Upgrade to enjoy this feature!
Vital MX fantasy is free to play, but Premium users receive great benefits. Premium benefits include:
- View and download rider stats
- Pick trends
- Create a private league
- And more!
Only $10 for all 2026 SX, MX, and SMX series.
On both the FID and TR our paraloft was conveniently close to the catwalk, which was conveniently close to where the Intruders were parked. So not many long strolls along the flight deck, which was often slathered in various oils and lubricants. A windy day could send an inattentive crewmember skating across the gnarled surface.
Very cool to see this Hustler sitting in its brand new building. This guy is #4 of 116 made (0663) and only 1 of 8 on display in the world.
The Shop
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
On September 13, 1985, Maj. Doug Pearson took off from Edwards Air Force Base in an F-15 with an 18 foot, 2,700 pound missile under the belly and one target: an American satellite called Solwind, launched in 1979, worn out, and orbiting 345 miles above the Pacific at 17,500 miles an hour.
The Air Force wanted to prove a fighter jet could reach into space. Pearson had spent 6 years leading the program. The first attempt, on September 4, had been stopped by a court injunction while he waited in the officers' club for the go.
About 200 miles west of Vandenberg, flying at Mach 1.22, he pulled 3.8 G into a 65 degree climb. At 38,100 feet, slowing back through the speed of sound, the missile launched itself automatically. There was no explosive in the warhead. The 30 pound interceptor was designed to simply run into the 2,000 pound satellite at a closing speed of 15,000 miles an hour.
Then Pearson had nothing to look at. He would never see the hit.
So he and a friend named Scott in the control room had worked out a code.
"I'd tell him, 'I'm going to level off at 36,000 feet.' And if we've had a successful intercept, you'll say, 'Roger, Aggie-1. That's a good altitude.'"
He made the call. Scott answered: that's a good altitude.
The satellite was gone.
Congress banned further tests the following year. No pilot has fired at a satellite since. Pearson retired as a major general.
The jet kept flying for another 25 years. On September 13, 2007, 22 years to the day, F-15A 76-0084 was sitting on the ramp at Homestead, Florida, with "Celestial Eagle" painted on the nose. The pilot who climbed in was Capt. Todd Pearson, wearing the same shoulder patch his father had worn in 1985.
1st Lieutenant Edwin L. King, a United States Army Air Forces P-47 Thunderbolt pilot, had just climbed out of his badly damaged fighter in Italy during the Allied air campaign of 1944.
His plane was struck by German anti-aircraft fire while he was conducting a low-level attack on ground targets, a mission the Thunderbolt often took on as Allied forces advanced north through the Italian peninsula.
A burst of flak tore through an oil line in the massive Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp radial engine. Almost instantly, oil gushed out under pressure, flooding the engine compartment before being blown back into the cockpit. The thick oil coated the canopy and windscreen, nearly blinding King and making it incredibly difficult to see his instruments or the terrain below.
Despite this, he kept the damaged aircraft under control and headed for friendly territory. The P,47 was famous for its toughness, and even with its engine starved of lubrication, it was able to keep running long enough for King to reach an Allied airfield.
Only moments after he touched down, the R,2800 seized up completely, its internal parts destroyed by the lack of oil.
Missions over Italy were especially dangerous, with German flak batteries positioned around roads, bridges and troop concentrations, forcing Allied pilots to fly straight into heavy fire.
I may have told this story before but I'm old and can't remember.
The night we went in during the first Gulf War I shook my pilots hand and helped him strap into our EF111. He tucked his straw 10 gallon out of the way and was pretty dang chipper..
It was a different story when I recovered him. He pulled me aside and told me he had shit his flight suit and the seat cushion was a mess. I stole a cushion from the Cann bird and put the plane to bed.
I went to ops to see if I could view some video of the mission. I couldn't believe what I saw. The amount of shit he flew through was unbelievable. How any of them survived is a miracle.
The next night he did it again...and again...and again. I know what the definition of guts is.
Wow, PB I do not recall hearing that story! 😲
Yeah Fighter pilots of all generations are definitely true heroes.
It's one of the strangest stories in aviation. On February 2, 1970, three fighter jets took off from Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana to practice dogfighting. One of them was flown by Lieutenant Gary Foust.
At about 35,000 feet his jet stalled and fell into a flat spin, spinning flat and dropping fast. In an F-106 that was almost impossible to recover from.
Foust tried everything. He even threw out the drag chute, the parachute used to slow the plane after landing, hoping it would pull the tail straight. It tangled around the tail instead.
At about 15,000 feet he pulled the ejection handle.
