This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: YGBSM!!

  • Weekend Open Thread

    Many TAH readers have flown on a C-130. But it’s possible few know the aircraft’s true maximum possible passenger capacity.

    Oh, sure – the book says that the earlier models can hold “64 paratroopers or 92 combat troops”. But when push comes to shove, the bird can carry a few more than that.

    As in over 350 more. And I am not joking.

    . . .

    Tan Son Nhut Air Base, 29 April 1975. The North Vietnamese were advancing on Saigon, and a massive evacuation of US and other friendly personnel was underway. Originally planned as an evacuation of 13,000, the evacuation is estimated to have moved nearly 130,000 persons to safety.

    At the time Tan Son Nhut was literally a war zone. Over 100 aircraft were either damaged and/or destroyed on the air base flight line, with some still burning.

    However, one C-130 – tail number 56-0518 – remained there in flyable condition. It has been a USAF asset from delivery in 1957 until 1972, but was then transferred from the USAF to the RVNAF.

    Its pilot on 29 April 1975 was an RVNAF officer named Major Phuong (regrettably, I couldn’t determine the man’s full name). As he prepared to leave, his aircraft was being mobbed by literally hundreds.

    So many people boarded the plane that while taxiing the loadmaster informed Maj Phuong that he couldn’t close the rear ramp. Phuong then slammed on the brakes, which pushed the mass of passengers forward. (Some accounts say he did this multiple times in order to make room for more evacuees.) The doors were closed, and the aircraft – though overloaded by an amount estimated to be at least 5 tons – successfully took off.

    Accounts indicate the aircraft needed more than 10,000 feet to get airborne – and the runway at Tan Son Nhut was only 10,000 feet. The bird didn’t lift off until it was on Tan Son Nhut’s 1,000’ runway overrun.

    After an eventful flight (in addition to the high APF takeoff, they also became disoriented over the Gulf of Thailand), Phuong and his aircraft eventually reached safety. After landing, 452 personnel exited the plane – 32 of whom had been crammed into the cockpit.

    . . .

    No, this isn’t some bogus “tall tale”. It actually happened. It’s documented here, here, here, and here. Multiple other accounts also exist, though not all are accurate (some sources indicate, erroneously, that the aircraft was a USMC C-130).

    Living free vice under a Communist dictatorship is often a powerful motivation to do truly amazing – and insanely dangerous – things.

    Afterwards, the aircraft was returned to the USAF. It continued to fly until 1989, at which point it was retired.

    The aircraft wasn’t send to Davis-Monthan AFB and scrapped, though. In recognition of the fact that it was the last C-130 to leave Vietnam, the aircraft was retained as a memorial. It is today on static display outside the main gate of Little Rock AFB, AR.

    OK, enough aviation history for today. Enjoy the WOT, everyone – and the weekend.

  • The Martians Are Coming! Happy Hallowe’en

    Happy Hallowe’en! If you want to mess with your kids’ heads, put this old radio play on speakers without warning them, but don’t let them see the screen. Speakers only.

    It is Mercury Theater On the Air’s 1938 broadcast of War of the Worlds with Orson Wells at the helm of it. No commercials or breaks, no explanations, just actors and sound effects, and much more effective than any of those movies that have been made about this matter.

    There was a disclaimer broadcast at the beginning of this show, but if people tuned in a few minutes late, they’d have missed the disclaimer and became – well, concerned. Some people did leave New Jersey for “safer” places.

    As the Smithsonian article says, some people became upset, called police stations, newspaper offices and radio stations to find out what was going on. But the panics reported in the press were mostly exaggerations, like that’s anything new, right?

    https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/infamous-war-worlds-radio-broadcast-was-magnificent-fluke-180955180/

    And here it is, in its entire silly glory with Orson Wells in charge. He sold no wine before its time.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs0K4ApWl4g

    How would anyone pull off something like that today? Simple: shut down the internet, all of it and wireless telecomm. Shut down all satellite communications, too. One bodacious solar EMP would likely fry cell towers, power stations, and high power lines. Even radio stations might go off the air, if their power source failed and nothing could get out.

    Remember, we have a full generation of people whose entire lives are embedded in electronic junk and if that shuts down, so will their minds. If only there were some way to really blow their minds…. (nefarious laughter follows)

    Alexa is not your friend…. she knows what you’re up to….

    Happy Hallowe’en!!

