And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Just like the one Chuck Yeager crashed - chronicled in the book & movie versions of'The Right Stuff.
In 'The Right Stuff' and Yeager's autobiography, Ol' Chuck, as head of the Astronaut Training Office at Edwards AFB, had to take it up and check it out before letting any of the astronaut candidates near it. But in Neil Armstrong's bio 'First Man' & Frank Borman's autobiography both astronauts were of the opinion that "that son of a bitch Yeager" was no engineer & didn't belong anywhere near that aircraft.
Always loved the looks of the F104, but those tiny little wings necessitate very high wing loading, which in turn means some very narrow edges to the flight envelope. Anything over those edges should be labeled "Here there be dragons!"; uncontrollable and unrecoverable. Yeager is one of my heroes. He may not have been a certificated engineer, but he was (and remains) a consummate test pilot and therefore knew as much about flight engineering as most anyone.
As if it wasn't fast enough nough already!
ReplyDeleteImpressively rockets into the wild blue yonder, but can it land like Falcon-9
ReplyDeleteJust like the one Chuck Yeager crashed - chronicled in the book & movie versions of'The Right Stuff.
ReplyDeleteIn 'The Right Stuff' and Yeager's autobiography, Ol' Chuck, as head of the Astronaut Training Office at Edwards AFB, had to take it up and check it out before letting any of the astronaut candidates near it. But in Neil Armstrong's bio 'First Man' & Frank Borman's autobiography both astronauts were of the opinion that "that son of a bitch Yeager" was no engineer & didn't belong anywhere near that aircraft.
I wonder who's piloting the one in the photo.
Always loved the looks of the F104, but those tiny little wings necessitate very high wing loading, which in turn means some very narrow edges to the flight envelope. Anything over those edges should be labeled "Here there be dragons!"; uncontrollable and unrecoverable.
ReplyDeleteYeager is one of my heroes. He may not have been a certificated engineer, but he was (and remains) a consummate test pilot and therefore knew as much about flight engineering as most anyone.
+1 to Tom, Clam and Greg. Yea...
ReplyDelete