by Phil
8. March 2010 08:16
Here are photos from my visit last week.
by Phil
1. March 2010 08:59
The open source flight simulator project has just released Flightgear 2.0.
...FlightGear is a free flight simulator project. It is being developed through the gracious contributions of source code and spare time by many talented people from around the globe. Among the many goals of this project are the quest to minimize short cuts and "do things right", the quest to learn and advance knowledge, and the quest to have better toys to play with.
The idea for Flight Gear was born out of a dissatisfaction with current commercial PC flight simulators. A big problem with these simulators is their proprietariness and lack of extensibility. There are so many people across the world with great ideas for enhancing the currently available simulators who have the ability to write code, and who have a desire to learn and contribute. Many people involved in education and research could use a spiffy flight simulator frame work on which to build their own projects; however, commercial simulators do not lend themselves to modification and enhancement. The Flight Gear project is striving to fill these gaps.
It looks great and the price is right so check it out!
FlightGear Web Siite
by Phil
25. February 2010 09:15
by Phil
24. February 2010 08:59
by Phil
22. February 2010 08:35
U.S. Air Force Captain John S. Lappo had the heart of a jet pilot--skillful, bold and committed. However, the personality traits that served him so well on bombing missions during the Korean War and covert spy-in-the-sky missions over the Soviet Union also “grounded” him after a playful-but dangerous-stunt that involved the Mackinac Bridge.
On April 24, 1959, Lappo, a Muskegon, Michigan, native and his five-man crew were returning from a routine simulated bomb run to the Lockbourne Air Force base near Columbus, Ohio. As Lappo later confessed, “I always wanted to fly under a big bridge. I thought it would be the Golden Gate.” Suddenly, the Mackinac Bridge came into view. Lappo polled the crew about his scheme to fly under the bridge. After the crew responded affirmatively with a 4 to 1 vote, Lappo declared, “I’m taking her under!” At a speed of 425 miles per hour, the RB-47 Stratojet raced through the 150-foot clearance between the roadbed framework and the Straits. In Lappo’s words, “It was exhilarating to say the least!”
Full Article
An article about another Mackinac fly-under.
Mackinac Bridge lear.pdf (75.98 kb)
by Phil
20. February 2010 09:07
by Phil
18. February 2010 09:19
by Phil
13. February 2010 10:18
January 10, 1964, started out as a typical day for the flight test group at Boeing's Wichita plant. Pilot Chuck Fisher took off in a B-52H with a three-man Boeing crew, flying a low-level profile to obtain structural data.
Over Colorado , cruising 500 feet above the mountainous terrain, the B-52 encountered some turbulence. Fisher climbed to 14,300 feet looking for smoother air. At this point the typical day ended. The bomber flew into clear-air turbulence. It felt as if the plane had been placed in a giant high-speed elevator, shoved up and down, and hit by a heavy blow on its right side.
More...
by Phil
7. February 2010 09:08
by Phil
5. February 2010 08:48
The attached video was filmed by some Air Force Joint Tactical Air Controllers (JTAC) in Tal Afar, west of Mosul, in Iraq
A marine unit got pinned down in the street. They set their video camera on the bumper of their armored HUM-V, which they were using for cover. Keep an eye on the opposing van parked just down the street.
You can hear them shooting back and forth. The rounds you can hear are from the Marines, and the ones you hear pinging against the side of the vehicle with no accompanying pop are from the bad guys.
When the Marine says they just fired the "rifle," it means an F-16 aircraft just launched a Maverick missile. You can hear it come in and
see it strike the vehicle the bad guys were using for cover.
k6Air_Force.wmv (1.56 mb)