  • Critic Pans Hunter Killer Movie

    hunter killer movie scene
    This image released by Lionsgate shows Gerard Butler in a scene from “Hunter Killer” (Jack English/Lionsgate via AP)

    Still haven’t seen the movie, but it seems my prediction after viewing the trailer was pretty much correct- it’s an underwater Top Gun. If you recall, Top Gun was loud, flashy, fast paced, and completely filled with bullshit. It was so bad without meaning to be that folks who actually know something about aviation, would either look on in horror or point-and-laugh. It was critiqued by Ward Carroll, an actual F-14 RIO who was moved to pen 79-cringe-worthy-technical-errors-in-the-movie-top-gun.

    But I digress. Lindsey Bahr, of The Associated Press has this to say about Hunter Killer:

    There are so many good movies in theaters right now — thoughtful, artistic, well-acted and well-told movies that studios preciously save for this time of year with the distant hope of Oscar gold in their future. The Gerard Butler submarine movie “Hunter Killer ” is not one of those movies — it is bombastic and garish, ridden with clichés, preposterous politics and diplomacy, and frenetic, video game energy.

    And it’s so often so unintentionally silly that it’s actually kind of a fun watch.

    The film starts out confusingly. An American submarine is torpedoed by a Russian sub in Russian waters, but back in the U.S., all they know is it’s disappeared, and they’ve got to go find it. The man for the job, Rear Admiral John Fisk (Common) concludes, is Captain Joe Glass (Butler), who we’re told is not like the other guys. He “never went to Annapolis.” Why that makes him especially qualified for this mission will basically remain a mystery, other than the fact that he’ll readily disobey orders and go rogue at any opportunity. He’s seen stuff, guys, and not in a Naval Academy classroom.

    We meet him in the middle of nowhere, in snowy terrain about to shoot a CGI buck across a glassy lake with a bow and arrow. But then he looks to the right of the buck and sees its CGI family close by and decides to lower his weapon. This moment lets the audience know a few things: a) That Joe Glass has empathy and b) that this movie has no subtlety. The next thing we know a military helicopter is swooping down to pick him up and take him to his sub.

    Based on the book “Firing Point,” this is the first Hollywood film from South African director Donovan Marsh, and he does cook up some captivating action set pieces, like navigating a submarine through a fjord of mines, or even just an old fashioned, ridiculously over the top shootout, which may have you laughing, rolling your eyes or even cheering (as a fair amount of people were in my screening), but it’s never boring.

    There’s more at The Navy Times if one can stand it. I’ll wait until it’s available on NetFlix to spectate in private, and I look forward to the comments from our resident
    Bubbleheads.

  • Weekend Open Thread

    Well, looks like it’s almost time to go on the road again. This one will be a short trip time-wise, though unlike the last this one was both expected and planned some time ago.

    So today’s WOT will be a relatively short one as well – at least the part I’m writing. (smile)

    Today’s (hopefully) amusing and amazing aviation anecdote comes to you courtesy of longtime TAH reader and commenter GDContractor. Original attribution for the text is to an individual named Andy Rawson.

    The story which follows references a video link and a photo. The referenced video link can be found here.

    I don’t have a link to the precise photo referenced in the text below, nor do I have a copy of the photo. However, links to photos of the two trainer aircraft referenced have been inserted into that text. The text is otherwise as I received it.

    For those interested, here’s a photo of the aircraft that’s the primary subject of this story, the English Electric Lightning F1:

    “OK. Airplane story time! Link to a video in comments that tells the whole story.

    So once upon a time, there was a British aircraft maintainer (he was a civilian at the time but was RAF prior service), named Wing Commander Taffy Holden. He commanded a service and replacement group staffed by civilians that they wanted to close down, and they had one trouble. One sick English Electric Lightning F1. After they fixed it and sent it off, the unit was to be disbanded.

    So they got a test pilot, who hadn’t been able to help them during the time he was available, and there were no more available for at least a week.

    So WC Holden had a bright idea. He had served as an engineer, but had been through basic flight training during his service in WW2. He had trained on that biplane in the picture there. DH 82 Tiger Moth, and the DHC 1 Chipmunk, a monoplane trainer. Both of these are, how shall we say, safe, calm, forgiving aircraft. He’s a pilot. They only wanted to taxi the aircraft to run tests on the electrical systems, which is where the problem was. So they dragged this supersonic beast out to a closed runway, he hopped in, and had a quick briefing on how to start the engines and work the throttles, because he couldn’t figure out how to start a jet, never having flown one.

    Because he was only going to taxi 30 -40 yards, the canopy was removed, and Holden wasn’t wearing a helmet.

