Hi All,
Friday the Space Shuttle, Endeavour flew around California before landing in Los Angeles. It flew over where I work at San Francisco International Airport, then south over Silicon Valley, then headed over to the coast, where my family was able to watch it flying over the beach heading for Monterey, Ca.
It was flying at around 1500 feet, so was easy to see and very impressive.
It eventually got down to LA and landed there, as this YouTube shows.
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[/extendedmedia]Chester 
Another piece of aviation history, kind of reminds me of ChiliBill's story of ditching a plane he was flying... only this one was over water . . . Click on the youtube to read the story, or, open to full screen.
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[/extendedmedia] Chester Recieved this from Stumpy,
THIS IS AN INCREDIBLE PIECE OF AVIATION HISTORY. Chester 
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Gray Eagles Film by Chris Woods
A Great video about the P-51 Mustang
F22 RAPTOR AT FIRST EU AIR SHOW
Al Norman, Lockheed Martin's chief F-22 test pilot, describes the flight demo of the Raptor at the Farnborough Air show for the First time !
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Looks like they had UFO Kooks, even way back then. 
Chester
Here's a couple of youTube vid's from a fellow who has a model T-28.
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[/extendedmedia]If you click on the YouTube logo at the bottom right, it will take you to YouTube, where you can open to full screen.
Chester
Ride on a U2 spy plane
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A friend of mine, since passed on, was a crew member on the Enola Gay.
He was also a friend of my Mom's back in the sixty's and early seventy's.
He didn't talk about it much, but I remember him mentioning, how as they looked back, there was a big mushroom cloud.
Chester
Great videos Bill, here's something from a more modern Air Force. knowing your indefatigable spirit, you'll be wanting to learn how to fly this one too.
THE GLOBALHAWK
This is a photo of the Global Hawk UAV that returned from the war zone recently under its own power. (Iraq to Edwards AFB in CA) - Not transported via C5 or C17.....
Notice the mission paintings on the fuselage.
It's actually over 250 missions.... (and I would suppose 25 air medals).
That's a long way for a remotely-piloted aircraft.
Think of the technology (and the required quality of the data link
to fly it remotely).
Not only that but the pilot controlled it from a nice warm control panel at Edwards AFB.
(They also fly them out of Davis-Monthan AFB here in Tucson for missions over the Middle East.)
Really long legs - can stay up for almost 2 days at altitudes above 60k (60,000 feet).
The Global Hawk was controlled via satellite; it flew missions during OT&E that went from Edwards AFB to upper Alaska and back non-stop.
Basically, they come into the fight at a high mach # in mil thrust, fire their AMRAAMS, and no one ever sees them or paints them with radar.
There is practically no radio chatter because all the guys in the flight are tied together electronically, and can see who is targeting who, and they have AWACS direct input and
360 situational awareness from that and other sensors.
The aggressors had a morale problem before it was all over.
It is to air superiority what the jet engine was to aviation.
It can taxi, take off, fly a mission, return, land and taxi on its own.
No blackouts, no fatigue, no relief tubes, no ejection seats, and best of all, no dead pilots, no POWs!
Pretty cool!
Here's one for ChiliBill to try out. :teeth_smile:
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[/extendedmedia]Bill,
I found some interesting data regarding this jet, from the California Flight Academy , you might need a little more than $250,000 to own one of these jets.
MS 760 PARIS JET OPERATING EXPENSES
Fuel Expenses 130 gph average $1.95/gal $52,000.00
Insurance Liability Only per year $8,000.00
Oil per year $150.00
Maint. & Annual 83 man hours per year $5,000.00
Tires per set $1,000.00
Brakes per set $1,000.00
Taxes per year $3,000.00
$70,150.00
Hourly operating costs based upon 200 hours per year $350.75
without engine reserves
Engine reserves based upon 1800 hours overhaul life
$65,000 per engine = $36.11 X 2 $72.22
Hourly operating costs based upon 200 hours per year $422.97
Here's a website that has more info ;
http://www.machdiamonds.com/paris.html
Chester
Bill,
That Paris Jet is one nice looking aircraft, what years were they made, what year is this particular one, and where, are / were, they made?
Chester
Here's a Sad update on Mac Hodges B-29
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