Originally Posted by DJ's left nut (Post 11612017)

Did you see it on the ground?

My favorite SR-71 'trivia' is the fact that the thing got so hot and the metal expanded so much in flight that the thing leaked fuel like a sieve on the ground because they had to have gaps in every surface area.

I'd have loved to have gotten confirmation of that in person. That would be a pretty bizarre sight to behold.

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut (Post 11612022)

Raptor pilots will swear by their own, but to my eyes the F-15 is the prettiest jet ever made and there's probably not a close 2nd. That thing is what a fighter should be.

By the time it retires it will have 40+ years in active service and will probably have been the best air to air combat platform in the world for every last one of them, with the possible exception of the F-22 but even that is close.

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut (Post 11611990)

Did you know that if you strapped the vulcan cannon from a Warthog to the top of your car, put it in neutral and then laid on the trigger you'd get from 0-60 in about 3 seconds?

https://what-if.xkcd.com/21/

They had to upgrade the engines during testing because the force from the cannon was putting the plane at stall speeds.

I got to fly alongside (and by alongside, I was probably 20 miles out) a couple of A-10 while I was in a Cesna 172 coming into the private airport in Oklahoma City. It was awfully cool even sharing the same sky with those guys. The only thing comparable was when I was driving into Whitman for my JAG interview and they had one of the Spirits landing. It flew right over top of my car as I was coming into the base and with flaps down and being that low in the air, the thing absolutely looked like a hovering alien spacecraft. It was completely surreal. I got to go drive the flight line with the base JAG officer; man it was cool. Earlier in that week someone taxiing one had smashed a wing into the garage and really messed it up. Gotta figure that left a mark on their record...

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut (Post 11612022)

Raptor pilots will swear by their own, but to my eyes the F-15 is the prettiest jet ever made and there's probably not a close 2nd. That thing is what a fighter should be.

By the time it retires it will have 40+ years in active service and will probably have been the best air to air combat platform in the world for every last one of them, with the possible exception of the F-22 but even that is close.

Originally Posted by Bowser (Post 11612037)

And I agree wholeheartedly. The F-15 was a superior air-to-air fighter. The argument could be made that the F-15 was the reason the Russians built the MIG-29

Originally Posted by Donger (Post 11612105)

The Eagle has a kill ratio of something like 110:0

And the Soviets built the MiG-29 because of the F-16 and F-18. We built the F-15 because of the MiG-25, if memory serves.

Originally Posted by Bowser (Post 11612110)

I'll defer to your knowledge. After I posted that, I actually thought about the Falcon being the reason for the MIG-29, but wasn't sure (another bad ass fighter in the F-16).

I remember when we first got a look at the F-117. Everybody was in awe of it, then the pilot basically called it a piece of stripped down shit that flew like a trainer, lol.

Originally Posted by Donger (Post 11612112)

The Wobblin' Goblin. LMAO

Originally Posted by Hamwallet (Post 11612803)

This thread gives me a big boner for America.

Originally Posted by Bowser (Post 11611912)

Ha! I went in to get away from a chick I was supposed to go to college with (not the ONLY reason, but it was there). Where I ****ed up was not making a career out of it. Never realized how good I had it, especially when I was in Okinawa.

And the Air Force really does (or did) take care of its people.