Photographer
Thomas Van Dyke
Posts: 3232
Washington, District of Columbia, US
One hundred and twelve years ago on this date two eccentric bicycle mechanics in Kill Devil Hills NC turned their ingenious little craft into a fierce freezing headwind gusting to nearly 30 miles per hour went where no man had gone before... Gaining an astonishing altitude of ten feet and a maximum flight distance of 200 feet the magic of controlled power aviation began...
One small step for two humble bicycling brothers, one giant leap for mankind...
Photographer
rfordphotos
Posts: 8866
Antioch, California, US
Thomas Van Dyke wrote:
One hundred and twelve years ago on this date two eccentric bicycle mechanics in Kill Devil Hills NC turned their ingenious little craft into a fierce freezing headwind gusting to nearly 30 miles per hour went where no man had gone before... Gaining an astonishing altitude of ten feet and a maximum flight distance of 200 feet the magic of controlled power aviation began...
One small step for two humble bicycling brothers, one giant leap for mankind... Amazing. Man had been trying for literally ages to get off the ground. So many people worldwide were on the verge of flying, the Wright brothers stumbled on the right formula thru determined, methodical work.
70 years later, I stood on the flightline, preparing to launch an airplane that flew more than 3 times the speed of sound after watching it taxi past a bunch of B-52 bombers---whose wingspan was only a little bit short of TWICE the length of the first powered flight.
While I was in the Air Force in the early 70's, I spoke to my grandmother- born in 1888. In her lifetime her world had literally gone from horse drawn carriages to men walking on the moon. Truly the golden age of aviation.
And all because of brilliant, determined men like the Wright Brothers. Bravo!!!
Photographer
scrymettet
Posts: 33239
Quebec, Quebec, Canada
rfordphotos wrote:
[...70 years later, I stood on the flightline, preparing to launch an airplane that flew more than 3 times the speed of sound ...
And all because of brilliant, determined men like the Wright Brothers. Bravo!!! Blackbirds ?
Photographer
rfordphotos
Posts: 8866
Antioch, California, US
scrymettet wrote:
Blackbirds ? Yes. I was in the 9th OMS, they flew the SR71 and the T38. At the time the 456th Bomb Wing was there flying B52's and KC135's.
edit for accuracy:
The 9th OMS (Organizational Maintenance Squadron) worked on the airplanes. The planes belonged to the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing...based primarily at Beale AFB, Kadena AFB, and later Mildenhall in the UK.
While I was in the unit, they set a couple records... New York to London in under 2 hours, London to LA in under 4 hours.
The SR71 was retired in 1990, too expensive to fly. The unit now operates the U-2, RQ-4 Global Hawk (drone), and MC-12 Liberty aircraft
Photographer
scrymettet
Posts: 33239
Quebec, Quebec, Canada
rfordphotos wrote:
Yes. I was in the 9th OMS, they flew the SR71 and the T38. At the time the 456th Bomb Wing was there flying B52's and KC135's. funny that the last two are still flying
The SR71 is still the most fascinating plane ever made, For me anyway
Photographer
DCurtis
Posts: 796
San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico
And then afterwards the Wright Brothers engaged in a lengthly patent war which retarded aviation in the US. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_br … patent_war On a side note, you can see one of their flyers hanging in the library at Wright State University in Dayton, it is an impressive sight.
Photographer
rfordphotos
Posts: 8866
Antioch, California, US
scrymettet wrote:
funny that the last two are still flying
The SR71 is still the most fascinating plane ever made, For me anyway the SR71 was amazing. To think where the Wright Brothers started, it was quite an achievement. The designer, Kelly Johnson was an amazing guy-- he designed the WWII P-38 and numerous other aircraft, including the U2. He was cut from the same cloth as the Wright Brothers... determined to see how far he could push flight.
Photographer
rfordphotos
Posts: 8866
Antioch, California, US
DCurtis wrote:
And then afterwards the Wright Brothers engaged in a lengthly patent war which retarded aviation in the US. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_br … patent_war
On a side note, you can see one of their flyers hanging in the library at Wright State University in Dayton, it is an impressive sight. Yeah, it is amazing. You stand next to the fragile, fabric covered wooden frame and it gives you a different appreciation for the Wright Brothers.
A trip to the National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC will amaze you. Stand under a Wright Flyer, see Lindurgh's Spirit of St. Louis, The Enola Gay, and the Mercury space capsules... and in such a short time. It really gave me perspective on the explosion of aviation---once the Wright Brothers got us flying.....
