From Townhall: And Touched The Face Of God

Passing this along to all of us.

Among The Joshua Trees

This piece was at Townhall and a friend of mine had it on his Facebook. It will make your eyes water a bit, trust me on that one.

“Shortly after the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor, pilot-poet James Gillespie Magee died. You may remember him via something he wrote:

“Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds—and done a hundred things you have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung high in the sunlit silence.””

“A few years ago, in the ICU of Houston’s Kindred Hospital, another snatch of sorts took place as a hero of a time long past, one who served our nation as a glider pilot during those brief and storied days, was “snatched” from his bed of affliction in a twinkling of an eye. He then soared…

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The Fighter Pilot’s Survival Guide

I was reading the current Smithsonian Air & Space magazine and came across this – Apparently Germany’s Oswald Boelcke wrote the book on tactics that, despite all the changes in performance and electronics – still sound doctrine.

All this from almost 100 years ago.

Didn’t realize too that Robin Olds, American ace, used to turn off most of his electronics in his F4 over Vietnam and just concentrate on the basics…

Oxcart

Lockheed A-12 in flight (US Air Force photo)

In wandering down assorted internet rabbit holes, I came across a couple of historically interesting articles about the A-12/SR-71 series of aircraft.  The first was from the April, 1964 issue of Air Force Magazine with speculation on the mission and performance of the newly announced A-11.  I’m impressed with what the author was able to deduce from unclassified information in 1964.

Another interesting article is from the CIA website.  (I’m still conflicted about the CIA having a web site.)

Enjoy!

Cutaway Thursday: Convair B-36J Peacemaker

Angel Thunder 2014

Week One video – (link in case the embedded video doesn’t work)

 

(Cross posted at Air Pogue)

What is now the USAF Para Rescue concept was born in the Army Air Force during WWII out of the need to drop rescue personnel in remote locations to assist downed air crews.  Their mission has evolved over the years.  In the late 1940’s and 1950’s the cold war mission of the Air Force placed aircraft over areas where the only practical extraction was via ground, and the PJ’s (para jumpers) we survival experts who dropped to downed crews with the skills to keep them alive till help arrived.  During the Viet Nam conflict the mission evolved into combat search and rescue, with the HH-3 and HH-53 helicopters becoming famous as “Jolly Green Giants.”  With the Iraq and Afghanistan wars the mission was again modified to support special operations.

 

Yours truly providing a familiarization briefing to US and Columbian Special Forces troops.  (U.S. Air Force Photo by Airman 1st Class Chris Massey/Released)

 

Angel Thunder is an annual Personnel Recovery exercise where US and foreign forces can practice their combat search and rescue skills.  This year our unit was involved in several supporting missions.  In the video above, the Blackhawks without the refueling probes were ours.  The grey ones with the probes are the Air Force Pavehawks.  Those special forces troops and the Columbian special forces guys shown were some of our customers.  We did several air assaults with them, and I was lucky enough to crew on three of them.

 

Wrap up video – (link to video)

As part of this years exercise, we started by transporting the “White Cell” staff around for their various planning and coordination sessions.  The White Cell are kind of like the umpires of the exercise.  Other activities we were involved in were unconventional recoveries  and a downed aircrew exercise.  For the downed aircrew exercise we flew a mission that was supposed to put a Navy/Marine remote air control tower at a local airport.  The scenario had two ships shot down and a third damaged, with hostile ground activity requiring the downed crews and passengers to navigate cross country to the pick up point.  While we knew there would be a downed crew scenario, none of us knew when or how it was to come down.  The remote tower people were completely taken by surprise, and were not happy campers having to hike through mountainous desert with all their gear.  With them were a couple SERE (survival school) instructors evaluating the exercise.  After a strenuous 4 hour hike they made the PZ (pickup zone) in time for our Apache gunship escort to clear the area for us while we went in for a night recovery using night vision goggles.  This is pretty much how we make our money in Army aviation.  Fortunately for those on the ground one of the crew chiefs who was shot down with them gave them a brief on what to expect when we showed up.  A night helicopter pickup is not like you see in the movies – it’s loud, blinding and painful, particularly in the desert where the debris kicked up by the rotor wash all seems to head for your face.  It’s also disorienting being dark and dusty.  Being an exercise, we took our time picking them up to make sure we had everyone strapped in safely before picking up.  In a hostile area we would make sure we had the right number of people, close the doors and go.

 

For our air assault missions we would fly to Tuscon, pick up our troops and fly to the exercise area in Florence for the insertion.  The scenario was four friendlies had been captured and were being held by the bad guys.  Our ODA (Operational Detachment A) Team and the Columbian Special Forces soldiers would assault the target buildings and either gather intelligence, capture a high value target, rescue the hostages, or all of the above.  Being an exercise, of course the first couple of raids came up empty.  The first two raids were night operations, so there isn’t much video of them.  The final raid was done during the day, with the troops rescuing the hostages, and capturing the “high value target,” who regrettably succumbed to his injuries (simulated!).

 

This was an excellent two weeks of training – we flew 180 hours plus another 130 hours of simulator training for some of our new crew members.  We got to work with other services, federal and local agencies, foreign military and the special operations community, which is always a good time.  We also made some connections with people we can hopefully train with in the future.

