The Infamous Spitfire Low Pass:

Low Spit

Jet R/C Tomcat Video:

Model Tomcat

MiG-29 Tries to Retract the Landing Gear a Little Early:

OOOOPS!

R/C B-52 Bites The Dust:

$53,000 Down the Hole

Swiss Mirage IIIs (Warning: BIG File (36 MB/15Min)) :

WOW!

US Presidents from Movies, TV, and a few books. Each listing has the president's name, the movie or show they were in, and who played him/her.

Fictional American Presidents

What Peanuts Character Are You?


You are Marcie!


Which Peanuts Character are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

What High School Stereotype Are You?

These guys had a great video of HUD footage. They had the privelege of doing ACM with a detachment of Luftwaffe Mig-29's that came over for Red Flag a while back, and well, the video speaks for itself. They had to take it down due to bandwidth concerns, but hope to have it back up in October.

301ST AMXS SPECIALIST SECTION

Gedrman site featuring big jet-powered R/C airliners. 747, DC-10 Airbus and Concorde
Foto-Gallerie

The sun is setting on the F-14 Tomcat. As the F/A-18 E and F Join the fleet, more of the veterans from Grumman's "Iron Works" are going to the boneyard. The F-14's first combat cruise was to Westpac aboard Enterprise in 1974 , this will be her last. There is a lot of capability that is being given up by going to the Superbug.
F-14s heading to aircraft graveyard

Lots of downloadable fonts, most with a Sf/Fantasy theme.

Iconian Fonts

A site with links to downloadable fonts used for Serial numbers, radio call, etc on military aircraft. Hnad for the modeller who wants to mkae some custom decals or for custom aircraft skins in you favorite flight sim.

USAAF STENCIL FONTS

Here's a really neat idea. Use a kitchen range hood as the top of a spray booth. I might just look into this as a way to spray inside. The wife is fume-crazy with the budgie about.
Building A Paint Booth

A Memory site dealing with some toys of the '50s and '60's. A lot of good memories here!

Feeling Retro

The Canadian Arrow team is still moving toward their own attempt at the X-Prize. IIRC, their system is based on the V-2. They still have a way to go to catch Burt Rutan.
-X-Prize News

Game based on the US Army's Stryker brigade currently engaged in Iraq. Haven't played it yet (still in the middle of EA's Medal of Honor Trilogy0, but it looks pretty good.
Samarra Stryker Brigade

A good reference site on the US Army Air Forces. Unit and base histories, forums, missing drew records, MOS listings, a glossary and forums.

The United States Army Air Forces in W.W.II

A parody of the infamous "Move-on .org"

National Lampoon's MoveOnPlease.org: Democracy Inaction

An archive of pop culture icons from the '40's through the '70s. Food, toys, TV, you know the drill. Enjoy

Tick Tock Toys - Archives & Galleries

Don't remember where I found this one. This a pretty neat place with lots of pictures and information on all aspects of aviation and space flight. The "Ask the Rocket Scientest" page is pretty cool.

Aerospaceweb.org | Aircraft Museum - Pictures and Data

I'm playing Medal of Honor-Allied Assault on the PC and have gotten through the Tunisia and Norway missions on my own, but now I'm stumped. Anybody out there have ANY hints on how to get off the bloody beach in the Normandy scenario? I keep getting chopped up just as I get onto the beach. When I get TO the beach. All the gaming sites have are cheat codes, but I just want to know how to work my way ashore on this one. I can't find any walkthroughs or hints, just cheat codes.

Also in Medal of Honor-Spearhead, how do you keep the agent alive long enough to open the door?

