Jim Leeke

Pilot in cockpit and mechanic standing beside fuselage of high-wing, single-engine monoplane. Texaco star logo beneath cabin windows and on tail.

Pilot Frank Hawks and mechanic Oscar Grubb with the Lockheed Air Express they flew to break the west-east transcontinental speed record, February 1929. Hawks’ employer, the Texas Co., then bought the monoplane and named it Texaco 5. (Photo: Texaco Star) — #avgeeks

Gleaming metal fuselage mounted outside stone building.

Budd BB-1 Pioneer, 1931 stainless-steel flying boat, outside Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, 2012 … still there! — #avgeeks

Sketch of doughboy in helmet and uniform, felled by explosion. Service flag in air above. Text in lower right.

"Captain EDDIE GRANT former infielder with the Phillies, Cincinnati, and the Giants,—killed in the Argonne. (The first Gold Star in the baseball service flag.)" RIP "Harvard Eddie," killed in action 107 years ago today. (Artist: Robert Ripley) — #ww1 #EddieGrantLives

“America Needs Historians” — printed on shirt from National WWI Museum, Kansas City

Biplane suspended from ceiling, numeral 4 painted on nose behind metal propellor.

Boeing FB-5 Hawk, a US Navy and Marine Corps fighter from the 1920s. This one flew from the aircraft carriers Langley and Saratoga. See it at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Virginia, still open (for now) during the gov't shutdown. — #avgeeks

Black and white photo of double entrance to HI-ROAD drive-in movie. Lettering on marquee says THANKS SEE YOU IN 2018.

Hi-Road Drive-In, US 68, north of Kenton, Ohio, 2018. I like this old phone image better in black-and-white than the original color. Miraculously, the Hi-Road remains open.

Sketch of trimotor with white wings and nose and red fuselage, flying over California landscape. Text beneath and behind windows says: Los Angeles - San Francisco.

Trimotor Thursday! Fokker F-10 on the cover of the California Journal of Development, September 1928. (Artist: Schwartz) — #avgeeks

An admirable and lovely human being. Imagine the multi-species greeting she received in heaven.

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Love the nose art! The crew dubbed their plane the Turtle. Navy PR added Truculent.

Black-and-white photo of P2V Truculent Turtle in flight. (NavalHistory & Heritage Command)

Cover of THE TURTLE AND THE DREAMBOAT: The Cold War Flights that Forever Changed the Course of Global Aviation, by JIM LEEKE.

#OTD in 1946 the US Navy P2V Neptune "Truculent Turtle" landed at Port Columbus (Ohio, USA) airport after an 11,236-mile nonstop flight from Perth, Western Australia. For more on this flight, see my 2022 book, The Turtle and the Dreamboat, from Potomac Books / @univnebpress.bsky.social. — #avgeeks

Photo of players fitting Ron Luciano with a helmet and jersey. Text: "Triple Cities Jets linebacker Kevin Loveland, left, and center Kell Purdy fitted umpire-turned-baseball announcer Ron Luciano with some equipment during 'Meet the Jets' program at TC Community Stadium last night. Though the 'recruiting' was done in jest, Luciano certainly has the football credentials, having been a 2-way lineman at Syracuse University."

Before becoming an umpire, sportscaster and author, Ron Luciano was an All-America tackle at Syracuse University. Here the semipro Triple Cities (NY) Jets fit him out during a “Meet the Jets” day in 1980. Learn more in Big Loosh, from @univnebpress.bsky.social. (Binghamton Press photo)

Black-and-white photo of striped, low-wing monoplane, on tarmac with propellor spinning and man walking beside left wing, with misty hills in background.

Gorgeous shot of Frank Hawks landing Texaco 13, his Travel Air Mystery Ship, at Portland OR in January 1932. (Oregon Historical Society) — #avgeeks

Black Lysander with yellow propellor cone, suspended from high ceiling.

The fabled Lysander, a favorite plane I had never seen in person. Often used to deliver spies and weapons during WW2. You'll find this Westland Lysander IIIA hanging at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Virginia. #avgeeks

What’s your sign?

Baseball and BBQ: Leslie Roark Scott, the Barbeque Princess Shares Her Family’s Deep-rooted BBQ History and Jim Leeke is the Author of Big Loosh: The Unruly Life of Umpire Ron Luciano Episode 310 features The Barbeque Princess, Leslie Roark Scott who is from a family with an important and deep-rooted barbecue history and Jim Leeke the author of Big Loosh: The Unruly Life of Umpire ...

Thanks to Jeff Cohen and Leonard Aberman of @baseballandbbq.bsky.social for an entertaining interview about Big Loosh, from @univnebpress.bsky.social. My segment starts at 01:06:30.

Black-and-white drawing of high-wing monoplane flying directly toward viewer, flanked by two others and clouds behind, word RELIABILITY below.

Detail from an ad for the National Air Tour, also called the Ford Reliability Tour, June 27, 1927. (@freep.com) — #avgeeks

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Clip of Joe Blundo column, headline reads "How a flying 'Turtle' brought worldwide attention in 1946."

Jump page of Blundo column, with photos of Truculent Turtle and cover of book.

#OTD 2022, a good feature piece in @dispatch.com about The Turtle and the Dreamboat, from Potomac Books / @univnebpress.bsky.social — #avgeeks #history

Red, yellow and gray biplane, tail number NC205Y, suspended from ceiling.

Beautiful little Alexander Eaglerock A-14, Concourse B, Denver International Airport, 2018. #avgeeks

Simple yellow glider with LZ-NC in black lettering along fuselage and swastika on tail

Researching my bio of 1930s flier Frank Hawks leads me to gliders, since he crossed America in a towed glider in April 1930. Germany was much more active in soaring than the US. I saw this Grunau Baby II B-2 recently at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in suburban Virginia. — #avgeeks

Here's a poster for it — with Marlene Dietrich, from a novel by Nevil Shute.

What’s your opinion of this film, #avgeeks?

Head-on photo of the jet intake on a parked navy-gray aircraft.

The unmistakable sharklike maw of a US Navy F-8 Crusader. I saw this Vought RF-8G reconnaissance version, which flew 400 combat hours, at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, in Chantilly, Virginia. #avgeeks

Col. William Hayward makes the call at the plate as doughboys cheer.

Baseball game among doughboys of the 369th Infantry ("Harlem Hellfighters"), St. Nazaire, France, February 1918. Several pre-Negro League players served in this African American regiment. (Photo: U.S. Army Signal Corps, via US National Archives)

Author wearing maroon tee that says in white capital letters: AMERICA NEEDS HISTORIANS.

I wore this tee under my shirt and jacket while speaking at the first Doughboy Foundation symposium in Washington DC last week. It seemed appropriate for that city at this time. Get yours from the National WWI Museum online store.

The cover of the September 29, 2025, issue of The New Yorker.

An early look at next week’s cover: "Remote Control,” by Barry Blitt.
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A red P-51 Mustang suspended from ceiling, in front of a Boeing 707 on floor below. The name Excalibur III is painted in white forward of the cockpit.

Horses and planes help keep me sane these days. I recently saw both in one at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Virginia—a vintage P-51C Mustang! Charles Blair flew Excalibur III from Norway to Alaska across the North Pole in 1951. Still gorgeous today. #avgeeks

Head-on photo of space shuttle under high arched roof.

Shuttle Discovery, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Chantilly, Virginia — well worth a visit. #avgeeks #spacegeeks