The Aviators Thread

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After shooting down two more "unidentified objects"...

Edited photo from "World of Fighter Jets" via Facebook
Fat Amy is jealous and wants to get in on the action.
 
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Fat Amy is jealous and wants to get in on the action.
Pardon my ignorance but who's Fat Amy?
 
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It is a nickname for the F-35.
Haha. Thanks for that. Learn something new everyday. I'll have to do more research and find out how that nickname came about. It's a bit like the F-14's unofficial name of the "Turkey".
 
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Haha. Thanks for that. Learn something new everyday. I'll have to do more research and find out how that nickname came about. It's a bit like the F-14's unofficial name of the "Turkey".
The Boeing X-32, which lost the JSF competition to the F-35, was nicknamed "Monica". You should look that one up too. 😉
 
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USAF v Nerds

USAF - 1
Nerds - 0

USAF - USD$500,000.00 +
Nerds - USD$120.00

(Note: Nerds - not as a derogatory term, but as a term of endearment)

https://aviationweek.com/defense-sp...y-clubs-missing-balloon-feared-shot-down-usaf

First shot missed, can count that as a USAF "own goal"...

I think that as a rough approximation, the sum total of my income taxes paid the the US Treasury on my lifetime earnings when it's all said & done will just about cover the cost of the one shot that missed. :-p
 
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Great photos 👍.

Regarding this one.



A very interesting history, both the plane and the pilot.

Here is the same Spitfire some years later.



Full story:

https://cambridgemilitaryhistory.com/tag/flying-officer-peter-cazenove/

Numbered N3200, he has generously donated the MK1 Spitfire to the Imperial War Museum, Duxford, where it often flies and is available to all visitors to admire

Taken from that article some close ups of its sister here recovered and rebuilt to fly from its home base again in almost identical circumstances…

https://omegaforums.net/threads/6b-159-squadron-–-the-spitfire-–-photo-heavy.138126/
 
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I received these and many more a few years ago. I shared them with @Omegafanman and you may have seen these before. I selected the ones that fit best in this thread.

Thanks @Duracuir1 a few there I will follow up. That is a 4000lb Cookie Blockbuster bomb by the Lancaster. Amazingly a Mosquito could carry and drop one of those. The night witches are another very interesting story. Back to the Lancaster I mentioned before a crew member I met last year (old of course and in a wheel chair but still full,of stories) who lamented the time their aircraft mascot got her knickers shot off ;0)
 
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Launch Em is hilarious…. If you do not have time just watch from 4:09.
Those pilots had a tough gig / not easy planes to fly so nice to see their funny bones never got broken ;0).
Young pilots can learn a thing or two… who needs ladders when you can jump straight up into the cockpit … honest.

 
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Launch Em is hilarious…. If you do not have time just watch from 4:09.
Those pilots had a tough gig / not easy planes to fly so nice to see their funny bones never got broken ;0).
Young pilots can learn a thing or two… who needs ladders when you can jump straight up into the cockpit … honest.

Some buffoonery
 
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90 years ago... British flight over the roof of the world Mt Everest
February 1933, both two-seater Westland biplanes crated on their way from Great Britain to Karachi - India by boat, the crews departed Heston west-London with three support aircraft; Gypsy III Moth (G-ABZK), Fox Moth (G-ACCS) and a Puss Moth (G-ABWZ).
The logistics flight of these three support aircraft from London to Nepal took 34 days and by February 25 the three aircraft flew from Tunis, via Gabes and Tripoli to El Sirte in Libya. By February 28, they left Cairo - Egypt and flew onwards to TransJordan...
This logistics and both record setting flights over Mt Everest (April 3 & 19, 1933) were very well-documented as this was the very last pioneering expedition and flight before the age of spaceflight !
The whole flight expedition was sponsored by Rolex watches and the " Wings Over Everest " is a must-see documentary !
(Photo: RGS/The Times)
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