Official Aviation Thread...

[Zacm829]

B-25 recovered from the local lake when I was in high school. Dolittle radiers used the lake and islands for practice runs. This is one of the many planes that were ditched in the lake.

[Quadrajet]

I read about that. Apparently in the belly it had a prismatic sighted gun setup, very rare. A similar setup was used in the early B-17E, I think it was, nobody could use it effectively because it would induce vertigo.

[george graves]

I don't know if I'm a bit sad that NASA is not kicking ass like they use to...or glad that commercial space is finally happening. Kind of a mixed bag. No????

[M-technik-3]

https://d262ilb51hltx0.cloudfront.net/max/1007/1*364yYcoQEkIk-LnZ1Y8nvQ.jpeg

T-50 having a flame out

[FLYNAVY]

Looks a little more like bird ingestion or something to me........maybe a stall but normally when it looks like that, it is because the engine is coming apart or there is something going through it

[M-technik-3]

Just posting what the caption said.

[FLYNAVY]

Just posting what the caption said.

Word, cool pic either way!

[BlackbirdM3]

It would be a shame to scrap the first Airforce 1

Will

[M-technik-3]

Very surprised that usaf has not tried to buy it back.

[BlackbirdM3]

Look what I found last night.










I few on Fifi this morning. Pics are coming.
Will

[socalife]

I'm also training to land a job for some airlines I'm a student pilot so I have solo'd. It's really fun

[Eric]

This question is mostly for will, did the SR-71 leave contrails, and wouldn't that be an easy way for our adversaries to spot one streaking across the sky?

I saw a fast moving plane this weekend, grabbed my 80-400mm lens and it had the shape of a B-1. from the naked eye the B-1 looked faster than a normal jet, I'd bet the blackbird would be easy to spot as it left it's white skid mark in the sky.

[BlackbirdM3]

This question is mostly for will, did the SR-71 leave contrails, and wouldn't that be an easy way for our adversaries to spot one streaking across the sky?

I saw a fast moving plane this weekend, grabbed my 80-400mm lens and it had the shape of a B-1. from the naked eye the B-1 looked faster than a normal jet, I'd bet the blackbird would be easy to spot as it left it's white skid mark in the sky.

Good question. The answer is yes, sometimes they did. There was a story about one doing a flight over the Kola Peninsula where the atomospheric contidions were just right for them to leave contrails. The pilot didn't notice it as they flew north, but when they made their turn, he saw his own contrails and freaked out thinking Russia had finally built something that could reach them. After a little while either the pilot or the RSO figured out what was going on and they continued on.

On other flights pilots were known to dump a little fuel to "Say Hi" as they flew over targets they knew couldn't get them. The Russians would launch fighters to intercept them from time to time, only to end up losing the fighters after they tried to zoom climb to max altitude of about 60K feet so they could take pot shots with missiles at the SRs as they'd pass by. The missiles always missed and more often than not the fighters that would try and hit them would flame out and tumble back to earth forcing the pilots to punch out.

I've only seen a B1 fly once, and it happened to be at Edwards AFB the same day that the SR71 flew for the very last time. It was pretty cool.

Will

[socalife]

Are their any airline pilots on here? If so what degrees did you guys get? Should I not go to embry riddle!

[Eric]

I would not go to embry riddle. Do A LOT OF RESEARCH before dumping serious cash on that school!

Good stuff Will, I searched around a bit and learned that at the altitude they flew at, it was usually warmer and contrails were less likely to happen. Your stories are better than the googling though! Oh yeah, I've seen plenty of bones taking off/landing in qatar... those suckers are LOUD.