Bob Collins
Hans Wronka, the Duluth man who set out in July to find the airplane in which his grandfather died in World War II, has discovered dog tags in a hay stack. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Tag: Aviation
I doubt you’ll find anything particularly thrilling here but a few people have asked to see another video of what it looks like flying into Oshkosh during the AirVenture show, when it becomes the busiest airport in the world.
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Flying into Oshkosh is pressure-packed for a number of reasons, not the least of which is tens of thousands of people line the runways to watch you land. You don’t want to mess it up.
Not like this pilot did yesterday when landing a 1940s-era A-26 Invader.
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It took nearly four years, but the National Transportation Safety Board has now closed its investigation into how four people on the way home from a Packers-Vikings game ended up upside down in an airplane in Rochester. Read more →
Up until Sunday morning, there was only one B-29 Superfortress still flying in the United States Read more →
New legislation should fix a longtime problem: pilots who don’t seek treatment for various medical conditions because they fear they’ll lose the medical certification required to fly general aviation aircraft. Read more →
In two weeks, a couple hundred volunteers and the grandson of P-47 Thunderbolt pilot killed during a raid on German troops in Italy in World War II will try to unearth what’s left of the plane and, possibly, the pilot’s remains near Bagnarola, Italy. Read more →
I find pride in finding people — often older people– giving up a piece of a holiday weekend to do something for the benefit of someone else. Read more →
Mark O. Schultz, of Sleepy Eye, Minn., a bank executive; and Steven J. Schultz, 51, of Brooklyn Center, a Medtronic employee, were killed in the 2014 crash in western Minnesota. Read more →
Robert Rearson, of St. Paul, was a flyboy of the first order for Northwest Airlines, although he wasn’t a pilot.
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Vietnam didn’t get Gary Bipes, of Hector,Minn. The CIA didn’t get Bipes. And a knoll in a farmer’s field in Glencoe didn’t get Bipes. Mosquitoes almost did. Read more →
Duluth-based Cirrus is getting plenty of attention today because the idea of a personal jet is finally getting off the ground. Years behind schedule, the first produced model of of Cirrus’ VLJ (very light jet) has made its maiden flight, the Duluth News Tribune says. Read more →
The Metropolitan Airports Commission has now submitted plans for expansion of Lake Elmo Airport, a plan which has drawn the ire of airport neighbors.
MAC wants to relocate and lengthen the airport’s smallest runway, which would require a “safety area” that crosses what is now 30th Street. That would require moving 30th Street. Read more →
It’s such a shame that Congress couldn’t have passed the legislation allowing women who served as pilots during World War II to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery, while Betty Strohfus of Faribault was alive to see it.
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