The Famous Image of 14-Year-Old-Boy Falling From the Wheel-Well of a Japan Airlines Flight Departing Sydney in 1970

On February 24, 1970, Keith Sapsford, a 14-year-old boy from Australia, died when he fell 200 feet (60 meters) out of the wheel-well of a DC-8 owned by Japan Airlines as it took off from Sydney, Australia on a flight to Tokyo, Japan. Sapsford had apparently entered the plane’s wheel-well in an attempt to stowaway on the flight, but died only moments after takeoff when the angle of the wheel-well shifted as the plane ascended.

John Gilpin, an Australian photographer, was taking photos of planes taking off from that airport on the same day and inadvertently snapped a photo of Sapsford in mid-air as he was falling. Gilpin did not see this as he snapped the photo and instead only discovered this a week later after he got his film developed.

Keith’s father, CM Sapsford, remembers him as a boy full of life who wanted to see the world. He was very restless and had escaped many times from home to satiate his curiosity. The parents had decided to take a trip around the world to meet the child’s needs.

On their return, however, Keith had once again run away from home and the parents, not knowing what to do, relied on an organization that deals with troubled children in the hope that they might be able to calm him down.

Unfortunately this did not happen, and on February 21, 1970 Keith managed to escape, going to his death.

“All I wanted was for my son to see the world. His determination to see the rest of the world in which he lived cost him his life,” the father said.

How did it happen?

Keith was said to have run away on February 21th and the association reported him missing the next day. Then on February 24th he sneaked into Sydney airport, climbed on a plane’s wheel and entered the compartment that serves to store the wheel during the flight.

The technicians think that Keith was hiding there for a long time before takeoff. The boy remained hidden until the airplane took off, but after leaving the ground the aircraft got the wheels in.

Keith Sapsford falling from the wheel-well of a plane in 1970. John Gilpin was testing out his camera when he accidentally caught the 14-year-old stowaway’s fall.

It’s at this point that Keith fell from a height of about 60 meters, finding his death.

Doctors have however reported that he would have died regardless due to very low temperatures or lack of oxygen.

700 Foot Long Airship, USS Los Angeles Goes Tail Up on August, 25, 1927

The USS Los Angeles was a rigid airship, designated ZR-3, which was built in 1923–1924 by the Zeppelin company in Friedrichshafen, Germany, as war reparation. It was delivered to the United States Navy in October 1924 and after being used mainly for experimental work, particularly in the development of the American parasite fighter program, was decommissioned in 1932.

On August 25, 1927, while tethered at the Lakehurst high mast, a gust of wind caught the tail of the Los Angeles and lifted it into colder, denser air that was just above the airship. This caused the lifting of the tail to continue. The crew on board tried to compensate by climbing up the keel toward the rising tail, but could not stop the ship from reaching an angle of 85 degrees, before it finally descended. Amazingly, the ship suffered only slight damage and was able to fly the next day.

USS Los Angeles over Manhattan, New York, 1930.

In World War II, Boeing Built a Fake Rooftop Town to Hide Its Factory Beneath From Potential Air Strike by the Japanese

During World War II, a strange, house-filled neighborhood could be seen in the middle of an industrial area from the air. A close-up look would reveal that it was camouflage for Boeing's Plant No. 2, where thousands of B-17 bombers were produced.

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese submarines were spotted off the San Francisco Bay and near Santa Barbara in 1942. The West Coast was the next presumed target for the Japanese so the U.S. decided to hide its major wartime factories.

John Stewart Detlie, a Hollywood set designer, helped "hide" Boeing's Seattle plant using his Hollywood design techniques with this camouflage. The fake housing development covered nearly 26 acres with netting. Built almost entirely from plywood and cardboard - with trees made from chicken wire and painted burlap - the town looked convincing enough from the air to hide the factory from any bombers flying by. Factory workers took a series of secret tunnels through fake cafes and shops to get to the factory each morning.

