Sonic Boom Thread

a reply to: Zaphod58
I wonder if that is Spirit of St. Louis airport? We lived out that direction back in the 90s. The airport is out past Chesterfield, which used to be considered somewhat rural, but the city has grown out past that area now. Spirit of St Louis does have regular air shows with some interesting military planes in them. I was in the city to get my car serviced a couple of years ago, and while killing time at a new big outlet mall in that area, several fighter jets flew over at very low altitude. I found out later it was an air show.

a reply to: xtradimensions

It might be. A buddy of mine did an incentive ride from the airport the range is at, and we were having fun trying to identify all the pieces on Google Earth.

Speaking of the bomber task force at Fairford, all three aircraft launched, with one breaking off and performing an extended mission over the Arctic for the first time.

a reply to: Zaphod58
What is the purpose—hidden or overt—for that type of extended mission? Any ideas? It is well and truly over my head, although I can dig in and do some research to see what I can uncover.

a reply to: xtradimensions

Training. It gives our crews experience operating out of unfamiliar locations, and they move around to different countries and fly with different air forces. It lets us become familiar with their capabilities, and them train with platforms they don't see often.

a reply to: Zaphod58
Makes sense.

Thanks to your question about airports near St Louis, I went to the Spirit of St Louis website and they are having an air show Sat/Sun featuring both the Blue Angels and the Royal Air Force Red Arrows, plus others. I got tickets to go see them, so thanks to you for causing me to go to the website. It sounds like it should be a good show.
Spirit of St Louis Air Show

a reply to: xtradimensions

Lucky! The Red Arrows don't come this way often. This is only the second time in recent years.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: xtradimensions

Flying wings don't do supersonic well. They tend to try to tuck and flip nose over tail when they get close to supersonic.

There are high speed corridors located throughout the US. They're used for testing purposes mostly. Aircraft in the corridor are allowed to go supersonic over populated areas.

The B-2s go north because they're following the great circle route. To get to the UK, they leave Whiteman, head up to the northeast, where they meet up with tankers off New Jersey and refuel before going across. The current deployment is a standard bomber task force. They happen a couple times a year. They fly out of the UK and meet up with European allies and train with them. One of the first days they were at Fairford, one of the three made their first landing in Iceland. It spent 5 hours doing hot refueling training.

You are exactly right about the great circle route thing. Back in the day of our southeastern Asia difficulties, on those rare occasions when I was a good boy (really rare), I would get the treat of getting to go back to "the World" to get a new F-4 from the factory in St Louis. I'd get on a charter DC -8 (Saturn Airlines usually) - wow, real American girl stewardesses - it was the time before they became 'flight attendants'. After test flying and signing for a brand new Phantom II and spending a night eating steak that wasn't water buffalo and downing a few rum and cokes (75 cents at the O club.) At dawn, it was time to head for Saigon. Since the great circle route initial heading was only 25 degrees West of due North, a good stop was Elmendorf AFB near Anchorage Alaska. The flight plan from there to Saigon was pretty easy, with a few segments:
1. Take off
2. Hit a tanker
3 Fly down the Aleutians
4 Hit a tanker
5 Aim for Russia
6 VERY IMPORTANT - miss Russia
7 Hit a tanker
8 parallel the Asian coast
9 land
10 Run to the head.
It actually would have made more sense to take an Eastern route, but since we didn't have Moscow Mitch or Putin's American love interest to pave the way, going East was not an option.
To understand the great circle route, find a globe and a string. Pull the string tightly between Atlanta and Moscow and you will see that the string crosses Southern Greenland. By the way, I've been to Greenland, and I don't understand why someone would seriously want to buy it. Most of it is less hospitable than the moon. It ain't green.

Sorry if a bit off topic, but I am curious. Have any of the ATSers who have commented in this thread seen the B2 stealth fly (in person, not tv)? By chance, I did once when driving from Columbia Missouri to St Louis Missouri on I-70. I heard a low rumble, and flying parallel to I70, several—maybe 6-7 stealth b2’s flew past—low and not all that fast from my perspective. It was quite thrilling to see actually, and I had to force myself to watch the road rather than gawk around in order not to crash. This was several years ago...maybe 7 or 8 years. Knob Noster, where Whiteman is located, is fairly close to I-70, so they weren’t too far from home. They really are a sight to see.

a reply to: xtradimensions

Many times. I got a walk around tour under one too.

a reply to: xtradimensions

Ive seen them multiple times. My favorite was the Edwards AFB show in 2009. They made multiple banking low level high speed passes and the for a finally flew by in formation with a BUFF and a Bone. The video quality sucks as it was shot with a Nikon Coolpix 7900 (28 second mark)

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: xtradimensions

Many times. I got a walk around tour under one too.

I could say you suck but that would be compensating for how jealous I am right now.

a reply to: FredT

It's pretty funny to see the tape all along the rivet lines.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Very impressive! I can’t imagine how amazing they must be up close.

a reply to: xtradimensions

It's interesting as hell to watch them take off and retract the gear. They fold straight up.

a reply to: xtradimensions

First off, the radar dome you speak of is used by the FAA and has been kept active and up to date. It is a JSS so they share data with the USAF as well.

As far as Spirit sightings over Missouri, I see them frequently in the Jeff. City, Columbia, Moberly and, of course, Sedalia. I'm mostly around Columbia and would say at least once a month. They do a fly-over at one Mizzou football game each season (Military Appreciation Day) but generally loiter down low about an hour ahead of the game, generally south but last year they flew in from the north and it was the best one I've seen.

Four times in the last 5 years I've seen three ship flights. These are usually in the evening but the last one I saw was on a Sunday afternoon back in April or May. They fly large ovals and cross contrails which looks pretty neat at sunset. I watched three circle/oval for about two hours one evening. My sister is in the Moberly area and says she gets to see them refuelling.

It's my understanding that wiith the minimal number of airframes, but 120+ pilots maintaining certification they sometimes have to do this. Not sure how accurate that is.

originally posted by: xtradimensions
a reply to: Zaphod58
Makes sense.

Thanks to your question about airports near St Louis, I went to the Spirit of St Louis website and they are having an air show Sat/Sun featuring both the Blue Angels and the Royal Air Force Red Arrows, plus others. I got tickets to go see them, so thanks to you for causing me to go to the website. It sounds like it should be a good show.
Spirit of St Louis Air Show

Enjoy the Red Arrows they're the best in the world. Might be slightly bias here haha

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: xtradimensions

Lucky! The Red Arrows don't come this way often. This is only the second time in recent years.

I'm gutted that we're not going to see them this year, our display is next week,

On the bright side, you guys have been gracious enough to send over a few craft, the best of which with be the behemoth B-57, she's due for a fly-past and a few circuits around Jersey next Wednesday

I only saw her once and it was a fleeting sight,

As for sonic booms, we used to hear them twice daily as Concorde flew over the island on her way back and forth between Paris and JFK (I think it was that route?), you could set your watch by them,

No new sonic booms to report, but wanted to check in and say the air show was really amazing! The Red Arrows were really impressive, and of course the Blue Angels were effing incredible—how close they fly in formation is difficult to wrap one’s head around. I have to say though, the f-22 raptor was the one I enjoyed watching the most, I think. That bad-boy is crazy intimidating! There were something like 45,000 people packed into that small airport to watch the show, and it was well-worth the traffic jams, congested roads, and lines of people to watch it.