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.
Friday, September 4, 2020
Damage from where a B-25 Bomber collided with the Empire State Building. 28 July 1945.
I reckon the three question marks is to convey a sense of seriousness. But, C'mon man. For crying out loud, do some factual research. Stephan lays out the basics which make a good start.
It's a massive brick-and-stone building, unlike the World Trade Center and its curtain walls. The impact of a 25-ton B-25 doing maybe 150 mph (he thought he was on approach to Newark and even had the gear down) would have been a fly-swat.
If you don't know what you're talking about... The ESB is a steel column and beam construction just like the WTC and most other very tall structures built in the past 100+ years. I don't know where you're getting this silly "curtain wall" nonsense as there is no such term in architecture. The closest thing are "movable walls", supported on rollers from the ceiling, usually in interior applications. Yes, I am an architect and engineer and as a side job have been doing design work for several years for Indy Stone who supplied much of the limestone facade on the ESB as well as hundreds of other buildings around the world. FWIW, a facade is not considered "structural" and is primarily an aesthetic element.
Anonymous, I have written extensively about this incident, particularly in Aviation History Magazine. He was not "climbing out of LaGuardia." When he crossed the dimly seen East River, he thought he was crossing the Hudson and prepared to land at EWR. He was heading west southwest, and the fog was broken, not dense.
That had to be a Missile strike, the glass and aluminum birdcage nose of a B-25 could not punch through brick like that! Obviously an inside job, covered up by the CIA, just like the Flight 77 couldn't.... yada uada uada. add your favorite truther blather....
I'm glad the building code was upgraded, and all buildings in the city were retrofitted to the new standards after this horrible tragedy, as gubmint is so swift to over-react to such unexpected and unseen occurences...
Perhaps asbestos should be added to enhance the fireproof capabilities of these structures...
In the mid-seventies America faced a new and escalating crisis, with US commercial jets being hijacked for geopolitical purposes. Determined to gain the upper hand in this new form of aerial warfare, two American multinationals collaborated with the Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA) on a project designed to facilitate the remote recovery of hijacked American aircraft. Brilliant both in concept and operation, “Home Run” [not its real code name] allowed specialist ground controllers to listen in to cockpit conversations on the target aircraft, then take absolute control of its computerized flight control system by remote means. From that point onwards, regardless of the wishes of the hijackers or flight deck crew, the hijacked aircraft could be recovered and landed automatically at an airport of choice, with no more difficulty than flying a radio-controlled model plane. The engineers had no idea that almost thirty years after its initial design, Home Run’s top secret computer codes would be broken, and the system used to facilitate direct ground control of the four aircraft used in the high-profile attacks on New York and Washington on 11th September 2001. The following information was added to the Vialls web site, January 20, 2002: Former German Minister Von Buelow Already Knew About Remote Control In his interview with the German daily "Tagesspiegel" on January 13th, former German Secretary of Defence Andreas Von Buelow made the following statement:- "There is also the theory of one British flight engineer: according to this, the steering of the planes was perhaps taken out of the pilots' hands, from outside. The Americans had developed a method in the 1970s, whereby they could rescue hijacked planes by intervening into the computer piloting [automatic pilot system]. This theory says, this technique was abused in this case..." Not quite so much a theory as might first appear. When I released the above report about "Home Run" remote control in October 2001, I mentioned that one European flag carrier was aware of the technology, though at that precise point in time I thought it prudent not to name the actual airline:- "As long ago as the early nineties, a major European flag carrier acquired the information and was seriously alarmed that one of its own aircraft might be "rescued" by the Americans without its authority. Accordingly, this flag carrier completely stripped the American flight control computers out of its entire fleet, and replaced them with a home grown version. These aircraft are now effectively impregnable to penetration by Home Run, but that is more than can be said for the American aircraft fleet..." The European flag carrier which completely stripped the American flight computers out of its aircraft was Lufthansa, the German national airline. Bearing in mind his former posts as Secretary of Defence and Minister of Science and Technology, Herr Von Buelow would have known all about this mammoth but secretive task.
And yet it's still standing???
ReplyDeleteI reckon the three question marks is to convey a sense of seriousness. But, C'mon man. For crying out loud, do some factual research. Stephan lays out the basics which make a good start.
