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USAF Thunderbirds
The USAF Air Demonstration Squadron is the air demonstration squadron of the United States Air Force The Thunderbirds, as they are popularly known, are assigned to the 57th Wing, and are based at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. Created in 1953, the USAF Thunderbirds are the third-oldest formal flying aerobatic team (under the same name) in the world, after the French Air Force Patrouille de France formed in 1931 and the United States Navy Blue Angels formed in 1946. The Thunderbirds Squadron tours the United States and much of the world, performing aerobatic formation and solo flying in specially marked aircraft. The squadron's name is taken from the legendary creature that appears in the mythologies of several indigenous North American cultures. Overview The Thunderbirds Squadron is a named USAF squadron, meaning it does not carry a numerical designation. It is also one of the oldest squadrons in the Air Force, its origins dating to the organization of the 30th Aero Squadro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flag Of The United States
The national flag of the United States, often referred to as the American flag or the U.S. flag, consists of thirteen horizontal Bar (heraldry), stripes, Variation of the field, alternating red and white, with a blue rectangle in the Canton (flag), canton bearing fifty small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows, where rows of six stars alternate with rows of five stars. The 50 stars on the flag represent the 50 U.S. states, and the 13 stripes represent the Thirteen Colonies, thirteen British colonies that won independence from Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War. The flag was created as an item of military equipment to identify US ships and forts. It evolved gradually during early American history, and was not designed by any one person. The flag exploded in popularity in 1861 as a symbol of opposition to the Confederate States of America, Confederate Battle of Fort Sumter, attack on Fort Sumter. It came to sy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kelly Field
Kelly Field (formerly Kelly Air Force Base) is a Joint-use airport, Joint-Use facility located in San Antonio, Texas. It was originally named after George E. M. Kelly, the first member of the U.S. military killed in the crash of an airplane he was piloting. In 2001, pursuant to Base Realignment and Closure, BRAC action, the former Kelly AFB runway and land west of the runway became "Kelly Field" and control of this reduced size installation was transferred to the adjacent Lackland Air Force Base, part of Joint Base San Antonio. The base is under the jurisdiction of the 802d Mission Support Group, Air Education and Training Command (AETC). Kelly Field was United States Army World War I Flight Training, one of thirty-two Air Service training camps established after the United States entry into World War I, being established on 27 March 1917. It was used as a flying field; primary flying school; school for adjutants, supply officers, and engineers; mechanics school, and as an av ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Split S
The split S is an Aerobatic maneuver and an Air combat manoeuvring, air combat maneuver mostly used to disengage from combat. To execute a split S, the pilot half-rolls his aircraft inverted and executes a descending half-loop, resulting in level flight in the opposite direction at a lower altitude. Description The split S is taught to be used in dogfighting when the pilot has the opportunity to withdraw from battle. It can be an effective tactic to prevent an enemy behind (between four o'clock and eight o'clock positions) from gaining a missile lock-on while one is disengaging from a fight. The split S is contrasted with the Immelmann turn, which is an ascending half-loop that finishes with a half-roll out, resulting in level flight in the opposite direction at a higher altitude. The split S is also called a reversed Immelmann turn and can also be written with a hyphen: split-S. In basic terms, the Immelmann and split S are very similar, both accomplishing the same reversal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diamond PIR
Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of electricity, and insoluble in water. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, but diamond is metastable and converts to it at a negligible rate under those conditions. Diamond has the highest hardness and thermal conductivity of any natural material, properties that are used in major industrial applications such as cutting and polishing tools. Because the arrangement of atoms in diamond is extremely rigid, few types of impurity can contaminate it (two exceptions are boron and nitrogen). Small numbers of defects or impurities (about one per million of lattice atoms) can color a diamond blue (boron), yellow (nitrogen), brown (defects), green (radiation exposure), purple, pink, oran ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boeing C-17 Globemaster III
The McDonnell Douglas/Boeing C-17 Globemaster III is a large military transport aircraft developed for the United States Air Force (USAF) between the 1980s to the early 1990s by McDonnell Douglas. The C-17 carries forward the name of two previous piston-engined military cargo aircraft, the Douglas C-74 Globemaster and the Douglas C-124 Globemaster II. The C-17 is based upon the McDonnell Douglas YC-15, YC-15, a smaller prototype airlifter designed during the 1970s. It was designed to replace the Lockheed C-141 Starlifter, and also fulfill some of the duties of the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy. The redesigned airlifter differs from the YC-15 in that it is larger and has swept wings and more powerful engines. Development was protracted by a series of design issues, causing the company to incur a loss of nearly US$1.5 billion on the program's development phase. On 15 September 1991, roughly one year behind schedule, the first C-17 performed its maiden flight. The C-17 formally entered USAF ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pratt & Whitney F100
