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Aviation Stuff

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by TigerVols, Apr 17, 2012.

  1. kleeda

    kleeda Active Member

    My father-in-law was neck deep in the A-12 project, and he was not a fan at all. My father worked for Vought Corporation for 36 years (once a big Navy primary contractor) and none of the engineers there thought it was doable, either. And Vought did some wild stuff in my dad's years there, including the precursor -- by about 30 years -- of the V-22 Osprey.

    Here's a link: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a38_1254076693


    And this is definitely the best thread on the board!
     
  2. bydesign77

    bydesign77 Active Member

    I'm 35 years old, worked for two airlines and want to get my pilot's license someday, and I did something yesterday I've never done before: Go to an airshow.

    The Blue Angels were there and put on quite a show. Amazing amount of precision and timing. Completely worth 95-degree heat and little shade.
     
  3. bigpern23

    bigpern23 Well-Known Member

    The Blue Angels are great. I went to one last year and one of the things that really stuck with me was how a friend noted how loud they were. I commented something about how its not as if they have to sneak up on targets because of their weaponry.

    The announcer told everyone to look to the right for an upcoming maneuver. All of a sudden, they flew overhead from behind and you didn't hear the engines until what seemed like five seconds after they were already long past you.

    Those things move so fast, you're dead before you even know they're coming.
     
  4. Iron_chet

    Iron_chet Well-Known Member

    If you get a chance to see RCAF (Canadian airforce) Snowbirds at an airshow you should check it out.

    They use antiquated 50s ers Tudors but the show is very fluid and graceful, what the team lacks in kick as equipment they make up for in precision. That being said the awesome power display of a Blue Angels show is really amazing.

    I have been to a few airshows and my favorite by far is the one on Cocoa Beach, Florida. Great setting right on the beach and cool to see some of the machines from nearby Patrick AFB in action.
     
  5. Bamadog

    Bamadog Well-Known Member

    Sweet video.
     
  6. TigerVols

    TigerVols Well-Known Member

    The Chino Air Show is this weekend, which means lots of WWII vintage aircraft buzzing over my house today. When the jets show up tomorrow, the entire valley roars.

    Needless to say, I get a lot of honey do jobs done outdoors this weekend every year!
     
  7. bigpern23

    bigpern23 Well-Known Member

  8. Killick

    Killick Well-Known Member

    CBS this morning had clips of an interview with Spacex's owner, a surprisingly young guy. He was getting weepy when talking about the criticisms flying his way from the likes of Neil Armstrong. "These guys were my heroes, growing up. (sniff) So, yeah... it's tough."

    Really felt for the guy. (Helps that, despite my admiration, I'm still waiting for a call back from Armstrong for an aerospace story I wrote five years ago. The bastard. The heroic bastard.)
     
  9. bigpern23

    bigpern23 Well-Known Member

    I missed that. What in the hell are the criticisms being directed his way? To be honest, it seems like putting money into commercial space flight is a losing investment at this point (I think could one day be profitable, but probably not until long after this generation of space businessmen is long gone), but I love that people with capital and vision are willing to pursue it.
     
  10. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member


    I don't think Armstrong and Cernan have criticized Musk and SpaceX that much specifically as the complete emphasis of the space program on privatization.

    Armstrong and Cernan feel, IMO very accurately, that there is not a sufficient prospect for immediate economic payback to make financing spaceflight (specifically human spaceflight but really all of it) viable for commercial economic development.

    Of course the current meme is to blame it all on Obama, but his decision to follow this course was primarily the result of shrieking teabaggers demanding the budget for virtually everything except military spending be slashed to the bone and "turned over to private enterprise." As is his habit, he decided to punt on first down and knuckled under to the demands of the budget-slashers.

    The ultimate goal of course is to dismantle the federal space program, except for black-budget military projects which are accountable to nobody. This has been the goal for 50 years since the days of JFK when they tried to derail Apollo, militarize it and turn it over to the Air Force. Ever since then administrations of both parties have been playing "starve the beast" with the space program: setting ridiculous unrealistic goals, then cutting the budget, then cutting it further when the unrealistic goals are shockingly shockingly not met.

    The shuttle in the first place was an inherently unsafe design mandated by penny-pinching budget restrictions imposed by the president in 1971-72 (who basically wanted to snuff the entire manned space program). When the first shuttle went down in 1986, the president then could have ordered the design of a completely new replacement vehicle, but did not.

    Ditto when the second shuttle went down in 2003. It was left for Obama to finally pull the plug.
     
  11. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    Fizzle.

    www.cnn.com/2012/05/19/tech/us-spacex/index.html?hpt=hp_t1


    Flying earmarks.

    www.nytimes.com/2012/05/19/us/politics/behind-armys-17000-drip-pan-harold-rogerss-earmark.html?_r=1&hp
     
  12. Killick

    Killick Well-Known Member

    Oh, puh-lease. It's a drip pan. A friggin' drip pan.

    BTW, that Musk clip that CBS showed during its segment, it turns out, was from a 60 Minutes piece from back in March. I'd link to it, but I'm on my iPhone.

    And finally, don't know if you guys have seen the NASA history that PBS has been airing recently but there was a great snippet in its talk of the shuttle that I hadn't heard before. An engineer said that while they were designing and building it, the shuttle acquired the nickname "Messiah." His explanation: It was so big and such a departure from other designs that "whenever anyone saw it for the first time, in person, all they could say was 'Jesus Christ!'"
     
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