“In military power, we would start to fall off the boom. The solution was to light one afterburner with careful finesse,’ Brian Shul, former SR-71 Blackbird pilot The Lockheed A-12…
Carriers
US Navy to Decommission USS Nimitz in 2026, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in 2027, 2 Independence-class LCS Set for Foreign Sales, according Long-Range Shipbuilding Plan
The US Navy will decommission two nuclear aircraft carriers back-to-back and two Independence-class Littoral Combat Ships will go up for foreign military sale According to the US Navy’s latest long-range…
NavalWarfare
Former US Navy Submarine Officer explains why the periscope is raised when submarines dive
‘There are a number of reasons for it… First, because the procedure says it should be,’ David Kirk, former US Navy Submarine Officer The periscope is the eye of the…
‘I identify the target on the radar for a LADD attack [‘toss bombing’] and actuate the Run-in Timer according to my radar display,’ Lt A. Hartl, Luftwaffe F-104G Starfighter pilot…
Cold War
An ex-Blue Angels CO explains the decision to replace the F-4 Phantom II with the A-7 Corsair II and the choice of the A-4 Skyhawk rather than the F-14 Tomcat
‘While we were doing this search for airplanes, a couple of squadrons were coming back from Vietnam and were being decommissioned. They had the A-4F, which was the latest model…
A-12 pilot Jim Eastham dropped the nose down a bit to see if he could at least reach Mach 3.0. Out of nowhere, Jim hit good air and in the…
Humor
F-117 pilot on Nighthawk’s nicknames when it was a highly classified program and when its existence became public knowledge
‘Black humor and a lack of restraint are common in the community when it comes to airplane nicknames, so I reckon the F-117 didn’t come off too badly overall,’ John…
This post’s video from the Sierra Hotel may be the best F-4 Phantom II footage ever filmed The Noise You Hear is the Sound of Freedom! The s**t hot video…
The Gerald R. Ford-class is the replacement for Enterprise and Nimitz-class aircraft carriers Aircraft carriers continue to be the centerpiece of America’s Naval forces necessary for operating forward. In times…
History
Ford UK refused to build Rolls-Royce Merlin engines due to differences in allowed tolerances
Ford re-drew the blue-prints for the Merlin, making it more suitable for mass production, and by 1944, over 400 engines a week were flowing out of the plants The Rolls…