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.
Reminds me of the Concorde, at JFK. Worked in the PanAm weld repair shop, next to where that incredible bird would back in to the jet blast deflector, everyone would walk over to the fence and wait for it to fully warm up to make its run, the pilots had to rotate like half way down, pretty near a 45 degree angle of attack, those afterburners would bend when hitting the runway, and they barely had enough run to reach wing lift, so basically at full burner it would only go up on pure jet thrust, didn't attain wing lift until it was a hundred feet in altitude, and make a fighter jet left bank over the park, then that plane screamed like a fighter over the bay and it was gone! Never got tired of the thrill of watching it take off. it really had no business at the short runway at JFK. But it was the only place they approved it to go over population. The sound made your bones vibrate, after it was gone, hundreds of car alarms would be honking away. But, those 4 honking RollsRoyce afterburners, fire breathing dragon that shot flames out its ass.
Brother, that brings back memories of my ramp rat days at Dulles International with 'Federal Express' in the late 1980's; thanks for sharing! I was a Ramp Agent cleaning up from our final flight of the night on the 4 to midnight shift, a warm stormy evening in Northern Virginia when I looked over and saw it taxi over for take off directly behind our facility. Same warm up, you could feel it spooling up, rocket down the runway and within seconds disappearing into lights and sound in the low overcast; heading for NY, London, Paris, who knows. That bird was something to a twenty-something back in the day. Thanks for the memory. Patrick
The XB--70 is really impressive at the museum. When stationed at Wright-Patterson, I would always tour friends and family around the museum. Good times.
Death of a Goddess - the mid-air crash of the XB-70 Valkyrie...There were only two built, incredible astounding tech for its day - extensive use of honeycomb composites, compression lift (the aircraft literally rode on its own shockwave), fully-encapsulated ejection seats, just to name a few technologies. Here's the dope on the bird - . Here's the info on the mid-air event that was a photo flight showcasing GE-powered mil aircraft. A Lockheed F-104 Starfighter immediately to the right and slightly aft of the XB-70 got caught in trailing vortices form the aircraft, rolled to the left, up, and over the Valkyrie, snapping off both of the 70's vertical stabs. Both the XB-70 and the 104 ended up way down below on the desert floor . BTW, the a/c used for the camera chase was a LearJet 23, N175FS, flown by Clay Lacy and owned by Frank Sinatra. If you look at some of the mid-air pix, you can see the forward structure of the Lear's right wing tip tank..... The remaining XB-70 is at the USAF museum at Wright-Pat in OH ...
That's what she said!
ReplyDeleteReminds me of the Concorde, at JFK. Worked in the PanAm weld repair shop, next to where that incredible bird would back in to the jet blast deflector, everyone would walk over to the fence and wait for it to fully warm up to make its run, the pilots had to rotate like half way down, pretty near a 45 degree angle of attack, those afterburners would bend when hitting the runway, and they barely had enough run to reach wing lift, so basically at full burner it would only go up on pure jet thrust, didn't attain wing lift until it was a hundred feet in altitude, and make a fighter jet left bank over the park, then that plane screamed like a fighter over the bay and it was gone!
ReplyDeleteNever got tired of the thrill of watching it take off. it really had no business at the short runway at JFK. But it was the only place they approved it to go over population. The sound made your bones vibrate, after it was gone, hundreds of car alarms would be honking away.
But, those 4 honking RollsRoyce afterburners, fire breathing dragon that shot flames out its ass.
Brother, that brings back memories of my ramp rat days at Dulles International with 'Federal Express' in the late 1980's; thanks for sharing! I was a Ramp Agent cleaning up from our final flight of the night on the 4 to midnight shift, a warm stormy evening in Northern Virginia when I looked over and saw it taxi over for take off directly behind our facility. Same warm up, you could feel it spooling up, rocket down the runway and within seconds disappearing into lights and sound in the low overcast; heading for NY, London, Paris, who knows. That bird was something to a twenty-something back in the day. Thanks for the memory. Patrick
DeleteSaw that bird when it came to EAA Oshkosh back in the day.
ReplyDeleteXB-70. It was a futuristic design but was doomed by the technology of the day. I think three got built but two crashed during tests.
ReplyDelete-lg
One crashed, one made it to the National Museum of the USAF, and the third one was never completed.
ReplyDeleteThe XB--70 is really impressive at the museum. When stationed at Wright-Patterson, I would always tour friends and family around the museum. Good times.
DeleteDeath of a Goddess - the mid-air crash of the XB-70 Valkyrie...There were only two built, incredible astounding tech for its day - extensive use of honeycomb composites, compression lift (the aircraft literally rode on its own shockwave), fully-encapsulated ejection seats, just to name a few technologies. Here's the dope on the bird - . Here's the info on the mid-air event that was a photo flight showcasing GE-powered mil aircraft. A Lockheed F-104 Starfighter immediately to the right and slightly aft of the XB-70 got caught in trailing vortices form the aircraft, rolled to the left, up, and over the Valkyrie, snapping off both of the 70's vertical stabs. Both the XB-70 and the 104 ended up way down below on the desert floor . BTW, the a/c used for the camera chase was a LearJet 23, N175FS, flown by Clay Lacy and owned by Frank Sinatra. If you look at some of the mid-air pix, you can see the forward structure of the Lear's right wing tip tank..... The remaining XB-70 is at the USAF museum at Wright-Pat in OH ...
ReplyDeleteThe links didn't come through, let's try again.....https://roadrunnersinternationale.com/xb70story.html ttps://roadrunnersinternationale.com/xb70_crash.html https://roadrunnersinternationale.com/xb-70_crash_sequence.html https://roadrunnersinternationale.com/nutt/steve_nutt.html https://www.check-six.com/Crash_Sites/XB-70_crash_site.htm
Delete