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In ‘93 we got into a spontaneous mock dogfight with a Luftwaffe F-4 over the skies of Germany. The camo paint scheme and iron cross were very cool. Then again, the Germans have a history of cool uniforms (associated with some not-so-cool events).
An SR-71A Blackbird embarked on a rare ground journey at Edwards Air Force Base for vital preservation. Crews carefully towed the aircraft from the museum to a specialized facility to repair exterior sun damage.
Designed as the fastest air-breathing jet, the Blackbird features a titanium structure to withstand extreme friction beyond Mach three. Its high-altitude reconnaissance capabilities gathered essential strategic intelligence worldwide.
Preserving this marvel ensures these innovations continue educating the public. Restoring retired jets honors monumental aerospace achievements and inspires future aircraft designs.
#SR71 #Blackbird #aviation
Me: I'm going to be late, Honey. There's an SR-71 blocking the highway.
Wife: Riiiight....
Did you get to keep your Hughes contributory pension plan? General Motors and then Boeing did not take ours away when they bought the satellite division. However, GM did discontinue offering it to new hires 5 years after buying the company. I did my new hire orientation on the hill overlooking where you used to work . Lots of history. When I told my tax man what my pension was gonna be, he said there’s no way possible that could be correct. Hughes took very good care of their employees. Needless to say, I got a new financial advisor.
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Wow, that's pretty cool. You're on top of the hill overlooking the Hughes Helicopter plant and yes there was a lot of history there!
The Hughes Helicopters assembly line in Culver City, California, was a historic manufacturing facility—most notably located in the Playa Vista area near LAX—that produced thousands of military and commercial helicopters, including the OH-6 Cayuse, Hughes 300, and early Apache prototypes, before closing in the 1980s and 1990s.
Key Aspects of the Culver City Assembly Line:
Production Focus: During the 1960s and 70s, the facility was a major hub for military helicopters, including the OH-6A "Loach" (Light Observation Helicopter) during the Vietnam War, with peak production reaching over 100 units per month.
Key Models: In addition to the OH-6, the facility produced the TH-55 Osage trainer, the Hughes 300 (Model 269/269A), and the massive XH-17 "Flying Crane" prototype.
Final Production: The first production Apache attack helicopters were unveiled at this plant in 1983.
Closure and Transition: Following the acquisition of Hughes Helicopters by McDonnell Douglas in 1984, the facility's operations were gradually shifted to Mesa, Arizona, with the final plant closing down in 1994.
Legacy: The site of the former assembly plant (Building 15) and airfield has since been redeveloped into the Playa Vista community, which includes residential, office, and commercial spaces.
Note: While Robinson Helicopter Company manufactures helicopters in California, they are located in Torrance, not Culver City.
Hughes Helicopter Culver City Plant - Vertical Flight Society
Figure 10: The Culver City production line for the Army's OH-6A in 1968. At peak production, over 100 OH-6A's were built per month.
Hughes 269A - History and technical description - Heli Archive
Anything but attractive in its initial version, the helicopter had a fully-glazed cabin, an open framework rear boom and a skid landing gear. The three-blade ar...
Heli Archive
Mass production of the Army's OH-6A "Cayuse" observation helicopter ...
Mass production of the Army's OH-6A "Cayuse" observation helicopter underway at Hughes Tool Company's Culver City assembly plant. The "Loach"
Jul 9, 2025 — Howard Hughes' private airport in Culver City, 1940-1985, was near LAX. The area is now known as Playa Vista. * Mark Watson. Don Pardew not to mention, GA airpo...
CULVER CITY : Factory Where Hughes Built Spruce Goose Closes Down
May 27, 1994 — L.A. Times Archives. May 27, 1994 12 AM PT. The 51-year-old factory where Howard Hughes built the giant Spruce Goose seaplane closed Thursday, a victim of aeros...
It was at Culver City that the XH-17 Flying Crane heavy lift helicopter, the first chopper produced by Hughes, made its debut in 1952. Since, the company has pr...
End of an Era : Closure of Building 15 Shuts Book on Hughes ...
