I assume a lot of us read The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe, an outstanding story, and also a movie (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086197/) of how the US threw their test pilots under the bus to quickly get into space to beat the Soviets. Ok, not completely serious, but a pragmatic decision was made to focus on putting astronauts on top of rockets instead of aircraft capable of flying into space. It’s an engrossing read if you are into aviation stories.What about the X planes?
When I was a kid (growing up with a bunch of bros) Chuck Yeager was our hero and the X-1 the craft of our supersonic future... we even had a model of it hanging someplace in the upstairs hallway for awhile...
What about sound?
I know there are prop guys out there for whom the full roar of a radial engine is magnificent, but for me the full range of a jet engine is the best music in the world - particularly at startup.
The "UFO" point is for things like X-planes and other fantastic air machines.What about the X planes?
When I was a kid (growing up with a bunch of bros) Chuck Yeager was our hero and the X-1 the craft of our supersonic future... we even had a model of it hanging someplace in the upstairs hallway for awhile...
I assume a lot of us read The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe, an outstanding story, and also a movie (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086197/) of how the US threw their test pilots under the bus to quickly get into space to beat the Soviets. Ok, not completely serious, but a pragmatic decision was made to focus on putting astronauts on top of rockets instead of aircraft capable of flying into space. It’s an engrossing read if you are into aviation stories.
Flight sims
Speaking of X-Planes, this allows me to introduce a discussion of flight sims which I had a long time love affair with. I no longer actively fly them, venturing into the galaxy instead with titles like:
Currently I’m working on building a transport, assault ship in Empyrion:Galactic Survival, actually mostly banging my head against.
These are Flight Sim titles I’ve had great fun with over the last 27 years or so:
Of these, CYAC was incredibly fun in the early years of flight sims due to an early opportunity for networked player vs player combat. Falcón was just incredible because due to having F16 pilots consulting them, they produced one of the most realistic combat flight sims. It took me a week just to get through the tutorials. You could plan a combat ground strike mission, and flight plan from start to finish, not to mention having to dog fight in and out, which was not completely realistic imo.
- A-10 Tank Killer
- Chuck Yeager’s Air Combat
- Nighthawk F117 Stealth Fighter
- F-18
- Falcón 3.0
- X-Plane
And finally X-Plane, still going strong today, but it is not a typical combat flight sim, in fact the last time I checked, it was not primarily designed as a combat simulator, but more of a design simulator, allowing you to build aircraft, with an incredible library of accurate commercial aircraft, and as far as I know, the only home simulator that actually uses airfoil drag and lift calculations to determine performance, not a performance chart. It has/had a great Space Shuttle simulation that allows you to start an approach for landing at about 500k feet if I remember correctly.
The last airplane I flew in real life Airbus A320 as as X-plane simulation creation. These are skins created by players and made available to the community, that are applied to the fuselage of the aircraft.
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A-320 The NWA Bowling Shoe
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Turned into the last NWA paint job
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With the Delta merger, transistioned
to the above and present
In my career I went from props, to jets, to turboprops, to turbo jets
WWII era prop sounds outstanding. Although they were efficient, I never cared for turbo props. There were like 10 extra emergencies associated with have a prop connected to the front of a jet engine, along with extra vibration. Most of the commuters have transistioned away from turbo props primarily because passengers prefer jets (I think). The best sound and smoothest ride is the turbo jet.
Holy crap, the photo realistic fidelity of the video on this page, https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/ may cause me to break out my flight stick(s) again.If you want a combat sim, look into DCS. I’ve been having a blast with the F-18 and doing carrier traps.
The "UFO" point is for things like X-planes and other fantastic air machines.
My granddad was a youngster when the Wright Bros persisted in going past just thinking that man was meant to fly. He was amazed at that, and so was further astounded when a Chuck Yeager flight went supersonic. But when I saw my granddad holding my nephew on his lap in a rocking chair watching TV during the first moon landing, he was practically stunned. He just kept softly pounding a fist on one arm of the chair and saying "will you look at that..."
