I find it hard to believe we'll have fighter pilots in 10 years. Hell, they don't need pilots now...

We will definitely see more and more loyal wingman concepts as time goes on, human pilots coordinating with full size AI drones as force multipliers... but its gonna be a while before we can take humans out of the link entirely IMO

I was a C-130 navigator and an air combat tactics instructor.

I flew a map of the earth mission with my SEE tractor aboard a C-130 from Eielson AFB way out to the boonies on some dirt strip

They almost succeeded in making me puke, almost

Can you talk about the air combat training to any extent? Tell us a cool story...

Why has this innocuous post from November upset you so much today, Livesteam?

Well, a lot of it is technical stuff about how missile and gun systems work and how to defeat those systems, so there's not a lot say that would be a cool story there.

I can tell you about a mission we flew at Red Flag once where we nearly crashed. We were flying "low-level" which for us was approximately 300 feet off the ground and we flew through a small mountain pass, or notch, and once we were through it the plane started falling out of the sky. (we believe that it was a case of mountain wave turbulence which is a rare phenomenon.) When you're only at 300 feet, it doesn't take long to impact the ground. The pilot had the yoke pulled all the way back and we were still going down. I was standing up in the cockpit, but we were at zero G and my feet were not really in contact with the cockpit floor.

After a short bit we evidently flew out of the downdraft and since the pilot had the yoke all the back, the plane immediately went nose high and climbing rapidly. That slammed me down to the floor. He pushed the yoke forward rapidly which brought me up off the floor just as quickly and hitting the ceiling of the cockpit.

We steadied out from there with everyone wide-eyed and asking WTF was that?!? We had a couple observers on board and sitting on the bunk in the back of the cockpit. One was an A-10 pilot and he puked.

Fun stuff on a hot day in the desert.

LMAO good Lord what a harrowing ordeal... slammed to the ceiling, floor, and went weightless despite all the power in that big bird

Thanks for sharing, Red

Low margin of error flying over mountains is a goddamned horror show.

Man I always loved the F14 Tomcat Lockheed A 12 and the SR 71 blackbird. Both designed by legendary Kelly Johnson or Lockheed Martin.

My Dads a Navy WWII pacific Pilot and TWA'er loved the Lockheed Constellation. Dreamed up by Howard Hughes and chief designer Kelly Johnson. The Martin 404 and Dc 10 were pretty special to him also. He graduated top five in his class in some sort of Naval Aviator school it was somewhere in NY where they train officers leading up to the war. After his college, he worked for 4 years at Fairfax airport in KCK as a line mechanic. They didn't wear hearing protection it kinda damaged his ears. He wasn't allowed on to fighter school. They needed pilots to ferry airplanes. He was a line mechanic and a pilot The Navy needed Mechanics plus he was a pilot he could fly anything. So he would help get shot-up planes airworthy from a Navy maintenance ship. Once they could get it flyable its was transferred back to a carrier and flown to an island base to get it back to service. Fitting new skin engines whatever to get it back into war. Much of this he never spoke of I had to get into his trunk in the attic and we read all his flight books. The Navy couldn't spare pilots is was all unescorted. One logbook he met up with a couple of Jap fighters got shot up they abruptly banked and dogged out he concluded they were running dry he had no weapons no defense was dead to rights. He limped on in barely any control and engine belching smoke. He crash landed short of the runway conked his head on something woke in a base hospital with a concussion. They suspected they were going to need to put a steel plate in his head and nixed that. Later in life, he had male pattern baldness could see about a 2 1/2 inch concave spot on his upper forehead that was kinda soft when you felt it. I asked him about it once all he said is "I crashed a plane, I don't recommend it."

I long winded this and got off topic my apologies. I am pretty proud my late father.

After the war Dad went back to TWA as a mechanic and became an expert on everything in the fleet. He was promoted to inspector wrote job procedures for overhaul of 707 through L1011 he retired as lead inspection supervisor at the KC Overhaul base.

