Quote:
Originally Posted by Gravdigr
B-1 Lancer
Watch at about the 2:05 mark, something goes floating across the screen on a parachute. Is this in the air (real?), or, is it superimposed on the vid? And wtf is it?
Better bigger, of course.
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Up until the 90's, my southern KC suburb town of Grandview, MO, was home to an air force base, Richards Gebaur. Their annual free airshow drew upwards of 350 to 400 thousand souls each year over the course of the weekend. I saw some amazing stuff there over the years, not to mention the stuff I saw flying in and out of there during the decades I lived there. However, bar none, the coolest thing was the Monday morning I went out to the patio surrounding the airport tower (no security in those days) and watched the planes departing for their home bases.
The star of *this* show was the B1-B. It made a maximum effort takeoff, quickly climbed to about 3000', then flew South a bit, making a wide turn, and returning to the North end of the base. At that point, wings now swung fully back, it headed back toward the flightline, descended to about 250' off the runway, and just as it was aligned with the tower (where about 100 people were now gathered and being informed by the ATC over the PA what each plane was and what they were doing as they left), the pilot kicked in the afterburners, stood this aircraft on its ass, and disappeared into a dot into the sky faster than you can say "holy shit!". It was impressive on every possible level, and something I'll never forget. The noise was unbelievable, and seeing this rather large aircraft performing more like a nimble fighter than a lumbering bomber was quite the eye opener.