Trip to Seattle/Portland

troopernflight

Well-Known Member
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Half way from GMU to JAC.
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Staying neat and organized.
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A strange little lake in the middle of the desert in Wyoming.
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Visual approach into JAC.
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Beautiful day at JAC, stay a little hazy though.
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Enroute to BFI, diverting for weather about every 20 miles.
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I felt like I was breaking the law taking a pic of a 787. There were 3 of them on the tarmac.
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Visit to the museum of flight.
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The A-12, cool plane.
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BFI to PDX, Mt. Rainier.
 
Getting a little out of order, but some other various photos.

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Mt. St. Helens.
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View of Seattle from the Space Needle.
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Another from the Space Needle.
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Concord cockpit.
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Old Air Force One 707 cockpit.
 
So, I assumed SR-71 when I was flipping through the pictures, wasn't familiar with the A-12 as it's predecessor. The extra engine on the tail is sort of weird. I wonder if that was permanently mounted or if was a jettison-able booster type thing?
That's what I thought when I first saw it until one of the museum guys explained it. He said that thing on top is a primative UAV. After Francis Powers was shot down in the U2 over Russia, Eisenhower signed an agreement that the US would never again fly a "manned" aircraft over Russia. So they tried to lauch that thing off the top of the A-12 to take surveillance photos of Russia. Apparently this flopped after one fired downward striking the top of an A-12, causing it to crash. Interesting chain of events.
 
It's a D-21 drone which makes that the only surviving M-21 blackbird, developed from the A-12. There were only two built and the other one crashed after the drone collided with it. They did use the B-52 to launch the drones as well.



Sent from 1865 by telegraph....
 
It's a D-21 drone which makes that the only surviving M-21 blackbird, developed from the A-12. There were only two built and the other one crashed after the drone collided with it. They did use the B-52 to launch the drones as well.



Sent from 1865 by telegraph....

They have a few of the D-21's at the boneyard at Davis-Monthan AFB. Does anyone here remember the old GI Joe Toy resembling the Blackbird and D-21?

http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-20-stupidest-gi-joe-vehicles-ever/
It's apparently the sixth "Stupidest GI Joe Toy".

Nice pics of Portland. I was just there last month and I miss it already. Too bad they closed the USAFR rescue squadron up there...
 
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