For Hayao Miyazaki’s birthday, two creations that I put together over the Xmas break. The Laputa robot model was in a box for over a decade, and it felt like time to build it

For the last year or so - I’ve been running a 2nd (volunteer org/palaeontology-related) Bluesky account I’ve been prioritising that, as the more specialised timeline meant I was less exposed to constant awful, ominous happenings Lots of new muted words on this acc, I think, has improved things

“L-R: George Palmer Putnam, Mrs. Putnam, the former Amelia Earhart, Mrs. Amy Mollison nee Johnson and Capt Jim Mollison basking in the sand at Rye, New York on 29/07/33. The flying Britons celebrated their first wedding anniversary with the Putnams." apimagesblog.com/historical/2... 1/2

imagining an alternate reality where ungainly, gold-embossed Louis Vuitton helicopters splutter across idyllic countryside vistas - these were his grandchildren! "Prototype Jean et Pierre VUITTON, 1909"

A pleasant -13°C NYE-afternoon in Norway. Lying in deep snow for a second, after being thrown off on a minor turn, I actually contemplated stuff for 2026 Hoping for more presence and content than this year. Weirdness and exoticness is a good thing Best wishes to all x

The Fairey Tail of Newark..

Lt Stuart Culley launches from a "lighter" - a barge used to tow flying boats - fitted with a take-off platform, to attack Zeppelin L53 off the coast of the Netherlands, 11/08/1918.. incredible art by Keith Ferris (keithferrisart.com/product/just...) 1/2

St James' Church in the village of Dry Doddington, Lincolnshire (locally famous for leaning approx 0.8º more than that tower in Pisa (after Superman fixed it)) and the Martin Marietta X-24B experimental lifting body of the early 1970s co-incidence? oh ho-ho I think not “LOOKING INTO IT”

the fantastic rear of the Parseval PL25 German patrol airship, which becomes some kind of alternate-universe dreamliner in its own right

to me, every worthy/serious Bond argument or opinion just ends at a dead end right here:

Came across this in my bookmarks today, from 1989 I might start implementing the old-fashioned five seconds of silence, before the continuity announcer inhales, into everyday life youtu.be/ApYXnCaNG0Y

I recently got a birding scope for a significant birthday. With a phone attached, I took this photo - I think it’s the Moon - yesterday evening, low in the smoky French countryside

The “president shitting on his people” video is awful on many levels - including that AI has a reasonable chance of crashing the US stock market - but it also highlights that there is only one jet-powered fertiliser-spraying aircraft that matters 👹

“We choose to go to Button Moon. We chose to go to Button Moon. Yahahahah. We choose to go to Button Moon in this decade and do the other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard. Shut your cakehole" - Sid James, Ipswich Polytechnic, 1978

“It's just one of those days when you don't wanna wake up Everything is f*cked, everybody sucks You don't really know why But you wanna justify THE NEED FOR A MORE COMPLETE DESCRIPTION OF TURBULENT MOTION” (From the Aeronautical Journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society, March 1971)

Perhaps of the few aircraft that could be deemed worthy to survive the rapture: the Evangel 4500 - designed by bush pilot Carl Mortenson ("no formal education in aeronautical engineering") for STOL missionary work. only 8 made - most came to an end in S America, but the 1st is still going (N4501L)

“A photon rocket glides swiftly across the face of the Triffid Nebula, bound for some remote part of our Galaxy" art by David A. Hardy - featured in EXPLORING SPACE, by Heather Couper, 1985 (archive.org/details/expl...)

It was also, often, a communal journey - as the Internet was something you usually accessed in college or uni computer rooms I remember a whole row of desks losing their minds when someone found the “Thundercats outtakes”

I like to imagine - 6 billion+ years from now - some residents of the remnants of this clumpy galaxy starting their own deep space survey, looking at our pretty galaxy as it is now, and wondering how things are going within one of the minor spiral arms 👋

“the hell are you wiseguys all staring at?! Scram, capish? Badda-bing badda-boom”

apparently, yesterday was National Hummingbird Day, and it reminded me of something I saved off the other place a few years ago - someone (I’ve lost who, sorry) made this KC-135 Hummingbird feeder! It got me thinking about a fighter-sized bird.. 1/3

"On 16 November 1982, Columbia approaches Edwards AFB bringing to an end STS-5” (photo by Erik Simonsen (author of PROJECT TERMINATED! crecy.co.uk/project-term...)

from “Encyclopedic Dictionary of Young Technician”, a Soviet kid’s science and engineering book, 1987 (archive.org/details/luKr...)

“from the private collection of a Luftwaffe pilot of Fighter Wing JG 54, taken in 1943 at 9/JG54’s airfield at Schwerin-Görries. The ”Staffel Umbrella“, with hand-painted ”Devil’s Head“ emblem, created by members of the Staffel (squadron), appears to be made of parachute silk..”

