Among my various and sundry oddball interests, I am fascinated by the life and legend of Howard Hughes. His biography is, in my humble estimation, a quintessentially American tragedy, the story of a guy who possessed all the superficial trappings that everyone thinks will make them happy — wealth, fame, power, sex appeal — but who ended up as a miserable and pathetic wreck of a human being. The very trait that made him so successful in his various pursuits — his obsessiveness — was also his ultimate downfall.

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In case anyone is curious, the winning bid price on that Enigma machine that was up for auction on eBay came to 55,000 euros, or approximately $67,480.29. The thing I wonder is whether that’s a significant investment for the winner or merely pocket change…

Here’s a little something for you history buffs who have plenty of disposable income: Via Boing Boing, I see that someone has what appears to be a genuine Enigma cipher machine up for auction on eBay.

The Enigma was, of course, the cryptographic device famously used by the Nazis during World War II to generate coded messages. It also happens to be a cool-looking artifact of the pre-electronic world; I’d love to have one of these things in my curio cabinet! (Hint hint, if there are any really generous and wealthy people reading my humble blog…)

If you’re looking for something to read during your Friday morning java break, there was a nice article in the LA Times a few days ago about the legendary pin-up model Bettie Page. Virtually forgotten for decades, she became a cult figure after comic artist and illustrator Dave Stevens included a very Bettie-like character in his classic Rocketeer stories. Her notoriety was further enhanced by cheesecake artist Olivia de Bernardis and the revival of interest in all things retro. Now, at the age of 82, she’s probably the best-known model of her time (the late ’40s and ’50s), next to Marilyn Monroe.

Personally, I have mixed feelings about Bettie. In some photos and poses, I find her very attractive; in others, there’s something odd about her appearance that leaves me wondering what all the fuss is about. (To her credit, Bettie herself would probably say the same thing.) But I do like vintage and retro-style pin-up art, and I also like a good story, and Bettie’s life has definitely been one of those. It even has an effective ending, at least if you’re a sentimental old schmuck like me:

Page had one request for this story — that her face not be photographed.

 

“I want to be remembered,” she said, “as I was when I was young and in my golden times… I want to be remembered as a woman who changed people’s perspectives concerning nudity in its natural form.”

 

But this much can be shared. Her face remains smooth and fresh, and one can still see the face of the young woman in the old. Her eyes, bright blue, still sparkle.

I caught a few seconds of video on the news last night of a B-17 being welcomed to Ogden. “Odd,” I thought, “the Aluminum Overcast isn’t supposed to be here until the weekend.” I figured I must’ve misinterpreted what I was seeing and paid it no further mind.

This morning, however, I got an e-mail from my fellow warbird enthusiast Dave. Apparently, the bird on the news last night is a different B-17 called the Sentimental Journey. A little googling reveals that this B-17, which is supposed to be the most fully restored example around, is owned and operated by the Arizona Wing of the Confederate Air Force, a nation-wide volunteer group dedicated to preserving old planes in their flyable condition. It’s on display right now at the Ogden-Hinckley Airport and will be open to the public, 9:00 AM to 8 PM, through Thursday. The plane will depart on Friday morning, the same day the EAA‘s B-17, Aluminum Overcast, arrives. As Dave said in his message to me, “This could be a terrific opportunity to see not one, but two B-17s within the same week!”

(If the timing works out right, they might both be on the ground at the same time, a spectacle rarely seen since the ’40s.)

The CAF requests a $5.00 donation to tour the Sentimental Journey, and flight opportunities are available. Once again, I can’t stress how amazing that experience is; if you have the extra cash, by all means, take a ride aboard one of these historic planes. You won’t regret it.

You can learn more about the Sentimental Journey here, and don’t forget that the Aluminum Overcast will be at the same airport this weekend.

Longtime readers of this blog may recall my affection for World War II-era bombers, or “warbirds,” as they are sometimes called. There aren’t many of these beautiful antique planes left, and even fewer are still in flyable condition — most of the surviving examples have been taxidermied for air museums, where usually you can only admire their exteriors from behind velvet ropes — so the opportunity to see a functional one up close or in the air is a rare treat.

On that note, here is the text of an email I recently received from my friend Dave Wall, who organized last year’s visit from the Collings Foundation‘s B-24 and B-17:

To all who might be interested:

 

The bad news is, it looks like the Collings Foundation Wings of Freedom Tour is not coming through Utah at all this year. I will write to them and see if we can’t maybe get them back next year.

