Picture of the day

[Sharps '63]

West of Merritt, BC there is a crash site which always moves me .... :>( It's a 10k hike to get into the actual location on a good trail.

When you first see it from a couple of kms, it looks like a model aircraft came to grief. As you get closer and see the wreckage up close, it is staggering as you realize that it is a grave site and a brave man died there. The engines, props, landing gear are strewn about like a giant hand scattered them.

The aircraft is a Grumman "Tracker" water bomber. The pilot was returning to base from a sortie, tired and obviously made an error as he just clipped the mountain top. You are asked not to remove debris out of respect. The local Outdoors Hiking club was looking into establishing a memorial cairn.

Every crash sight is disturbing, but I am always particularly disturbed standing on a hill, ridge, mountain and see that if the plane had only been X feet higher, it would have been ok.

As a pilot, having seen such crashes before, I was always extra cautious about poor visibility and high terrain. Every pilot knows about cumulo granite clouds.

 

[grelmar]

I feel like I'm only getting past it now. Fearing that your demise would involve a nuclear bomb....that is unfathomable for most young Canadians.

1/2 hour between a button being pressed and the end of civilization.

That button, and that timeline, still exist. Somehow everyone just decided to stop talking about it because one side had an economic collapse. But everyone still has all the toys. More have them, now, in fact. And there are some (arguably) shakier hands poised over those buttons, in certain parts of the world.

 

[DOOK]

It's good to keep that in mind. Most people don't wish to.

 

[RRCo.]

Er, I think you meant to say, "Died just last week."
q:0|

The English language--sometimes she can be a cruel #####.

Au contraire, mon ami nouvel, she is a most forgiving mother tongue; the most tolerant and inclusive there is, and at the same time the most precise and economical.

And either construction would be grammatically correct, though it is kind of you to attempt to improve my style; I shall study your posts in hope of further illumination.

 

[The Wizard]

There was an old Jimmy Steward movie where he played a baseball player called back into the Air Force and flies the B-29, B-36 and B-47. It was called Strategic Air Command and was basically a "we love our stragegic bombers" propaganda movie. But interesting anyway.

BG James Steward COULD actually fly those planes!

 

[sail32]

For movies I preferred; " Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, more commonly known as Dr. Strangelove.", with Peter Sellers.

 

[purple]

BG James Steward COULD actually fly those planes!

Stewart flew and survived a full tour of duty over Germany as a B-17 pilot. He was quite modest and self-effacing about this. By contrast many people still believe that John Wayne was a real war hero who stormed ashore on Iwo Jima, etc. Wayne never saw military service, but did his bit for the home front by starring in various war movies. He was also an entertainer for the troops.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

And, to tie it in with the B52, Here's Jimmy Stewart in Vietnam hanging out with a BUFF and some friends.

 

[Gibbs505]

USS North Carolina (BB-55)

 

[AP]

1/2 hour between a button being pressed and the end of civilization.

That button, and that timeline, still exist. Somehow everyone just decided to stop talking about it because one side had an economic collapse. But everyone still has all the toys. More have them, now, in fact. And there are some (arguably) shakier hands poised over those buttons, in certain parts of the world.

very good point. Iraq, Afghanistan Isis etc are small time side shows compared to the degree of escalation that would occur in any of the expected scenario's developed for a warsaw/soviet assault on western Europe. Required reading for Nato officers was the scenario developed by the Pentagon describing Soviet breakthrough operations and what the opposing Nato forces in that sector would see in a 24 hour period...well - until they were dead - which was a foregone conclusion of the scenario. And the tools weren't just nuke (tactical and strategic) but also included biological and Chemical weapons. It was always presumed (by both sides) that the "kick-off" would occur during a Warsaw pact excercise....funny cause the Soviets assumed that if we 'won the toss' and elected to kick it off...it would during a Nato exercise....as in 'please open your sealed orders now!' this is not an exercise! Etc etc. Fwiw it was also assumed that if the Soviets 'won the toss' they would kickoff with all frequency radio jamming that would last for at least the first 48 hours...or until we figured out how to locate and destroy the source of the jamming.

 

[The Wizard]

And, to tie it in with the B52, Here's Jimmy Stewart in Vietnam hanging out with a BUFF and some friends.

Heard rumors that he actual flew at least one mission over the north.

 

[MarkCNP]

 

[Robert Nicholson]

Could someone translate for us, please ^^ It appears to be claims about the capabilities of a German tank able to resist 85mm from 1000m
and 76mm from 300m, how about the rest of the weapons?

 

[B_noser]

Or is it Russian instructions regarding maximum effective ranges and ideal strike locations for various weapons?

 

[MarkCNP]

I can't translate, but I noticed that they don't have penetration numbers for the front armour; the Elefant was pretty much undefeatable from the front.

 

[Gibbs505]

The P-38 Lighting flying high over some fields. One of my favorite WWII planes

 

[gewehr76]

Poster shows
Vulnerable areas of SAU Ferdinand (Elephant)
Antitank grenades can be used on hatches.
Molotov cocktails can be used on air inlets.
Anti tank rifles or any artillery calibers can be used to disable main gun.
The rest shows distances at which various calibers of artillery can disable or penetrate armor and track.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

So here we are in the 21st century, the Age of the Combat Drone. Nobody thought to use them until recently...

Behold the magnificence of the Fleetwings BQ-2:

My God, it's just so beautiful. Truly an airplane that folks could feel good about flying into stuff... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleetwings_BQ-2

And here's it's stablemate, the Interstate TDR-1:

"Remove pilot before flight". Here's the rather more sophisticated Fairchild BQ-3:

Retractable gear! Madness!

 

[diopter]

Amazing the progress they made in 21 years.


Lockheed D21

The Marquardt RJ43-MA were ramjet engines used on the CIM-10 Bomarc missile, the D-21 drone, and the AQM-60. They were engineered and built by the Marquardt Corporation.

Thrust:
Marquardt RJ43-MA-3 ramjet; 51 kN (11500 lb)[1]
Marquardt RJ43-MA-7 ramjet; 53 kN (12000 lb)[1]
Marquardt RJ43-MA-11 ramjet; 53 kN (12000 lb)
Marquardt RJ43-MA-20S4 ramjet; 7.3 kN (1,500 lb @ 95,000 ft.)

 

[fraserdw]

Could someone translate for us, please ^^ It appears to be claims about the capabilities of a German tank able to resist 85mm from 1000m
and 76mm from 300m, how about the rest of the weapons?

85 mm round at this location up to 1000 m penetrates. And so on.