Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Kong's last stand

I don't have much time to post but thought I'd leave any readers who care to think about it with this question: against what biplane aircraft did King Kong make his famous last stand atop the Empire State Building?

  1. The Boeing F4B4? Known, I think in the Army Air Corps as the P-12.
  2. The Curtis Falcon? See here for more.
  3. Something else.

Commentary

I've always wondered.

20 Comments:

Blogger wretchardthecat said...

One source identifies it as an Curtis Helldiver, not the World War 2 one, but apparently the SBC4 biplane model, which guess what, is a development of the F-12.

12/07/2005 05:01:00 AM  
Blogger RWE said...

The pictures I have seen show that it was clearly the Boeing F4B-4 or P-12E.
When the P-12E model came out they eventually added a life raft to the aircraft, identifiable by the pronounced hump behind the cockpit. This was done at the request of Army pilots flying in the Canel zone, who had a lot more water areas available in the case of an emergency landing than they did suitable spots on land (a modification which uglied up the airplane considerably. but you really can't blame them).
The addition of the life raft to the P-12E made the two aircraft so similar, that aside from markings, you would need a copy of the maintenance manual to tell them apart.
The P-12E and F4B-4 was both the ultimate achievement of and the end of the Army and Navy keeping up with the Jones by buying basically the same fighter plane. This was necessitated by General Billy Mitchell's sinking of target ships in 1921.
The next Army fighter was also out of Boeing, but it was a monoplane, the P-26, and its landing characteristics were unsuitable for carriers.
The resultant rivalry between the two services had vast implications in WWII.
My article covering all of this is in work!

12/07/2005 06:07:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

"My article covering all of this is in work! "
---
Perhaps you should give the name of the publication, so we can have our subscriptions in force and not miss it!

12/07/2005 09:17:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

BBC NEWS Programmes Panorama Robert Baer
Robert Baer is one of the last men you would expect to oppose an attack on Iraq. The former CIA officer was one of the key men operating inside Iraq during ...

12/07/2005 10:10:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

"I talk to people in the CIA. They're worried about the stability of the region."

Mr Baer claims that his fears are echoed by his former paymasters in the intelligence business.

He added: "I talk to people in the CIA. They're worried about the stability of the region."

"A land war or a massive air war, against an Arab country is going to cause several governments in the Middle East to fall. Among them Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and possibly Egypt.

"I think people in Washington are so hurt, so damaged by the attacks on September 11th, that they want to take revenge. And Saddam happens to be the vehicle."

12/07/2005 10:19:00 AM  
Blogger Doug said...

Goodness, don't the neocons and the chimp realize they have caused INSTABILITY?

12/07/2005 10:21:00 AM  
Blogger jeff said...

Yeah, it was real stable when Khobar Towers, USS Cole, and our embassies in Tanzania and Kenya got bombed.

12/07/2005 10:38:00 AM  
Blogger tbrosz said...

You can see an apparent photo of the plane Jackson is using here.

12/07/2005 11:05:00 AM  
Blogger wretchardthecat said...

A reader writes to say:

"Examining the famous still, I would say the planes can't be F4B4s for three reasons. First, the planes in the film have four vertical struts between the wings, the F4B4 only two; second, the F4B4 fuselage is stubbier than the film planes' and the former contains a hump behind the cockpit that the latter lack; third, the pictured wheel struts are triangular, with oblique struts fore and aft, whereas the F4B4 lacks a fore oblique. ... The plane is the Packard Le Pere LUSAC-11."

12/07/2005 11:47:00 AM  
Blogger wretchardthecat said...

Speaking of planes, there's been a report of a shooting on a Miami plane, apparently someone with a bomb, who was shot by an air marshal. There's your Pearl Harbor and airplane thread rolled in one.

12/07/2005 12:06:00 PM  
Blogger wretchardthecat said...

First Internet report up on the shooting.

12/07/2005 12:07:00 PM  
Blogger wretchardthecat said...

Plane inbound from Columbia.

12/07/2005 12:08:00 PM  
Blogger wretchardthecat said...

The plane had arrived and was on the ground when the incident occured so it doesn't seem that big a deal.vy

12/07/2005 12:36:00 PM  
Blogger GEB4000 said...

When somebody like Baer says he's worried about stability in the Middle East, I hear, "I'm worried there won't be the right kind of Middle-Eastern despots around who will pay for my consulting services when I retire from civil service."

12/07/2005 02:30:00 PM  
Blogger Mike H. said...

The dead suspect is a US citizen of Costa Rican descent. His wife stated that he suffered from bipolar disorder and was off his meds. Heard some muttering on Fox that she should have given him his meds. My nephew is bipolar and doesn't want his meds because he feels that they mark him as different. No one has the authority to force him to take the meds. It was discovered that there was no bomb. No one knew this at the time.

12/07/2005 03:30:00 PM  
Blogger DEANBERRY said...

JESUS CHRIST HAS REMOVED HIS BLESSING FROM AMERICA: http://www.mixposure.com/song.php?songid=14027.

12/07/2005 08:35:00 PM  
Blogger John Aristides said...

I'll join you Trish, with the addendum that he also save us from the almost there and never were.

12/07/2005 10:42:00 PM  
Blogger Jack said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

12/07/2005 11:21:00 PM  
Blogger Jack said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

12/07/2005 11:23:00 PM  
Blogger Jack said...

Sorry about the above two, decided not to drag it off a tangent.

12/07/2005 11:30:00 PM  

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