The Sunday Picture Show (April 26, 2026)

DeSotoSky

DeSotoSky

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Hello and welcome to the Sunday Picture Show. Share your Buck knives with others by posting pictures of them here. New or old, plain or custom, user or safe queen, one or a collection, we love to see them all. This weekly tradition was started in 2010 by ItsTooEarly (Armand Hernandez) and Oregon (Steve Dunn). Help keep the tradition alive. Feel free to click that 'LIKE' but lets not let it replace discussing and complimenting each others knives. Above all, enjoy the show. DeSotoSky (Roger Yost)
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On this Day, April 26th, 1986, first flight of the Piasecki PA-97 Helistat
It was built by fastening four Sikorsky H-34J helicopters to an aluminum framework beneath a Navy surplus blimp. The PA-97 was built under a 1980 U.S. Navy contract for the Forest Service to demonstrate a heavy vertical airlifter for harvesting timber from inaccessible terrain. (see artist rendering above right) Design lift was 26 tons. It was destroyed in a test flight on July 1, 1986. A gust of wind caused the aircraft to shimmy triggering resonance, a violent vibration in the helicopter rotors that synced with the framework. The structural framework shattered, and the rear-starboard helicopter broke off first, its rotors slicing into the blimp's envelope. One pilot was killed and four others and seriously injured. It is of interest to note that the site of the crash was the same location of the Hindenburg disaster in 1937, the Lakehurst Naval Air Station (now part of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst) in New Jersey. Frank Piasecki, the founder of Piasecki Aircraft Corporation in 1955 (as well as involvement in earlier ventures), pioneered tandem rotor helicopters (think of the H-21 "Shawnee"or "Flying Banana" used in Vietnam). Today, Piasecki Aircraft Corporation (PiAC) is a research and development business specializing in design, fabrication and flight testing of experimental rotorcraft and unmanned air vehicles.
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2:12 video of crash
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en.wikipedia.org

Piasecki PA-97 Helistat - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
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Since my "bit" this week was from 1986, I thought a would post a 1986 knife from my collection. These is a 1986 121 Guide. The 121 was bumped from its Fisherman status when Buck introduced the Mate series fillet knives in 1984. Starting with the 1985 catalog the 121 is renamed as the Guide. The Texaco advertising banner is most likely aftermarket. I do not have the box for a label and found no mention in the Special Projects Lists.
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Thanks for the SPS Roger. I hope everyone's having a great weekend.

On the subject of airships:
I was stationed at Marine Corps Air Station, El Toro, CA in 1969-70. Not far away was Marine Corps Air Base, Tustin. It was a Marine helicopter base then, but was previously used by the Navy for blimps, and was called Naval Air Station, Santa Ana. They had two massive wooden hangars, built sometime in the 1940s for the blimps.

Tustin Hangars | Tustin, CA

Seventeen stories high, over 1,000 feet long and 300 feet wide, the hangars were, and still are, two of the largest wooden structures ever built.
www.tustinca.org www.tustinca.org

And.....a picture of a Buck:
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Thank you Roger for the History lesson and running the Sunday Picture Show. It’s a good thing that the surplus blimp wasn’t filled with Hydrogen. This is a 2018 take apart Aluminum club knife with a zebra Damascus blade by Grand Leavitt and a lanyard boss by Greg Pierce. The bead on the fob has red and green Tritium vials. The scales are linen Micarta. Older Micarta used Phenolic resins. Newer Micarta uses Epoxy resins. These are probably the latter.
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tiguy7 said:
Thank you Roger for the History lesson and running the Sunday Picture Show. It’s a good thing that the surplus blimp wasn’t filled with Hydrogen.
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The Hindenburg was designed to be used with Helium but the United States controlled the supply. As a strategic material we were not sharing with Nazi Germany forcing their use of the highly flammable Hydrogen. Helium is associated with natural gas fields and the US and Qatar have the most of it today. Qatar's gas field is the one Iran has been shooting at lately. Helium is a finite and non renewable resource that is basically non recyclable and in 50 or 100 years when it's gone it's gone. Cannot be manufactured in a practical sense as it comes from the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium which takes a few million years.

Ironbut Ironbut Interesting about the Tustin hangars. I checked it out. :thumbsup:
 
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DeSotoSky said:
The Hindenburg was designed to be used with Helium but the United States controlled the supply. As a strategic material we were not sharing with Nazi Germany forcing their use of the highly flammable Hydrogen. Helium is associated with natural gas fields and the US and Qatar have the most of it today. Qatar's gas field is the one Iran has been shooting at lately. Helium is a finite and non renewable resource that is basically non recyclable and in 50 or 100 years when it's gone it's gone. Cannot be manufactured in a practical sense as it comes from the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium which takes a few million years.
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Interesting info about helium, Roger. I never really thought about it, or bothered to look into it, but I just assumed that all the blimps back then used hydrogen until the Hindenburg disaster, then switched to helium.
 
DeSotoSky said:
The Hindenburg was designed to be used with Helium but the United States controlled the supply. As a strategic material we were not sharing with Nazi Germany forcing their use of the highly flammable Hydrogen. Helium is associated with natural gas fields and the US and Qatar have the most of it today. Qatar's gas field is the one Iran has been shooting at lately. Helium is a finite and non renewable resource that is basically non recyclable and in 50 or 100 years when it's gone it's gone. Cannot be manufactured in a practical sense as it comes from the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium which takes a few million years.
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Roger, thank you for today's edition of the Sunday Picture Show. I always look forward to it and thanks to all who post your beautiful Buck knives and comments.
After learning that helium comes from the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium, it makes you want to think about breathing it in at your next birthday party.
 
Uncle Timbo said:
After learning that helium comes from the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium, it makes you want to think about breathing it in at your next birthday party.
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The right sentiment but probably not for the reason you think. I have an undergraduate degree in Nuclear Medicine Technology. The source of the Helium does not make Helium radioactive. By very definition as an insert Nobel gas it is the farthest thing from. It is not radiation that will kill you sucking Helium, it is the lack of oxygen to your brain. Helium is a highly efficient displacer of oxygen in your system, replacing the oxygen in your lungs and bloodstream. Sucking Helium from a balloon IMO is as dangerous to your health as many "hold my beer" scenarios. I was watching Steven Colbert suck helium from a balloon during his monologue recently. It is depicted so casually in the media. Inhaling helium is dangerous and can be fatal. (sorry I'll go find a knife picture to post)

I started with a 1986 theme. 1986 is the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty 1886-1986.
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