via: Commemorative Air Force
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It was #OTD that Frank Piasecki piloted the first flight of the PV-3 prototype tandem rotor helicopter, in Morton Grove, Pennsylvania. Can you guess in what year? It may be earlier than you think!

This helicopter, later designated as XHRP-X by the United States Navy, earned the nickname "the Flying Banana" due to its unique fuselage design facilitating vertical clearance between its rotors.

Piasecki also became the first pilot to receive a helicopter license from the C.A.A. without having a prior airplane license.

https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/tag/p-v-engineering-forum-pv-3/

OTD via: SIERRA HOTEL AERONAUTICS
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February 20th, 1962 11:03 UTC; John Glenn boarded the Friendship 7 spacecraft.
The hatch was bolted in place at 12:10 UTC.
The gantry was rolled back at 13:20 UTC.

At 14:47 UTC, after two hours and 17 minutes of holds and three hours and 44 minutes after Glenn entered Friendship 7, engineer T.J. O'Malley pressed the button in the blockhouse launching the spacecraft.
At liftoff Glenn's pulse rate climbed to 110 beats per minute.

Thirty seconds after liftoff the General Electric-Burroughs designed guidance system locked onto a radio transponder in the booster to guide the vehicle to orbit. As the Atlas and Friendship 7 passed through Max Q Glenn reported, "It's a little bumpy about here." After Max Q the flight smoothed out. At two minutes and 14 seconds after launch, the booster engines cut off and dropped away. Then at two minutes and twenty-four seconds, the escape tower was jettisoned, right on schedule.

After the tower was jettisoned, the Atlas and spacecraft pitched over still further, giving Glenn his first view of the horizon. He described the view as "a beautiful sight, looking eastward across the Atlantic."

Glenn received word that the Atlas had boosted the MA-6 into a trajectory that would stay up for at least seven orbits. Meanwhile, computers at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland indicated that the MA-6 orbital parameters appeared good enough for almost 100 orbits.

John Glenn and "Friendship 7" made three orbits of the Earth, making Glenn the first American to orbit the Earth.

After four hours and 56 minutes in flight the spacecraft re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean and was safely taken aboard the USS Noa.

On a side note, earlier in his flying career, Glenn was next assigned to VMF-311 flying the new F9F Panther jet interceptor. He flew his Panther for 63 combat missions during the Korean War, gaining the dubious nickname "magnet ass" from his apparent ability to attract enemy flak.

Twice he returned to base with over 250 flak holes in his aircraft.

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Random Quote Of The Day #ROTD:
“Educate the children and it won't be necessary to punish the men.”
— Pythagoras

OTD:
- 45 B.C.: The Julian calendar takes effect, so people celebrate New Year's Eve for the first time.
- 1863: The Emancipation Proclamation takes effect, President Lincoln's Executive Order that slavery be abolished in all states where it is being practiced, allowing people in those regions to be Free.
- 1892: Ellis Island opens its doors in New York Harbor, Welcoming millions of immigrants in the coming decades to America hoping for a better life.
- 1919: A guy with a strange name steps into his father's shoes as Edsel Ford takes the reigns from Henry as President of Ford Motor Company.
- 1959: Dictator Fulgencio Batista flees Cuba as rebels fighting under revolutionary Fidel Castro take control of the island, a bloody revolution which Castro promised would "free all the people" later imprisoning tens of thousands under his even more brutal dictatorship, a curiosity which has somehow managed to remain in effect in other brutal dictatorships around the world (North Korea, Iran, others) as their citizens have yet to figure out how to set their minds - and themselves Free.

US Army celebrates Patriots Day!

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/us-army_patriotday-bushspeechvertmp4-activity-7107001415016800256-fDfc?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios