deicer

And maybe even rethink where they are deployed. Some complained that it was the Americans who took down the one over Yukon, however, if one looks at the geography of dispatching fighters from Elmendorf AFB compared to Cold Lake AFB, the Canadian fighters had over 2.5 times the distance to cover before they got in the vicinity.

Well, a little searching shows that in a European context, you are correct. 10 kills should make you an 'ace'. It was the Americans in WW1 who lowered the standard to 5 (whoda thunk). https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/what-does-it-take-to-become-an-ace-35385936/ As for Mork and Mindy,,,, ouch I was in Highschool at the time.......

Now 3! How long until it's an Ace?

You are correct with regards to seniority if all are using C2. Even with the C1, your chances of boarding are greatly reduced because of the vast number of B passes out there. So even if your seniority is well above 3 decades, your seniority is effectively negated. All retirees are in the same boat. You dedicate your life to a career, and one of the best 'benefits' of the job are pulled from under you when you can finally make use of it.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/pentagon-shoots-down-unknown-object-flying-in-u-s-airspace-1.6268940 U.S. jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast WASHINGTON - A U.S. military fighter jet shot down an unknown object flying off the coast of Alaska on Friday on orders from U.S. President Joe Biden, White House officials said. The object was flying at about 40,000 feet and posed a "reasonable threat" to the safety of civilian flights, said John Kirby, White House National Security Council spokesman. He described the object as roughly the size of a small car and said it was shot down near the U.S.-Canada border. It was the second time in a week U.S. officials had downed some type of flying object over the U.S. On Saturday fighter jets fired a missile into a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina. There were few answers about the object, and the White House drew distinctions between the two episodes. Kirby said it wasn't yet known who owned it, and he did not say it was a balloon. Officials also couldn't say if there was any surveillance equipment on it. Kirby didn't know yet where it came from or what its purpose was. Still, it posed enough of a concern that U.S. officials felt it best to knock it out of the sky. "We're going to remain vigilant about our airspace," Kirby said. "The president takes his obligations to protect our national security interests as paramount." Kirby said fighter pilots visually examining the object ascertained it was not manned. The president was briefed on the presence of the object Thursday evening after two fighter jets surveilled it. The object fell into frigid waters and officials expected they could recover debris faster than from last week's massive balloon. The development came almost a week after the U.S. shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the Carolina coast after it traversed sensitive military sites across North America. China insisted the flyover was an accident involving a civilian craft and threatened repercussions. Biden issued the order but had wanted the balloon downed even earlier. He was advised that the best time for the operation would be when it was over water. Military officials determined that bringing it down over land from an altitude of 60,000 feet would pose an undue risk to people on the ground. The balloon was part of a large surveillance program that China has been conducting for "several years," the Pentagon has said. China responded that it reserved the right to "take further actions" and criticized the U.S. for "an obvious overreaction and a serious violation of international practice."

When you retire, your seniority disappears. It happens to retired pilots too. https://aircanada-sos.com/

Will this become standard equipment? https://www.facebook.com/reel/1810693509302954

Chinese balloon is down... https://twitter.com/elitedevon/status/1621957862988677120

Life is good when you learn something every day. Today I learned the definition of: Snarge. Anyone else knows of what that is? (Other than googling it just now)

If you look at the flight path, shortly after takeoff they 'drew' 747 in a crown. Last of the Kings!

Check out what they did with the last 747 delivered on it's delivery flight! https://flightaware.com/live/flight/GTI747/history/20230201/1600Z/KPAE/KCVG