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First Man to Fly the Atlantic Solo - 10 Fascinating Facts About Charles Lindbergh

Charles A. Lindbergh (1902-1974) was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, explorer, and environmental activist. Famed for his Orteig Prize-winning solo non-stop flight on May 20–21, 1927 at the age of 25, from Roosevelt Field located in Garden City on New York's Long Island to Le Bourget Field in Paris, France, a distance of nearly 3,600 statute miles, in the single-seat, single-engine monoplane Spirit of St. Louis.

Charles Lindbergh in the open cockpit of airplane at Lambert Field, St. Louis, Missouri in 1923

The 33.5-hour crossing vaulted Lindbergh to international stardom, but he was later visited by tragedy in 1932, when his 20-month-old son was kidnapped and murdered in what was dubbed “the Crime of the Century.”

Below, 10 surprising facts about the heroic and controversial life of the aviator known as “The Lone Eagle.”


1. His father was a U.S. Congressman.

When Lindbergh was four years old, Minnesota’s Sixth Congressional District elected his father, Charles August Lindbergh, to the U.S. House of Representatives. The elder Lindbergh would serve five terms in Congress, where he won a reputation for his independent stances and fierce opposition to the Federal Reserve System. Congressman Lindbergh was among the few members of the House to speak out against U.S. involvement in World War I, and was later censored and accused of sedition after writing an anti-war pamphlet called “Why is Your Country at War?”

Charles Lindbergh and father, Charles. A. Lindbergh. 1909

Aviator Charles Lindbergh and his mother in 1930

Charles Lindbergh and Anne Spencer Morrow were married on May 27, 1929

2. He worked as a daredevil and stunt pilot.

After learning to fly at the Nebraska Aircraft Corporation in Lincoln, Lindbergh spent two years years as an itinerant stuntman and aerial daredevil. During “barnstorming” excursions through the American heartland, the young aviator wowed audiences with daring displays of wing-walking, parachuting and mid-air plane changes. After purchasing his own plane, he became one of the nation’s top stunt pilots, often twisting his machine into complicated loops and spins or killing the engine at 3,000 feet and gliding to ground. Despite the hazardous nature of stunt flying, “Lucky Lindy’s” closest brushes with death would come during his time as a U.S. Army flier, test pilot and airmail pilot, when he survived a record four plane crashes by bailing out and parachuting to safety.

Portrait of young Charles Lindbergh

Charles Lindbergh, 1927

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12 Amazing Vintage Photographs of USS Macon, the Navy’s Last Flying Aircraft Carrier, in the 1930s

In the 1920s and 1930s, the Navy experimented with lighter-than-air craft in its fleet. In addition to work with blimps, it built and commissioned two dirigibles – with USS designation – to serve as flying aircraft carriers.

These rigid airships, which could stay in the air for about a week, would launch up to five Curtiss F9C Sparrowhawk biplanes from a “trapeze” that would come down, and the planes would land again by hooking into loops in the trapeze.

The two airships, USS Akron (ZRS-4) and USS Macon (ZRS-5), were commissioned into the fleet to serve as early intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance motherships. Sailors lived aboard the airship, complete with a galley and other amenities, and the biplanes would go out on scouting missions as needed.

Though they solved a valid requirement, LTA aircraft proved difficult to handle, and four of five dirigibles the Navy built crashed. Only one – the German-built USS Los Angeles, given to the United States as part of the World War I reparations – survived, but the Navy dismantled it in 1939.

The following are a collection of images from the National Archives and the U.S. Naval Institute’s photo collection of USS Macon.

USS Macon (ZRS-5) preparing to land.

USS Macon (ZRS-5).

USS Macon (ZRS-5).

Curtiss F9C-2 Sparrowhawk hangs from USS Macon (ZRS-5).

USS Macon (ZRS-5) in 1933 or 1934.

