Eddie Andreini’s Primo Branco
By Sagar Pathak
Eddie Andreini flies his P51D Primo Branco over the waters of Half Moon Bay, Calif. (Sagar Pathak)For more than 40 years, Eddie Andreini has been dazzling airshow crowds across the country. With the recent military participation in airshows being cut back due to sequestration, a small group of pilots are doing what they can to remind our nation that airshows are still alive and going strong. Even if teams like the USN Blue Angels or the USAF Thunderbirds are not flying, folks like Eddie Andreini are taking to the skies and putting on shows. Larger events may get canceled due to a lack of military participation, but there are dozens and dozens of smaller, more intimate shows still entertaining out there. One such show was the Pacific Coast Dream Machines fly-in at Half Moon Bay, Calif., also home to Eddie Andreini Airshows.
Aviation Ancestry
Swept-Wing Wonder: The Boeing B-47
By Scott Schwartz
Jet aircraft during the piston era. Convair was one of three companies that responded to the Army’s request for a jet-bomber design. Looking pretty much like a piston-engine aircraft, Convair’s XB-46 is shown in flight, here. (Photo courtesy U.S. Air Force)World War II was at its peak during the summer of 1943. The American aircraft industry was turning out piston-engine bombers, fighters, and other types by the thousands. With production focused on these sorely-needed aircraft, it is an amazing truth that during this time, United States Army Air Forces planners were considering future production of a jet-propelled bomber. Jet propulsion was certainly not “main stream;” the Bell XP-59 (a jet-powered fighter) was still being tested – and its performance was on a par with some piston-engine fighters of the time. In other words, jet-propulsion was in its infancy.
Still, some in the Army were far-sighted enough to see the jet engine’s potential, and the service distributed a request to several companies (Boeing among them) to investigate the idea of building a jet bomber around the new General Electric TG-180 jet engine.