Photographer
scrymettet
Posts: 33239
Quebec, Quebec, Canada
rfordphotos wrote:
the SR71 was amazing. To think where the Wright Brothers started, it was quite an achievement. The designer, Kelly Johnson was an amazing guy-- he designed the WWII P-38 and numerous other aircraft, including the U2. He was cut from the same cloth as the Wright Brothers... determined to see how far he could push flight. Ingenious engineer. I watched a movie about him. The U2 is still flying too
pure genius.
Photographer
Orca Bay Images
Posts: 33877
Arcata, California, US
rfordphotos wrote:
I was in the 9th OMS, they flew the SR71 and the T38. At the time the 456th Bomb Wing was there flying B52's and KC135's. I was with the 456th/17th AMS. Maintained avionics on the buffs and the tanks from 74-76.
Photographer
John Photography
Posts: 13811
Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Can the U2 glide? I read that in a book somewhere that it can glide with little effort.
Photographer
Thomas Van Dyke
Posts: 3232
Washington, District of Columbia, US
John Photography wrote:
Can the U2 glide? I read that in a book somewhere that it can glide with little effort. Lockheed's U-2 has a lift-to-drag ratio of 28:1 (maximum) Compare that with Boeing 747 which has a lift-to-drag ratio of 17:1
That said modern sailplanes have lift-to-drag ratios of up to 60:1
And have set distance traveled of over 1000 miles (out and back riding mountain waves)...
Even hold an altitude record of 50,727 feet riding a mountain wave...
btw, mountain waves form those lit' stationary lenticular clouds (Altocumulus lenticularis) that Edward Weston liked to photo so much in the Rockies...
Yes I was a member of Frederick Maryland's Mid-Atlantic Soaring Club and the Soaring Society of America
Until you have experienced the serenity of sailplane flight there are no words which can possibly convey it's ethereal aura...
Photographer
Michael Bots
Posts: 8020
Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Photographer
Thomas Van Dyke
Posts: 3232
Washington, District of Columbia, US
Thank you for sharing Michael... Yes the Lockheed U2 is in a class by itself... as is the SR-71 Albeit for those among us who actually want to travel aloft, sailplanes offer a window into another enchanting world far beyond one's imagination... Here is what it's like to pilot a sailplane... Caveat: Dramamine recommended for those who aren't accustom to acrobatic flight... Not your typical scheduled carrier... you've been warned... lol btw, the only component lacking is the roar of the silence...
Photographer
Good Egg Productions
Posts: 16713
Orlando, Florida, US
1903: Man's first powered flight of 200 feet.
66 years later,
1969: Man walks on the moon, returns safely to Earth.
46 years later,
2015: We're still all sitting here on the Earth, bitching about how long it took to get through security and how small our seats are on the plane, paying ($600) what would have been about $25 in 1903 to go from N.Y. to L.A. in 5 hours.
Did science just get tired? Did man just decide things were too hard after putting a few Wall-Es on Mars? Did we suddenly just get dumb?
Photographer
LightDreams
Posts: 4429
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Good Egg Productions wrote:
Did science just get tired? Did man just decide things were too hard after putting a few Wall-Es on Mars? Did we suddenly just get dumb? I've been fortunate to listen in and occasionally join some passionate debates with people who are far more qualified and much smarter than me, when this issue came up in various forms. They were mainly science types (now long gone) who were involved in some breakthrough projects in their time. Ones that you'd all be aware of. And they used to make some interesting points, which I still think about:
-Gov'ts used to view education and especially INNOVATIVE education as a major / good influence on the long term future of their countries.
-Major businesses used to invest far more in pure R&D with absolutely no idea what would come out of it. They only knew that if they invested significantly that a portion of it would pay off in (unexpected) major ways. Long term thinking instead of thinking in terms like "the next quarter's report" is all that matters.
Gov'ts also used to spend far more on pure R&D for the same long term reasons. And, I've heard some pretty good cases made that they'd deliberately look for large scale, hard to accomplish big projects. Because those are the ones that would end up pushing the envelope and changing the rules. The spin-offs would be a very vibrant, technologically leading future economy. In many ways the race to the moon was a perfect example of the really big, really technologically difficult mega project.
Regardless of whether you accept any or all of these explanations, they all fit a general pattern. And that is that the further in the future that you go AFTER you significantly reduce any or all of the above, the more pronounced the negative impact on the country is.
Whether you agree with the prescription or not, it's hard to dispute that the symptoms (which you've summarized so well) certainly appear to match what they always used to claim would happen.
Just something to think about!
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