May 26, 1994 — The runway was closed in 1986 and its pavement has been removed. Over the years, legions of Hughes workers built more than 6,000 military and commercial helicopters.
I was in my early 20's when I worked there and was chasing girls. And I remember actually taking them to work during an all-nighter and they slept in the van in that parking lot and I 'd go out at break time and lunch.... 🤪
How I survived those times is beyond me..... 🙂
Not Military, but, a vid about one of my Favourite Childhood Movies ; Those Magnificent Men And Their Flying Machines.
Replica Planes built or bought , modified as needed, and Actually Flown - and in the German Plane Tail Breakage scene , driven.
The Bristol Box Kite with it's overheating , more powerful engine, that cut out over The Channel, with it glided back to land - No Wuckers, just ''ream out the Mainjet'' and, back in the air the next day............
Pretty bloody cool, I think.:
I heard many great stories about flying the OH-6 LOACH. Guy I flew with did a tour in Vietnam flying them. When I asked how many times he was shot down, he paused, then said he only really counted the times he had to stay overnight in the bush, and that was 12. One involved a nearly two week evasion where he was captured for a period. Another he spent days trying to keep his copilot alive, for that one he was nominated for the Medal of Honor. Received the Distinguished Service Cross. He said they had some big required inspection at 250 (?) hours, but his unit never had one make it that long while he was there. Left the Army after Vietnam and later joined the Navy to fly fighters. Was even a Blue Angel along the way. Great stories!
That’s quite the transition. Not many guys walked away from the OH-6 to become Blue Angels. In fact, that list has one name on it.
You are not wrong. To add to it, when the guy I mentioned was our XO, the CO had been an Army door gunner in Vietnam. Two Vietnam helo guys in the front office of a Navy fighter squadron.
This guy was a true mentor to me. I can say without any reservation he was the best 1v1 dogfighting pilot in the Navy. We got calls from the Marines at El Toro, TopGun and Adversary squadrons at Miramar, and USAF guys from Nellis requesting to schedule 1v1 flights with him. In my entire time flying with him, he never lost a single engagement. F-16s (A, C, N), F-15Cs, F/A-18s, A-4 Super Foxes, F-5s, didn’t matter. But the stories of flying the Loach in Vietnam were legendary.
A little sidetrack from aircraft, but some aviation lore.
Randall Clark
9 JANUARY, 1948 – 14 APRIL, 2016
Once in a while, someone finds their way into our lives that redefines what it means to be good and decent. A person whose purpose in life is to help others, whether that be passing along life lessons, or flying men out of harm’s way. In all things in life, he stood for what was right.
As a boy, he learned to fly in Panama before attending the University of California at Berkeley where he graduated in 1969 with degrees in Chemistry and Physiology. While waiting to go to medical school he thought his draft number was high enough but found it was not and, in his words, “had his ass sent to Vietnam”. Drafted into the U.S. Army in 1970 he served as a Scout helicopter pilot. Once there, he dedicated himself to the man next to him, doing what he had to do to save lives. The medals – which included the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star, and two Purple Hearts - were just a byproduct.
After leaving the Army he made one of those life choices – rather than pursuing medicine he elected to join the U.S. Navy and earned his wings, becoming a fighter pilot in the F-14 Tomcat. While knowing that air combat maneuvering is a deadly serious business, Randy often said that “there was nothing more fun than chasing your friends around the sky”.
His Navy career included tours with the U.S. Navy's Flight Demonstration Squadron (Blue Angels) where he served as Narrator and Solo Pilot, instructor at VF-124, Operations Officer at VF-24, worked with the Airforce in joint operations roles, and later CDR Clark joined VF-31 and served as Commanding Officer as they transitioned to the F-14D Super Tomcat.
During his 54 years as a pilot Randy flew over 100 different civilian, military and experimental aircrafts.
After retirement, as it was in the service, Randy strove for excellence in everything he did. He qualified and competed against the best golfers in the world at the Senior US Open. True to his nature, in the last few years he added civilian Certified Flight Instructor to his list of qualifications and he helped people achieve their dreams of flying.
