"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
The aircraft boneyard at Davis-Monthan AFB turned local artists loose on some old aircraft. The results are soon to go on display at the Pima Air & Space Museum. I watched them tow a few out into the yard this week and took some photos: There are more to come, and the exhibit, called The […]
I love the jet fighters of the 1950s. Built for speed, sleek and swept-back, they were the embodiment of the fantasy planes of comic book superheroes. The North American F-107, an orphan fighter-bomber abandoned by the USAF, embodies the go-fast exuberance of the period. The F-107 began life in 1953 at North American Aviation as a drawing-board […]
When I started conducting walking tours at the Pima Air & Space Museum a few months ago, I quickly realized I’d talk myself hoarse if I didn’t overcome a certain egotistical reluctance to use a portable voice amplifier and speaker. The museum had two but they were big heavy things, each one powered by eight […]
People who don’t know any better are starting to think the F-15 Eagle … like me … is ancient history. Witness this BBC News story, gleefully shared by a Facebook friend: The linked story describes how Japan grounded its Eagle fleet after a fuel tank and training missile fell off a wing of an F-15J […]
Hat tip to Nancy Nall for pointing me toward this New York Times article about small town gossip run rampant on an internet forum. People in Mountain Grove, Missouri used to swap gossip face to face at Dee’s Place, but these days they have ” … shifted from sharing the latest news and rumors over […]
Two words: holy shit! In the aftermath of an airplane crash all manner of misinformation hits the news. It’s even worse if there are a lot of witnesses. You’d think it would be otherwise, but people are in general terrible witnesses, especially when they see something shocking and violent, something that happens in the blink […]
When I lead visitors on walking tours at the Pima Air & Space Museum, we start underneath a replica of the 1903 Wright Flyer. I think about Orville and Wilbur often. They showed us the way, and the F-15 Eagle I flew in the US Air Force used the same three-axis controls the Wrights developed […]
Pima Air & Space Museum is determined to keep me on my toes. PASM is closing the normal entrance area for a month, and guests will now be entering the main hangar from the gift shop. Before, my walking tour started underneath the replica of the Wright Flyer. Now it’ll start smack in the middle […]