Old scan of the Space Shuttle

This sure brings back memories. I was in the Air Force from 1972 to 1981 and only rarely saw the SR-71. The other plane I only saw rarely was the U2. I was stationed at Sunnyvale, right next to Moffett Field where a couple of the U2's were hangered. We heard it take off all the time but I never got to see it. Very few people did as it took off right out of the hanger and did almost a 90 degree climb under full power. The first time I did get to see it I was driving around the end of the run way when a big shadow came over me. I looked up out of my window and all I saw was wing... lots of wing. I sure wish I could have gotten some pictures of the stuff I saw them testing at Moffett Field, but they were a bit touchy about cameras around the runway. Those Navy guys just have no sense of humor.

I was also stationed at Vandenburg AFB for a year and half during the middle 70's and saw a lot of rocket launches, including a number of Titan 3C's. I have pictures somewhere that I took from about 5 miles away. Having grew up in the Sputnik and moon race days, I also got to do something most of us that grew up during that period dreamed about... I got to be part of the count downs of a number of rocket launches. They were un-manned launches from there, most were taking up spy satellites, but it was still exciting. I actually had a speaking part. Yep, a lot of memories from those years.

Even if they are poor scans, they are still great shots.

Mike

My dad was in the Air Force. He was in Korea. Both of my sons are in the USAF. My youngest son's USAF tech school was at Vandenburg. I drove out (from Texas) and watched him graduate. They were cool with me taking pictures and he graduated in his classroom which looked to me like a big missile maintenance hanger. I'm sorry to say that I was the only parent there for graduation He's in Minot, ND right now. He's a missile maintainer (ALCM and CALCM). My oldest son is stationed at Hurlburt Field. He just got back from TDY in Afghanistan. He's an electrician. He works on AC130H gunships. Awesome aircraft.

Here's a pic of my youngest son's graduating class He's the tall one with no hair. His instructor shaved his head and Matt liked him so much that he shaved his head

Very cool Mike!

Jon.

In the 2nd shot, what are the "Rear-view mirrors" on the nose?

Mike6158 wrote:
This is pitiful. I'll do something better tomorrow...

You can probably get the big version here. Go to the Aviation Folder. Then Military. Then click get original. I'll put something better up tomorrow: My Foto Site

Set up your camera on a tripod, and frame the picture straight down, or up against a wall, shoot the picture as you would with a film enlarger...I've done a few of my
grand parents pictures that way....

PhotosGuy wrote:
In the 2nd shot, what are the "Rear-view mirrors" on the nose?

According to my son, they are a type of radar jamming pod. ALQ something or other . They are a fairly recent mod. I was wondering about that. None of the AC130 pictures that are on the web show them.

That is a cool shot of the sr-71!I used to live in Shreveport and though they were not based there,I remember back in the late 70's or early 80's a "blackbird" made an emergency landing at barksdale afb and came in exceeding mach1.It was a sunny morning at about 10 or 11am and then there was this loud clap of thunder and everyone thought something had exploded close by! We heard later on the local news what had happened,and several windows had been blown out by the sonic boom.Have you ever took any shots of the b-52's or a-10's out of barksdale? I miss seeing those planes but I do get to see f-16's pretty often as I live close to buckley afb in colorado now.

PhotosGuy wrote:
In the 2nd shot, what are the "Rear-view mirrors" on the nose?

MLD- Missle Launch detectors

Jon.

Small world. I lived in Minden from about 86/87 until 89/90. I use to fly C-152's out of downtown airport when it was a TRSA. Many times ATC would call traffic as a flight of A10's at x o'clock and xxxx feet. They were a bear to see. It was cool watching them come in and then pitch out, circle, and land. Somewhere around here I probably have some pictures of A-10's or "buff's".

The video that I have may very well have been of the same SR-71 incident you mentioned. I couldn't tell what they were doing. They never shut down and they didn't mess with it long. It's a cool video. Much better than those screenshots that I posted.

It is a small world Mike.I used to go swimming at caney lake rec area when I was a kid and have been to minden many times.I know I have some A-10 and B-52 photos somewhere because I used to go to the holiday in dixie airshow at barksdale years ago.My favorite plane was the old RAF vulcan bomber and I was lucky enough to see it fly a few times back in the early 70's at the airshow.I have always loved military aircraft and it's cool seeing the F-16's here,although since 911 it is a little erie to see them always fully loaded with missles.I am lucky enough now to be close to 3 afb's and I have seen awacs,F-15's,F-18's,tankers,and other large cargo planes here fairly often.I even saw a pair of F-14's one day.I need to keep my camera with me so I can get a few photos!!Anyway thanks for the shuttle and sr-71 shots, that brought back a few memories.

I've skiied in Caney Lake quite a few times. It was on the approach to Minden Airport so I saw it alot. In fact, Caney is where I learned that if you don't let go of the rope soon enough your ski will hit mud and it stops but you don't

I miss Holiday in Dixie. I really liked the Downtown Airport airshow. Of course the big show at Barksdale AFB was best. I hear it's not as good as it was (911 caused that I'm sure).

My son says- "the tiny little eye things are MLD's but the cheeks are the ALQ-172 radar jammer" I don't have a photo where I can see the "tiny little eye things" but since he works on them... Either way... it's good stuff...