OT - Air Shows

OK, so who remembers the last truly awesome display team? Has to be the Black Diamonds (?). Seeing (& feeling!) 9 Lightnings on reheat go vertical in formation was mesmorising, & quite unforgettable. Red Arrows are very pretty, but just don't do the same thing to your physiology....

Only thing that came close was the first time I saw the su-27 (I think -- my anorak is fading) doing its reverse tail-wagging -- the absolute reverse of reheat! I was in the trade then, & happened to be with a most senior USAF delegation at the Paris Air Show when this sequence was first shown in public. The Americans were beside themselves -- closest I've seen to a brown trouser job! We'd all just watched something that seemed completely impossible, beyond aerodynamics, & they knew they had no response at all!!

I suppose it's just the logical conclusion of boyhood '50's control line logic that you can fly a brick if you have enough power, but somehow you don't expect a simulation of a stationary engine (what a link ...) from a Mach whatever, very large, very heavy interceptor. Different type of fly by wire!

Sometimes I do like my engines a long way from stationary, but only when they are brutal. For a different engine experience, watch a live space shuttle launch. Quite splendid, if brief. Or be lucky. I was once on a 747 commuting from Orlando when a launch came past, unannounced by the crew. Spectacular sight, caught by accident. I did lecture the crew on missing a PR opportunity ......

Colin

Reply to
Colin
Loading thread data ...

My best display team was the Royal Canadian Air Force with widow makers, the Starfighter, at Mildenhall from behind with the tails alight with reheat. And I have footage of a B52 landing at Duxford still about 40+ Feet off of the ground with his Brake Chute fully deployed to make sure head could land on the runway as he had no get out if he had to go around again. That was the B52 being delivered to the museum at that aircraft now holds the record for the shortest runway a B52 has ever landed on, if it has to ever leave Duxford it would do it on several trucks as the runway is way to short. And the biggest American c*ck up was a Wild Weasel based at Ramstein, in Germany I think, opening the show at Duxford flying from and back to his base. He was talked into Duxford, who dont have Radar, and it was relayed to the crowd as they talked to him. He ran down the runway turned on the heat and shot skyward, all to the amusement of the crowd who on a blue skyed summers day saw nothing because he was actually running down Cambridge Airfields live runway fifteen miles away.

Mart> OK, so who remembers the last truly awesome display team?

Reply to
Campingstoveman

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.