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The Aviators Thread
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SpeedyPhill
·They're called "aviators" because pilots are captains of a tug boat pulling or guiding a larger ship into a harbor...
🙄
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🙄
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DoctorEvil
·They're called "aviators" because pilots are captains of a tug boat pulling or guiding a larger ship into a harbor...
🙄
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spacemission
·I knew that photo looked familiar. I have a book by the person who took it. His name is LCDR C.J. Heatley. Callsign "Heater".
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DoctorEvil
·Wearing rolex datejust?
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8100_RPM
·I knew that photo looked familiar. I have a book by the person who took it. His name is LCDR C.J. Heatley. Callsign "Heater".
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DoctorEvil
·If you look carefully, you will spot Heater standing around Maverick in a number of scenes in the first Top Gun movie.
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SpeedyPhill
·@DoctorEvil
Did You notice... LCDR C.J. Heatley. Callsign "Heater".... wearing a Rolex Datejust !
. 😁🧐
Did You notice... LCDR C.J. Heatley. Callsign "Heater".... wearing a Rolex Datejust !
. 😁🧐
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DoctorEvil
·@DoctorEvil
Did You notice... LCDR C.J. Heatley. Callsign "Heater".... wearing a Rolex Datejust !
. 😁🧐
@spacemission noticed it too and I commented on how small it seemed compared to current men's watches.
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Mad Dog
·Aha, thankfully those weren't my ride today. But if there wasn't i'd probably be more concerned. Somehow I got stuck in the back of a 206 today. Not sure of that's a blessing or a curse.
Also, high regards for the 206…we flew the TH-57B/C “Sea Ranger” for USN helo pilot training back in the late 1980s…really liked that bird. 👍
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Mad Dog
·@DoctorEvil
Did You notice... LCDR C.J. Heatley. Callsign "Heater".... wearing a Rolex Datejust !
. 😁🧐
Also, I always thought of him [in a positive way] as the “Magnum PI” of U.S. Naval Aviation based on his appearance. He was already pretty famous when I entered USN pilot training back in 1986…and if I remember correctly, he appeared in the graduation ceremony in the original Top Gun movie. Also, he has a very impressive amount of flight hours regarding flying “pointy end” aircraft…from what I understand, those “pointy end” dudes/dudettes typically fly hops that only last about 1.5 to 2.0 hours which means he has flown a TON of hops…the dude has been around the block a few times. 😎
LATE ENRTY: Full disclosure regarding the “Magnum PI” thing…yeah…I thought if I looked like Heater, I’d get some major poontang. Of course, I didn’t look like him [and I was a rotorhead which was a big downer regarding hooking up with the hotties]…so…yeah…that whole getting some major poontang thing never happened. 🙁
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8100_RPM
·Here is a good interview with Heater.
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DoctorEvil
·
Interesting mix of technologies. New fangled quartz accuracy, with old school circular slide rule for calculations.
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Mad Dog
·…I got stuck in the back of a 206 today.
LATE ENTRY: Also, I’m wearing my original issue G-1 flight jacket from 1986 in the pic.
Edited:
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ketchj
·Some recent photos with my speedy.
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SpeedyPhill
·2025 celebrating 70 years Lockheed U2
August 1, 1955 was the Lockheed U2 first flight by test pilot Tom LeVier, going from flying the aircraft with shortest to the one with longest wings!
Back in the 1950s, U2 aircraft were named "article" and pilots were named "drivers. A dozen Military pilots with long-range navigation experience were selected for the U2 became civilian pilots in a process called "sheep dipping".
The first U2 series did not have an ejection seat. Recce photos were sent to the Strategic Air Relocateable Processing Facility with analysis by the National Photographic Interpretation Center. Between 1956 & 1960, the CIA flew 24 missions over Russia. In July 1956, the sole U2 flight was made over the Russian capital Moscow and that aircraft hangs in the NASM Washington D.C.
In October 1962 the longest U2 flight was made near Alaska lasting 10 hours 25 minutes. Looking at the modernday version, which has a 6 meters longer wingspan, the longest modernday flight last up to 12 hours+
Besides the May 1960 story of Gary Powers, shot down over Russia, another amazing story was an U2 departing Barksdale AFB to check the Post-Cuba crisis situation on July 28, 1966, over Cuba but the pilot got unconscious and the aircraft flew on for 4400 kilometres; passing over a US Air Base in Panama to finally crash into a mountain 220 kilometres southeast of La Paz in Bolivia!
Since 1972, NASA Ames Flight Research has been using U2 aircraft, funny as in May 1960 the CIA presented a Lockheed U2 with ficticious NASA registration 55741 as seen in my tribute scale model commemorating the late Francis Gary Powers (1929-1977) !
Of course another interesting topic were the wrist watches worn by U2, A12 and SR-71 pilots (e.g. the crownless battery-powered tuning fork movement Accutron Astronaut GMT pilot watch). And alterations to David Clark S901-E pressure suits to add a wrist watch pocket !