The seat fired him out of the cockpit, and the sudden change in the plane's weight and balance did what he couldn't. The nose dipped. The jet came out of the spin and started flying normally, and the tangled chute broke free. Empty.
His wingman watched it fly away without him.
The plane glided down on its own and slid to a stop on its belly in a snowy field near Big Sandy, Montana. It was barely damaged.
When the local sheriff got there, the engine was still running and the radar was still sweeping. He climbed onto the wing. The plane started sliding forward underneath him and he got off. A while later the beacon went out, and he figured it had run out of fuel.
Foust parachuted into the mountains and was![]()
picked up by locals on snowmobiles.
The Air Force repaired the plane and put it back in service.
Years later, Foust ended up in a squadron where his old wingman was now his commanding officer. He made sure Foust got assigned the same jet.
You can go see it. It's in the National Museum of the US Air Force in Ohio, and they call it the Cornfield Bomber.
https://youtu.be/3M2XZEYqIpQ?is=f3sXl0Sphf5o555f
😳
A guitar case hid the weapons, hammers and a speargun, that flight engineer Auburn Calloway smuggled aboard FedEx Flight 705 on April 7, 1994, planning to kill the entire crew and crash the DC-10 into the company's Memphis hub to fake his own death for a $2.5 million payout. He attacked all three crew members once airborne, fracturing skulls and nearly severing the captain's ear, but First Officer Jim Tucker fought back with the only weapon he had, the airplane itself, rolling the massive jet nearly 140 degrees toward inverted flight to pin Calloway against the ceiling. Every man aboard took multiple hammer blows before Calloway was finally subdued, and Tucker, left paralyzed down one side, still helped restrain him while the captain nursed the overweight, battered aircraft back to a safe landing in Memphis. All three crew members survived but never flew commercially again; Calloway is serving two consecutive life sentences 👇
🔗 https://dailytopis.com/when-a-fedex-flight-engineer.../
My family has property in eastern canada, directly across a river from a base where various American units come time to time for joint training. Back in the late 80s, I was sitting on the beach when 3 A10s came up the river at low altitude, passed our place then turned up over the hills into base airspace. It was amazing. I'll never forget the noise they made.
Veteran Community Mentors
This POS played the race card non-stop -- it was one of his motivations for his crime -- and had the balls to peition PedoJoe to pardon him because "nobody on the aircraft died".
He'll die in prison, as he deserves.
Next time you blindly worship "veterans".... remember this one. And Timothy McVeigh. and............
(Royal YOU)
ASAT!
Damn, that’s a really good pull 💪🏼🇺🇸
A lot of companies and combined technologies came together for that project.
Pit Row
Wow, this was one experimental aircraft that was thankfully shit-canned! Can you imagine trying to land that thing what were they thinking? 😵😵💫
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1H99sTirnU/
Glad ‘military adjacent’ caught on, Manny! Working near interesting aircraft and getting a look at them sounds pretty cool. It’s the way you tell those stories that I have to laugh at!
You managed to work me into a post about a bomber you might get permission to look at. I think you’ve illustrated my point pretty well…..
Okay, nothing military about this one and it's more about an airport than aircraft but I though it was a really cool video. Does of course have some historic aircraft in it.
When you’re working on a program, it’s kinda hard not to see it. 🤣
They’re are a few of those beautiful old airports with thier amazing architecture around the country. There’s one in Louisiana that they used for one of the Marvel movies that’s similarly historic.
Sad Day and another bad idea by our Military head honchos.
Just like they retired the SR-71 prematurely they also are doing the same with the A-10 Warthog as it's still a very viable aircraft in it's theater domain. If I recall it's recently done a good job in the Hormuz straight nightmare.
DVIDS - News - Final A-10 units inactivate at Davis-Monthan
https://share.google/iPraSnpkSGWH86LDy
A-10 is an amazing platform. I don't know how they keep those old airframes flying though. They've already replaced wings to extend their life but they probably are out of life expectancy on the frame.
During FAC(A) missions I've been in tight formation on 60deg dives when they are shooting the gun. Loud! Amazing! Such a cool plane.
Hey, they bought that fucking Air Tractor to replace the Warthog. I'd say, "You can't make this shit up" but that's Mannys line.🙃
^^^
AT802U Sky Warden
Blasphemy, that DOES NOT replace the A-10!
I don't know what year you got out, but when I got out in '01, Tomcats were at something like 8:1 maintenance hours to flight hours. You have to imagine that with 20+ years of wartime flying, the Warthog has to be somewhere in that neighborhood. It'll suck to see it go, but unfortunately, everything has a shelf life.
Post a reply to: Historic Aircraft from back in the day