broken thoughts
Air Show in Belgium F-4 Phantom II
This is my favorite warplane of all time. I know; I usually don't have "favorites." But this little baby grew up with me in St. Louis. Back in the day, there weren't so many laws about noisy airplanes and these babies could be seen and heard screaming around the sky on a frequent basis, often complete with sonic booms.
The F4 is basically my age: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-4_Phantom_II Besides the assorted flight tests flown around the St. Louis area, they also would mount the engines in ground-based contraptions and test them that way. Many a weekend of my young life in the suburbs of St. Louis was spent listening to these engines scream and shriek from across town. I used to be able to tell an F-4 just from its sound in flight, coming or going.
I can only explain my life-long fascination with this piece of war machinery to my early experiences in youth. Seemingly innocuous things in our world really can influence us to our depths, and for life.
I even remember reading stories of bombing runs and dogfights by US Vietnam War pilots, and the superiority this baby provided. Also, of the limits of this craft that they daily pushed past; sometimes successfully, sometimes not.
This warplane, for good or bad, is etched deeply into my life and psyche.
Air Show in Belgium F-4 Phantom II
This is my favorite warplane of all time. I know; I usually don't have "favorites." But this little baby grew up with me in St. Louis. Back in the day, there weren't so many laws about noisy airplanes and these babies could be seen and heard screaming around the sky on a frequent basis, often complete with sonic booms.
The F4 is basically my age: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-4_Phantom_II Besides the assorted flight tests flown around the St. Louis area, they also would mount the engines in ground-based contraptions and test them that way. Many a weekend of my young life in the suburbs of St. Louis was spent listening to these engines scream and shriek from across town. I used to be able to tell an F-4 just from its sound in flight, coming or going.
I can only explain my life-long fascination with this piece of war machinery to my early experiences in youth. Seemingly innocuous things in our world really can influence us to our depths, and for life.
I even remember reading stories of bombing runs and dogfights by US Vietnam War pilots, and the superiority this baby provided. Also, of the limits of this craft that they daily pushed past; sometimes successfully, sometimes not.
This warplane, for good or bad, is etched deeply into my life and psyche.