Shuttle sonic boom

[Jerry Clark]

How do I delete a new thread when the picture is not there?

[Randy Meijer]

Hit the edit button.....at the top of the edit page is an option to delete the post.

If the picture didn't show up the first time, I think you can use the edit function to add it later??(use the manage files option)

[Don Baer]

http://www.anomalies-unlimited.com/Odd%20Pics%202/Shuttleboom.html

[Lee DeRaud]

And something similar for an F/A-18: http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/military/fa18/images/soundbr.htm

[Bruce Page]

Here's a B1B

[Vaughn McMillan]

Cool pics (all of them). I hadn't seen the shuttle pic or the B1B version before.

Bruce, back in the mid to late 80's I was working as a construction inspector at the Albuquerque airport (during the big expansion project that happened back then) and I had access to both the landside and the airside of the facility. This (and my open-top Jeep) gave me a good vantage point for plane spotting.

For a period of about a week, they had a B1B in ABQ for high-altitude take-off and landing tests (I also think they had it on the trestle doing EMF tests for a while, too). On the day the B1B left ABQ, he got permission to do a few touch and go landings...I don't know if it was testing or just showing off. Anyway, the pilot did about 6 or 7 T&Gs (circling back south over about Belen), then on the last one, after he touched the runway with the wheels, he kicked the plane completely vertical and shot virtually straight up, until he completely disappeared from sight. I was completely awed, seeing a plane that size do a "fighter jet" maneuver. I have pics somewhere of several of the T&Gs, but they're filed away deep somewhere.

- Vaughn

[Jason Roehl]

I have some pretty cool memories (unfortunately no pics) of B-1Bs. My late grandparents used to own a farm less than a mile out of one of the regular flight paths out of Ellsworth AFB in SD. Several times while on vacation there, I would hear a low rumbling, so I would run outside to see a B-1B cruise by at probably less than 500 ft., less than a mile away. It looked a lot lower, in fact, I would believe it if someone told me they were only at 100 ft. because their height off the ground looked like less than their length. They were subsonic passes, but they were still scooting by pretty quick.

[Bruce Page]

Vaughn, I was there! My son & I were dirt bikin’ in the arroyo just east of the runway, below the Four Hills horse stables. We stopped and watched the B1B do several touch & goes and then shoot almost straight up! It was an incredible sight! I missed the B1B sitting on the trestle.
I heard an interesting trestle story a while ago, completed in 1979, the number of board feet in the oak timbers used to build the trestle equaled one months oak production for the entire United States. That’s a lot of oak.

[Vaughn McMillan]

Bruce, that's amazing that you saw the same flight. [high fives] It's a pretty unbelievable story, but it's reassuring to know I'm not the only one who believes it. ;) My dad could probably rattle off all sorts stats on the trestle site. He was one of the soils engineers that designed the subgrade and the structural foundation. There's apparently some pretty amazing soils engineering that was done to support the weight. I've never seen it up close, but it's a pretty amazing piece of woodworking. (How's thatfor tying it back to wood stuff?)

To those Creekers that are wondering what the heck Bruce and I are talking about, "The Trestle" is a wooden tower on the outskirts of Albuquerque (at Sandia Labs). It is built entirely of non-metalic components (primarily oak), including the mechanical fasteners. (I believe it's held together with mostly glue and nylon fasteners, but I could stand corrected). I don't remember how tall it is (50 feet or so Bruce?), but it's designed to hold things up in the air so they can be bombarded with various electromagnetic forces. Things like Boeing 747s and B1B bombers. It's for testing electronic systems, and it's sort of like an outdoor microwave oven that can fit Air Force One.

- Vaughn

[Jim Dunn]

We've got an airport up north of me that Boeing uses to test radar. Sure is funny to see planes, fighters and front ends of B52's, on towers. Their sometimes upside down. Or, as the tower moves and pivots, they could be looking straight up or down. Funny how a company develops planes to be stealthy and then defeats that with new radar. (Seems like we need to let the bad guys do the defeating and then counter that.)

[Bruce Page]

To those Creekers that are wondering what the heck Bruce and I are talking about, "The Trestle" is a wooden tower on the outskirts of Albuquerque (at Sandia Labs). It is built entirely of non-metalic components (primarily oak), including the mechanical fasteners. (I believe it's held together with mostly glue and nylon fasteners, but I could stand corrected). I don't remember how tall it is (50 feet or so Bruce?), but it's designed to hold things up in the air so they can be bombarded with various electromagnetic forces. Things like Boeing 747s and B1B bombers. It's for testing electronic systems, and it's sort of like an outdoor microwave oven that can fit Air Force One.

- Vaughn
Vaughn, I dug up some intresting info and a poor quality picture of the Trestle. My office & lab is about 1/2 mile away from it.

"TRESTLE was constructed between July 1976 and February 1979 and is one of the largest glue-laminated structures in the world. It is located at Kirkland Air Force Base, New Mexico. TRESTLE was built as a test stand for aircraft that weigh 550.000 lb (250,000 kg). It has a 50- by 394-ft (15- by 120-m) access ramp and a 200- by 200-ft (61- by 61-m) test platform, and the top surface is 118 ft (36 m) above the ground."

The picture shows a B-52 Stratofortress being tested.

[Donnie Raines]

man...and you thought those pictures were cool..... :D

http://pip.rubberfeet.org/desktop_pics/Sonic_boom/Sonic_boom1024x768.jpg

[Bruce Page]

man...and you thought those pictures were cool..... :D

http://pip.rubberfeet.org/desktop_pics/Sonic_boom/Sonic_boom1024x768.jpg
Donnie, is the the new Shuttle replacement?

[Donnie Raines]

Donnie, is the the new Shuttle replacement?

Pretty sure this is the first generation of the replacement Bruce.. :D

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Sometimes I want to send my cat into outer space! Maybe I can sign her up! Don't think she would meet the weight reqs though.

[Donnie Raines]

Sometimes I want to send my cat into outer space! Maybe I can sign her up! Don't think she would meet the weight reqs though.

If it was up to me, all cats would be blasted off into space! They have been spraying some of my bushes!!! Stinks to high _ _ _ _..... :mad:

But the picture is cute.... :rolleyes:

[Keith July]

I'll bet it was a sight to see..:eek: Landing a B-52 on the Trestle. :eek:

[Norman Hitt]

I'll bet it was a sight to see..:eek: Landing a B-52 on the Trestle. :eek:

............and all this time, the NAVY thought they were the only ones that could make Short Field Landings. :D