Forum: Off-topic

Fast, I'm a big fan of (in order of fanaticism):
WRC
F1
ALMS/GT/ELMS
BTCC/JTCC/GTCC/DTM
CART

I absolutely abhor NASCRAP though....

F-16.net Sponsor

I only really hate the Indy Racing League (Insignificant Racing League, Insufficient Racing League, Injured Racing,. . .well you get the idea. . .). I was going to be super pissed if Kenny Brack had expired from his injuries in Texas. He was one of my favorite CART drives (so was deFerran, Herta, Barron, Hearn, and Franchitti).

Back on topic; I'd like to see a movie about Randall Cunningham (the ace, not the quaterback). I know Hollywood hates conservative Republicans and there is still debate about his final encounter with the infamous MiG-17 pilot. But, being a Phantom Phanatic it's just something I'd like to see them try.

Habu wrote:

Hypersonic is THE book to have on the X-15!

O.k., O.k, you convinced me. I ordered it, along with a book on the X-20 Dynasoar (one of my favorites). Don't tell my wife!

If we are drifting towards books in this thread, anyone read 'Fox Two' by Randy Cunningham? Great description of dogfights in Vietnam, and one really amusing comment on USAF pilots too....

Kevin
The Ejection Site

The Hypersonics book was written by Dennis Jenkins. He also did the definitive book on the US Shuttle program, the B-36, and many others. Dennis used some of my A-12 (Avenger II) photos in his A-6 book. I haven't met him in person, only talked on the phone, but he is supposed to be in town next month. I hope to get my X-15 book before then and have him sign it.

Nice to know that I am not the only one whose wife thinks I spend too much money for very expensive and uninteresting books about those flying things! Very Happy

'Fox Two' was pretty good. Lots of good reference photos for building his AC too! Smile

I've read Fox Two, that's why I'd like to see if someone would have the guts, brains, and money to make a movie out of it. In the last year I've read Fast Movers by John Sherwood, Angles of Attack by Peter Hunt, Pak Six by G.I. Basel and Scott O'Grady's book Return with Honor. There were some stories in Fast Movers that would make good movies.

kmceject wrote:

Habu wrote:

Hypersonic is THE book to have on the X-15!

O.k., O.k, you convinced me. I ordered it, along with a book on the X-20 Dynasoar (one of my favorites). Don't tell my wife!

If we are drifting towards books in this thread, anyone read 'Fox Two' by Randy Cunningham? Great description of dogfights in Vietnam, and one really amusing comment on USAF pilots too....

Kevin
The Ejection Site

Hee hee...welcome to the dark side! Twisted Evil

I'm currently waiting for my Black Jets and Lock On No.2 to arrive....and I already see a bunch of other books I wanna buy from Amazon....I'm an ebay/amazon junkie Razz

Habu, I have limited funds and spend most of them on ejection seat related information, besides, I have limited space. My house is a 3 bedroom with some 30,000 books, 3 ejection seats, hundreds of suits (my wife is an ex-lawyer) and dozens of odd collectables. In other words we have no space for my wife and myself, let alone our son. Talk about troubles in baby-proofing, how do you convince a baby not to pull himself up on the lower ejection handle of a 185 pound Martin-Baker Mk. J5D?

For me to decide to splurge on a book I have to take the cost of the book, plus the size of the book and then add the desireability factor to see if I can truly afford it. I have tons of older books on aircraft sitting in the basement that are being kept for a single photo in each, and I can't easily wedge any more books in those book cases. (Most of the books are my wifes, I only have about 4 book cases out of the 26 or so we have at last count...)

Anyway, I love the X-15 aircraft (and have touched both the one at Wright-Pat and the one at the NASM... as well as an XLR-11 and XLR-99) so it was hard to pass this book up. The X-15 seat is also one of the most intregueing seats I have ever seen. The X-20 DynaSoar was a great concept and in my opinion it would have significantly changed the US space capability had it proceeded to a few launches. Besides, one of my friends was the lead designer on the X-20 ejection seat...

I have Lock On No 1 and No 2. They are great books. The F-16 one is great. I still have drawings of the STAPAC I did from the photos in there. I don't know Black Jets, but will check that out. I have about 30 books on the SR-71 and its family. I did some volunteer work on the A-12 at the Intrepid (well, I did about 2 minutes on it, but at least I got into the cockpit for a while...)

