Air Show Weekend
As many of you know, I really like bright shiny things. My favorite bright shiny things are airplanes. So this Saturday, I'm headed to the Cleveland National Air Show. Among other performances, I'll see an F-22 Raptor flyby and what I'm anticipating will be a stellar performance by the U.S. Navy Blue Angels. After seeing the Blue Angels and the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds perform back to back at the Dayton Air Show a few years ago, I can say that the Blue Angles put on a much more thrilling performance. Maybe it's just the speed and agility of the F-18s over the F-16s used by the Thunderbirds or maybe making carrier landings just makes for bolder pilots.
posted by jared @ 8/28/2006
3 comments
3 Comments:
F18s are nice aircraft. Dual engines make for better power to weight too I think, although the F16 should have the edge in handling (at least originally) because of the fly-by-wire technology when it was designed 30 years ago.
When do you think the thunderbirds will switch to F22s?
Jared, this sounds almost as exciting as my planned activity for Saturday: reading another couple chapters of Hursthouse's On Virtue Ethics.
I know you'll have an amazing time, and I wish I didn't have any other commitments to keep me from going with you to the air show.
bd: I think it will be a while before we see the Thunderbirds in F-22s. The F-22 is a replacement for the F-15, not the F-16. Although the F-22 is a lot more agile than the F-15, it's not nearly as agile as the much smaller F-16. Plus, there's little need for supersonic speeds at air show performances.
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