a story I've never heard before about WW2 pilots, some went back to war, flying for Israel, and creating the first Israeli Air Force to liberate Israelis and create a new country

They didn't have much for airplanes, some German ME-109s that were left in Chekoslovaki. The volunteer pilots from foreign countries were called "Machal"

The new movie "Planes" by Pixar and Disney (in theaters Aug 9th) has a lot of airplane characters, and here are the ones from Disney's website

Dusty is a cropdusting plane who dreams of competing in a famous aerial race. The problem? He is hopelessly afraid of heights. With the support of his mentor Skipper and a host of new friends, Dusty sets off to make his dreams come true.



Much better storyline in the French trailer

http://movies.disney.com/images/ripslinger-4d8cae2f1dc7c4b6d71811ef?list=4d8cea34a730f5111655279f and http://movies.disney.com/images/dusty-voice-of-dane-cook-4d8cac8ba8543d84e491e558?list=4d8ce8c5f32c9e81963841d6 for the galleries of these characters with a description of each

Never give a pilot a challenge he'll accept, from October 1964

We were 590 hr pilots at the time and the whole thing was illegal, stupid and needless to say, dangerous.

 The low flying limit was 200ft (or above, not below). I would have been court-martialled if the SAAF knew.

 I was the pilot. The 'Pongos' were on a route march from Langebaan by the sea to Saldanha. The previous night in the pub one of them had said: "Julle dink julle kan laag vlieg maar julle sal my nooit laat lê nie" ("You think you can fly low, but you'll never make me lie down").

 Hullo!!! I went to look for them on the beach in the morning and was alone for the one picture.

 I was pulling up to avoid them.

 In the afternoon I had a formation with me and you can see the other a/c behind me. (piloted by van Zyl, Kempen and Perold) A friend by the name of Leon Schnetler (one of the pongos) took the pics.

 The guy that said "Jy sal my nie laat lê nie" ("You won't make me lie down") said afterwards that he was saying to himself as I approached: "Ek sal nie lê nie, ek sal nie lê nie" ("I won't lie down, I won't lie down") and when I had passed he found himself flat on the ground.

Found on http://yuripasholok.livejournal.com/1715104.html

a group of Bucker Jungmanns was out for a group flight yesterday, I happened to be at the same place at the same time

    

the Brewster Buffalo, double World record holder, the best Finnish fighter of WW2

This pursuit plane got credit for being the best Finnish fighter of World War II. It was registered in The Guinness Book of World Records twice: for shooting down 477 enemy planes, an average of nearly 11 victories per Brewster, and for a single fighter (hull No BW-393) shooting down a record 41 enemy planes

The kill ratio for the Brewster against the soviet planes was 67.5 to 1.

Brewsters were bought by Finland, and one was stuck heavily in combat, caught on fire, and was emergency landed into a lake. The pilot walked away, and hiked 20 kilometers tot he front lines to join his side in the battle... hiked through a mine field. http://heninen.net/brewster/english.htm

In 1998 the remains of the plane were discovered and pulled out of the lake.

that isn't the Nazi swastika... history has shown that symbol to have been very old long before the German Nazi party put it on the worlds awareness as the symbol of everyone's enemy in WW2. Finland's air force was using the symbol since 1918

Interesting historical sidenote, the Finnish didn't ordinarily nickname their planes, but a couple were funded by private citizens, or a company, and were given names of those. Noka and Tre Broder (Nokia and 3 Brothers)  and they were rarely painted with anything but victory stripes, however, and I love this, one pilot used Karelia beer labels. That is cool.

http://www.warbirdforum.com/faf.htm
http://heninen.net/brewster/english.htm

1920 regulations for operation of aircraft

some cool airplane badges

Looks like Alley Oop. I'm not the only one who knows Alley Oop, am I? He was a time traveling caveman comic strip that began in 1932

But this one cracks me up.. skinny tough old cat waiting to bang the bad guys over the head with a whisky bottle

a unique airplane... not just a piece of nose art on this B 24, this has a dragon down the entire fuselage... and the other side has a different paint scheme

thanks Jay!

in the midwest there is a airplane and automobile museum that has rescued some cool buildings to give the Wings and Wheels Museum some period correct locations

 Above, the Springfield Hanger made in 1938 was used until the 1960s, at Commercial Field. Once used by the big airlines until growth out of small aircraft caused the need for ginormous hangers and larger runways

Above, the Waukesha Hanger was built in 1937, at the Waukesha Wisconsin airport that once was the training facilty for air cadets that went on to World War 2 as pilots from the region

Slim's Garage was a steel prefab car repair and gas station in Green lake Wisconsin, made in the late 20's early 30's

1924 Sunoco gas station, after being made obsolete, it was bought by a railroad museum, and now the Vintage Wings and Wheels Museum.
More info on all the building at http://www.poplargroveairmotive.com/museum/grandopening.htm

Now situated at the campus of the Poplar Grove Illinois Vintage Wings and Wheels museum  http://www.poplargrovewingsandwheels.com which is closed through winter and spring, but opens in May.
It's North West of Chicago, North East of Rockford Illinois