We lost a tough, tough man last week

Last month at the banquet for the dedication of the Intruder Tribute and the Intruder Association Reunion at the National Naval Air Museum in Pensacola I noticed a man in a wheelchair seated at the table in the corner not far from me. He seemed familiar, and it took me a while to put the aging face to a name, and suddenly it came to me: the man in the wheelchair was Bob Flynn, a Navy veteran who returned to living life to the fullest after being a POW in China during the Viet Nam years.
Bob was a legend. The story is he carried an old bugle in the cockpit of his A-6 and blew charge on guard frequency every time he went feet dry in Viet Nam. I have no doubt the story is true.
When I told the veterans at my table who the man in the wheelchair was every man left his seat and went to shake Bob Flynn’s hand and talk with him.
It was one of those precious moments in life.

If You Want To Change The World….

Thanks to one of the Lexicans who posted this link to the F/B page I get to share it with you. It is the speech of Adm William McRaven to the University of Texas’ 2014 graduation class.

McRaven talked about how his SEAL training back in 1977 prepared him for life.

Don’t ring the bell.

 

Bob Lutz On The Nature Of Crisis, Risk & Personality

I have been a long time – decades – subscriber of Road & Track magazine.

I think it is the best car-oriented magazine out there.

Bob Lutz  – now 81 –  is a lifelong car guy – with stints at BMW, Ford of Europe, Chrysler (where he helped save Chrysler with creations like the Viper before the Germans came and screwed  bought it . 

He retired at GM after helping to revitalize them. 

Sierra Nevada Flavors……………………………………………..

Flavours!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Among The Joshua Trees

In BevMo down in Palmdale last weekend, I came across these in a 12 bottle variety pack………………of IPAs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Beer Gods are Most Friendly Indeed!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Cutaway Thursday: Tyrrell P34

It doesn’t have to be an airplane does it? Nope (Imma hired gun pen here so I’m generously provided with a LOT of rope with which to hang myself latitude).

Probably one of my favorite F1 cars aside from Senna’s legandary and 1988 season dominating McClaren MP4/4 and the technologically revolutionary Williams FW15C.

More on the Tyrrell P34 from Wikipedia:

When unveiled, the cover was peeled away from the back forward and the collective gasps from the world’s press said it all. Along with theBrabham BT46B “Fancar” developed in 1978, the six-wheeled Tyrrell was one of the two most radical entries ever to succeed in Formula One (F1) competition, and has specifically been called the most recognizable design in the history of world motorsports.^[1]

It first ran in the Spanish GP in 1976, and proved to be very competitive. Both Jody Scheckter and Patrick Depailler were able to produce solid results with the car, but while Depailler praised the car continually, Scheckter realised it would only be temporarily competitive. The specialGoodyear tyres were not being developed enough by the end of the season.

The P34’s golden moment came in the Swedish Grand Prix. Scheckter and Depailler finished first and second, and to date Scheckter is the only driver ever to win a race in a six-wheeled car. He left the team at the end of the season, insisting that the six-wheeler was “a piece of junk!”^[2]

For 1977, Scheckter was replaced by the Swede Ronnie Peterson, and the P34 was redesigned around cleaner aerodynamics. The P34B was wider and heavier than before, and, although Peterson was able to string some promising results from the P34B, as was Depailler, it was clear the car was not as good as before, mostly due to the tyre manufacturer’s failure to properly develop the small front tyres. The added weight of the front suspension system is also cited as a reason for ending the project. Tyrrell even tried a “wide track” P34B to improve its handling, but this put the front wheels out from behind the nose fairings and reduced the aerodynamic gains from having four small front wheels. Thus, the P34 was abandoned for 1978, and a truly remarkable chapter in F1 history was over.

More recently the P34 has been a popular sight at historic racing events, proving competitive once more. This was made possible when the Avon tyre company agreed to manufacture bespoke 10-inch tyres for Simon Bull, the owner of chassis No. 6. In 1999 and 2000 the resurrected P34 competed at a number of British and European circuits as an entrant in the FIA Thoroughbred Grand Prix series. Driven by Martin Stretton, the car won the TGP series outright in 2000, the sister car repeating that success in 2008 in the hands of Mauro Pane; this example is today part of a private collection in Italy. Stretton also achieved numerous Pole Positions and class wins at the Grand Prix Historique de Monaco. The P34 has also been seen a number of times at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

So here ya go:

An interesting car with a uniquely chequered history but why the 4 front tyres? Let the website for the car, Project-34, tell you:

Derek set to work on designing a car to replace the successful, but rapidly ageing Tyrrell 007. He calculated that they needed the equivalent of a gain of 50hp on the competition in order to leap frog the other teams, since almost everyone was running the same engine the gain would have to be made elsewhere in the design. After a few weeks of research he presented his concept to Ken Tyrrell in August 1974. A concept that drew on the experience of those years spent working on the four wheel drive, Gas-Turbine cars, for there, on the piece of paper presented to Ken was sketched an F1 car with six wheel’s ! Two regular sized wheels at the rear and four small 10″ wheels at the front. Derek explained the reasoning behind his concept to Ken.

The theory was that exposed tyres cause lift, and the bigger they are, the greater the lift they will produce, standard four wheel F1 cars counter act this effect by the use of more wing at the front, since the six wheel concept would greatly reduce the lift effect generated by the front wheels it would not need to run large amounts of front wing thus it should have a straight line speed advantage.

An interesting car with an interesting history and there’s one for sale and if you have to ask for how much, you can’t afford it.