the first flight of the A.10.
Another article published for the centenial of the first A.10 flight can be found via this link to the aeroweb.cz website.
The VHÚ website has two articles about the A.10. The first article covers some technical aspects and accomplishments while the second article talks more about the A.10 at the Kbely museum.
As always, September brings around the annual NATO Days show in Ostrava, Czech Republic. September 16 and 17 were the show days for 2023.
This year’s show was a really nice mix of older and newer gear. Cold War veterans, like the Antonov An-26 shared the static park with the likes of the F-35 Lightning II fighter.
The skies were clear and I got some decent photos:
June 24 and 25 of 2023 saw the annual Air Day event at the airport in Břeclav, Czech Republic.
I made my first visit to the event in 2022 and was happy enough with what I saw to visit again. I attended the Saturday (June 24) show.
The weather was overcast all day, but the rain stayed away. Photography was challenging, but I managed to get some presentable images:
The 2023 edition of the Pardubice Aviation Fair took place on May 27 and 28. The show is a primarily civilian show with a strong focus on vintage aircraft.
This year’s show was to the usual high standard and the weather was sunny all day. Photography was a challenge due to the sun travelling parallel to the runway and being overhead all day. It caused a lot of photos to be backlit and heat distortion played havoc with distance shots on the ground.
However, I managed a good set of shots that gives a taste of the event:
Pickled Wings 