My book ‘de snelste mens ter wereld’ chronicles the life and achievements of 21 pilots ranging from [...]]]> Web site friend & contributor Bart Vandamme just emailed me the other day about a new book he has written.  Here’s a quick overview!  The book is currently written in Dutch and is waiting for a translation in English…

My book ‘de snelste mens ter wereld’ chronicles the life and achievements of 21 pilots ranging from Alberto Santos Dumont who established the first record of 25 mph in 1906 to Eldon Joersz who holds the current record of over 2,000 mph in an SR-71 Blackbird. This book also contains a collection of never before published photos, colour profiles and documents. I worked with the families of many of these pilots to develop this manuscript. All of the speed records chronicled in my book have been officially recognized by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), an international organization that governs the rules related to sporting performance, records and competitions for air and space.

The history of the absolute world speed records is a story of people who lived to push the boundaries. They were people who were not satisfied with the restrictions that were imposed on them. In a period of seventy years, these pilots set incredible speed performances that left their stamps on aviation history. During the Cold War, the absolute world speed record became a matter of national prestige. The speed records set in that period are still remembered with reverence today.

The record airplanes that are described in my book are the Gloster Meteor, Lockheed Shooting Star, Douglas Skystreak, North American F-86 Sabre, Hawker Hunter, Supermarine Swift, Douglas Skyray, North American F-100 Super Sabre, F-101 Voodoo, F-104 Starfighter, MiG Ye-66, MiG Ye-152-1, F-106 Delta Dart, F-4 Phantom II, Lockheed YF-12 and the SR-71.

Because I had the luck to meet one of those testpilots, I describe also a few machbusters such as Chuck Yeager, Scott Crossfield, Mel Apt, Robert White and Pete Knight.

My work is about aeroplanes and speed – the lure of la vitesse pure, its challenge and mystique – but primarily it is a book about the men who were inspired by speed’s insistent call.

Details

Size: 155 x 235 mm

Contents: 330 pages with a lot of exclusive pictures.

Price: 20 € ( + 5€ – shipmentcosts)

Publisher: Uitgeverij Aspekt, Amersfoortsestraat 27 3769 AD Soesterberg
ISBN-13: 978-90-5911-860-7

order: payment on following bank account number
001-2051122-36 from
Bart Vandamme
Vliegpleinstraat 3 8560 Wevelgem
with mention ‘De snelste mens ter wereld’.

Information bvandamme64@hotmail.com

If you found out about the tip from here and win the auction, send me a few [...]]]> A Craft X-2 model kit is going up for sale on ebay on Sunday night, July 18. Look for seller “rmtc99.” Seller has also informed me that he’ll be selling other vintage kits over the next few weeks.

If you found out about the tip from here and win the auction, send me a few photos!

Good luck!

Update: Link to auctions

Print/save the article now – they only stay up for a week or so.

Update: Hank Caruso was kind enough to share that the artist of the magazine cover was Frank Tinsley [...]]]> Just added a new photo to the Toward The Unknown/XB-51 Gallery thanks to Doug Nelson: The cover of the April 1950 Air Trails Pictorial magazine with a pretty ominous XB-51.  Looks more like something from Germany in WWII!

Update: Hank Caruso was kind enough to share that the artist of the magazine cover was Frank Tinsley (1899-1965). More of Frank’s art can be seen on Flickr.

Who was the first man in space?

Cassopolis residents are [...]]]> OK, this frosts me a bit. The South Bend Tribune recently ran an article about Iven Kincheloe and Robert White, but I just found out they only keep stories online for a week.  Here’s a blurb I was able to grab from CollectSpace.com:

Who was the first man in space?

Cassopolis residents are likely to say it was Iven Kincheloe Jr., a Cassopolis native who in 1956 set a new altitude record when he flew a research plane 126,200 feet — nearly 24 miles — above the Earth. Kincheloe was quoted as saying that at the peak of his Bell X-2 research plane’s trajectory, he was weightless…

“At the time, he was declared the first spaceman. It was a big deal,” recalled Steve Arseneau, director of the Southwestern Michigan College Museum in Dowagiac.

So it was something of a surprise recently when news accounts of the death in Orlando, Fla., of Robert White, 85, identified him as the first man to fly a winged craft into space.

If you have a full version of the story, please leave a comment!