Going the Distance

Yesterday I went ahead and did the ride I'd been attempting when last week's ridus interruptus occurred. My house to Pt. Judith and Galilee via Kingston Station and Narragansett Pier, 47 miles round trip, the longest ride I've ever done. In doing so I also broke my record for mileage in a year. Last year I rode 1767 miles. Today I stand at 1791, with 3+ months to go. Go me!

( Insane bike riding... )

Panthers

I discovered an neat piece of trivia whilst doing some research for a model I'm building. The model is of an F9F Panther, a Korean War era Navy fighter. It's the aircraft type that Ted Williams flew during his tour in Korea, and I was researching the markings his plane carried with the thought of doing the model up as his plane. I've seen a couple of versions of the markings, and was wondering if there was a definitive answer.

Williams flew for Marine squadron VMF-311. The neat bit is that another member of that squadron was John Glenn, and occasionally Williams flew as Glenn's wingman. Of course, Glenn was a lot less famous than his wingman back then.

I never did find the definitive answer I was looking for, but I did settle on a set of markings, although they were neither Williams's nor Glenn's. Neil Armstrong also flew the Panther, and I found a couple of good references for his plane, so I'm going to try to do that.