Deliver us from ignorant newspeople

[Mudge]

Miami news reporting a JET in the water.

Here it is:



Mudge the amused

[Robbie Roberts]

I'd say it was a Mitsubishi Zero- See the meatball on the wings?(One is washing off)

Least I would if I was one of those liberal and misinformed printjockeys...

Robbie

[oshosh84]

Few months ago the local paper described a spitfire as a "world war II jet"

[corsair166b]

This is the ever popular 'Jet Mooney'....

M

[The Inspector]

Maybe the reporter will point out the machine gun turret once it's on the nice, dry beach-

[Mike]

The same is true for a fair proportion of the USAF. When I used to crew TFC's aircraft around the airshows (back in the days when there were a fair number of USAFE bases with annual shows, such as Mildenhall, Lakenheath, Bentwaters, Alconbury), whenever we used to turn up with the P-51, P-47, P-63 or whatever, we were invariable told "Hey man, that's a neat looking jet!" by the USAFE folks on the ground there.

[aerovin]

Now is that a Mooney MO-20K 231 or MO-20K 252? Hmmm.

I hate it when people don't know all the things that I am so smart about.

[ALK]

I agree the general news media is remarkably uninformed about aviation.

I assume if you are on this site you know more than a little about aviation.

What should concern you is that while we know when they are wrong about aviation, how do we ever know they are right about subjects we don't know ourselves.

As to the photo, I believe it is a very early Mooney. I would guess an early 1960's M20C, 180HP Lyc. It could be an M20E, 200HP, but I don't think they were delivered with the curved back window. Certainly, by 1965, the M20E had a square back window, but still had the two piece front windshield.

The M20J (201), M20K (231) and later were based on the longer fuselage M20F Executive, but with Roy Lopresti's magic applied to get higher cruise speed.

All currently produced Mooney's have an even longer fuselage.

Sorry for the otherwise pointless detail.

[Matt_in_NC]

Don't you guys know anything? This is the new Mooney submersible. They had been trying to keep a low profile through the test program but... Darn reporters!!!

[kenlyco]

Ya, I have caught myself a few times yelling at the tv.Just like some b rated movie's , when they start a piston engine aircraft up with a turbine engine sound effects or a jet taking off with the sound of a pitts. so and so on

[bdk]

...we were invariable told "Hey man, that's a neat looking jet!" by the USAFE folks on the ground there.

I think that is a common term for USAF folks to use for any fixed wing aircraft.

[Mike]

...we were invariable told "Hey man, that's a neat looking jet!" by the USAFE folks on the ground there.

I think that is a common term for USAF folks to use for any fixed wing aircraft.

....and news people too. Still doesn't make them jets, though, any more than the news folks calling a Mooney a 'jet' suddenly makes it jet-powered.

[Matt Gunsch]

....and news people too. Still doesn't make them jets, though, any more than the news folks calling a Mooney a 'jet' suddenly makes it jet-powered.

Does that mean I have to get a turbine endorsement to fly a mooney now ?

Mooney, the plane that short legged pilots hate
Mooney, the plane that has a days output from the screw factory holding
the inspection panels on,
Mooney, the reason cordless drills exist
Mooney, if the wings tanks don't leak, just wait, they will...........

[Obergrafeter]

What a bunch of idiots! Everyone knows that any airplane like that is a Piper Cub.

[Chris Brame]

Sometimes the "reliable sources" are no help. Witness the press release from the National Trust for Historic Preservation when they put the Moffett Field blimp hangar on its "most endangered" list:

During World War II, it served as a docking station for the USS Macon, the largest aircraft in the world at the time.