Abandoned Wings

Abandoned Wings Abandoned Wings Original photos, dedicated to capturing the beauty of machines that once took to the air

One can almost imagine what it looked like almost 60 years ago when the Grumman engineers started building and testing t...
05/06/2022

One can almost imagine what it looked like almost 60 years ago when the Grumman engineers started building and testing the Apollo Lunar Module. This is the Lunar Module test article LTA-1 now at the Cradle of Aviation museum was an in-house "iron-bird" used extensively by Grumman to iron out problems during fabrication, assembly, and checkout.

This was the apex of 1960s engineering for a vehicle that was to be of the lightest mass possible, and land & return 2 astronauts to the Lunar surface.
see more abandoned, wrecked and vintage planes

The magnificent DC-3 transport was powered by Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp radial engines. These elegant machines enabled t...
05/07/2021

The magnificent DC-3 transport was powered by Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp radial engines. These elegant machines enabled the DC-3 to be one of the most successful airplanes of all time, across the world. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
see more abandoned, wrecked and vintage planes ⁠
⁠
⁠
⁠
⁠

A relic of a previous era... this UH-1 "Huey" sits abandoned on the side of the road...see more abandoned, wrecked and v...
12/05/2020

A relic of a previous era... this UH-1 "Huey" sits abandoned on the side of the road...
see more abandoned, wrecked and vintage planes



The Mig-21 "balalaika" (the pencil) saw heavy combat in Vietnam, Israeli-Arab war, Indo-Pak wars. As "swords to plowshar...
12/05/2020

The Mig-21 "balalaika" (the pencil) saw heavy combat in Vietnam, Israeli-Arab war, Indo-Pak wars. As "swords to plowshares" takes root, it's even being proposed as a suborbital rocket launcher.
see more abandoned, wrecked and vintage planes



The cavernous mouth of a Douglas C-124 Globemaster "Old Shaky". This airplane literally carried our military on its back...
12/05/2020

The cavernous mouth of a Douglas C-124 Globemaster "Old Shaky". This airplane literally carried our military on its back for most of the 1950s and 60s.
see more abandoned, wrecked and vintage planes





The "glass cockpit" trainer for the Space Shuttle at NASA JSC's Mission Control. The handling characteristics of the shu...
11/17/2020

The "glass cockpit" trainer for the Space Shuttle at NASA JSC's Mission Control. The handling characteristics of the shuttle were often compared to a "flying brick", and therefore training was critical in sticking the landing.
see more abandoned, wrecked and vintage planes




This Gemini spacecraft flew twice to space, once as Gemini 2 (uncrewed), and again on a suborbital flight as Gemini B in...
11/07/2020

This Gemini spacecraft flew twice to space, once as Gemini 2 (uncrewed), and again on a suborbital flight as Gemini B in the 1960s. The latter tested the concept of setting a hatch through the heatshield, enabling astronauts to enter a secret Air Force space station and still return to Earth unburnt

see more abandoned, wrecked and vintage planes




All DC-3s are incredible planes, but even amongst its peers, N63440 is special. Starting its life as a C-47 in 1944, it ...
10/10/2020

All DC-3s are incredible planes, but even amongst its peers, N63440 is special. Starting its life as a C-47 in 1944, it never flew in WWII. It did, however, fly thousands of turkeys from California to the midwest as Amerine Air. This airplane also flew future President Ronald Reagan repeatedly, then as the Republican candidate for governor of California in 1966. Airplane now sits abandoned on an airfield, painted in colors it never got to fly in real life.

see more abandoned, wrecked and vintage planes



The X-13 experimental vertical take-off and landing jet, built by Ryan Aeronautical. While revolutionary in many ways, i...
07/24/2020

The X-13 experimental vertical take-off and landing jet, built by Ryan Aeronautical. While revolutionary in many ways, it ultimately succumbed to a lack of support from the operational air wings.
see more abandoned, wrecked and vintage planes


Over 10,000 B-25 Mitchell bombers were built, and served in every theater of WWII, including the unprecedented Doolittle...
07/12/2020

Over 10,000 B-25 Mitchell bombers were built, and served in every theater of WWII, including the unprecedented Doolittle raid. This unnamed aircraft served mostly in a fire fighting role in Canada prior to retiring to a museum.
see more abandoned, wrecked and vintage planes




The B-29 Bockscar is the lesser known sibling of Enola Gay, sharing in the dubious honor of having dropped a nuclear bom...
06/01/2020

The B-29 Bockscar is the lesser known sibling of Enola Gay, sharing in the dubious honor of having dropped a nuclear bomb on a city (Nagaski). This aircraft received extensive modifications to enable it carry these terrible weapons to extreme operating ranges.
see more abandoned, wrecked and vintage planes





Throwback to when travel photography was still a thing.... Remains of a navy DC3 on a desolate Icelandic black sand beac...
05/28/2020

Throwback to when travel photography was still a thing.... Remains of a navy DC3 on a desolate Icelandic black sand beach. All aboard were rescued after several days in the elements.
see more abandoned, wrecked and vintage planes

Address

Charles Lindbergh Blvd
Washington, WA
11530

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Abandoned Wings posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share