***The OFFICIAL aviation pics thread***

[silver_2000_tj]

[silver_2000_tj]

[silver_2000_tj]

[silver_2000_tj]

[lincolnboy]

[silver_2000_tj]

[silver_2000_tj]

[silver_2000_tj]

[CJ]

A fun excerpt by an SR-71 pilot.

In April 1986, following an attack on American soldiers in a Berlin disco, President Reagan ordered the bombing of Muammar Qaddafi's terrorist camps in Libya. My duty was to fly over Libya and take photos recording the damage our F-111's had inflicted. Qaddafi had established a 'line of death,' a territorial marking across the Gulf of Sidra , swearing to shoot down any intruder that crossed the boundary. On the morning of April 15, I rocketed past the line at 2,125 mph.
I was piloting the SR-71 spy plane, the world's fastest jet, accompanied by Maj Walter Watson, the aircraft's reconnaissance systems officer (RSO). We had crossed into Libya and were approaching our final turn over the bleak desert landscape when Walter informed me that he was receiving missile launch signals. I quickly increased our speed, calculating the time it would take for the weapons-most likely SA-2 and SA-4 surface-to-air missiles capable of Mach 5 - to reach our altitude. I estimated that we could beat the rocket-powered missiles to the turn and stayed our course, betting our lives on the plane's performance.

After several agonizingly long seconds, we made the turn and blasted toward the Mediterranean 'You might want to pull it back,' Walter suggested. It was then that I noticed I still had the throttles full forward. The plane was flying a mile every 1.6 seconds, well above our Mach 3.2 limit. It was the fastest we would ever fly. I pulled the throttles to idle just south of Sicily , but we still overran the refueling tanker awaiting us over Gibraltar.

http://gizmodo.com/5950763/holy-fcklook-at-all-these-sr-71-blackbirds-together

[silver_2000_tj]

[CJ]

you have to hand it to the B2, there's nothing like it.

[01vnms4v]

[Moose242]

She isn't as dignified as a twin or as sleek as a jet, but she'll do. For anyone who cares:
My dad grew up very poor in a household with three sisters and his dad owned a small gas station by Love Field. As a child he admired airplane pilots and would watch the planes go up and down as he changed spark plugs, pumped gas, etc. thinking that maybe someday he would get to fly on an airplane (not fly one himself, but fly on one). He got sent to boarding school at a young age because his mom thought he was the devil (religious fanatic).
After getting a job sanding cabinets and using that to support himself until he got out of there, he worked his ass off to pay for flying lessons in the 1980s. Fast forward to 2004 or so and he had a Beechcraft Sierra that he owned outright. My dad is not materialistic, but that little plane tickled him to death and he took as many opportunities as he could to fly that little bird. In 2005 or 2006 he bought a new Bonanza direct from Beechcraft and I got to fly with him to the plant to look at how planes were made. That was one of the coolest things I have ever done.
In 2008 when GM called our note (some of you might remember his billboard saying he needed to buy 1000 vans and needed a lender) he sold most of our stuff to get through that, including his plane:



But that wasn't going to stop Dave Capps. Fuck no. He worked his 60 year old ass off, got new lines of credit, and came out of that rut despite GMAC's best efforts. As a result, he went out and bought a plane exactly like the Bonanza he had to sell to take care of business. This little bird has taken some board members up and to him it means the world (so much so that on his desk he has a small model of it):



And us recently:




Also, a picture of my pops for posterity:




If anyone ever wants to go flying, the man will bend over backwards to take you up too. If you have ever had an interest in aviation just shoot me a message and I would gladly put you in touch.

[2011GT]

[2011GT]