The Pratt & Whitney F100 (company designation JTF22) is a low bypass afterburner, afterburning turbofan engine. It was designed and manufactured by Pratt & Whitney to power the U.S. Air Force's "FX" initiative in 1965, which became the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle, F-15 Eagle. The engine was to be developed in tandem with the Pratt & Whitney F401, F401 which shares a similar core but with an upscaled fan for the U.S. Navy's Grumman F-14 Tomcat, F-14 Tomcat. The F401 was later abandoned due to costs and reliability issues. The F100 also powered the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, F-16 Fighting Falcon for the Air Force's Lightweight Fighter (LWF) program. Development In 1967, the United States Navy and United States Air Force issued a joint engine Request for Proposals (RFP) for the F-14 Tomcat and the FX, which became the parallel fighter design competition that led to the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle, F-15 Eagle in 1970. This engine program was called the IEDP (Initial E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jet Fuel Starter
An auxiliary power unit (APU) is a device on a vehicle that provides energy for functions other than propulsion. They are commonly found on large aircraft and naval ships as well as some large land vehicles. Aircraft APUs generally produce 115 V AC voltage at 400 Hz (rather than 50/60 Hz in mains supply), to run the electrical systems of the aircraft; others can produce 28 V DC voltage. APUs can provide power through single or three-phase systems. A jet fuel starter (JFS) is a similar device to an APU but directly linked to the main engine and started by an onboard compressed air bottle. Transport aircraft History During World War I, the British Coastal class blimps, one of several types of airship operated by the Royal Navy, carried a ABC auxiliary engine. These powered a generator for the craft's radio transmitter and, in an emergency, could power an auxiliary air blower. One of the first military fixed-wing aircraft to use an APU was the British, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
T-38 Talon
The Northrop T-38 Talon is a two-seat, twinjet supersonic jet trainer designed and produced by the American aircraft manufacturer Northrop Corporation. It was the world's first supersonic trainer as well as the most produced. The T-38 can be traced back to 1952 and Northrop's N-102 Fang and ''N-156'' fighter aircraft projects. During the mid-1950s, Northrop officials decided to adapt the N-156 to suit a recently issued general operating requirement by the United States Air Force (USAF) for a supersonic trainer to replace the Lockheed T-33. The bid was successful, in no small part due to its lower lifecycle cost comparisons to competing aircraft, and the company received an initial order to build three prototypes. The first of these, designated ''YT-38'', made its maiden flight on 10 April 1959. The T-38 was introduced to USAF service on 17 March 1961. The USAF is the largest operator of the T-38. Additional operators of the T-38 include NASA and the United States Navy. U.S. N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1982 Thunderbirds Indian Springs Diamond Crash
The 1982 Diamond Crash was the worst operational accident to befall the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds Air Demonstration Team involving show aircraft. Four Northrop T-38 Talon jets crashed during operational training on 18 January 1982, killing all four pilots. Accident The Thunderbirds were practicing at Indian Springs Air Force Auxiliary Field, Nevada (now Creech Air Force Base) for a performance at Davis–Monthan AFB, Arizona. Four T-38As, Numbers 1–4, comprising the basic diamond formation, hit the desert floor almost simultaneously on Range 65, now referred to as "The Gathering of Eagles Range". The pilots were practicing the four-plane line abreast loop, in which the aircraft climb in side-by-side formation several thousand feet, pull over in a slow, inside loop, and descend at more than . The planes were meant to level off at about ; instead, the formation struck the ground at high speed. The four pilots died instantly: Major Norm Lowry, III, leader, 37, of Radford, Vi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
F-16C Fighting Falcon
The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is an American single-engine supersonic Multirole combat aircraft, multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it evolved into a successful night fighter, all-weather multirole aircraft with over 4,600 built since 1976. Although no longer purchased by the U.S. Air Force, improved versions are being built for export. In 1993, General Dynamics sold its aircraft manufacturing business to the Lockheed Corporation, which became part of Lockheed Martin after a 1995 merger with Martin Marietta. The F-16's key features include a frameless bubble canopy for enhanced cockpit visibility, a side-stick, side-mounted control stick to ease control while maneuvering, an ejection seat reclined 30 degrees from vertical to reduce the effect of g-forces on the pilot, and the first use of a relaxed stability, relaxed static stability/fly-by-wire fligh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
