1945th Anniversary of Mount Vesuvius Eruption Contributor: Barry Fetzer Sources: History.com Today’s little history lesson doesn’t really have much to do with aviation history except for the bit of personal aviation experience I had with Naples and Mount Vesuvius. More on Mount Vesuvius in a moment. We’ve all got many stories to tell and…
On This Day in Aviation History: Telegraph and Voyager Contributor: Barry Fetzer Sources: Wikipedia, History.com Way back a hundred and thirteen years ago on August 20, 1911 we were still using telegraph to communicate quickly. My how fast technology changes! If it changed so much, so quickly, between 1911 and then 1977, how fast…
Smokey Bear is Part of Aviation History! Contributor: Barry Fetzer Sources: National Public Radio, Getty Images, Smithsonian Institution, Obed Manuel Who doesn’t know about Smokey and his enduring message of fire safety? Smokey is one of the most successful marketing ideas of all time. And like most things, timing had a role in its…
Aviation History: Luftskipsmasta (Airship Tower) Contributor: Barry Fetzer Sources: Atlas Obscura, Shadow of Norge There’s just something about balloons that make us happy. Airships too! Lighter than air is a joyful thing, and a thing I’d bet we’d all like to be from time-to-time, floating lazily above the earth. I know I would. Simone…
On This Day in Aviation History-Explorer 6 Contributor: Barry Fetzer Sources: History.com, Alchetron.com In 1959, some of us were but a glimmer in our old man’s eye. Others were still far from even that glimmer and far from making their arrival known to us. Some of us (like me) were six-year-old kids playing in…
The FAA is fired on this day in aviation history Contributor: Barry Fetzer Sources: Business Insider Most of us fly. Well, at least most of us fly for business or pleasure on commercial airliners. But few of us have been inside an Air Traffic Control (ATC) airport control tower or in an enroute ATC…
On This Day in Aviation History: Shared Grief Contributor: Barry Fetzer Sources: History.com We forget (at our peril) to what lengths and what risks and what sadness and what grief we had to go to stop tyranny. Today we can launch missiles from unmanned vehicles with little sadness in the ensuing death and destruction…
Aviation History: On This Day and Tomorrow Too Contributor: Barry Fetzer Sources: History.com, Lonestar Flight Museum, Wikipedia.com, Marine Corps University For we aviation heritage aficionados, July is a big month for aviation history. But it doesn’t take much digging at all to find aviation history everywhere we look, January through December. Still, July is…