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More from vixyyfox
One of the advantages of working at a small airport is that when something happens that is out of the ordinary, you still have access to it. Since I have to work overtime this weekend, I took advantage and slipped out with my little camera to see the B-17, B-25, and B model Mustang that flew in for the weekend. They are a part of a flying museum and I am ever so grateful that they keep these wonderful aircraft alive.
I can only imagine what it was like to see these aircraft in the air by the thousands.
We have lost so much history.
V.
I can only imagine what it was like to see these aircraft in the air by the thousands.
We have lost so much history.
V.
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Well, yes and no. With the technology available even now, you have to keep a crew alive, in space for something like 2 years. We can't design a way to do that without building something like the Battlestar Galactica. We couldn't even really do it if we simply stuck rocket boosters onto the ISS and that took 10 years to build. NASA really wants to send people to Mars, really they do, they are even considering sending old people for a one way trip but what happens when they have a relatively minor medical problem a year away from medical help? You leave a trail of frozen corpses in space because you didn't carry insulin or some other common geriatric drug or treatment that you didn't expect. That's not a good idea. Until we can build faster rockets where a mission lasts months instead of years, we are sort of stuck.
Christopher Columbus had a reasonable expectation of surviving the trip and didn't have to supply his own air. There is adventure then there is suicide. Right now we are still in the "suicide" mode. When we go to Mars, we want it to be like Roald Amundsen's expedition to the south pole and not like Robert Scott's fatal one.
One of the strangest things about the whole 9/11/2001 thing was working in Bakersfield CA at the time.
No airplanes in the air. None. Dead quite. No commercial flights, crop dusters, police choppers. Nothing.
So we're outside working on this project and we all hear the unmistakable sound of a large multi-engine prop job.
We all luuok up to see what's making that racket.
Holy shit, it's a German WWII bomber. Complete with full camo-paint and insignia.
Oh dear, where did THAT come from?
Of course, we're all thinking the same thing. "Twilight Zone"
It was very impressive.
Bunners
No airplanes in the air. None. Dead quite. No commercial flights, crop dusters, police choppers. Nothing.
So we're outside working on this project and we all hear the unmistakable sound of a large multi-engine prop job.
We all luuok up to see what's making that racket.
Holy shit, it's a German WWII bomber. Complete with full camo-paint and insignia.
Oh dear, where did THAT come from?
Of course, we're all thinking the same thing. "Twilight Zone"
It was very impressive.
Bunners
Speaking of lost to history. Look closely...
http://www.vectorsite.net/avxb70_3.jpg
Bunners was there in that crowd looking at the new toy.
Bunners
http://www.vectorsite.net/avxb70_3.jpg
Bunners was there in that crowd looking at the new toy.
Bunners
1964??? Dang! - and look at this - how rugged could you get? :
On its 12th flight, on 7 May 1965, while cruising at Mach 2.58, a piece of the wing broke away and shut down four of the engines. The aircraft managed to make it back to the runway, but all six engines had to be replaced.
V.
On its 12th flight, on 7 May 1965, while cruising at Mach 2.58, a piece of the wing broke away and shut down four of the engines. The aircraft managed to make it back to the runway, but all six engines had to be replaced.
V.
Hello new desktop background. Amazing capture. I'm glad you took this with an actual camera as opposed to a phone camera. Dad was in the air force so I do have a soft spot for fighters and smaller craft. Thank you so much for capturing this at a wonderful moment in the day as well
Many years ago in a place that got so hot the mosquitoes could only walk...
I used to work for one of the air tanker companies. We had 4 B17s equipped for fire fighting. I worked on the radios
As far as I know the B17s were the last war birds to be used for that, and we used them for unimproved fields closer to the fire for shorter turn around times. They were among the fastest plains we used and carried 20,000# of mud the DC 4,5,6 carried 22,000# at nearly twice the fuel consumption. It became a parts issue that forced the retirement of the B17s. When we bought a flying 1938 Howard and scrapped it for the engines it was time to retire the B17 fleet.
ZZ
I used to work for one of the air tanker companies. We had 4 B17s equipped for fire fighting. I worked on the radios
As far as I know the B17s were the last war birds to be used for that, and we used them for unimproved fields closer to the fire for shorter turn around times. They were among the fastest plains we used and carried 20,000# of mud the DC 4,5,6 carried 22,000# at nearly twice the fuel consumption. It became a parts issue that forced the retirement of the B17s. When we bought a flying 1938 Howard and scrapped it for the engines it was time to retire the B17 fleet.
ZZ
Gor, that's sweeeet. Many moons back, I had a near-air force of model planes
hanging from the bedroom ceiling. The B-17 was one of my favourites, hands-down.
Not the heaviest bomber flown in the war but one of the most famous, and
beautiful. And one of the most dangerous to attack; helluva lot of firepower
on board.