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Amazing Vintage Photos of the USS Macon Airship Under Construction

The USS Macon (ZRS-5) was a rigid airship built and operated by the United States Navy for scouting and served as a "flying aircraft carrier", designed to carry biplane parasite aircraft, five single-seat Curtiss F9C Sparrowhawk for scouting or two-seat Fleet N2Y-1 for training.

In service for less than two years, in 1935 the Macon was damaged in a storm and lost off California's Big Sur coast, though most of the crew were saved. The wreckage is listed as the USS Macon Airship Remains on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

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Rare and Historic Photos of the Harriet Quimby's Plane Crash on July 1, 1912

Harriet Quimby (1875-1912) is classified among the most famous American female aviators. Her career as a pilot did not last long but was undeniably heroic. Quimby was the first American lady to become a licensed pilot and the first woman to fly across the English Channel. She was called as “America’s First Lady of the Air.” She was also a movie screenwriter. Even though she died very young, Harriet Quimby played a key influence upon the role of women in aviation.

On July 1, 1912, while flying her new Blériot XI, a two-place, single-engine monoplane, at the Third Annual Boston Aviation Meet at Squantum, Massachussetts, Harriet Quimby and her passenger, William A. P. Willard, organizer of the Meet, flew out over the water.

As the pair returned from circling the Boston Light far out in the bay, the sky had turned a dazzling orange. Five thousand spectators watched as the monoplane approached over the tidal flats, strikingly silhouetted against the blazing sky. Without any warning, the plane’s tail suddenly rose sharply, and Willard was pitched from the plane. The two-passenger Blériot was known for having balance problems, and without Willard in the rear seat, the plane became gravely destabilized.

For a moment it seemed that Quimby was regaining control of the plane. But then it canted forward sharply again, and this time Quimby herself was thrown out. The crowd watched in horror as the two plunged a thousand feet to their deaths in the harbor. Ironically, the plane righted itself and landed in the shallow water with minimal damage.

The cause of the accident is unknown and there was much speculation at the time. What is known is that neither Quimby nor Willard were wearing seat belts. Also, the Blériot XI was known to be longitudinally unstable. With the nose pitched down the tail plane created more lift, which caused the nose to pitch down even further.

Harriet Quimby with William Willard, organizer of the Third Annual Boston Aviation Meet of 1912. With Willard, as passenger, Quimby circled the Boston Lighthouse as part of the airshow. (Image: San Diego Air and Space Museum's Library and Archives)

On the return flight back the aircraft was at 1000 ft. making its landing descent. Inexplicably, Willard was thrown suddenly from the plane. The aircraft pitched further and Quimby also was ejected. Both died on impact in the shallow waters. The tragedy took place on July 1, 1912. (Image: San Diego Air and Space Museum's Library and Archives)

This appears to sadly be the retrieval of Harriet Quimby's body in Squantum, MA after she and her passenger, William Willard, were thrown out of her Bleriot Monoplane and fell to their deaths during the Third Annual Boston Aviation Meet on July 1, 1912. (Image: San Diego Air and Space Museum's Library and Archives)

(Image: San Diego Air and Space Museum's Library and Archives)

(Image: San Diego Air and Space Museum's Library and Archives)

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Inside the Hindenburg: Rare Vintage Photographs Reveal What Luxury Air Travel Was Like in the 1930s

Flying across the Atlantic on the airship Hindenburg was the fastest and most luxurious way to travel between Europe and America in the 1930s.

The interior furnishings of the Hindenburg were designed by Fritz August Breuhaus, whose design experience included Pullman coaches, ocean liners, and warships of the German Navy.

The reform ideas as to art and society of radical modernism, as "Bauhaus" for example represented them, were as far away from Breuhaus as they were far away from his wealthy clients.

The furnishing of the "world’s first flying hotel", the Zeppelin airship LZ 129 – better known as the "Hindenburg" – which had been in complete accordance with Breuhaus’ overall plans, was regarded as a spectacular thing. Nevertheless, its realization took place as late as the middle of the 1930s.


