"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter." —Mark Twain
There I was at 30,000 feet
We volunteered again (as we did last year) to man a sag stop for a bicycle race, Sunday’s Tumacacori Century. Does “sag” stand for anything? I don’t know. We’ll be setting up tables under a big shady tree near the intersection of I-19 and the Arivaca Road, then handing out water, Gatorade, fruit, granola bars, […]
I went down to the Pima Air & Space Museum for a volunteers’ meeting and while there took some photos with my cell phone camera, feeling quite the spy. This first photo, for example, was taken inside a storage room not open to the public. It’s a Japanese Kamikaze flying bomb, and there can’t be […]
I went to the library earlier today and found the entrance area crowded with parents and small children. I wondered, for a minute, if the library was holding a fire drill, but I was able to squeeze through the kids and get inside, where I checked out a book they were holding for me. By […]
Just for fun, a Sunday morning pop quiz: which came first? Answer: the jet, in this case the Vought F7U Cutlass, which entered operational service with the US Navy in July 1951 (the prototype first flew in September 1948). The Cutlass-like Chevrolet hood ornament first appeared on 1955 model year Chevrolets. Based on everything I’ve […]
Time for another Air-Minded diary? Sure it is. This time let’s take a look at a Century Series fighter from the 1950s, the McDonnell F-101 Voodoo. There were three distinct variations of the Voodoo — a fighter-bomber, a tactical reconnaissance aircraft, and an air defense interceptor — but I’m going to concentrate on the interceptor, […]
What does that title even mean? Is the cat named Wednesday? Sure, why not? Let’s go with that. My son can’t believe I haven’t said anything about the F-22’s oxygen problems, or about the two whistleblower Raptor pilots who appeared on 60 Minutes last weekend. My first excuse comes easy: I know very little about […]
In my day, the only video cameras we could use to film our own air-to-air flying were hand-held devices. USAF pilots weren’t (and aren’t, AFAIK) allowed, for safety reasons, to use cameras or video recorders in single-seat cockpits. If you were flying a two-seater, which you might do once a month or so, and you […]
On April 13th, during a practice flight before a weekend air show, a member of the Thunderbirds aerial demonstration team went supersonic over Tucson. The sonic boom frightened people and broke a lot of windows. Going supersonic over populated areas is a huge USAF “be no” (as in “there shall be no …”) and I […]