I know its World <Something> Day pretty much every day, but earlier I found out its World Dog Day while smoking a cigar in a monoplane and listening to Shakira, and I was iiiinstantly reminded of this banger: “Monoplane", and his co-pilot - Shakir Jerwan. Moisant aviation school, Long Island 1/

“Welcome to <actual> Conair!” “A mid 70s shot of the Conair [firefighting] Fleet at Abbotsford Airport (YXX), including TBMs, A-26s and the Venerable DC6. This was also the period in time when Conair transitioned from 337 Skymasters to TS60 Aerostars as air attack platforms” (rb.gy/p69gq)

MEGATHREAD™ the Star Wars original trilogy movies are strewn with objects that are aeronautical in origin. let's try and round up as many as we can not covered: prequels, sequels, spin-offs main credits/links at the end 1/

#AlienDay greebly detail being added to the Narcissus shuttle, via a variety of Airfix kits as with Star Wars, vehicle/ship model kits were generally preferred over aircraft ones - though the Nostromo and its refinery used over 200 space shuttle (and dozens of Darth Vader TIE fighter) kits 1/3

Happy #AlienDay from this Hunslet AT77 air towing tractor

the unofficial insignia of the 509th Bomb Wing during the period of B-2 bomber test flights. the 509th was based at Roswell Army Airfield during that totally obscure UFO incident of 1947.. "TO SERVE MAN" - from a Twilight Zone episode “GUSTATUS SIMILIS PULLUS” ("Tastes like chicken")

starting the week going through my blocked and muted content ⚠️

someone recently recommended this as a “doomscrolling relief” account, and I appreciate that 🙏 I’ve fallen into the spiral of brief doomscrolling, and then not posting - as I fight the urge each time to bury my devices in an ancient barrow and scatter with magic snapdragon and toadflax petals

Roses are red, violets are blue, the Pink Aviation Services Short Skyvan OE-FDN is coming for YOU 💋💋💋

happy 6th birthday to this important piece of WW2 social impact analysis

an illustration of the American aerial acrobat Leona Dare, which was used in some of the posters for her shows across Europe in 1888 - including a weekly Saturday ascent at the Crystal Palace throughout June she would hang suspended by an "iron jaw" "an iron WHAT?" I hear you cry 1/2

“ESSA B-57 N1005 in flight” a great shot of the aircraft used by the Environmental Science Services Administration (ESSA), which then became the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.. (from the NOAA Digital Collections - grab it while you can, www.noaa.gov/digital-coll...) 1/2

Jacob Ellehammer's co-axial helicopter hovering, 1914. it is not believed to have done much more Ellehammer was a Danish inventor - creating a variety of different machines. this helicopter is on display at the Norsk Tekniske Museum, after being rediscovered and rebuilt in 2005

⬇️ this is fantastic - 30 minutes of this gentleman giving cold, hard nuclear propulsion updates in glorious 1950s Technicolor™ or equivalent (the Convair design shown here was a purely speculative one, of a non-nuclear Mach 3 SST that I don’t think was related to a project number)

1 Like = 1 gun turret or mounted weapon

If you see this, post a fictional artist/band that you would love to see live SPACEFUNK MONDAY LET’S GO

TIMELINE CLEANSE old aeronautical delights from a postcard set from the #StudioGhibli "Imaginary Flying Machines" animated short, 2002 (Kūsō no Sora Tobu Kikaitachi , 空想の空飛ぶ機械達) 🧵 1/

Rambo 3/Red Dawn/Red Scorpion vibes here..

"the first [Yenchu] XP-1 prototype at the 1st Air Force Aircraft Manufacturing Factory’s grounds in Guiyang" this ill-fated oddity - featuring forward-swept wings(!) - used a canopy from a Curtis Hawk/Warhawk, and a repaired engine from a crashed C-47 (web.archive.org/web/20200814...)

A group of men shelter under Eugene Lefebvre’s Wright Type A Flyer at the Rheims Aviation Week, 1909 “Owing to the heavy rains the mud was ankle deep in many places, and some unique and awkward scenes, under the circumstances, especially amongst the ladies, were witnessed”

VISIONS OF ALTERNATIVE ALBIONS A Princess Leaving Bermuda a sublime ad from 1949 (via aviationancestry.co.uk?searchQuery=... - many thanks to Dave there for the hi-res pic)

the Kharkiv KhAI-3 twin-fuselage flying wing motor glider transport, which made several flights in 1936 - using a 110hp engine the belief was that this low-speed, fuel-economical config would be widely adopted and bring mass air transportation across the Soviet Union

the Salmson-Moineau S.M.1 reconnaissance aircraft, circa 1916 what could possibly be worrying these people? surely its not the perpendicular fuselage-mounted radial engine, powering the twin airscrews via gears and crankshafts? or perhaps that they know that 155 of these are going to be built…?

this has been playing on my mind, but yes - you can indeed freely use the British Newspaper Archive on "_The Cloud" wi-fi! ( @airminded.org, here's a Wokingham Whale nostalgia piece from 1976! it also shows Farbrother's other "monoplane", which features in " British Aircraft before the Great War")

"Presidential airplane of President Harry S. Truman, the "Independence," in flight over unknown location. ca.1950" (full hi-res photo: www.trumanlibrary.gov/photograph-r...) This Douglas VC-118, a military version of the DC-6, is on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force

A toast to Matt! 🏅 and can we also take this moment to appreciate the rarely-shared front profile of the Blackburn² (my face pareidolia is suggesting a robot from Futurama or Star Wars: Skeleton Crew)