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Post by davidd on Mar 24, 2022 15:34:55 GMT 12
Don't think that much has appeared on this site about the two US Navy Super Connies of the 1960s, but I could be wrong. Dave H will know.
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Post by McFly on Mar 24, 2022 16:48:59 GMT 12
Don't think that much has appeared on this site about the two US Navy Super Connies of the 1960s, but I could be wrong. Dave H will know.  "Men of Air Development Squadron Six (VX-6) change an engine on a C-121J Super Constellation at Williams Field, McMurdo Station. - Dec 19 1966" "Super Constellation 'Pegasus' - 1969"
 "The Pegasus C-121 Super Constellation sits at the Christchurch International Airport in this photo taken in late 1966. On October 8, 1970, this plane crashed in bad weather conditions at McMurdo Station. No one on board was injured. However, the plane remains in the snow about 20 miles from McMurdo Station. The Pegasus White Ice Runway located near McMurdo is named for this aircraft."
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Post by oj on Mar 24, 2022 17:57:03 GMT 12
"Men of Air Development Squadron Six (VX-6) change an engine on a C-121J Super Constellation at Williams Field, McMurdo Station. - Dec 19 1966"
Typical press release exaggeration of the day. "Engine change" bollocks! They frequently "enhanced" the actuality. It is still done today of course.
Looks like an engine pre-heat by ground equipment hot air unit.
Magnificent photos however.
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Post by scrooge on Mar 24, 2022 18:30:28 GMT 12
Though the prop is fully feathered, not how it would normally be left (see the other photos for comparison). so maybe a bit more to it than normal pre-heat.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 4, 2022 15:18:53 GMT 12
A bit of an aside but an interesting article on the Deep Freeze Globemasters from the Press, dated 24th of June 1961.
THE GLOBEMASTERS AT HOME
A Visit To Greenville South Carolina
[Specially written for "The Press" by F. J. A. FOX]
WHERE do the Globemasters go in the winter time? We went to see for ourselves. Although, as most Canterbury people know, the Globemasters of the United States Air Force, have only a supporting role to the United States Navy in Antarctic exploration, their heavy presence in the sky has made them the most familiar feature of the operation.
Besides, it must be admitted that Greenville, South Carolina, is a convenient staging point on a 44-hour bus journey from New York to New Orleans.
The city of Greenville itself would repay a longer stay than New Zealanders, using it as the gateway to the Donaldson air base, are likely to give it. It does have, however, quite a New Zealand colony in the wives of American airmen, and the wives of some wartime servicemen, too.
The line-up of Globemasters at Harewood sometimes seems impressive. It is insignificant compared with the fleet assembled at Donaldson, but they are not the chief attraction for a visitor.
The base must be an airman's dream. Built soon after the United States entered the Second World War, it was planned in the light of British experience at that time, with its facilities widely dispersed. Such precautions may be pointless in the atomic age, but they do give the station a pleasant, village atmosphere.
The pleasant impression is not to the airy space of buildings. For instance, the attractive men’s mess halls, similar in their cafeteria style to the officers' mess, have won service awards for their catering: the best in the United States Air Force.
Bingo Night
The anteroom of the officers' mess is worth seeing on a bingo night, with its extraordinary array of prizes, ranging from tables and chairs to electric coffee makers. Bingo, as played at Donaldson, is a most sophisticated version of housey. No-one draws numbers from a hat—numbered balls are blown out of a spout by compressed air.
The station's amenities include a light aeroplane club, a golf course, and ornamental ponds, with ducks that are apt to hold up traffic on the perimeter road.
Perhaps any catalogue of amenities should include a Federal penitentiary, for income tax defaulters and similar offenders suitable for minimum security accommodation. The prisoners are housed in converted barrack buildings, moved to an isolated corner. They serve the Air Force well by cutting the vast area of grass among the runways and taxiways.
What should be included in the catalogue is a medical clinic, also built from converted buildings. Here airmen, base staff, and their families get a comprehensive medical service in a convenient grouping of specialist services. The clinic, built to the plan of the medical staff, is said to be one of the best in the United States.
Nearby is the famous! “Mars” (military amateur radio station), which gives Donaldson unofficial, social contact with its crews when they fly to remote parts of the world. These are merely some of the trimmings.
