Pictures of where you live or work

[86rocco]

I work at an airport and every now and then something interesting flies in, this morning it's a Russian Antonov 124, one of the largest cargo aircraft in service.

Antonov 124.jpg

[86rocco]

More interesting stuff at work today, an airshow! Here's a rare grouping of aircraft, two hurricanes, two spitfires, a mosquito and a lancaster. I'm told this mosquito is the only airworthy one in existence and the lancaster is one of only two airworthy lancs.

IMG_0100.jpg

[slracer]

The Mosquito featured highly in the WW2 film: 633 Squadron. It was a fictional account with dubious acting and plot, but the flight scenes featured real aircraft found on some RAF bases (being used for target towing). The plane was made almost entirely of wood so maybe "termite" would have been a better name. They were quick (actually faster than the Spitfire with similar engines) and still are fine looking birds! Thanks for the pic Rocco! Thanks also for the memories as the film sits (usually dormant) in my memory bank! -- Doug

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/633_Squadron
Also see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Mosquito

[Tony]

Yes the Mosquito was very fast, and it could fly high as well.
It relied on sheer performance for defense, it had no amour at all.

[86rocco]

Fast indeed, it certainly seemed like to was by far the fastest piston driven aircraft in the show. I tried to get a good close shot during it's solo low level passes but I was too close to the show line so it moved through my field of vision too fast.

[Tony]

And I bet if you had been trying to shoot it down, your luck would not have been much better.

[86rocco]

And I bet if you had been trying to shoot it down, your luck would not have been much better.

Funny, I was thinking exactly that when I was trying to take the picture.

[Tony]

The SR-71 Blackbird was built with a very similar idea.
It could fly so fast, and so high that NOTHING could threaten it.
Catch me if you can you bastards !!!

Until the Russians developed some missile good enough to do the job, the Blackbird was King of the sky.

[slracer]

Actually, the North American B-70 was designed on the same premise as the Mosquito, make her fast enough so nobody can catch her, then you don't need defensive systems. What it did do was make our enemy develop a defensive weapon system instead of being able to work on their own offensive systems. As the speeds and altitudes went up, the costs went even faster and higher! The "game" became: "My daddy (or" Uncle") has more money than your daddy!" Then when the Foxbat was released, "production" of the B-70 (later known as the RS-70) was cancelled.

The SR-71 (which should have been designated the RS-71) was still outrunning "enemy" missiles in 2008, shortly before she was decommissioned (as we couldn't afford to maintain and fly her for a diminishing number of required flights). You all might find this pilot's account of an over flight of Libya interesting. -- Doug

http://www.barthworks.com/aviation/sr71libya.htm

[Brucepts]

I've had the pleasure of seeing the SR71 in action in England and Okinawa, no pictures though as active flightlines did not allow cameras

On a side note I was on a mission out of South Korea and was flying a "box mission" which entailed the aircraft to be roped off with security while on the ground, one morning a U-2 was coming back from a mission and he came taxing by very slowly, you could tell he was looking closely at all the antennas hanging off our 130, a couple of us were standing at the fire bottle up front looking in amazement of his ride as he taxied by, as he went by gave a thumbs up and throttled back up and headed to his hanger.

Was one of those moments that made you felt "cool" as the spy plane driver was checking out your "old pig" knowing something was not right about that plane either! We went back to work and the "cool factor" moment faded back to reality