"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter." —Mark Twain
What was (and might have been)
Every year in October I take my camera to the Tucson Classics Car Show at St Gregory’s Academy, a private college prep school in Tucson. I go early in the morning, when exhibitors are still arriving and parking on the grass, when crowds haven’t gotten out of hand, when it’s still cool. As you can see from this […]
Over the span of my life, Islam has been a consistently destructive force. Sure, religious fanatics in other parts of the world have started wars, but for pure hate-driven evil nothing tops the Muslims. Islam turns much of its destructive force inward against fellow Muslims; still, it has plenty left over to direct against Israel, and with the 9/11 terror attacks in the USA and subsequent […]
When the Eagle got up to around Mach 0.95 you’d begin to feel resistance, as if the air was getting thicker and pushing back against your airplane. As you slipped past the shockwave and through the Mach the resistance went away and the airplane felt normal. The second you retarded the throttles, though, it was as though you’d run into an invisible Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man in the air. You and your jet and everything in it slowed down in a hurry, forcing you forward against the shoulder straps and seat belt. Once you were back below Mach 0.95, Mr. Stay-Puft went away and things felt normal again. Oh, and half your fuel was gone.
When I tell visitors about the Pima Air & Space Museum’s F-14 Tomcat, I always work in a few words about women in military aviation. The Tomcat seems like the right place to introduce the topic: first because the US Navy, along with the US Army, led the way in training woman aviators in 1974, a full two years before […]
President Eisenhower mobilized hundreds of troops to enforce federal law and prevent rule by lynch mob in Little Rock. Yes, Virginia, there once was a time when presidents were courageous.
During most of the years I flew fighters and trainers for the USAF, I never paid much thought to the disposition of aircraft on the ramp. We parked them when we were through with them; if maintenance needed to move them around on the ground afterward that was their problem. I was of course aware of […]
In lieu of solving the nation’s problems and revealing brilliant new insights on life, I’ll share a few photos I took today while wandering around the outdoor exhibits at the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona, where I work as a volunteer docent. I’d heard the restoration team would be moving several aircraft […]
It’s time I posted more photos from the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona. As a volunteer tour guide, I’m sometimes able to visit parts of the museum visitors don’t get to see. There’s always something interesting hidden away. These two Japanese Kamikaze planes, for example. Until recently only the fuselages have been visible, […]