Final 747 delivered today, Jan 31/23. https://www.cp24.com/lifestyle/boeing-bids-farewell-to-an-icon-delivers-last-747-jumbo-jet-1.6253978 Boeing bids farewell to an icon, delivers last 747 jumbo jet Gene Johnson, The Associated Press Published Tuesday, January 31, 2023 2:47PM EST SEATTLE (AP) - Boeing bids farewell to an icon on Tuesday: It's delivering its final 747 jumbo jet. Since its first flight in 1969, the giant yet graceful 747 has served as a cargo plane, a commercial aircraft capable of carrying nearly 500 passengers, a transport for NASA's space shuttles, and the Air Force One presidential aircraft. It revolutionized travel, connecting international cities that had never before had direct routes and helping democratize passenger flight. But over about the past 15 years, Boeing and its European rival Airbus have introduced more profitable and fuel efficient wide-body planes, with only two engines to maintain instead of the 747's four. The final plane is the 1,574th built by Boeing in the Puget Sound region of Washington state. A big crowd of current and former Boeing workers is expected for the final send-off. The last one is being delivered to cargo carrier Atlas Air. “If you love this business, you've been dreading this moment,” said longtime aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia. “Nobody wants a four-engine airliner anymore, but that doesn't erase the tremendous contribution the aircraft made to the development of the industry or its remarkable legacy.” Boeing set out to build the 747 after losing a contract for a huge military transport, the C-5A. The idea was to take advantage of the new engines developed for the transport - high-bypass turbofan engines, which burned less fuel by passing air around the engine core, enabling a farther flight range - and to use them for a newly imagined civilian aircraft. It took more than 50,000 Boeing workers less than 16 months to churn out the first 747 - a Herculean effort that earned them the nickname “The Incredibles.” The jumbo jet's production required the construction of a massive factory in Everett, north of Seattle - the world's largest building by volume. The plane's fuselage was 225 feet (68.5 meters) long and the tail stood as tall as a six-story building. The plane's design included a second deck extending from the cockpit back over the first third of the plane, giving it a distinctive hump and inspiring a nickname, the Whale. More romantically, the 747 became known as the Queen of the Skies. Some airlines turned the second deck into a first-class cocktail lounge, while even the lower deck sometimes featured lounges or even a piano bar. One decommissioned 747, originally built for Singapore Airlines in 1976, has been converted into a 33-room hotel near the airport in Stockholm. “It was the first big carrier, the first widebody, so it set a new standard for airlines to figure out what to do with it, and how to fill it,” said Guillaume de Syon, a history professor at Pennsylvania's Albright College who specializes in aviation and mobility. “It became the essence of mass air travel: You couldn't fill it with people paying full price, so you need to lower prices to get people onboard. It contributed to what happened in the late 1970s with the deregulation of air travel.” The first 747 entered service in 1970 on Pan Am's New York-London route, and its timing was terrible, Aboulafia said. It debuted shortly before the oil crisis of 1973, amid a recession that saw Boeing's employment fall from 100,800 employees in 1967 to a low of 38,690 in April 1971. The “Boeing bust” was infamously marked by a billboard near the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport that read, “Will the last person leaving SEATTLE -- Turn out the lights.” An updated model - the 747-400 series - arrived in the late 1980s and had much better timing, coinciding with the Asian economic boom of the early 1990s, Aboulafia said. He recalled taking a Cathay Pacific 747 from Los Angeles to Hong Kong as a twentysomething backpacker in 1991. “Even people like me could go see Asia,” Aboulafia said. “Before, you had to stop for fuel in Alaska or Hawaii and it cost a lot more. This was a straight shot - and reasonably priced.” Delta was the last U.S. airline to use the 747 for passenger flights, which ended in 2017, although some other international carriers continue to fly it, including the German airline Lufthansa. Atlas Air ordered four 747-8 freighters early last year, with the final one leaving the factory Tuesday. Boeing's roots are in the Seattle area, and it has assembly plants in Washington state and South Carolina. The company announced in May that it would move its headquarters from Chicago to Arlington, Virginia, putting its executives closer to key federal government officials and the Federal Aviation Administration, which certifies Boeing passenger and cargo planes. Boeing's relationship with the FAA has been strained since deadly crashes of its best-selling plane, the 737 Max, in 2018 and 2019. The FAA took nearly two years - far longer than Boeing expected - to approve design changes and allow the plane back in the air.

The pictures are amazing! When a Navy Fighter Jet Approaches the Speed of Sound, “Shockwave Lines” Are Visible https://hasanjasim.online/when-a-navy-fighter-jet-approaches-the-speed-of-sound-shockwave-lines-are-visible/ A remarkable close-up photograph of a plane producing “shockwave lines” as it approached the speed of sound was taken by photographer Camden Thrasher while he was documenting a display of US Navy fighter jets. The photo of a McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet, the supersonic multirole combat jet first introduced in the US Navy in 1984, was taken by the motorsport and aviation photographer in late 2021 while he was at the EAA Airventure airshow featuring the VFA-106 Gladiators (officially Strike Fighter Squadron 106) in attendance. Thrasher is quick to point out that the plane was not traveling at speeds greater than the speed of sound, despite the fact that his picture has gone viral online as an example of a jet breaking the sound barrier. The annual airshow is held at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, a city with a population of just under 70,000 people who would probably not enjoy hearing sonic booms every summer. The photographer informs us that supersonic flight is subject to a number of regulations, most of which forbid it in densely populated areas or at low altitudes. Contrary to popular belief, the image does not depict a jet breaking the sound barrier. At air shows, pilots frequently perform high-speed passes at speeds close to the speed of sound (for example Mach 0.97 instead of 1.00 or above). Although not exceeding the speed of sound (or the laws), it is still impressive to witness at around 700 mph. Warped Air and Bent Light What is actually seen in the photo is how the air around a supersonic jet is warped as it nears Mach 1 (the speed of sound in a medium, or around 761 mph at sea level on a standard day). Photo of US Navy jet with “shockwave lines” by Camden Thrasher. “Those lines can start to form as a jet approaches the speed of sound,” Thrasher says. “I’m not an aerodynamicist, but I’ll try my best to explain. “The airplane is going slightly less than the speed of sound but as the air passes over various parts of the wings and fuselage, the airflow itself can actually briefly be going supersonic in certain areas. As this happens, the air will be compressed or expanded and those changes in pressure will change how light is refracted or bent as it passes through. “The visible effect is those ‘shockwave’ lines, or sometimes a cone-shaped cloud that envelops part of the aircraft if the air is humid enough.” The viral photo was captured with a Nikon D5 DSLR at 500mm, f/5, 1/2500, and ISO 50.

Just because they can, doesn't mean they should https://www.vice.com/en/article/epzex7/scientists-made-a-liquid-metal-robot-that-can-escape-a-cage-like-a-t1000-terminator Scientists Made a Liquid Metal Robot That Can Escape a Cage Like a Terminator "It's almost T-1000-like," scientists said. Scientists have created robots that can shapeshift between solid and liquid states, enabling them to perform mind-boggling feats such as jumping, climbing, and even oozing out of a cage in a way that is eerily reminiscent of the T-1000 robots of the Terminator franchise, reports a new study. The shape and movements of the machines are controlled by magnetic fields, an approach that may lead to new biomedical and engineering technologies, such as targeted drug delivery, circuit assembly, or the creation of universal screws.

Had the 'pleasure' of dealing with many spills of that sort. On a hot summer day, it makes for some great memories, lol! Never had it dump on me, I just dealt with the aftermath after sending the operator to the showers.

So you think you're having a bad day?

Which of you flew this original widebody https://www.key.aero/article/slain-giant-caproni-ca60

With so many leaving us lately, for you to enjoy...