Aircraft pics

[427TJ]

A buddy e-mailed this photo to me from 2005. It's a Lockheed P2H Neptune (former Navy sub hunter) now used as a fire bomber. Note the shadow of the airplane on the fence! That's pretty low! Hot day and a heavy load means she'll use up all the runway she can before getting airborne!

[427TJ]

I love the contrast seen in this picture. A circa-1910 Curtiss pusher chugs past a supersonic B-1 bomber. (The pusher is flying along about 100 yards beyond the B-1.) And to think we made that technoligical leap in just about 65 years.

[427TJ]

My navigtor (we flew the KC-135 tanker) took this photo one evening as we headed north during the '91 Gulf War. Two F-117 Stelath Fighters loaded with radar guided bombs inside their weapons bays. One the way back about an hour later the lead F-117 pilot told us that they'd bombed Saddam's "CIA building" that had a glass-walled exterior. The pilot said, "They're gonna' be pulling glass shards out of their asses for a long time."

[427TJ]

My dream airplane, the Pitts Model 12. I want on orange one just like that.

[427TJ]

How's this for a death-defying stunt? If your engine quits just climb out and hand-prop it! Looks to be about 10,000 feet up. Looks like Huntington Beach down in SoCal.

[427TJ]

The recently retired Concorde, "in the cons" (contrails) at 2,100 mph.

[JChlupsa]

Heres one not many have seen before unless you worked for NASA. This is the X-31 test plane that they had when i was there. Nice thing about working there is you get to know people who let you fly the simulators as well. my wife got to spend 30 mins in the X-31 Sim and almost fainted when she was told what other countries pay to fly just 10 mins in one!!!!!!