All the services to keep the Globemasters of the 61st Troop Carrier Wing (Heavy) operating efficiently are, of course, provided. One group of equipment is the answer to a question that the layman may never have thought to ask: how do you clean a Globemaster? The plant, except in scale, is not so very different from that used for washing motor-cars. This work is done by a contractor, who has upwards of 100,000 dollars invested in washing equipment.
The sad part of the Donaldson air base is that it is threatened with the transfer of the Globemaster wing to Savannah, Georgia. The reason for this is obscure, since Savannah has little in the way of amenities or specialist equipment. It may have something to do with the seniority of Georgia members of the Congressional armed forces committee.
Not all the Globemaster family are sorry about the move. For instance, Mrs Eugene Egnot (formerly Miss Valerie Hinds, of Lyttelton), like a true New Zealander, will enjoy being beside the sea instead of 200 miles inland at Donaldson. But all the people of Greenville will be sad. The transfer of most of the 4500 men at Donaldson will mean the loss of millions of dollars to business houses; but the Mayor (Mr J. Kenneth Cass) insists that that is a minor consideration. Over the year Globemaster men and their families have become part of the community, and their departure will interrupt many friendships.
Mr Manning’s Letter
And Donaldson and Greenville are friendly places as their occasional visitors, especially visitors from Canterbury know. Mr Cass was delighted to get a letter from the Mayor of Christchurch, Mr George Manning, and interrupted a busy morning of technical conferences to do the honours of a city of which he is justly proud.
Greenville is a green, pleasant town with all the comforts of the modern United States and few of the uglier features often found in larger places. It has a common bond with Christchurch other than Globemasters—a fine water supply, drawn, however, direct from mountain streams. Such pure water is rather a rarity in the United States. Like cities all over the world it faces the problem of population outside the city limits. The metropolitan area has a population of about 150,000, about half of whom live outside the city.
Mr Cass understood, of course, that visitors from Christchurch would want to see Donaldson. Unable to act as guide himself, he arranged for the fire chief, Mr J. E. Poole, with his huge red car, to do so, a jaunt Mr Poole found all the more congenial since he organised the first fire protection system at the base when it was established.
New Zealanders receive typical American hospitality at Donaldson also. In the absence of the commander of the wing (Brigadier-General Andrew B. Cannon), his deputy, Colonel Marshall T. Strickler, took a few hours off to act as an energetic and thoughtful host. As a Southern city, Greenville must have its colour problems. They were not, however, apparent in the manner of the men tidying the Post Office gardens in the spring sunshine, or in the friendly helpfulness of the bell boys at the Greenville Hotel. They were not apparent, either, in the easy assurance of Jessy Leadbetter, the waitress who, after quire a brief acquaintance, said with obvious sincerity; “I'm going to miss youall.”
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Post by davidd on Apr 5, 2022 12:47:22 GMT 12
Nice article Dave, good catch!
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Post by emron on Apr 23, 2022 18:53:36 GMT 12
The Press, 14 January 1956.
MAORI NAMES
FOR PLANES
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U.S. PILOTS CHOOSE
TWO SEABIRDS
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When two Dakota transports are flown to the Antarctic this month by United States Navy pilots they will bear Maori names. The captains of the aircraft, Lieutenant-Commanders C. S. Shinn and G. Frankiewicz, have given them the Maori names for penguins.
Lieutenant-Commander Shinn has chosen the little blue penguin for his Dakota with the name Korora. Tawaki, the Maori name for the crested penguin, has been used for the aircraft which Lieutenant-Commander Franciewicz will fly from Taieri.
The officer commanding the United States air group at Wigram (Lieutenant-Commander Ben Sparks) was the first to rename his aircraft, a Grumman Albatross. He looked up the Maori meaning for albatross in a dictionary, and had painted on the nose of the aircraft the name Toroa.
Lieutenant-Commander R. E. Graham, senior pilot of the second Albatross, also decided to rename his aircraft. It’s original name, “Shake, Rattle and Roll,” has been changed to Toroa Pango – Maori for the sooty albatross.
The name Toroa on one Albatross may even change the official name of the aircraft. Lieutenant-Commander Sparks intends to send details to the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, makers of the triphibian. He said in Dunedin this week that the company would be very interested in the name change.
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