Good on you for posting this one. Saved, instantly.
As for Mars, correct on Kathmandu for valid points. It took us billions to get
300,000 Km to the Moon, and every flight had a failure probability in the 20%
range (at least, if I recall an old article correctly). A Mars mission has to do much
better. Far more challenging. But doable.
That said, the Saturn V was a powerful thing of beauty. In principle a Saturn VI
could be rolled out in fairly short order, and way cheaper. Heavy lift cap, to put
a few thousand tons into orbit: *that's* what we need to get to Mars, 'nuff said.
And yes, there was an Apollo 11 model standing upright on one table too. Dad,
can I buy some LOX and some kerosene? And I'll need some liquid hydrogen for the
third stage. UNB engineering department can spare a few thousand litres, can't they?
Pull some strings. . .
Why am I an SF writer? Oh, no reason, no reason. :- )
FB.
hanging from the bedroom ceiling. The B-17 was one of my favourites, hands-down.
Not the heaviest bomber flown in the war but one of the most famous, and
beautiful. And one of the most dangerous to attack; helluva lot of firepower
on board.
Good on you for posting this one. Saved, instantly.
As for Mars, correct on Kathmandu for valid points. It took us billions to get
300,000 Km to the Moon, and every flight had a failure probability in the 20%
range (at least, if I recall an old article correctly). A Mars mission has to do much
better. Far more challenging. But doable.
That said, the Saturn V was a powerful thing of beauty. In principle a Saturn VI
could be rolled out in fairly short order, and way cheaper. Heavy lift cap, to put
a few thousand tons into orbit: *that's* what we need to get to Mars, 'nuff said.
And yes, there was an Apollo 11 model standing upright on one table too. Dad,
can I buy some LOX and some kerosene? And I'll need some liquid hydrogen for the
third stage. UNB engineering department can spare a few thousand litres, can't they?
Pull some strings. . .
Why am I an SF writer? Oh, no reason, no reason. :- )
FB.
Testify, brother, and amen. Forget not the Saturn IB; also a most righteous bird.
Don't know enough rocket engineering, but do know that Von Braun and Co. put
a great deal of their focus on the tech that worked, and could be scaled. Their
time spent on Army rockets was instrumental.
Made the Saturns less high-tech and more beefy, sacrificing sophistication and
cutting edge for 'it flies.' Notice that it did.
That said, the design would need to be heavily upgraded to achieve today's level of
man-rating. All the Apollo astronauts launched with a prayer for the capsule escape
rocket. Notice they never needed it.
Kerosene and LOX could be considered a leettle safer than LH2 and LOX, but still. :- )
We were born in the wrong time.
FB.
Don't know enough rocket engineering, but do know that Von Braun and Co. put
a great deal of their focus on the tech that worked, and could be scaled. Their
time spent on Army rockets was instrumental.
Made the Saturns less high-tech and more beefy, sacrificing sophistication and
cutting edge for 'it flies.' Notice that it did.
That said, the design would need to be heavily upgraded to achieve today's level of
man-rating. All the Apollo astronauts launched with a prayer for the capsule escape
rocket. Notice they never needed it.
Kerosene and LOX could be considered a leettle safer than LH2 and LOX, but still. :- )
We were born in the wrong time.
FB.
Oh, I'm pretty sure that I was born at least fifty years too late, yes...one of the reasons my fursona is probably somewhere in WWII, at least in design. The escape rocket worked just fine in the initial testing, and you're right, they just made them as robust as they could while still getting off the ground. Think of the launch of Skylab; using the first two stages of the Saturn V, they calculated that they could place 100 tons in Earth orbit, depending on the actual altitude desired. Also, think of Apollo 12: They got struck by lightning on liftoff, twice, and still landed on the moon.
And remember, the Saturn IB was built by Chrysler, Detroit Iron back when that meant something...or something a bit more, yes.
And remember, the Saturn IB was built by Chrysler, Detroit Iron back when that meant something...or something a bit more, yes.
Heh. Off topic from B-17s, but no matter. Pardon us, Vixyy.
Lightning strikes: there's knowledge I didn't know. Got a stack of dusty Apollo mission
reports. Reread time. Do I recall that the Shuttle took a few zaps too? Orbital dynamics
make Canaveral a reasonably good spot for a launch.
Meterological dynamics make it a bit of a crap shoot. For more reasons than
Lasazuslong's beautiful photos, think Vandenburg would be where I'd like to fly
from. If I ever could.
And Chrysler you say. More knowledge. My old Horizon did seem to have a sort of spirit to it.
But not the power to do anything about it. A clue, Watson? (No, Holmes, you're doing
too much coke again. Oh. :- ) )
Still, the IB. A quick click, and Wikipedia makes me an instant expert, ha! (Neat sidebar
article on the kerosene-based fuel, RP-1).