The Hindenburg’s Interior: Passenger Decks

The passenger accommodation aboard Hindenburg was contained within the hull of the airship (unlike Graf Zeppelin, whose passenger space was located in the ship’s gondola). The passenger space was spread over two decks, known as “A Deck” and “B Deck.”

“A” Deck on Hindenburg

Hindenburg’s “A Deck” contained the ship’s Dining Room, Lounge, Writing Room, Port and Starboard Promenades, and 25 double-berth inside cabins.

The passenger accommodations were decorated in the clean, modern design of principal architect Professor Fritz August Breuhaus, and in a major improvement over the unheated Graf Zeppelin, passenger areas on Hindenburg were heated, using forced-air warmed by water from the cooling systems of the forward engines.

Dining Room

Hindenburg’s Dining Room occupied the entire length of the port side of A Deck. It measured approximately 47 feet in length by 13 feet in width, and was decorated with paintings on silk wallpaper by Professor Otto Arpke, depicting scenes from Graf Zeppelin’s flights to South America.

The tables and chairs were designed by Professor Fritz August Breuhaus using lightweight tubular aluminum, with the chairs upholstered in red.

Dining Room of Airship Hindenburg (Airships.net collection)

Dining Room of Airship Hindenburg (Airships.net collection)

Dining on the Hindenburg (Airships.net collection)

Dining Room of Hindenburg, with Port Promenade (Airships.net collection)

Lounge

On the starboard side of A Deck were the Passenger Lounge and Writing Room.

The Lounge was approximately 34 feet in length, and was decorated with a mural by Professor Arpke depicting the routes and ships of the explorers Ferdinand Magellan, Captain Cook, Vasco de Gama, and Christopher Columbus, the transatlantic crossing of LZ-126 (USS Los Angeles), the Round-the-World flight and South American crossings of LZ-127 Graf Zeppelin, and the North Atlantic tracks of the great German ocean liners Bremen and Europa. The furniture, like that in the dining room, was designed in lightweight aluminum by Professor Breuhaus, but the chairs were upholstered in brown. During the 1936 season the Lounge contained a 356-pound Bluthner baby grand piano, made of Duralumin and covered with yellow pigskin.

Passenger Lounge (Airships.net collection)

Two views of the Lounge, showing portrait of Hitler and the ship’s duralumin piano. (The stewardess is Emilie Imhoff, who was killed at Lakehurst in 1937.) (©Archiv der Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH, Friedrichshafen)

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10 Surprising Facts About the Hindenburg Disaster

On May 6, 1937, the German airship Hindenburg burst into flames while attempting to land at Lakehurst, New Jersey. In little more than 30 seconds, the largest object ever to soar through the air was incinerated and the era of commercial airship travel was dead. Explore nine surprising facts about the massive zeppelin and its fiery demise.

1. Survivors Of The Hindenburg Disaster Far Outnumbered The Victims.

Anyone who has seen the graphic newsreel video of the Hindenburg plunging to earth in flames may be amazed to know that of the 97 passengers and crew on board, 62 survived. The disaster’s 36 deaths included 13 passengers, 22 crewmembers and one worker on the ground. Many survivors jumped out of the zeppelin’s windows and ran away as fast as they could.


2. The Hindenburg Disaster Wasn’t History’s Deadliest Airship Accident.

Thanks to the iconic film footage and the emotional eyewitness account of radio reporter Herbert Morrison (who uttered the famous words “Oh, the humanity!”), the Hindenburg disaster is the most famous airship accident in history. However, the deadliest incident occurred when the helium-filled USS Akron, a U.S. Navy airship, crashed off the coast of New Jersey in a severe storm on April 4, 1933. Seventy-three men were killed, and only three survived. The 1930 crash of the British military airship R101, which claimed 48 lives, was also deadlier.