Dad was a Charles E Taylor Master AMT Mechanic award winner very prestigious and one of the first if not the first. TWA boasted 14 of them. This is My Dad in front of his beloved Lockheed Constellation restoration he is the bow-legged guy front second from right in red checkerd shirt and member mark jacket. He really wasn't bow-legged his knees work out crawling around airplanes and walking those concrete floors. He couldn't get replacements because of a heart defect they discovered later in life with a valve.
http://www.amtausa.com/honor21.jpg

http://www.amtausa.com/honor2.html

My dad was an inspector as well. I'm sure they knew each other. He then went on to Instructor. L-1011 was his know it all. As well as the 707 as those were basically TWA's entire fleet. Then to Saudi Arabia where it was purely L-1011 instruction. Probably utilizing the procedures your dad developed. He used to go down to shoot the shit, as airplane guys do, with the Constellation team. I never had an interest in going because endless boring hours at Roosterville airport was horrendous. Wish I had.

My Dad one night out of the blue received a call from an Arizona rich Philanthropist. He had a lifetime love of airplanes and had memories of his first commercial aircraft flight with his parents on the Connie. He bought a Constellation at a Mesa aircraft boneyard with the hope he could have it restored as a flying museum. He called around to Lockheed Martin and the FAA. They all recommended to Call the TWA overhaul base in KC. They recommended to call my dad he found a number in the phone listing. He explained what he wanted. Dad kept telling him he was retired he begged and dad relented with conditions. He would come out look at the plane and look over the maintenance records. Then he would determine if they could get it airworthy to fly back to KC where retirees with the knowledge could volunteer the time. Well, the man flew him out and they hit it off instantly but the plane was a mess its last two jobs were as a sprayer plane then a cattle carrier. He agreed to give it a try and Mesa man contacted a pilot friend and airline enthusiast who started a not-for-profit organization called Save A Connie. Dad came home and began the process of seeking old retirees he knew to fly out to Mesa all expenses paid to get airplane airworthy and permitted to fly to KC downtown airport and begin the restoration at a hanger that was donated to them. Those old guys got that plane airworthy and those old high-hours Pratt Whitney radials to turn over and fly. They found an old TWA pilot to fly it and did got the ferry permit. Dad served as the flight engineer and they limped it back to Kc and landed with local news at the location. The pilot got all the recommendations lol go figure. Dad secured newer Pratt and Whitney lower hour motors they overhauled them Me my brother and sis volunteer along with other TWA family members cleaning parts. Dad contacted TWA and secured the paint job with condition TWA colors TWA on the tail and Sac on the nose cone. Dad worked with FAA to get overhaul procedures and bt dam not only got it to be approved for flight but approved for commercial air flight. That plane flew to airshows all over the USA and overseas it was in high demand the airshows donated the fuel and people donated to fly in it. The Save A Connie was renamed and became the KC airline and history museum. Then the guys started dying off. When Dad died they tried to keep it flying but to many that knew how to work on passed away. It basically became static at Dads passing hasn't flown since.

https://live.staticflickr.com/2735/4...cc4fab54_b.jpg

Retired stewardesses still fitting in their uniforms.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pr...4y1_aedlCyoTKw

https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/a...5650-large.jpg

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...oIVnw&usqp=CAU

http://theairchive.net/wp-content/up...-1ST-CLASS.jpg

Hitched a ride on a 130 more than once.

I didn't realize there would me this much interest in my story. If anyone cares to look, you can look on Google maps at the spot where it happened.

N 37.988
W 115.816

We were flying southwest along the eastern side of the Quinn Canyon range and turned north through the notch in that range. The point of doing that was to use the mountains to block "enemy" radar from being able to acquire/target us.

ETA - This is very close to area 51. It is along the southern edge of the Red Flag range. We were all warned about extremely serious consequences for anyone that flew into the area 51 airspace.

Did you ever do this one?

https://chiefsplanet.com/BB/showpost...&postcount=499