It's largely a consequence of the design requirements of fighter aircraft. In order to perform high-gee maneuvers, you need a wing plan that is capable of producing lift that is seriously in excess of what is needed to maintain level flight even when fully loaded. Hence, you only need a fraction of the wing area producing lift under normal loading, especially if you either don't have, or have jettisoned, all of your external stores. Another huge contributing factor, which really comes into play in asymmetric wing situations, is the tremendous control authority that the control surfaces, particularly the stabilators, have. Again, this is due to the need for such authority to execute high-gee maneuvers.

Israel had one F-15 that had the entire starboard wing sheared off in a collision with an A-4 Skyhawk. The plane recovered on it's own and, because the fuel cloud obscuring his vision, the pilot was unaware that the wing was actually gone as opposed to just being damaged.

I was in the service when those Bricks were still flying off of carriers, I think the last version to fly was the Wild Weasel. For that mission you wanted to be as detectable as possible, so the F4 was a perfect plane.
https://wildweasels.org/f-4g-3/

 

An abundance of power is certainly helpful, but is useless without the ability to turn it into controllable lift.

As an aside, despite its many shortcomings (some of which were due to it being employed for tasks for which it simply wasn't designed), I have always admired the F-4 (although I sure hated working on the damn things, though one day spent working on an SR-71 made me appreciate even the F-4). But just the appearance of that aircraft screams out lethal intent.

 

An abundance of power is certainly helpful, but is useless without the ability to turn it into controllable lift.

As an aside, despite its many shortcomings (some of which were due to it being employed for tasks for which it simply wasn't designed), I have always admired the F-4 (although I sure hated working on the damn things, though one day spent working on an SR-71 made me appreciate even the F-4). But just the appearance of that aircraft screams out lethal intent.

They tried.
https://fighterjetsworld.com/fighterjetspedia/rockwell-xfv-12-a-f-4-phantom-with-vtol/29395/
Rockwell XFV-12: A F-4 Phantom With VTOL

 

One of the best in the series. Action, acting and music.

 

 

Play stupid games win stupid prizes. Stolen car, being chased for stealing catalytic converters.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – Four people were transported from a major crash near DTLA. A speeding Dodge Charger crashed with a trailer at the intersection of Witmer & Wilshire. The truck dragged the car with the victims stuck inside about 100 yards before coming to a stop. LAPD was a witness and possibly involved per scanner traffic. LAFD freed the trapped victims using the Jaws of Life. The driver was transported with critical injuries, the other three in serious condition.

 

Boeing Delta 737 makes emergency landing in Aruba after bird strike in engine.



https://arubapapers.com/aruba-airport-authority-responds-swiftly-to-delta-737-incident/

https://www.reddit.com/r/delta/comments/1bix57o

 

At night the HOV lane is the DUI wrong way lane.

 

 

The XB-70 Valkyrie was twice as fast and they had a mockup passenger version.

 

Indian man builds ‘car copter,’ attached helicopter rotor blade to car roof

​

Deen devised the ‘car copter’ in the hopes of renting it out as a unique appeal for weddings in order to earn some extra income and support his family financially.

 

Indian man builds ‘car copter,’ attached helicopter rotor blade to car roof
View attachment 318080​

Looks more like a rolling vegematic.

 

https://jalopnik.com/california-town-swamped-by-14-000-abandoned-cars-1851356503

Oakland, California is struggling to deal with a deluge of abandoned vehicles across the city. According to the Oakland Department of Transportation, 13,856 cars were reported abandoned over a six-month period in 2023. The city ran out of space in its storage lots and is renting even more room to hold the excess. In total, Oakland is spending $1 million on storage. Anecdotally, car theft is the root of this problem.

 

Anecdotally, car theft is the root of this problem.

Yeah. I was thinking "abandoned' was a euphemism for something else. I just couldn't put my finger on it.

 

Yeah. I was thinking "abandoned' was a euphemism for something else. I just couldn't put my finger on it.

I must say, it's an improvement from the Oakland I knew and loathed.

 

I must say, it's an improvement from the Oakland I knew and loathed.

Does no one have insurance in Oakland? You'd think the insurance companies would want those back to recover at least a part of the loss due to claims.

 

Does no one have insurance in Oakland? You'd think the insurance companies would want those back to recover at least a part of the loss due to claims.

Substitute insurance for badges.
https://www.insurance.ca.gov/0400-n...California-s-Uninsured-Preliminary-Report.pdf

 

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-rel...-of-xb-1-demonstrator-aircraft-302097339.html

 

 

Honorable general sir!....