We just returned from Grandpa Jacksons' funeral. He was 97 and invaded Utah beach at Normandy, Italy, Algeria, and other that I don't recall. The military came and performed a three gun salute and gave a flag to his daughter. I suppose that is a nice thing to do after a guy participates in changing the course of history.
On our ride home we stopped in Arches Natl' Park to stretch our legs. There are several window arches that we hiked around for awhile- the kids sure loved it.
OK all you airplane buffs out there. While we were hiking in Arches we heard a strange sound and looking up saw this way up in the sky (pardon the extreme crop):
It is some kind of super rare twin engine (see contrails) canard turboprop. I thought it was one of these:
A Piaggio P180 is an Italian aircraft- about 200 or so have been made.
But the wing is straight looking from underneath. So instead I think it was one of these:
A Beechcraft Starship. Only 20 were ever made and 11 sold. Most were intentionally scrapped and only 9 have survived. One of them belongs to the Rutans and served as chase plane for Virgin Galactic's "SpaceShip One" recently.
Its profile from below looks correct with the photo I snapped. Trevor or dad, please correct me if I am wrong, and for the other blog readers, thanks for putting up with the geeky commentary!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Driving Adventures
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11 comments:
so contrails do form behind prop engines? I guess the drop in air pressure around the wings would bring with it a drop in temperature, which would cause water to condense out of the air and form a contrail at higher altitudes. And a piston engine would emit hydrocarbons that could combine with the oxygen to create a stream of water droplets that at a high altitude would be seen as the contrails. Is that right?
When you find out what it is, I'd be interested in knowing! Very cool shot, by the way!
Interesting plane. Why were so many scrapped?
How do boys know so much about planes and "things that go" as Andrew's book says?? I don't even understand Vic's comment and I barely understand Jason's post. -Ilene
The last drawing is definitely it. Good photo, interesting post.
When I first saw it I thought it was a Long EZ. But the dual contrails nixed that. Jay's neighbor Theron Judd built a Long EZ.
I also think it is the third one. Very cool post. I'm excited now to look up a Long EZ too.
I didn't know the name for contrails until Uli mentioned them when he was very young.
i don't know what it is, but I swear I've seen one before, at least once. Not that often, but I have. I thought maybe it was glider or some kind of gov't radio controlled data collecting observation plane. (sorry to sound so conspiracy theory like)
Nerd alert!
Wow, thanks for the interest. I'll have to post some more nerdy posts in the future! I have decided the plane is a Starship. Vic, I decided you must have slept at the Holiday Inn Express after reading your comment! -Jason
btw, it was a seven gun salute or "21 gun" salute.
Jason, do you drive your family to the airport on Sunday nights?
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