That is a beautiful aircraft; I like it a lot.
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Just out of curiosity - Airplane Guys
- Thread starter Downeaster
- Start date
The Thunderbolt is awesome.
About 10 years ago I heard on KORV - LP radio an interview of an old guy who had privately published his personal story. Flogging the thin and amateur book. One of his adventures told of building a tiny airplane - using an old BSA single...and flying it at about the age of 14. I got the book. In later life he built large radio-controlled flying models when that was hard...the 1950's. I'll look for the book - maybe scan in parts (with due regard for fair use). Fella went around enlisted in USAF, Turkey, back in the day. Kid grew up without a father in a dusty Nevada border town... The homebuilt? Maybe true, near ideal conditions, ground effect, bright kid..maybe. I believed him when I heard him and read his little book. Entirely self-educated and working class, neat fella. Such standards have fallen away. Best!
About 10 years ago I heard on KORV - LP radio an interview of an old guy who had privately published his personal story. Flogging the thin and amateur book. One of his adventures told of building a tiny airplane - using an old BSA single...and flying it at about the age of 14. I got the book. In later life he built large radio-controlled flying models when that was hard...the 1950's. I'll look for the book - maybe scan in parts (with due regard for fair use). Fella went around enlisted in USAF, Turkey, back in the day. Kid grew up without a father in a dusty Nevada border town... The homebuilt? Maybe true, near ideal conditions, ground effect, bright kid..maybe. I believed him when I heard him and read his little book. Entirely self-educated and working class, neat fella. Such standards have fallen away. Best!
Holy Cow! Insanely Big and Fast, RC model plane
Last Ditch Luftwaffe Lunacy.
On this day in aviation history: May 27th, 1958; A legend was born. The Double Ugly, Lead Sled, Flying Anvil, St. Louis Slugger, Flying Brick, Snoopy, Rhino, Old Smokey, the triumph of thrust over aerodynamics, and "World's Leading Distributor of MiG Parts" more simply known as the Phantom; made its maiden flight on 27 May 1958 with Robert C. Little at the controls. There were proposals to name the F4H "Satan" and "Mithras", the Persian god of light. In the end, the aircraft was given the less controversial name "Phantom II"
Soon afterwards, the Double Ugly squared off against the XF8U-3 Crusader III, and on 17 December 1958 the F4H was declared a winner.
During her service, the Phantom served many countries, including Australia, Egypt, Germany, United Kingdom, Greece, Iran, Israel, Japan, Spain, South Korea and Turkey, and is the only aircraft to have flown the colours of both the USAF Thunderbirds as well as the USN Blue Angels.
Pictured: Operation Top Flight: On 6 December 1959, the second XF4H-1 performed a zoom climb to a world record 98,557 ft. Commander Lawrence E. Flint, Jr., USN accelerated his aircraft to Mach 2.5, 1,650 mph; at 47,000 ft and climbed to 90,000 ft at a 45° angle. He then shut down the engines and glided to the peak altitude. As the aircraft fell through 70,000 ft, Flint restarted the engines and resumed normal flight.
www.Sierrahotel.net <-- PUSH HERE
^^^Proof that a brick will fly if you put a big enough engine on it...
What he didn't say was how much of a pain in the ass they were to work on. If you could keep an F-4 flying, you could call yourself a proper mechanic.
Didn't matter, I loved 'em anyway.... or maybe because of that.
Back in the 70's, down at Eglin we modified 2 'D' models... I think
.... might a been 'E' models.... anyway, we modded 'em for lightning strike data collection. Think about that. Lightning comes from thunderstorms. We modded 2 F-4's to seek out and fly straight through thunderstorms. 
We called 'em "Rough Riders." We lost one when lightning blew a wing off. Lucking It was just exiting the storm and the crew managed to get out OK.
We modded a replacement. The "fix" was pretty simple... the crew just left the wing tanks full until they were clear of the storms.
Those two birds spent their summers cruising around the south looking for storms to penetrate.
You wanna talk about a tough airplane that could take a beating? It don't get much tougher than that.
Modern airliners owe their ability to be hit with lighting and not be bothered to programs like that.... and airplanes like that.
And the guys that flew 'em into T-storms? Those guys had big brass ones.
When conditions are just right, you can literally see the shock waves that form when an airplane goes trans or supersonic.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...-around-transonic-f-35c-in-spectacular-images
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...-around-transonic-f-35c-in-spectacular-images
The Space Shuttle sure punched a giant hole in the air. I witnessed it’s landing a time or two. It was a supersonic boxcar.
World's heaviest glider? Proof that a brick will fly even without an engine?
For a while. If you drop it from high enough.
"We're not flying... we're falling, with style!" (Buzz Lightyear, in "Toy Story")
On earth, gravity never takes the day off.For a while. If you drop it from high enough.
Landing an airplane on a helipad, 27 meters in diameter and on top of a 56 story hotel in Dubai.
From the Red Bull channel on YouTube. A great channel to watch crazy stunts.
From the Red Bull channel on YouTube. A great channel to watch crazy stunts.
Cool stuff. Test question for y'all.... Soon as he touched the pad, he put his flaps rapidly full up. Why?
To get the tail down ??
Nope.
Nope.
