Isn’t Sky Captain an old comic book hero? When I bought my computer a couple of games came along with it, one being Sky Pirates. You are a daring young hero pilot and the US is divided into several sections, governed by certain companies. You have to watch out for pirates flying outrageous fighters (built by Curtiss, Blackburn etc.) and shoot down enemy company cargo airships with more armor than Tirpitz! Or you can engage in airshow rivalry to better your opponents. Actually a fun game, and one can see where it has got its origin from!

T J

That sounds like Crimson Skies – does the game start in Hawaii?

If it is the same, I agree – it’s an absolute corker of a game, with lots of lovely little details.

It’s actually based on a board game of all things, long out of print, but still available on E-bay.

Cheers

Alistair

Turbo
yes the other airship was the Akron.
Interestingly the USn also employed another aircraft type from the airships.
It was a small Waco cabin monoplane (complete with hook), used for carrying the mail and personnnel to the airship. I’ve never seen more than one very poor quality picture of the Waco. Anyone got any pictures available of it?
Cheers
Andy

There’s a couple of pictures here:

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/ac-usn22/j-types/xjw.htm

Alistair

DiCaprio’s height changes throughout the film.

Also, when he and Cate are walking away from the floatplane (Sikorsky?), the aircraft was downsized so that it would fit in the shot.

As for the “does it matter, it’s only a film” comment – of course it does! We’re die-hard pedants, anoraks, nerds! Well I am, at least.

Sikorsky S 38, I believe.

(Which is technically a flying boat, rather than a floatplane, but that’s a bit too pedantic… 😉 )

Alistair

Here’s some larger inter-war biplanes (I assume they’re welcome among the fighters?)

I might add that though the De Havillands are in civil guise, they all later served in the wartime RNZAF – as frontline (in Fiji) General Reconnaisance bombers! As well as other roles such as communications duties, training aircrew like gunners and wireless ops, etc. They all moved round a fair bit during the war.

Weren’t some Rapides also used in the Spanish Civil War?

Alistair

Anyone have any pics of the one in Sao Paulo? I’ve never seen it.

There’s some on the Seawings website here: http://www.seawings.co.uk/sm55gal.htm

Cheers

Alistair

Last time I saw the Demon (18 months ago) the fuselage was mostly done, wings covered and painted. Looked very nice too, but I’d expect nothing less than perfection there anyway. Still had some ancilliary bits to go on, radiator etc, and the engine was receiving attention. She’s always been a very long term project though, so I guess we’ll see her when we see her. She’ll be worth the wait though, I guarantee that.

Is she going to have the “clamshell turret”?

Cheers

Alistair

I’ve been wanting to see this for ages. I’m not expecting it to be accurate, but it apparently starts with the Hindenburg III docking at the Empire State Building, which means I can forgive a lot…

(Yes, I know that the updraft meant that real zeppelins couldn’t dock there. But reality is so boring…)

Alistair