1. WHAT COLOR ARE YOUR BEDROOM WALLS? Sky Blue
2. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? Forge of the Elders by L.Niel Smith
3. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? Nothing, plain Grey
4. FAVORITE BOARD GAME? Wooden Ships & Iron Men
5. FAVORITE MAGAZINE? Backwoods Home
6. FAVORITE SMELL? Grilling Steaks
7. FAVORITE COLOR? Blue
8. LEAST FAVORITE COLOR? Pink
9. HOW MANY RINGS BEFORE YOUR ANSWERING MACHINE PICKS UP? 4
10. MOST IMPORTANT MATERIAL THING IN MY LIFE? Willow, my Terrier-mix,
11. FAVORITE FLAVOR OF ICE CREAM? Mint Chocolate Chip
12. DO YOU BREAK THE SPEED LIMIT DAILY? Yes, in Atlanta traffic, you speed in self-defense.
13. DO YOU HAVE A STUFFED ANIMAL IN YOUR ROOM SOMEWHERE? Yes
14. STORMS - COOL OR SCARY? Cool and Scary, I was an Aerographer's Mate in the Navy
15. FAVORITE DRINK? Iced Tea, was Coke
16. WHEN IS YOUR BIRTHDAY? September 4
17. FAVORITE VEGETABLES? Mushrooms, Onions, Carrots, Le Seur Peas, Green beans, Tomatoes
18. IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY JOB, WHAT WOULD IT BE? Astronaut or Test/Fighter Pilot
19. IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY COLOR HAIR, WHAT WOULD IT BE? What it is now, Sorta brown
20. HAVE YOU EVER BEEN IN LOVE? Yes
21. TOP THREE FAVORITE MOVIES (IN ORDER)? Battle of Britain, Strategic Air Command, Spaceballs
22. DO YOU TYPE WITH YOUR FINGERS ON THE RIGHT KEYS? Heck, No. Got a sympathy C in HS Typing class because I was a graduating senior
23. WHAT'S UNDER YOUR BED? Magazines, clothes, other 'stuff'
24. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE NUMBER? 169 (13x13)
25. FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH ON TV & IN PERSON? Unlimited Class Air Racing
26. WHAT IS YOUR SINGLE BIGGEST FEAR? Needles, crushing crowds
27. FAVORITE CD OF ALL TIME & RIGHT NOW? All time: Tie- A Question of Balance By the Moody Blues or Aqualung by Jethro Tull, Right now: Battle of Britain
28. FAVORITE TV SHOW OF ALL TIME & RIGHT NOW? All Time: Babylon 5, Right Now: NYPD Blue
29. HAMBURGERS OR HOT DOGS? Hamburgers! Gotta have my ground cow!
30. THE COOLEST PLACES YOU’VE EVER BEEN?Â
31. WHAT WALLPAPER AND/OR SCREENSAVER IS ON YOUR COMPUTER RIGHT NOW? Wallpaper: X-15/F-104 Landing picture Screensaver- None
32. DOES MCDONALD'S SKIMP ON YOUR FRIES & DO YOU CARE? Frankly my dear...
33. FAVORITE CHAIN RESTAURANT? Olive Garden
34. IF YOU HAVE A BOY (OR HAVE ANOTHER BOY) WHAT WOULD YOU NAME HIM? Michael James or James Michael
35. IF YOU COULD LEARN TO PLAY ONE INSTRUMENT OVERNIGHT, WHAT WOULD IT BE? Acoustic Guitar

VERY sad. The final resting place for retired warships. I still don't understand why the CGNs were retired so quickly, Especially the Texas and her classmates. They were relatively young ships, and made perfect escorts for the CVNs.

Puget Sound Naval Shipyard - Grave Yard for the Nukes.

Scaled Composites has announced that the date for SpaceShip One's first X-Prize flight attempt will be Wednesday, September 29th. If successful, the secnod flight will have to be no later than October 13.

The Canadian Davinci team is planning a rolloutof their spacecraft in the very near future , they may be able to give Rutan & co a run for their money.

For more info on the X-Prize competition, go here.

Pictures of one of three flyable Daimler-Benz powered 109s in the world. This one is German-owned and was restored in Britain. All of the rest of the "Me-109s" see on the airshow circuit are ex-Spanish AF Hispanos that are powered by Rolls-Royce Merlins. I'd love to have an audio recording of this bird in flight.

Messerschmitt Me109

The Israeli Air force has fielded the first all-female Jet fighter Squadron. First Fighter (aka 101) Squadron, currently flying the F-16C/D, was chsen to be the first fighter squadron in the worls to be completely staffed from pilots to technicians by women. Ten years ago, the first women entered IDF/AF pilot training. Now there are enough qualified female avoators to staff acomplete squadron. The only non-femal positions are the most senior officers, as there are no women with the required experience and time of service, but that will chage as they get more service time.
How will Arab pilots react to being bested not only by Jews but Jewish WOMEN?

Female Fighter Squadron

On the 35th anniversary of the first m\lunar landing, here is a great archive od\f all things Apollo.

The Project Apollo Archive

A neat flash animation depicting the passage of a particle through a modern jet engine. Temperature, airspeed, pressure and rpms are illustrated by gauges, as is a button representing the material each section is made of.

Rolls-Royce: Journey Through A Jet Engine

Found this on the rec.models.rockets newsgroup:

Canadian rocket team readies for space

July 15 - Canada's Brian Feeney says his Da Vinci Project staff is ready to challenge SpaceShipOne for the Ansari X-Prize and expects to roll out his more conventional-looking rocket (compared to aircraft-like SpaceShipOne) the first week of August. Feeney, who has aerospace and rocket design experience, plans to ride the rocket himself when it lifts off from Saskatchewan later this year. The rocket is powered by laughing gas and paraffin and is launched from a helium-filled balloon after reaching 80,000 feet.

