The amount of engineering and cooperation needed to get that large massive piece of machinery off the ground in such a graceful way is outright unbelievable. Geez the things we are capable of... Nice.
I totally agree. I feel truly lucky to fly them. Here's a landing video of a 747-8 as well [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Mv6PogbrJc&t=6s[/ame]
Lou here is a video of one of yours ripping up the runway in Whitehorse, Yukon http://youtu.be/YH2ncIk0QKo
Lou- Looks like the old "Sitting in a Bay Window and Flying an Apartment Building" quote from B-36 days. Looks like fun though, especially without 4 burning and 6 turning and only 4 burning. Do you have a galley onboard?
I remember years ago sitting in my car along Perimeter Road next to runway 9R at MIA (when that was still permitted) and watching 747s accelerate towards my position for takeoff. After rotating, they would generally unstick just about as they passed me, and I was always amazed that that large a machine could actually fly!
I grew up in Albuquerque right under the N end of the N-S runway. Watching B-36's looking like it was going to land on our roof. Wingspan was about a city block, it looked like. Pictures fell off the wall, kitchen cabinet doors flew open. The dog hid. Sun eclipsed. My mother hated it... I loved it.
Same when I lived in San Antonio and my father was stationed at Kelly in the early 50s. Definitely an aluminum overcast on mass launches, a very noisy overcast. Even with Stage 4, 747s are not exactly quiet, either. At least I think they are Stage 4, since that went into effect in 2005 for new aircraft types.
Sorry about the off-topic again... when I was in school in Albuquerque, a B-36 dropped (accidently) an H-Bomb about 2 miles from our house, 3 miles from the classroom I was sitting in. There was a good sized explosion from the trigger(?) going off and a large crater. Albuquerque's Near Doomsday Did not know about this for decades... was very hush-hush. Back to regularly scheduled Lou's 747 stuff....
Both my parents along with all but one of my brothers graduated from Highland. I remember when this came out what really happened. I wasn't born when it happened as I was born in 64. When this came out lots of people I talked to had known about the explosion just not what had really happened. Anyway back to the thread, sorry I sometimes get lost in Albuquerque stuff as I still get home sick.
Yes, I went to Highland also, like the author of the Tribune article. Highland 'Hornets'... after the USS Hornet (CV-8) WWII carrier... launched the Doolittle raid, did Midway, Guadalcanal, etc. Sunk by Japanese. Highland used/uses the identical Hornet's mascot. It was the primo HS in the state in those days. There, done.
The explosion was caused by the conventional explosives that collapse the nuclear material into a critical mass for a nuclear reaction. That all has to be precisely timed, so in this case it was not, so no critical mass and no nuclear reaction. Leaves a big mess behind like the dirty bombs you hear about terrorists using. No nuclear reaction, just radioactive material scattered about. New weapons use what we call insensitive explosives, which do not go off from impact or fire and can usually only be set off intentionally. We no longer fly fighters or bombers with live nuclear weapons onboard, either. They are only in the air in certified transport aircraft.