    So he cranks it up, gets ready, and opens the throttles. He has some trouble with the brakes, so the plane doesn’t move, so he cranked it up a bit more. All the way through the stop to “reheat”, which is gated to keep it in afterburner. At this point he is sitting in a rocket that can climb to altitude almost vertically.

    So he shoots off down this closed runway, misses a truck, crosses an active runway, also missing a DH Comet taking off, and starts to run out of tarmac. So he has to take off. Which the aircraft wants to do at this point. Once he’s past the ground hazards, he remembers how to disable the afterburners, but he has no helmet, no radio, and no canopy. Oh, and the ejection seat is still safed, so it doesn’t work either. On his third try, he manages to get it down, only breaking the box that holds the drogue chute because he landed it like a taildragger, He managed to get it stopped with 100yd of runway left.

    Oddly enough, he isn’t charged or censured in any way, because the aircraft wasn’t seriously damaged. And he went from aircraft whose top speeds are like 120mph to one whose top speed was 1300+ MPH successfully with zero training.”

    WC Holden was one lucky man, indeed.

    Enjoy the WOT, everyone. And have a great weekend.

  • Bill and Hill’s Excellent Autumn Tour

    bill n hill
    Bill and Hillary Clinton announce US/Canadian event series tour

    On Monday, Bill and Hillary Clinton made an announcement. They are going on tour across 13 U.S. cities to close out 2018 and extend it through 2019.

    The tours will consist of conversation-like series titled, “An Evening with President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton,” NBC News reported.

    Ticket sales begin Friday morning at 10 a.m. Ticket prices are expected to be around $700 for the best seats and as low as $70 for cheaper seats.

    The tours will be conducted by Live Nation, the same company that promoted Michelle Obama’s new memoir, “Becoming.” Live Nation also launched tours for several music legends.

    What on earth could these two grifters say that hasn’t been said over and over since the 1990s?

    I spoke too soon.

    According to Live Nation, the Clintons’ shows will include “stories and inspiring anecdotes that shaped their historic careers in public service, while also discussing issues of the day and looking toward the future.”

    Somehow I doubt Cigar Bill and the Bitch From Benghazi will make an appearance.

    Live Nation said, “Attendees will have the opportunity to hear one-of-a-kind conversations with the two leaders as they tell their stories from some of the most impactful moments in modern history. From the American presidency to the halls of the Senate and State Department, to one of the United States’ most controversial and unpredictable presidential elections, they provide a unique perspective on the past, and remarkable insight into where we go from here.”

    Well, there’s always this:

    Hillary Clinton: ‘Civility Can Start Again’ if Democrats Win House and/or Senate

    No, really.

    Breitbart Link

    The entire, well, you know. Here at American Military News

    Barkeep, a large bourbon please. Make that two.

  • T.I.N.S., I was there….

    I see you’re all sitting around, trying to figure out how to get through the weekend without a lot of stolen valor stuff to pound on and with a dirth of news about fraudulent claims or major triumphs. As I understand it, the SJC is either voting on Kavanaugh’s confirmation or will vote on it, but I believe there is now sufficient support for him to be confirmed.

    So I thought that maybe, while you’re awaiting the news on that item and trying to pass the hours while you’re stuck indoors watching college fussballspielen, you might take advantage of an open thread where you can drop in your own adventures without let or hindrance.  They do not have to be military-related, which means that you can relay those moments when the firing pin in your neighbor’s rifle was stuck and he couldn’t get the thing to fire, so he looked down the barrel… and I’m sure you know what happened after that.

    Rules? We don’t need no stinkin’ rules!

    Fire away then.

     

  • Weekend Open Thread

    Most TAH readers know a bit (or more than a bit) about the Lockheed U-2. I’d guess some may even have worked on projects or operations involving that airccraft.

    But without a bizarre-sounding suggestion from one of the technicians during the early days of the project, the aircraft may have been doomed to failure. Once upon a time, “feminine sanitary supplies” may indeed have saved the U-2 project from failure.

    Seriously.

    . . .

    The earliest U-2s suffered from an oil-loss problem with potentially catastrophic consequences.

    The first U-2’s cockpit defogging systems used compressed air from the aircraft’s engine, bled off after the compressor stages, as its source. The original engine was designed for operation at much lower altitudes; at the U-2s very high altitudes, lubricating oil seeped around seals and formed a fine mist in that compressed air.

    This resulted in oil loss while flying – very severe oil loss, enough to threaten the aircraft with total oil loss on a long mission. And although most of that lost oil was burned in the engine, because some air was bled off from the compressor for the defogging system it also resulted in a significant amount of oil deposited on the aircraft’s windscreen. That (oil mist in the cockpit air with depositing of oil film on the windscreen) resulted in both fire and visual hazards.