Randy (Pogo) Clark died on Thursday April 14th, 2016, at the age of 68. He is survived by his loving wife Sandy who was his whole world, his dogs and his 3 cousins. He will be missed by those who knew him. He left us way too soon.
When I was a kid, my mom worked at the Hughes Corp at Roscoe & Saticoy. She got hired away by Lockheed’s aerospace ops.
Good times. We lived in Canoga Park on the same bock as the Webb’s (Tom Webb and his brothers). That’s where & how I got the Moto-bug.
Heroes.
Holy mackrel! GODSPEED to an amazing man.
Thanks for the lesson, PRM.
That’s a great career. There are those legendary guys in the fleet that keep everything afloat (pun intended). Crazy he got drafted with that academic pedigree. And yes, 68 is too young.
PRM, were you primarily west coast/Miramar? I did not envy those WESTPAC cruises.
In Oz we up engined ours to an Avon engine which doubled the maximum thrust and doubled the thrust to weight ratio over the USA General Electric J47.
Control surfaces be damned! We want it to go faster!
Hahahaha! Love it.
We’re getting a little sidetracked here, but WESTPAC cruises were amazing! Never did a Med, and it’s something I wish I’d been able to do, but WESTPACs were a ton of fun.
Wow that's pretty cool, my first aircraft job was at Lockheed in Burbank. It was there that I also experienced my first layoff when they canceled the L-1011 program which was a far superior airliner than the DC-10 of its day. At least the engines didn't fall off. 😲😂But yeah, that was a maintenance issue.
Pit Row
So while I have Hughes on my mind, Howard Hughes was a genius and did a lot for the world of aviation and airlines back in the day.
As a film tycoon, Hughes gained fame in Hollywood beginning in the late 1920s, when he produced big-budget and often controversial films such as The Racket (1928),[3] Hell's Angels (1930),[4] and Scarface (1932). He later acquired the RKO Pictures film studio in 1948, recognized then as one of the Big Five studios in Hollywood, although the production company struggled under his control and ultimately ceased operations in 1957.
In 1932, Hughes founded Hughes Aircraft Company and spent the next two decades setting multiple world air speed records and building landmark planes like the Hughes H-1 Racer (1935) and the H-4 Hercules (the Spruce Goose, 1947).[5][6]: 163, 259 The H-4 was the largest flying boat in history with the longest wingspan of any aircraft from the time it was built until 2019. He acquired and expanded Trans World Airlines and later acquired Air West, renaming it Hughes Airwest. Hughes won the Harmon Trophy on two occasions (1936 and 1938), the Collier Trophy (1938), and the Congressional Gold Medal (1939) all for his achievements in aviation throughout the 1930s. He was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1973 and was included in Flying magazine's 2013 list of the 51 Heroes of Aviation, ranked at No. 25.[7]
During his final years, Hughes extended his financial empire to include several major businesses in Las Vegas, such as real estate, hotels, casinos, and media outlets. Known at the time as one of the most powerful men in the state of Nevada, he is largely credited with transforming Las Vegas into a more refined cosmopolitan city. After years of mental and physical decline, Hughes died of kidney failure in 1976. His legacy is maintained through the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Howard Hughes Holdings Inc.
I'm sure most of you have seen the movie. "The Aviator" if not, it's a must watch if you're into Aviation. He took on the government and the Airlines and won in court! His crash of his experimental aircraft in Beverly Hills, where he almost died and doctors prescribed painkillers, which he ultimately became addicted to, was his downfall.....
Leonardo did a great job, I've probably watched the movie four or five times. 😁
https://youtu.be/dkwypzOQf8o?si=Hqx9-5PNpMgA1eCx
I was a spoiled Med guy. First cruise was immediately after the ‘91 war, and the navy was out of money. So we spent an extraordinary amount of time in port. We’d be at sea for a couple of weeks, pull into someplace like Palma for 7-10 days, spend the first 3 days back at sea doing CQs, fly cool low levels with the Turks, French, or Israelis, then back in port again! Basically a 6 month vacation with sporadic flying sprinkled in. Second Med cruise wasn’t so luxurious.
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