I'm all jazzed now. Time to complete an aviation twofer. **PICS ADDED**

[4402tuff4u]

I would love to fly the P38 "Lightning"! Great pictures Bull! Thanks for sharing. If I was independently wealthy, I would restore war birds and muscle cars and fly both!!

[RD]

At Hill AFB here in Utah, there's a blackbird on display...damn cool plane!
http://www.hill.af.mil/museum/photos/coldwar/sr-71.htm

tidbit of knowledge.  In flight, the coolest part on the SR-71 was rated at 450 degrees fahrenheit.  The hydraulics were under 3,300 lbs of pressure (if a line breaks in you are in front of it, the fluid would shoot right through you).

[Charger_Fan]

At Hill AFB here in Utah, there's a blackbird on display...damn cool plane!
http://www.hill.af.mil/museum/photos/coldwar/sr-71.htm

tidbit of knowledge.   In flight, the coolest part on the SR-71 was rated at 450 degrees fahrenheit.   The hydraulics were under 3,300 lbs of pressure (if a line breaks in you are in front of it, the fluid would shoot right through you).

A guy I worked with a few years ago, had a pretty thick book on SR71's...those planes are truely amazing.
The facts are pretty fuzzy to me now, but I recall that the skin of the plane shrinks when it's sitting on the ground that fuel will leak out of it's seams. Once it's in the air, it expands back together & no more leaks.

If you look along the leading edge of the wings, you'll notice they dip downward near the engines...that's because the wing was building too much air friction there & was burning the wing.
Also, the cones in front of the engines, point downward & inward for the same reason. Those cones also move in & out, reculating how much air is forced into the engines at Mach-3, to avoid a flameout.


So, Bull...in reading that Spruce Goose link, it'saying that the Goose is still not reassembled today? I'm assuming that's a current article.
That had to be one huge undertaking to transport that friggin' plane!

[69pistolgripRT]

Really great pics. I enjoyed that; thanks a bunch.

[Silver R/T]

nice planes

[Drache]

I recall that the skin of the plane shrinks when it's sitting on the ground that fuel will leak out of it's seams. Once it's in the air, it expands back together & no more leaks.

That had to be one huge undertaking to transport that friggin' plane!

You're right about the skin of the aircraft. When it's at high altitudes the skin of the airplane expands so the designers created it with spaces between the certain skin plates. When the aircraft takes off, it's leaking fuel and must be IMMEDIATLY refueled in midair. I believe the B2 is the same way.

As for moving the Spruce Goose, your should really watch the movie "The Aviator". It shows just how giant of an undertaking it was. They had to call this truck with a huge trailer in from the Military to move the plane and another just for the wings. They also had to "cut" powerlines temperorily just so the plane could move down some of the streets. A great undertaking indeed!

[bull]

So, Bull...in reading that Spruce Goose link, it'saying that the Goose is still not reassembled today? I'm assuming that's a current article.
That had to be one huge undertaking to transport that friggin' plane!

Actually it is fully assembled now. Five years ago when I first went there they were still putting it together but the body was pretty much whole. The article is an old one but it's the only one I could find offhand that had all the facts readily available.

The SR-71 on the other hand is still being put together. They just bought it not too long ago and you can see in the pictures a bunch of stuff beneath it ready to go in and the fact that the starboard engine housing is empty. The port side engine was in the process of going in when I was there. I'll post pictures of that later. I took 89 pictures yesterday but it took me about an hour to resize and post the ones I already put up.

[bull]

More goodies.

[bull]

More

[bull]

Here's an engine for your Charger. Is 1,425 hp enough?