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Have you seen the film "The Right Stuff". It should be essential viewing for all those who frequent this thread. Half of it is based on the race to go supersonic the other half on the space race. It is my favorite film of all time, and seeing that picture above has made me want to watch it when I get home tonight.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Right_Stuff_(film)

^^ Must watch that!

I've always quite liked the USSR's Tupolev TU-144, based on the TU-135 bomber design. "Concordski" flew before Concorde and was faster ...

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This is bonkers

I suppose at some point it becomes easier to lift the B29 than to lower the payload

I'd say it was because it was very valuable and they didn't mind dropping a B29 but then again it's not like you want to drop that^

Before any other nerds start yelling, yes that thing being loaded with an X-1 is technically a B-50 not a B-29

All the XB-70s!

I'm re-reading Chickenhawk by Robert Mason, it's an amazing book by a Vietnam Huey pilot. Seriously, if you haven't read this you really should.

Also, you may already be aware of most of these, but I'd definitely recommend:

Low Level Hell by Robert Anderson (scout pilot in Vietnam)
Wings on my sleeve by Eric "Winkle" Brown (flown basically everything, at the forefront of test flying for years)
Skunk Works by Ben Rich (Lockheed skunk works aircraft designer - Blackbird, F117)
The Smell of Kerosene by Donald Mallick (NASA test pilot)

There are more, but can't think of them now...

Plus one to Chickenhawk. Fucking nuts.

Will look up some of them others...

Used to chat to Winkle Brown over the back fence of my grandparents garden in Domewood. Every now and then he'd get a chainsaw out, twice the size of him, and wield it haphazardly against the silver birches - quite the sight. He also set light to their old stables in the mid 1990's after a bonfire went tits up.

Skunk Works by Ben Rich (Lockheed skunk works aircraft designer - Blackbird, F117)

There's a great documentary about this stuff. Really worth a watch.

Good content innit.

Moar pls. 😎

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Wings on my sleeve by Eric "Winkle" Brown (flown basically everything, at the forefront of test flying for years)

Read this, you could think that parts where made up, but of course. with flying it is all documented.

The Smell of Kerosene by Donald Mallick

Just looked this up, It's available free here: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/pdf/88797main_kerosene.pdf

Christmas reading sorted...

Yes! NASA have got Boris Chertok's Rockets and People volumes 1-4 as free ebooks as well. They're massive, I think I got about halfway through Volume 1 but then ended up wiping my phone, have put them on my kindle now and will get around to them at some point. Interesting to get the Russian perspective on WW2 aircraft and rocket design (and space race presumably in volumes 2-4).

Edit for link: https://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/rockets_people_vol1_detail.html

This is bonkers

The caption that goes with this is pic is:

Bell X-1-3, aircraft #46-064, being mated to the B-50 mothership for a captive flight test on 9 November 1951. While being de-fueled after this flight it exploded, destroying itself and the B-50, and seriously burning Joe Cannon. X-1-3 had completed only a single glide-flight on 20 July.[27]

Perilous times.

Imagine the crazy shit they're working on now...

One of the best things about the US government is the way that non-classified reports etc. have to be made available to the public; NASA's history division website is a goldmine of project and organisational histories, most of which are available for download. The USAF histories are a bit harder to find, but many of them are online as well, as are many of the air university press publications.

NASA's historical web stuff is fascinating. Who would have guessed that the only pilot in the world to fly both Concorde & the Tuplolev TU-144 (Condordski) was a NASA test pilot Robert Rivers, and he went to Russia to do this with a broken leg. Remarkable!

Probably nowhere near as good as the 50's to 70's . All those lifting body designs are only starting to be re-looked at now.

Apart from hypersonics all I can see them doing is blended wing surfaces and refining supersonics to be quiet. Still pretty cool but certainly not as nuts as the space race era

I bought Chickenhawk the other day and read it in less than 2 days, I really enjoyed it.

Having a look on amazon now for Low Level Hell, looks like it has good reviews.

Glad you enjoyed it! Low level hell is good. Nuts in a different way. The guy is rather more gung-ho than Bob Mason, but the stuff the scout pilots did was ridiculous.

Another really good one is Snake Pilot by Randy Zahn (I think?). Definitely worth reading.

Edit: just thought of another one - Fate is the hunter by Ernest K. Gann. Brilliantly written, absolutely worth reading.

Viggen in Meccano

https://hushkit.net/2017/12/05/top-ten-asymmetric-aircraft/amp/

My 2 year old daughter is obsessed with the Disney movie Planes. Been making her the characters out of loo roll and letting her paint them. She fuckin LOVES them.

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