 

The good news is, EAA’s B-17G “Aluminum Overcast” is scheduled to come to Ogden Hinkley Airport on June 17-19. I don’t have any more details at the moment. [Ed. note: details are here.] You can find out more about the plane at http://www.b17.org.

 

It is possible that the Collings Foundation did not schedule to come this year since Aluminum Overcast was previously scheduled to come here.

If you live anywhere near the Wasatch Front (that’s the combined Salt Lake-Ogden-Provo area, for you out-of-staters), I urge you to make the drive and see this piece of living history. If you can afford it, please consider taking a flight aboard her, too. The money goes to a good cause — keeping the plane flyable — and it’s an experience you’ll never forget. The plane will be here over Father’s Day weekend, so take your dad or your son, and think about all the other dads and sons who once flew aboard these fascinating machines under much different circumstances.

Just in case it’s too much trouble to click that link above, here’s the scoop: you’ll be able to tour the plane’s interior from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. each day, $10 for a family, $6 for adults, $5 for students, and free for WWII vets or children under 8. You can learn more by going to the EAA’s Website or calling 800-359-6217.

As I mentioned a while back, I’ve got a passion for World War II bomber planes. I think they’re beautiful in the same way that antique cars, boats, and trains are beautiful. They were designed according to the aesthetic and engineering standards of another era and, for whatever reason, I admire those standards. In many cases, I admire them more than current standards. Machines from the mid-20th Century are not primitive so much as simple, and they are authentic and unique in a way that most modern machinery is not. (Can you tell the difference between the vast majority of modern cars unless you’re close enough to read the markings? I know I can’t, aside from a handful of exceptions.)

Even though the vast majority of warbirds were broken up for scrap or otherwise removed from the earth a long time ago, it is still possible to see one outside of a picture book. There are airplane museums all over the United States that have at least one or two of these craft in their collections. Here in Utah, for example, the museum at Hill Force Base in Ogden contains a number of large warbirds, including a B-17 Flying Fortress (like the Memphis Belle), a B-25 Mitchell, and a B-24 Liberator. However, seeing airplanes in a museum is something like viewing a stuffed bear. You can study the size and shape of the animal, but you won’t see it move. You won’t understand its essence. Museum planes are dead things, mounted and displayed behind velvet ropes, dusted by attendants, lovingly preserved for the ages… but they’re cold and emptied of their spirit.

A far better option is to try and see one of the handful of warbirds that is still flying. When you see a “living” warbird “in the wild” you can hear the roar of piston engines that don’t sound like any engine made today. You can see the sun glinting off wings and plexiglass nose bubbles. You can feel the wind of the plane’s passage and smell the exhaust. Watching a warbird pass overhead, it is possible for one brief moment to imagine what it must have been like on a sunny English morning in 1943, when the skies were filled with machines and the combined sound of their engines made the ground hum beneath a man’s feet.

If you live in the Salt Lake-Provo area, you’re about to have the chance to see not just one but two “living” warbirds. The Collings Foundation “Wings of Freedom” tour, which consists of a B-17 called the Nine O’ Nine and a colorful B-24 known as The Dragon and His Tail, is coming to our area. The planes will be in Heber City on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, then they will fly down from the mountains into Provo on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. At each stop, walkthrough tours will be available (a very reasonable $8 gets you into both planes) as well as flight opportunities.

That’s right, you will have a chance to go for a ride on an authentic warbird. The price for a ride seems pretty steep at first glance — $400 for approximately twenty minutes in the air — but I can tell you from experience that it’s worth every penny. My father and I rode on The Dragon during last year’s Wings of Freedom stop in Heber, and I can honestly say it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. The cost is tax deductible, the money goes toward keeping the planes flying, and you will be able to tell your friends that you’ve done something few other living people have.

Even if you don’t have the scratch to go for a ride, I urge anyone who is remotely interested in seeing authentic living history to try and get out to one of these two tour stops. The Foundation’s mission is to keep these machines in the air where they belong, and they need your help to do it. And for you, this really is a rare opportunity — there are a mere fourteen B-17s still flying in the United States, and only one single B-24, The Dragon and His Tail. How often do you get to see a one-of-a-kind anything these days? Go on, see a piece of history, and know that your support will ensure that others will be able to do the same, hopefully for years to come…