SpaceShipOne to try for space prize

July 14 - Scaled Composites officials say they have found out what caused the trim problem and are ready to make a try this fall for the $10 million Ansari X Prize that goes to the rocket team reaching theedge of space twice in two weeks. Look for an official announcement at Oshkosh concerning the team of Paul Allen, who funds the project, and Scaled Composites. SpaceShipOne will fly with one pilot and lead ballast representing the weight of two additional 198.4-pound people and make the flight to 100 kilometers (62.1 statute miles) twice in a two-week period. The trim problem wasn't really a problem, Scaled Composites officials discovered. A left and right roll due to wind shear got SpaceShipOne off its proper pitch profile, called the pitch schedule. To get the craft back on the proper path, full trim was used that ran the pitch tab against the stops, causing an automatic 3-second time-out. After that it would have worked normally, but ground controllers, thinking it had failed, went to a backup system. In fact it had worked as designed.

They found out the source of the "loud bang" which was heard during the flight, and the cause of the dented panel. The dented panel probably was the source of the bang. Just like anytime you
buckle a curved shape inwards, like say a metal can, you get a big noise out of it. The dented panel was a brand-new fairing that was added between the original blunt end of fuselage and the big red nozzle which was visible in the earlier flights. On the last flight, the red nozzle was not visible, as it was covered over by that new fairing. That fairing’s purpose was aerodynamic, not
structural. It could have ripped completely off at that point and not directly have been a problem. Though if it veered left or right and hit one of the tailbooms that could potentially have been a serious problem (Rutan’s spaceships are no more designed to take significant debris impacts than NASA’s).

The underside of that fairing had buckled inwards (upwards). Looked like it was near where the structural fuselage (inside) ended and the nozzle began. Most likely the pressure during the extremely high angle of attack re-entry phase made it buckle. So they'll probably do something simple like adding an internal brace/stringer/rib or add some extra layers of composite materials to stiffen it up in that region.

Something else could have contributed to the buckling. The heat during the re-entry phase may have temporarily softened the resin enough to allow the underside of the fairing to buckle inwards more easily than normal, and since it is a part that’s meant for aerodynamics than structural they may not have accounted for the stresses on it or its weakened state when hot.

Space Ship One isn't seeing anything like the heat of reentry from orbit, but Mach-3 or so gets things pretty hot for awhile considering it’s an all-composite vehicle (fortunately it’s not going that fast in the atmosphere for very long, and slowing at many G’s once it hits the sensible atmosphere coming down). This may explain the dull red stuff they added to the leading edges, which would seem to be some added form of heat protection.

From an interview on pilot Mike Melvill gave on Today:

NORVILLE: There was, as you said, one little problem. And I gather it had something to do with the solid rocket in the fuel, where there was a big boom and for a moment you didn‘t know what had happened.

MELVILL: That‘s correct. There was a loud explosion and a large vibration as part of the fuel that‘s in the rocket motor went out through the nozzle and jammed the nozzle for a split second and then the pressure built up and blew it out.

So there was a very loud explosion, a lot of shaking going on, and I wasn‘t sure I hadn‘t lost part of the aircraft at that point. So that was scary for me.

Most of this was written by George Gassaway, and added to by others.

Remind me again, just why would somebody want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane? Although most of these mishaps involve heavy gear, there are a few individual mishaps. I especially like the truck that came off its pallet during a LAPES drop and just kept right on going.

mishaps

With little fanfare, the Navy has flushed the major part ot the fleet to sea. The word is that it is a "surge exercise" to see if it can be done, but it doesn't make sense to put 92% of the surface fleet and 91% of the subs out to sea at once for an exercise? It must be playing bloody hell with the normal deployment cycle. Do they know something they aren't telling?
Is the Deployment Surge Just an Exercise?

A list of the dumbest moments in recent SF films. Can you add any others?
10 Dumb Moments in
Sci-Fi Cinema

An working example of an East-German arcade game has surfaced in a museum in England. One of only two or three remaining in the world, it offers an insight into what passed for consumer goods in the communist bloc in the late 80's.

I remember the best model kits were old Frog molds that were exported out of England when that company closed down in the 70's. Most of the boxes were cheap; rough cardboard, flimsy and poorly printed with decals that were just about unusable. The kits themselves were, well, if the basic shapes were there, the rest had to come out of the spare parts box. The parts tended to fit where they touched and that's about all.

East Germay's VEB Plasticart along with the various Russian and Polish kits were really crude. The only other ones that were half way decent came out of a Czechoslavakian company called Kozavody Prodechev(?) (most of us just called them KP), and they were fairly good, but still not of western quality.

The Czechs and Poles have come a long way since, and some outfits out of the former Soviet republics have started to rival the standard of model kit makes such as Tamiya and Hasegawa as well as Airfix and Revell/Monogram.

BBC - Wiltshire - Features - Fancy a game, comrade?

A child (or politician)-level reader to go along with my copy of What To Do When the Russians Come. So simple that even a liberal could get through it (;-^})

Red Primer for Children and Diplomats