3. The Hindenburg Disaster Wasn’t Broadcast Live On Radio.

Morrison was on the scene to record the arrival of the Hindenburg for WLS in Chicago, but he wasn’t broadcasting live. His wrenching account would be heard in Chicago later that night, and it was broadcast nationwide the following day. His audio report was synched up with separate newsreel videos in subsequent coverage of the Hindenburg disaster.


4. U.S. Law Prevented The Hindenburg From Using Helium Instead Of Hydrogen, Which Is More Flammable.

After the crash of the hydrogen-filled R101, in which most of the crew died in the subsequent fire rather than the impact itself, Hindenburg designer Hugo Eckener sought to use helium, a less flammable lifting gas. However, the United States, which had a monopoly on the world supply of helium and feared that other countries might use the gas for military purposes, banned its export, and the Hindenburg was reengineered. After the Hindenburg disaster, American public opinion favored the export of helium to Germany for its next great zeppelin, the LZ 130, and the law was amended to allow helium export for nonmilitary use. After the German annexation of Austria in 1938, however, Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes refused to ink the final contract.


5. Despite Containing Highly Combustible Gas, Passengers Were Allowed To Smoke.

Despite being filled with 7 million cubic feet of highly combustible hydrogen gas, the Hindenburg featured a smoking room. Passengers were unable to bring matches and personal lighters aboard the zeppelin, but they could buy cigarettes and Cuban cigars on board and light up in a room pressurized to prevent any hydrogen from entering. A steward admitted passengers and crew through a double-door airlock into the smokers’ lounge, which had a single electric lighter, and made sure no one left with a lit cigarette or pipe.

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Flying Like Royalty on Airplanes: Amazing Photos From Swissair Reveal What It Was Really Like to Fly in the 1960s

Swiss airline Swissair has recently published photos from its archives '60s. Passengers in those days we flew like kings: enjoying personal space, gobbling up delicious food, sipping cocktails under a cigarette right in the chair. It looked like “the Golden era of passenger aviation.”

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1902 Wright Brothers' Glider Tests

Compared to their previous gliders, the Wrights’ 1902 glider had a much thinner airfoil and longer and narrower wings, which their wind tunnel tests had shown to be more efficient. To improve lateral control, they added a fixed vertical rudder to the rear of the glider. They retained the reliable forward elevator for pitch control but made it elliptical in shape.

In this historical photo from the U.S. space agency, the Wright brothers’ third test glider is being launched at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, on October 10, 1902. Wilbur Wright is at the controls, Orville Wright is at left, and Dan Tate (a local resident and friend of the Wright brothers) is at right.

The Wright Brothers launch their third test glider at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, on October 10, 1902. (NASA)

The first fully controllable aircraft

After modifying the glider’s rudder, the Wrights now had a true three-dimensional system of control. This three-axis control system was their single most important design breakthrough, and was the central aspect of the flying machine patent they later obtained. In its final form, the 1902 Wright glider was the world’s first fully controllable aircraft.


1902 Wright glider: The most advanced glider

The third in a series of gliders leading up to their powered airplane, the 1902 glider was the Wright brothers’ most advanced yet. Reflecting their single, evolving design, it was again a biplane with a canard (forward) surface for pitch control and wing-warping for lateral control. But its longer, narrower wings, elliptical elevator, and vertical tail gave it a much more graceful, elegant appearance.

Like the 1901 glider, this one also had a spruce framework supported within pockets sewn into its muslin fabric covering. The fabric was again applied on the bias (the direction of the weave at a 45-degree angle). The wings were rigged with a slight downward droop to counteract side-slipping due to crosswinds.

Wilbur Wright gliding in 1902. The Wrights added a vertical tail to their glider to deal with the lateral control problems experienced in 1901. The more graceful appearance of the 1902 machine over the previous gliders is evident in this picture.

The 1902 Wright Glider on one of its more than 700 flights.

The 1902 Wright glider was the world's first fully controllable aircraft.

(via National Air and Space Museum)