Your Source for &#39;Ff&#39;lo

I always loved the rounded twin tails that give the B-24 "Liberator" that hulking, obsolete, 1940's car or appliance look. I've always been fascinated by the aspects of aircraft design that don't really have any serious engineering rationale--they are just what someone thought looked "aerodynamic" at the time. As far as I can tell from a youth wasted building plastic airplane models, the planform of the rudder/vertical stabilizer tends to be as much an artistic outlet for the designer as anything. Or maybe they just designed my mom's old refrigerator to evoke the tail of a B-24.

So is there a waitress there named "Flo" who stutters?

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There's no stutter, Peter! The two Fs together are pronounced as one might be. Recall that it's a contraction. I guess the first apostrophe could sub for "Buf" and thus I'd just be " 'F'lo ," but I prefer " 'Ff'lo ."

Don't know nuthin' 'bout no aerodynamics.

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Intellectually, I know it should be read as "Flow" or maybe even hinting at "fa-low" but the littile voice inside my head that talks to me when the little squiggles come up on the screen always says "Faflow" to me, and you just can't argue with the voices in your head. Another LJ-er Iknow is qnvhrtz, which is based on her vanity licence plate to be read "Queen of Hearts." But the little voice in my head insists on saying "Quivenhurts." Brains. You can't live with 'em, you can't live without 'em.

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I think I used to have a model of that plane that I built. Is that the one with the gunner in the belly, that I think I can see in your photo?

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Yes the B-24 had a gunner in the belly, though several other bombers did as well. Distinguishing characteristic No. 1 for the B-24 was the twin rudders. If your model had them with that distinctive straight-sided oval shape, it would have been a B-24. Plastic kits of the B-24 would have been easy to come by. But there were other twin-tail bombers. Like the B-25 (also easy to come by), which had different, more angular rudders, but only 2 engines. Also, earlier versions of the B-24 had a "greenhouse" glass nose instead of the nose turret in the photo I posted (again, I know there was a Revell kit with the greenhouse nose, and a belly turret that was memorable because it was retractable if you made it right). So it is entirely likely you had a B-24, but it could have been something else.

You know, I made something over 200 plastic airplane models during my adolescence (I inherited my brother-in-law's dad's collection of unbuilt models when I was 12 or 13, so I had an essentially unlimited supply). As a result I have an immense fraction of my brain full of geometric trivia about WWI and WWII aircraft. I haven't dusted off those corners of my brain in probably 20 years. I've kind of repressed all of that, and I'm in serious danger of geeking out on plastic airplane models if I'm not careful.

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squirrelykat.livejournal.com

geeking out on plastic airplanes, in my opinion, isn't a bad thing.
there are worse things to waste brain power on....

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My brother, following in my father's footsteps, was also fascinated with WWII aircraft. After my mother died I ceded all the books in a series on aircraft to him in exchange for claiming the one about spacecraft. I still have it---I'll have to show

peteralway sometime.

Which reminds me, J.---I still have that thing for him from you/MR!

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I took a small part of the household's aviation library with me. A lot of the books are still in

tnatj's basement now. I might have room for those in the not-too-distant future...

My dad was really into aviation. There is a collection of hundreds of aircraft photos he took at museums and airshows in my brothers' basements. It's really a shame that they aren't available for viewing. Maybe someday I should scan in a selection of them.

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I can't remember the rudder set-up, but I do remember mine had the greenhouse nose. Must have been a B-24 then. I went through a phase of building model planes. Much fun. My faves were a P54 Mustang and a Fokker triplane. And I agree with

squirrelykat: there are definitely worse things you can waste your time with.

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Well, I made a biplane for Snoopy once. Or was it for the Red Baron. I think the latter...

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The Fokker was the Red Baron's, all red with the iron crosses on the wings.

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well, the plane i remember was red with crosses on it!

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Well, there ya go!

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You mean like this?

That is actually a current lego set. Here is the online description:

http://shop.lego.com/product.asp?p=10024&cn=57&d=14&t=7

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Ooh, a lego triplane. Cool!

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