As to a movie of 'Fox Two', I'd love to see that. The problem is that it is probably percieved by Hollywood as too much of a reality story than a real 'movie'...

I owe Scott O'Grady a small debt for writing 'Return with Honor' as it introduced me to a great man who has since passed away. He thanked Mike Grost in it, and Mike was one of the first people he called after being rescued. Among many other great things that Mike did for MIAs, and mishap investigation, he also taught the Life Support Officers course on mishap investigations on the unit level. O'Grady took that course, and it was one of the reasons he ejected as quickly as he did. In the course the students are shown actual artifacts from mishaps and asked to divine what might be significant from them. In one case there is a F-4 Phantom debris pile that O'Grady remembered vividly. The canopy had green streaks all over the interior of it. It was from a mid-air collision where one wing had been severed. The pilot had not ejected. The streaks were from the green paint on his helmet (also present in the room). The aircraft had uncorked and the violent gyrations had caused the pilot's head in helmet to rub all over the inside of the canopy. The streaks were enough to explain why the pilot was dead before impact. O'Grady ejected once he realized the aircraft was severed into two pieces because he remembered that canopy and didn't want to be in the cockpit if it became unstable.

He then descended attached to the seat waiting for the automatics to release him at 10000-12000ft and another thing that Mike had kidded him about came to mind. Mike told me that being English he picked on the Irish pilot a little and had asked him how he would know the seat sequencer hadn't been damaged by a piece of shrapnel from a mythical SAM hit. While dropping through clouds, O'Grady realized that he couldn't take the chance on it and pulled the Emergency Manual Chute handle to force seat separation.

Mike and O'Grady became friends, and Mike was proud enough of that to send me a photo of the two of them taken when O'Grady went to Mike's lab to thank him in person.

After reading O'Grady's description of the lab, and of Mike, I had to contact Mike, and we became great friends. He will be missed....

Kevin
The Ejection Site
ps for more on Mike Grost, go to my web site and read the tribute written by Charles (Skip) Goodman. It is linked on the left hand column near the bottom. The photo of O'Grady and Grost is on there as well.

kmceject, I remember that part of the book (mostly cause it mentioned an F-4). Sounds like that place is the proverbial "Red Assphalt" for pilots. I bet it would be really interesting to see though.

Fastmover76, The lab is off limits to civilians I understand, and I have mixed feelings about visiting myself. It has a lot of connection to brave men and women who have lost their lives. I personally respect the work the lab does and hope it continues its many missions, but am not sure I want to see the images that are available there.

They use past mishaps to learn how to understand current ones, and to help develop ways to protect future pilots. This is a sad, but in my opinion necessary mission.

Kevin
The Ejection Site

Just got the Hypersonic book and the X-20 DynaSoar book the other day. Hypersonic seems to be really well organized although I have only had time to read about 100 pages. Great photos. The DynaSoar book is an odd one, it is a collection of documents on the project rather than a narrative history. It is tempting to me to jump into that one, but I'll wait until I finish Hypersonic.

Anyone read 'Bogeys and Bandits' and have any comments?

Kevin
The Ejection Site

Yeah there's also an X-15 book in the style of the Dyansoar book, they're really just the NASA reports.

The F-16's in the Iron Eagle movies were RC scale models. They were build at a scale of 1/10th and powered by ducted fans. Have a look at http://www.jethangar.com/About/aboutJHH.html, it is written somwhere in the text.

Never have had the pleasure of reading Randy Cunningham's "Fox Two." And, as far as filming a movie about him goes, here are a couple things to consider: 1)Unless you like the ultra-cheese computer graphics of today, as opposed to the "We take REAL planes up" scenes from the 80s, then filming might be impossible, because the only F-4s the U.S. has flying, are drones. 2)The film Top Gun was actually inspired (in part) on accounts of some of Cunningham's experiences. They, of course, reworked the scenes to fit a then-modern day Tomcat pilot. Funny thing, we knew this Navy exchange pilot, who was flying Eagles at Tyndall back in the mid to late 80s. He too, was a Top Gun grad/instructor. Whenever asked about Cunningham, he would say, "That man would have made Admiral if he hadn't pulled out his d*ck and stepped on it so many times."

Forum: Off-topic

The Falcons of Iron Eagle/Aviation movies