Now this puppy does spark SF novel thoughts, now that I look at it again. What cost
$55 mil back then need not cost anything close to that today. Factor in today's much
improved engineering and technology and production capabilities.
Ping! A cabal of young, space-mad, Internet billionaires decides to completely overturn
the entire space industry by resurrecting the IB and making it cheeeap. There is opposition: dark
political forces that don't want humanity in orbit. The freedom, dontcha know.
Oh, and of course you *know* a number of these folks have tails. Furs In Spaaaace!!! :- ) *
FB.
* Chapter 1: a room party at AC, some drinking involved, discussion turns to space.
This is sorta doable, hmmm?
Lightning strikes: there's knowledge I didn't know. Got a stack of dusty Apollo mission
reports. Reread time. Do I recall that the Shuttle took a few zaps too? Orbital dynamics
make Canaveral a reasonably good spot for a launch.
Meterological dynamics make it a bit of a crap shoot. For more reasons than
Lasazuslong's beautiful photos, think Vandenburg would be where I'd like to fly
from. If I ever could.
And Chrysler you say. More knowledge. My old Horizon did seem to have a sort of spirit to it.
But not the power to do anything about it. A clue, Watson? (No, Holmes, you're doing
too much coke again. Oh. :- ) )
Still, the IB. A quick click, and Wikipedia makes me an instant expert, ha! (Neat sidebar
article on the kerosene-based fuel, RP-1).
Now this puppy does spark SF novel thoughts, now that I look at it again. What cost
$55 mil back then need not cost anything close to that today. Factor in today's much
improved engineering and technology and production capabilities.
Ping! A cabal of young, space-mad, Internet billionaires decides to completely overturn
the entire space industry by resurrecting the IB and making it cheeeap. There is opposition: dark
political forces that don't want humanity in orbit. The freedom, dontcha know.
Oh, and of course you *know* a number of these folks have tails. Furs In Spaaaace!!! :- ) *
FB.
* Chapter 1: a room party at AC, some drinking involved, discussion turns to space.
This is sorta doable, hmmm?
Yes, Apollo 12 launched into a rainstorm (with an all-Navy crew, so they didn't mind it all!), and the exhaust plume acted as a charge conduit. There was a minor power failure, along with loss of telemetry, but the Apollo Guidance Computer (made by IBM, back when they made things) worked just fine, and the flight proceeded without further incident. The shuttle tower has been struck repeatedly by lighting while on the launch pad, but I don't know about the vehicle itself being hit.
Never heard of Lasazuslong, unfortunately.
Yeah, the Saturn 1B was a rather interesting craft, basically a bunch of Redstone fuselages around a center tank made from an old Jupiter rocket, but it worked just fine for being made out of spare parts. Chrysler used to be a major defense contractor, and even was involved in the initial design of the Abrams tank. I guess it goes back to WWII, when IBM made carbines and ALCo made tanks and Bethlehem Steel made ships.
As far as Furries in Space, could definitely be interesting. I wouldn't be at AC, for a number of reasons that are explained elsewhere, but incidentally Kalmbach was originally designed for a spacefaring story. However, he's now back in the 1940s, heh.
Also, I've seen this aircraft myself: http://www.furaffinity.net/full/6056666/
Never heard of Lasazuslong, unfortunately.
Yeah, the Saturn 1B was a rather interesting craft, basically a bunch of Redstone fuselages around a center tank made from an old Jupiter rocket, but it worked just fine for being made out of spare parts. Chrysler used to be a major defense contractor, and even was involved in the initial design of the Abrams tank. I guess it goes back to WWII, when IBM made carbines and ALCo made tanks and Bethlehem Steel made ships.
As far as Furries in Space, could definitely be interesting. I wouldn't be at AC, for a number of reasons that are explained elsewhere, but incidentally Kalmbach was originally designed for a spacefaring story. However, he's now back in the 1940s, heh.
Also, I've seen this aircraft myself: http://www.furaffinity.net/full/6056666/
What an amazing and lovely shot of the "Flying Fortress" I grew up in Lakeside California we have Gillespie Field. Each year 4 of these "fuel guzzlin birds" would fly in and offer free flights. they would take us up for and hour long flight around the field it felt like an eternity in heavan. the rumble the sound. They would fire up the engines and you were deaf. Then when they would go full power the whole thing would shake unitl you thought it was going to fall part. Then up up and up gliding smooth, banking left and right. Then bouncing down the tar mack to settle once again. This was a truly gorgeous bird. My favorite bomber of all time. I Remember when Memphis Belle came out I sat through the entire movie in silence. The belly turret was called the rat trap, i talked with a couple of gentlemen crazy enough to have taken that position. It is sad that we are slowly losing our history and our craft over the years. It is through photography like this that we preserve our history. Thank you for taking this photo and showing the bird the respect it deserves.
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