This photo caught my eye and I was enthralled by it. It says so much, so compactly.
Legacy and Future
Determination
The torch is passed
America makes some awesome aircraft

This photo caught my eye and I was enthralled by it. It says so much, so compactly.
Legacy and Future
Determination
The torch is passed
America makes some awesome aircraft

RT @DanCrenshawTX And now for your deliberately misleading headline of the day... They don’t mention it is a Mexican soldier, in Mexico. Their goal is to convince you it’s an American. It’s dishonest. And it’s why the media can’t regain our trust. apple.news/AbvUuoyT2RQWoV…
From Ball Diamond Ball's Twitter · reply · retweet · favorite
Well, subscribing to the New York Times is already quaint, so there's that. twitter.com/maggieNYT/stat…
From Ball Diamond Ball's Twitter · reply · retweet · favorite
You needed the strength of character to indict Hillary for what YOU said were unquestionably crimes. We have seen your character. twitter.com/Comey/status/1…
From Ball Diamond Ball's Twitter · reply · retweet · favorite
RT @SkyNews 'Boris bounce: Conservatives boosted after electing Boris Johnson as leader, polls suggest news.sky.com/story/boris-bo…
From Ball Diamond Ball's Twitter · reply · retweet · favorite
RT @TheBabylonBee Ilhan Omar Introduces Resolution Condemning Racism, White Men, And The Jews babylonbee.com/news/ilhan-int…
From Ball Diamond Ball's Twitter · reply · retweet · favorite
Pelosi mad at Trump for stirring up unrest on the #DemocratPlantation twitter.com/Newsweek/statu…
From Ball Diamond Ball's Twitter · reply · retweet · favorite
RT @SebGorka America finally has an Attorney General. No wonder @Comey, @JohnBrennan, and the rest of @BarackObama’s #CrossfireHurricane accomplices are so worried. dailywire.com/news/49923/ag-…
From Ball Diamond Ball's Twitter · reply · retweet · favorite
RT @RealCandaceO They couldn’t find a single black American child across 5 schools in Baltimore that was proficient in reading or math. @SpeakerPelosi is now calling Baltimore @RepCummings an example of Democrat championship. HAHAHAHAHA! Yep! Because Democrats love illiterate blacks. twitter.com/SpeakerPelosi/…
From Ball Diamond Ball's Twitter · reply · retweet · favorite
How long until Denver Democrats shut it down? twitter.com/BreitbartNews/…
From Ball Diamond Ball's Twitter · reply · retweet · favorite
RT @greggutfeld Trumps about to execute a white supremacist, while trying to free a black rapper from jail, as he pushes prison reform that directly benefits families of black men, while calling out a city where minorities are victims of crime & blight. if Trumps a racist, he sucks at it.
From Ball Diamond Ball's Twitter · reply · retweet · favorite
Yes. Also, white men with black women would be called cultural imperial racist eco-socio something something etc... No brown sugar for you, cracker! twitter.com/SaltyBlackBroa…
From Ball Diamond Ball's Twitter · reply · retweet · favorite
Whatever that's in reference to, please sign me up for a dozen, sir. twitter.com/DanRiehl/statu…
From Ball Diamond Ball's Twitter · reply · retweet · favorite
@NancyPelosi, Trump is speaking up for the people you said you would represent. No wonder you're embarrassed. twitter.com/DailyCaller/st…
From Ball Diamond Ball's Twitter · reply · retweet · favorite
Also if progressive mayors weren't restraining police, while using Antifa as brownshirts -- that would help too. When do the Antifa mayors get charged? Stand-down orders are political violence. twitter.com/realDonaldTrum…
From Ball Diamond Ball's Twitter · reply · retweet · favorite
That's gotta be a parody account. twitter.com/SocialiseTheUS…
From Ball Diamond Ball's Twitter · reply · retweet · favorite
Every word of what you say is true, and Republicans don;t want to dry up the cheap labor, either. Quite a pickle we have ourselves in. #CloseTheBorderNow twitter.com/realDonaldTrum…
From Ball Diamond Ball's Twitter · reply · retweet · favorite
Y'all just embarassed because you haven't heard anybody advocate for the poor in Baltimore this forcefully for fifty years. #CleanItUp! twitter.com/dcexaminer/sta…
From Ball Diamond Ball's Twitter · reply · retweet · favorite
Sure it will Dan. And it will rely on source documents written in a language that nobody even speaks yet. twitter.com/DanRather/stat…
From Ball Diamond Ball's Twitter · reply · retweet · favorite
Seems you got a wayward "for" in there. Behead the Infidels. twitter.com/Newsweek/statu…
From Ball Diamond Ball's Twitter · reply · retweet · favorite
Nice picture and sentiment.