(Scale model: Philip MWU / Artwork: Blair Bunting)
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August 1, 1955 was the Lockheed U2 first flight by test pilot Tom LeVier, going from flying the aircraft with shortest to the one with longest wings!
Back in the 1950s, U2 aircraft were named "article" and pilots were named "drivers. A dozen Military pilots with long-range navigation experience were selected for the U2 became civilian pilots in a process called "sheep dipping".
The first U2 series did not have an ejection seat. Recce photos were sent to the Strategic Air Relocateable Processing Facility with analysis by the National Photographic Interpretation Center. Between 1956 & 1960, the CIA flew 24 missions over Russia. In July 1956, the sole U2 flight was made over the Russian capital Moscow and that aircraft hangs in the NASM Washington D.C.
In October 1962 the longest U2 flight was made near Alaska lasting 10 hours 25 minutes. Looking at the modernday version, which has a 6 meters longer wingspan, the longest modernday flight last up to 12 hours+
Besides the May 1960 story of Gary Powers, shot down over Russia, another amazing story was an U2 departing Barksdale AFB to check the Post-Cuba crisis situation on July 28, 1966, over Cuba but the pilot got unconscious and the aircraft flew on for 4400 kilometres; passing over a US Air Base in Panama to finally crash into a mountain 220 kilometres southeast of La Paz in Bolivia!
Since 1972, NASA Ames Flight Research has been using U2 aircraft, funny as in May 1960 the CIA presented a Lockheed U2 with ficticious NASA registration 55741 as seen in my tribute scale model commemorating the late Francis Gary Powers (1929-1977) !
Of course another interesting topic were the wrist watches worn by U2, A12 and SR-71 pilots (e.g. the crownless battery-powered tuning fork movement Accutron Astronaut GMT pilot watch). And alterations to David Clark S901-E pressure suits to add a wrist watch pocket !
(Scale model: Philip MWU / Artwork: Blair Bunting)
.
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SpeedyPhill
·Eject Eject !
As a young boy I’ve always been fascinated by fighter pilot ejection training, especially the ride up a steel mast rail tower where the pilot/aviator really experienced a launch “up into the sky”.
But what to say about the first Lockheed F-104 downward ejection seat design ?
This B&W photo shows a pilot wearing a full pressure suit with high altitude BF Goodrich U.S.N. helmet Mk III sitting in an ejector seat ready for a ride up the ejection seat rail tower !
History-wise, German Heinkel He 280 test pilot, Helmut Schenk, became the first person to escape from a stricken aircraft with an ejection seat on 13 January 1942.
The first live flight test of the Martin-Baker ejector seat system took place on 24 July 1946, when Bernard Lynch ejected from a British Gloster Meteor jet fighter. In 1987, I visited the Martin Baker company for my thesis and learned how they kept track of worldwide ejections and it looks like the counter stands at 7777 lives saved !
#martinbaker
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As a young boy I’ve always been fascinated by fighter pilot ejection training, especially the ride up a steel mast rail tower where the pilot/aviator really experienced a launch “up into the sky”.
But what to say about the first Lockheed F-104 downward ejection seat design ?
This B&W photo shows a pilot wearing a full pressure suit with high altitude BF Goodrich U.S.N. helmet Mk III sitting in an ejector seat ready for a ride up the ejection seat rail tower !
History-wise, German Heinkel He 280 test pilot, Helmut Schenk, became the first person to escape from a stricken aircraft with an ejection seat on 13 January 1942.
The first live flight test of the Martin-Baker ejector seat system took place on 24 July 1946, when Bernard Lynch ejected from a British Gloster Meteor jet fighter. In 1987, I visited the Martin Baker company for my thesis and learned how they kept track of worldwide ejections and it looks like the counter stands at 7777 lives saved !
#martinbaker
.
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DoctorEvil
·Eject Eject !
As a young boy I’ve always been fascinated by fighter pilot ejection training, especially the ride up a steel mast rail tower where the pilot/aviator really experienced a launch “up into the sky”.
But what to say about the first Lockheed F-104 downward ejection seat design ?
This B&W photo shows a pilot wearing a full pressure suit with high altitude BF Goodrich U.S.N. helmet Mk III sitting in an ejector seat ready for a ride up the ejection seat rail tower !
History-wise, German Heinkel He 280 test pilot, Helmut Schenk, became the first person to escape from a stricken aircraft with an ejection seat on 13 January 1942.
The first live flight test of the Martin-Baker ejector seat system took place on 24 July 1946, when Bernard Lynch ejected from a British Gloster Meteor jet fighter. In 1987, I visited the Martin Baker company for my thesis and learned how they kept track of worldwide ejections and it looks like the counter stands at 7777 lives saved !
#martinbaker
.
