Random Picture Thread

- with the economy as bad as it's supposed to be there, maybe they will sell it on the streets and help pay off the debt . . .

 

So THAT'S why Congress went on summer recess all of a sudden.

 

Decepticon or Autobot?



Just a few pics from our visit to the NASM yesterday.

 

Autobot.

 

Spent 4 years watching those things leave and come back from doing their stuff...pity they retired them.

 

I had the pleasure of watching one do its thing way back in the days of Sandinista's and Nicaragua getting restless. As the story goes a Blackbird was doing a spy pass over Nicaragua and had a problem, nearest airbase was NAS Key West. They flew in the ground crew to fix the thing and the pilot took her on a test ride right over the harbor in Key West just before sunset. He made several passes before going wherever at warp speed, I was lucky enough to be there and see it, was WAY cool.

Same place, different time, the Navy was retiring the Pegasus class hydrofoil gunboats and at the end of one of the last missions the Captain brought the ship through the harbor at sunset foilborne, again, WAY cool.

http://gallery.pictopia.com/usni/photo/313984/

Steve, Key West resident 1977-1987

 

You should see them take off on a pitch black night...They leave a cone of rings (tough to explain) from the afterburners that is as long or longer than the plane. Gives a new definition to the phrase "loud jet engine". Used a Massive Chrysler (why Chrysler for heavens sake?) engine mounted in a cart to get it started. Takes multiple US States to turn 180 deg at speed. Pilots wear space suits and diapers (YUK!) for missions. They fill them up with only enough to get them airborne and the skin warmed up a bit...they dribble fuel out of leaky seams until they get hot enough to close the gaps. They suck most of a KC135 tanker of JP8 and off they go. Hard to imagine they started designing those in the early 60's...before transistor radios even.

 

(why Chrysler for heavens sake?) Lowest bidder. I got my first transistor radio in 1961. Big Bad John sung by Jimmy Dean was a hit that year.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bad_John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS3ErDN50Qk

 

In 61 I was preparing for 1964 & events in Malaya helping to arrest the flow of "Reds" and the "domino theory" on SE Asia - both shown to be non-events...

 

in '61 I was under consideration ... construction didn't begin until Feb of '62

 

Burt Rutan
Aerospace innovator retired in April, but not before designing a new roadable aircraft
Unveiled: Burt Rutan's Final Creation Is A Flying Car | Popular Science

More photos in link:
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blog...&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest

 

Simulation Solves the Stock Car Drafting Quandary
http://www.solidworks.com/sw/products/cfd-flow-analysis-software.htm

 

Ahem, Propellers? - - - Excellent for the back-seat driver - "'please sit in the other side dear, to balance the aircraft"'..........

 

hovercraft from sketch to finished pic by artist tony trowbridge
http://veronicagrimm.blogspot.com/2009_07_01_archive.html


Check out this anti-spray flap
http://www.sicomicrowave.com/hovercraft.html



Soviet Union - The Aist Hovercraft
http://warshipsfromrussia2.blogspot.com/2009/09/soviet-union-aist-hovercraft_07.html


Some hovercraft pictures/illustrations here:
http://www.taringa.net/posts/imagenes/1088075/Futurismo-de-antano_-Transporte.html

 

Gaint Russian Plane

...text and more photos here

http://www.gizmag.com/worlds-largest-aircraft-from-1930-giant-russian-k-7-flying-fortress/11461/