Love it.
Wow! A B Mustang. Don’t think there’s a bunch of them about.
America owns the skies.
This image doesn’t really give you an appreciation for the difference in size of the two aircraft. Try this one:http://www.richard-seaman.com/Aircraft/AirShows/Nellis2005/Highlights/F22P51HeritageFlight10oClock.jpg (sorry, can figure out how to link an image in comments)
P-51: length — 32 ft 3 in; wingspan — 37 ft; empty weight — 7,635 lb
F-22: respectively, 62 ft 1 in; 44 ft 6 in; 43,340 lb
[These are Wikipedia numbers, so probably in the ballpark if not entirely accurate]
I remember seeing a replica of a Fokker Dr.1 (the famous triplane favored by von Richthofen’s Flying Circus), and being stunned by how small it was. For your edification (amusement? horror?) the specs for the Dr.1 are: length — 18 ft 11 in; wingspan (top wing, the others got progressively smaller) — 23 ft 7 in; empty weight — 895 lb ……. (!). The fuselage frame was 20MM steel tubing, everything else was plywood, fabric and wire. In addition to excellent hand-eye coordination, fatalism, it seems, would have been among an early aviator’s most valuable qualities. Because it must have been like flying off to war in a goddamn box kite.
Awesome!
Good comparison.
The only way I know how to put a picture in a comment is to get the in site link “Insert Image” then tab “Media Library” then URL. You can only access “Insert Media” when editing your own OP. Not the most smooth but it is a way.
Ex.
http://balldiamondball.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/IMG_3464.png
Thanks,now let me try to figure out what you’re telling me.
Nice selfie by the way.
?So you have to first download the image to the media library, then do your routine, right. I tried it on the Brent thread but while it seems to work for me, not sure it works for others.
Dev, I saw the picture, Nads. Yes, that is the process to get a picture in a comment by putting the URL from the BDB image library.
Well, then! That works.
A friend of mine recently took some pictures at Langley AFB. Enjoy.
http://whfoto.net/Fotostream/2017_2/2017-04-21/index.html
Wow. Eurofighter at Langley.
Very Cool.
These are nice, I take it your friend is a pro.
He’s a serious amateur photographer with what his friends like to call “big glass.” His day job is an ME working at the NASA Langley wind tunnels.
“America makes some awesome aircraft.”
Why are you using the present tense? The Raptor has been out of production for nearly a decade.
What do we make now?
The capability demonstrated is still there. My viewpoint is long enough to encompass the use of the tense.
I refuse to let the eight years of Obama darken my view of America. It is merely a dark hiccup in the legacy.
F-35. You hear the hype but I’ve heard the fighter types say it’s a dog.
The F-35 is the most amazing situational awareness IT solution ever conceived wrapped in a low performance and much lower RCS airframe.
Thankfully it appears to do very well beyond visual range and very well air to surface even with its short legs. That is a good thing because it is so heavily wing loaded that it will bleed energy and get sliced up in a visual engagement.
I understand (what little I understand) is that this is because the Marine Corps insisted in vertical take-off. I think the concept of VTO is interesting, and in the Marine Corps some case can be made for same, but I am not at all sanguine about the current orthodoxy on its usage. Sort of reminds me of how infantry officers misused artillery in the Civil War.
But the F-35 is looking like McNamara’s dog, the TFX – for similar reasons.
The USMC has no choice since their LHA/LHD class ships do not have catapults.
If the USN had more carrier battle groups then the USMC variant could be shelved and USMC could put a squadron of F-35C on Nimitz/Ford class CVN’s.
Additionally, the VSTOL variant is driven by international requirements, specifically the United Kingdom.