silly question......vintage airplane smell

[airnutz]

You can add old diesel pigboats to the smell list. I toured the USS Cavalla (SS-244)..the same boat that killed the IJN's Shokaku in WW2... a few years back and noticed the aroma strongly resembled old aircraft. Nauga, hydraulic oil, various lubes, never dulled aluminium, ozone from electrics, etc. They didn't smell like that when I served, IMO...probably due to the lack of diesel, fresh B/O, and salt water bilge odors.

[Nathan]

Glad my question brought up some interest in everyone.


Im gonna try and narrow it down a bit as to what it really is. Please feel free to add an opinion.


The smell is metallic . The aluminum is giving off an aroma due to the mixture from oil/gas/exhaust that has bonded with the metal. But I THINK you have to add AGE to the factor as well. What you are smelling is pure 100% age. The smell is something of the past, it is the past. (Regarding vintage aircraft anyway)

[GARY HILTON]

Nathan, I have another angle for you as well.....Years ago, being released from a bad relationship with the fairer sex, I packed my belongings and left the Mule pens of Missouri to Mecca...Chino, Ca. Living on 25 cent peaches, I looked for day jobs to support the Chevelle and my eating habit, as for shelter, I could not afford to rent, so for awhile, I tried living in the car. Eventually I moved in the Hotel Piccadilly Lilly...the B-17 at Planes of Fame. I stayed in her for almost 3 months, never getting found out. Even though this aircraft never saw any hostile action, I could swear that I could hear voices of crewmen past, inside the old bird...maybe it was too many episodes of "12:00 O'clock High", or a vivid mind set...but they seemed real to me, and not in an unwelcome way either...At Wentworth Aircraft, in Mn., it was a different story. While loading a cracked up Bonanza, I got the creeps late at night in the hangars there, with a lot of aircraft remains that were involved in fatal accidents. One of the employees there would not go in some of the hangars after dark, and he would not explain why, I think I know...So along with their individual smells, they seem to have their own personalities as well....

[Chappie]

If someone could bottle that smell, I would spray it in my apartment.

I would too, even the 172 I rent has that kind of smell, even my wife loves it. Of course she loves the smell of old cars and boat motors too!

Chappie

[Russ Blow]

Its the smell of money. Lots and lots of money.