    Either problem by itself? Not good. Both together? “Double-plus ungood.” (smile)

    Accounts vary somewhat on what happened next. The late Ben Rich – Kelly Johnson’s successor at Lockheed’s famous Skunk Works, which designed and built the U-2 – was at the time responsible for the air intake system on the U-2. His account, found in his book Skunk Works, states that one of the Lockheed technicians suggested to him that that they “pack Kotex around the damn thing and absorb the mess before it hits the windshield” (or words to that effect). Rich in turn pitched the idea to Kelly Johnson; Johnson’s response was reportedly words to the effect of, “What the hell, give it a try.” And it worked.

    Air&Space Magazine (Jan 1999) has a somewhat different variation of the story. They say that a metal box was installed in the defogger line and filled with sanitary napkins to absorb the oil mist. They also say that the pressures involved during flight deformed that metal box. (See page 2 of the linked story.)

    I don’t know which account is closer to the truth. My guess is that there’s an element of truth to both. The box in the defogger line makes sense and would likely have been a relatively quick and easy retrofit, but I’d also guess the solution’s origin was much as Rich described. Either way, I’d guess it was a crusty old Lockheed technician – possibly one who was a World War II or Korean War vet who’d worked in aviation maintenance and/or fabrication then and since – who originally came up with the idea.

    For a while, the U-2 program reportedly used large quantities of “female sanitary napkins” (Rich’s account says they were periodically delivered in large quantities to the Skunk Works plant). The solution, while not permanent, worked well enough to allow the program to continue.

    The problem was apparently solved permanently by adoption of a different engine sometime in 1956. The newer engine was optimized to operate at very high altitudes, and as a result didn’t create oil mist in extreme quantities.

    So, there ya have it. Without the use of “feminine sanitary supplies”, the U-2 program could easily have been a failure. Their use saved the program – or at least greatly contributed to its success.

    Truth sometimes is stranger than fiction. (smile)

    . . .

    OK, enough oddball Cold War history for today. Enjoy the WOT, everyone.

  • Weekend Open Thread

    Friday, 24 April 1959, was just another day. Except, perhaps, at one particular location in Michigan.

    The year 1959 was during the height of the Cold War. The Strategic Air Command existed then, and was flying – a lot.

    On that date, Capt. John S. Lappo was the pilot for one of those SAC aircraft flying. He and his crew were returning to their home base – Lockbourne AFB, OH, which is today Rickenbacker ANGB – from a training mission. They were over Michigan, near the Straits of Mackinac.

    From his cockpit, Capt. Lappo saw this:

    Later, Lappo was asked about what happened next. When asked, he remarked: “. . . . I’ve always wanted to fly under a big bridge. I thought it would be the Golden Gate.”

    That day apparently Lappo decided that Michigan’s Mackinac Bridge would do equally well. So, with a maximum of 155 feet of clearance between the bottom of the bridge and the water . . . he flew his aircraft under the freaking bridge.

    Oh, did I mention he was flying one of these?

    Yep: that day, Lappo was flying a a strategic bomber – a B-47 Stratojet. The aircraft is just over 107 feet long, has a wingspan of 116 feet – and is 28 feet tall at the tail.

    Cojones muy grande. Cerebro? Tal vez no tanto.

    The incident wasn’t widely reported at first. But the word got out, and eventually reached the USAF.

    Predictably, the USAF “was not amused”. Seems Lappo had violated USAF regs by flying under that bridge.

    Capt. Lappo was court-martialed for violating regulations on 10 August 1959. He was found guilty.

    However, in that day and age you still had senior officers who had a sense of humor – and valued risk-taking, at least to a point. So Lappo wasn’t “body slammed” as he might have been today.

    Lappo’s wings were revoked – permanently. He never flew for the USAF again.

    But the USAF didn’t kick Lappo to the curb, either. He was allowed to continue serving. He did – and was promoted twice afterwards, retiring as a Lt. Col. in 1972.

    Lt. Col. John S. Lappo, USAF (Ret), passed away in 2003 at the age of 83. His obituary made prominent mention of his 1959 “underflight” exploit – though it appears to have gotten the date wrong (they seem to have listed his court-martial date as the date he flew under the Mackinac Bridge).

    . . .

    Think I’m kidding about the above? Think again. It’s not a “tall tale” – the above really happened.

    Enough YGBSM! history for today. Enjoy yer WOT, everyone. (smile)