He lived in an amazing era for technology rollouts including but not limited to flying: 1883-1973. "So much winning" and of course no end in sight even now, but to go from where electricity in a house was a big deal, to where landing on the moon was even feasible? People had to get their imaginations stretched again during his lifetime, for sure.
He would have loved reading about exploration of the outer reaches of our solar system. I keep wondering what we need to discover or build to get out of the galaxy. Talk about turbo boost.
My granddad was a youngster when the Wright Bros persisted in going past just thinking that man was meant to fly. He was amazed at that, and so was further astounded when a Chuck Yeager flight went supersonic. But when I saw my granddad holding my nephew on his lap in a rocking chair watching TV during the first moon landing, he was practically stunned. He just kept softly pounding a fist on one arm of the chair and saying "will you look at that..."
He lived in an amazing era for technology rollouts including but not limited to flying: 1883-1973. "So much winning" and of course no end in sight even now, but to go from where electricity in a house was a big deal, to where landing on the moon was even feasible? People had to get their imaginations stretched again during his lifetime, for sure.
He would have loved reading about exploration of the outer reaches of our solar system. I keep wondering what we need to discover or build to get out of the galaxy. Talk about turbo boost.
Boeing is interested in participating in Tempest.
Puddle Jumpers (piston powered smalls birds, Cessna's, Pipers, Beechcraft, Grumman, Light-Sport, etc)
This came to Lexington, KY back in the spring. I had sort of forgotten about it, but was in Lexington, saw it flying around, and took a chance to get the best photo I could of it(couldn't quite get close enough, and since I wasn't planning on photographing a plane I didn't have a long lens with me).
I seem to recall that there are 17 of these total surviving, and only a handful airworthy.
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What about sound?
WWII era prop sounds outstanding.
This one still manages to make the air shows, and this past June was at the former "grass strip" airport a couple counties up from here that I had mentioned earlier. You could even sign up for a ride in the thing if you were brave. "That's pretty old," a friend of mine said. I laughed. "My kitchen range is a Kalamazoo from sometime back in the 50s and you're not afraid to eat what I cook on the thing, right?" but she couldn't be talked into flying in the SNJ-4... me either...
This one still manages to make the air shows, and this past June was at the former "grass strip" airport a couple counties up from here that I had mentioned earlier. You could even sign up for a ride in the thing if you were brave. "That's pretty old," a friend of mine said. I laughed. "My kitchen range is a Kalamazoo from sometime back in the 50s and you're not afraid to eat what I cook on the thing, right?" but she couldn't be talked into flying in the SNJ-4... me either...
I'd have been thrilled to have had the opportunity to be flown in a craft something like that.
A private dream is to have a flight (that is, be flown) in a vintage biplane.
The aircraft of my dad's youth was the Piper J-3 Cub. My dad and my uncle in their teens could be found around airports doing whatever they could in order to earn rides in one.This one still manages to make the air shows, and this past June was at the former "grass strip" airport a couple counties up from here that I had mentioned earlier. You could even sign up for a ride in the thing if you were brave. "That's pretty old," a friend of mine said. I laughed. "My kitchen range is a Kalamazoo from sometime back in the 50s and you're not afraid to eat what I cook on the thing, right?" but she couldn't be talked into flying in the SNJ-4... me either...
Do you know the airport code, or at least the name?
A good classic. With all really old airplanes, proper maintenance is crucial, especially anti-corrosion measures. Otherwise every so often the wing falls off...This one still manages to make the air shows, and this past June was at the former "grass strip" airport a couple counties up from here that I had mentioned earlier. You could even sign up for a ride in the thing if you were brave. "That's pretty old," a friend of mine said. I laughed. "My kitchen range is a Kalamazoo from sometime back in the 50s and you're not afraid to eat what I cook on the thing, right?" but she couldn't be talked into flying in the SNJ-4... me either...
Where are you?
$300 gets you 30 min or more.
Amazing aircraft, and if the X-plane flight model is accurate - this thing was super difficult to fly.I'm surprise I don't see any more love for the SR-71 family.
Designed with late fifties technology, and still unsurpassed.