DeleteIt's a massive brick-and-stone building, unlike the World Trade Center and its curtain walls. The impact of a 25-ton B-25 doing maybe 150 mph (he thought he was on approach to Newark and even had the gear down) would have been a fly-swat.
ReplyDeleteI thought he was climbing out of LaGuardia, heading southerly, in a dense fog!
DeleteIf you don't know what you're talking about...
DeleteThe ESB is a steel column and beam construction just like the WTC and most other very tall structures built in the past 100+ years. I don't know where you're getting this silly "curtain wall" nonsense as there is no such term in architecture. The closest thing are "movable walls", supported on rollers from the ceiling, usually in interior applications. Yes, I am an architect and engineer and as a side job have been doing design work for several years for Indy Stone who supplied much of the limestone facade on the ESB as well as hundreds of other buildings around the world. FWIW, a facade is not considered "structural" and is primarily an aesthetic element.
I knew of this incident, and the first report on 9/11 on radio assumed it happened again by a sightseeing aircraft.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, I have written extensively about this incident, particularly in Aviation History Magazine. He was not "climbing out of LaGuardia." When he crossed the dimly seen East River, he thought he was crossing the Hudson and prepared to land at EWR. He was heading west southwest, and the fog was broken, not dense.
ReplyDeleteGuess an errant memory. My mom had saved the news article the day of or after the incident!
DeleteThat had to be a Missile strike, the glass and aluminum birdcage nose of a B-25 could not punch through brick like that! Obviously an inside job, covered up by the CIA, just like the Flight 77 couldn't.... yada uada uada. add your favorite truther blather....
ReplyDeleteDemonstration of ballistic impact.
I'm glad the building code was upgraded, and all buildings in the city were retrofitted to the new standards after this horrible tragedy, as gubmint is so swift to over-react to such unexpected and unseen occurences...
ReplyDeletePerhaps asbestos should be added to enhance the fireproof capabilities of these structures...
In the mid-seventies America faced a new and escalating crisis, with US commercial jets being hijacked for geopolitical purposes. Determined to gain the upper hand in this new form of aerial warfare, two American multinationals collaborated with the Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA) on a project designed to facilitate the remote recovery of hijacked American aircraft. Brilliant both in concept and operation, “Home Run” [not its real code name] allowed specialist ground controllers to listen in to cockpit conversations on the target aircraft, then take absolute control of its computerized flight control system by remote means.
ReplyDeleteFrom that point onwards, regardless of the wishes of the hijackers or flight deck crew, the hijacked aircraft could be recovered and landed automatically at an airport of choice, with no more difficulty than flying a radio-controlled model plane. The engineers had no idea that almost thirty years after its initial design, Home Run’s top secret computer codes would be broken, and the system used to facilitate direct ground control of the four aircraft used in the high-profile attacks on New York and Washington on 11th September 2001.
The following information was added to the Vialls web site, January 20, 2002:
Former German Minister Von Buelow Already Knew About Remote Control
In his interview with the German daily "Tagesspiegel" on January 13th, former German Secretary of Defence Andreas Von Buelow made the following statement:-
"There is also the theory of one British flight engineer: according to this, the steering of the planes was perhaps taken out of the pilots' hands, from outside. The Americans had developed a method in the 1970s, whereby they could rescue hijacked planes by intervening into the computer piloting [automatic pilot system]. This theory says, this technique was abused in this case..."
Not quite so much a theory as might first appear. When I released the above report about "Home Run" remote control in October 2001, I mentioned that one European flag carrier was aware of the technology, though at that precise point in time I thought it prudent not to name the actual airline:-
"As long ago as the early nineties, a major European flag carrier acquired the information and was seriously alarmed that one of its own aircraft might be "rescued" by the Americans without its authority. Accordingly, this flag carrier completely stripped the American flight control computers out of its entire fleet, and replaced them with a home grown version. These aircraft are now effectively impregnable to penetration by Home Run, but that is more than can be said for the American aircraft fleet..."
The European flag carrier which completely stripped the American flight computers out of its aircraft was Lufthansa, the German national airline. Bearing in mind his former posts as Secretary of Defence and Minister of Science and Technology, Herr Von Buelow would have known all about this mammoth but secretive task.