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The Story of The Supersonic DC-8
When thinking of supersonic travel… civilian travel… the first thing that comes to mind is the Concorde SST. Then maybe the Tupolev Tu-144, which was the Russian answer to the Concorde. On August 21st, 1961, Douglas test pilot William Magruder lifted DC-8 N9604Z off the runway at Edwards AFB. He then began a long, slow climb up to about 52,000 feet. (Or 50,000, depending on which source you believe. Either way, this was a record in itself.) From there he made a half-G pushover and put the big… (avgeekery.com) More...
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When the engines just won't push fast enough leave it to gravity to give you a boost!
I grew up in Berlin in the 60’s and was privileged to meet a number of pilots who engaged in aerial combat over Europe in WW2. My father introduced me to an old P47 pilot who engaged with an ME262. After doing everything he could to get away he told me the P47 could do one thing better than any other plane then. It could outdive anything. He passed through the speed of sound on his dive when his plane started shaking like crazy. He said the trick was to remember to pull up in Time and not too late as you would hit the earth or your wings could shear off - both of which he had seen. So here’s an honorable mention to the venerable P47.
The P-47 is my SECOND favorite WWII fighter, first was the P-51, but you might be surprised by my third, the FW-190. Hey, I'm 3/4 German, what can I say? LOL!!!
And i was in West Berlin before the wall was torn down and it was an amazing city, Haven't been back since, and my kids stole all of my pictures (grrrrr). Checkpoint Charlie, etc... Nobody remembers history anymore.
I remember walking through the Brandenburg Gate before the Wall went up. I took a piece of it while it was still standing. West Berlin cop pulled up in his car with lights and siren and when I told him I wanted a souvenir he clapped me on the back, laughed and said kid go home. I’ll figure out what to tell the Vopo’s. Still have it.
Hmm I question the veracity of that story. Cool plane, though.
There're plenty of stories of P-51 and P-47 pilots that approached or exceeded Mach 1 and had life threatening control issues, that's why the swept wing jet fighter was developed. I could be wrong, but that's always been what I was taught. Godspeed (pun intended) to Chuck Yeager).
I was maybe 12. He was a Colonel in the Air Force chapel we went to. A lot of WW2 pilots were still in.
