Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire The Age of the 707

Just in from my local Aviation Loonies, ties nicely to the "1960's" thread, I'd say.

I don't see a DAMN thing wrong with a little nostalgia, every now and than.

GTC


That smoke is from the 1,700 pounds of water injection the J-57s used for take off.

The Age of the 707

(Go to the overrun and suck the gear up)



Those were the good ole days. Pilots back then were men that

didn't want to be women or girly men. Pilots all knew who

Jimmy Doolittle was. Pilots drank coffee, whiskey, smoked

cigars and didn't wear digital watches.

They carried their own suitcases and brain bags, like the

real men they were. Pilots didn't bend over into the

crash position multiple times each day in front of the

passengers at security so that some Gov't agent could

probe for tweezers or fingernail clippers or too much

toothpaste.

Pilots did not go through the terminal impersonating a

caddy pulling a bunch of golf clubs, computers, guitars, and feed

bags full of tofu and granola on

a sissy-trailer with no hat

and granny glasses hanging on a pink string around their

pencil neck while talking to their personal trainer on the

cell phone!!!

Being an airline Captain was as good as being the King in a

Mel Brooks movie. All the Stewardesses (aka.

Flight Attendants) were young, attractive, single women that were

proud to be combatants in the sexual revolution. They didn't

have to turn sideways, grease up and suck it in to get

through the cockpit door. They would blush,

and say thank you, when told that they looked good, instead of filing a

sexual harassment claim.



Junior Stewardesses shared a room and

talked about men.... with no thoughts of substitution.

Passengers wore nice clothes and were polite; they could

speak AND understand English. They didn't speak gibberish or

listen to loud gangsta rap on their IPods. They bathed

and didn't smell like a rotting pile of garbage in a jogging

suit and flip-flops.



Children didn't travel alone, commuting

between trailer parks.



There were no Biggest Losers asking for

a seatbelt extension or a Scotch and grapefruit juice

cocktail with a twist.

If the Captain wanted to throw some offensive, ranting jerk

off the airplane, it was done without any worries of a

lawsuit or getting fired.

Axial flow engines crackled with the sound of freedom and

left an impressive black smoke trail like a locomotive

burning soft coal. Jet fuel was cheap and once the

throttles were pushed up they were left there. After all, it was the

jet age and the idea was to go fast (run like a lizard on a

hardwood floor). "Economy cruise" was something in the

performance book, but no one knew why or where it was. When

the clacker went off, no one got all tight and scared because

Boeing built it out of iron. Nothing was going to fall off and

that sound had the same effect on real pilots then, as

Viagra does now for these new age guys.

There was very little plastic and no composites on

the airplanes (or the Stewardesses' pectoral regions). Airplanes

and women had eye-pleasing symmetrical curves, not a bunch

of ugly vortex generators, ventral fins, winglets, flow

diverters, tattoos, rings in their nose, tongues and eyebrows.

Airlines were run by men like Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker, C.R. Smith and Juan Trippe,who had built their companies virtually from scratch, knew most of their employees by name, and were lifetime airline

employees themselves.. ..not pseudo financiers and bean

counters who flit from one occupation to another for a

few bucks, a better parachute

or a fancier title, while

fervently believing that they are a class of beings unto

themselves.And so it was back then....and never will be again!



Damn!!!

Flying is the second greatest thrill known to man.

What is first, you ask? Landing, of course.

Cross great article on a superb airframe.The AF is still flying the dog schit outta them as EC-135's here,my house is in the southern landing pattern and get to see them daily.Not many water burners left most have had fan conversions but talk about getting your money's worth! The 135's as tankers/EC's and Buff air frames continue to be a big part of what keeps us safe....great read

Woody,.......you would LOVE the local "Airdales" here in my neck of the woods, there's always a steady stream of good data, dialogue, and fun in the wind, and on the net.

GTC

A few years back I flew down to Mexico. Thought I was on geriatric airlines. I was sixty and there was no crew member younger than me.

I remember watching the BUFF's making smoke on take off, it was VERY impressive!

During the test flights of the 707, the test pilot did a barrel roll in the thing! I'll bet you couldn't do that with a Dreamliner or Airbus.............

I used to live about a mile from the end of the runway at Barksdale AFB. The 52s took off and landed frequently every day. The roar of the plane didn't seem too bad but the vibration it caused, you thought the house would fall apart. Got used to it pretty quick. If you were talking to someone, you just stopped 'til the plane was gone and finished your sentence.
About 2AM one morning a transient F4c took off and as he left the base he hit the afterburner and went straight up while over my house. It woke the whole neighborhood up. We were used to the 52s but that Phantom got our attention.

That just reeks of POWER & FREEDOM!

All that [bleep] looks nice and purdy... till you're the one who has to go out at 0-dark 30 and heat water so it doesn't freeze. Damn I miss SAC alert


NOT!!!

+1, Couldn't put it any better.

There are certain sounds, smells, etc. that have that effect on some people, especially us old guys. Aircraft engines and gunfire being a couple. The sounds of freedom.

Paul

Open pipe Harleys with lumpy cams and S&S carbourators are kinda up there too. Well for me, anyway.

Anyone have a video of a B-52 going down a takeoff strip? I had always heard that their wings kinda flexed and flapped on take off and I always wanted to see that. Never got to, yet. I even heard that some of them, maybe earlier ones? had wheels out on their wingtips to accomodate the wing flapping scenario and keep the wings from flexing too far downward. Only heard this, never saw it. Figured some of you fliers form way back would know or have a vid link.

+1000 on the stewardesses! I had an American Airlines gal read me the riot act with a glare in her eyes for reffering to her as a stewardess. I genuinely meant no ill will or dergotory intent. I wish the 'flight attendants' were still pretty ladies with pretty attitudes like they all used to be.

Yup, V-Twins are soulful singers,....so're these

Buffs with external wing tanks had tip gear because of the3 extra weight way out there. The tips DID flex - just as Boeing designed them to.

Cross,

Drag racing 4WD Diesel pickups? TOO COOL! I always thought that such a format would be fun to run, never knew anyone actually DID that! Awsome vid!

I guess if it runs, rolls or goes, boys will want to race it.

I love that part of being a man

No video's of B-52's at takeoff yet? Preferably WITH the extra wing tip tanks and gear. You guys are letting me down. Thought ya'll were google fu grand masters.....

Yes. Those B52 carry a bunch of J57's. Always wondered just how much fuel it took to get a loaded one down the runway and up to 5,000 ft. I know each engine at 100% can burn about 9,000 lbs of fuel and hour.

I was in the USN and worked with what we called A3's or a B66 in the Airforce. They ran the same engines, and I always got a kick out running them wide open for tune ups. We'd take them out to the middle of the airfield, chain them down, and then spin them up. When we'd shut down, half the crew that was not involved in the actual work would be asleep. Conversation was near impossible what with the vibration and noise, and folks would just get into snooze mode.

One can get an idea of how much air moves through those engines by walking up beside one going wide open and tossing a paper towel into the exhaust plume. It would just disappear and then reappear about 100 yds back.

Probably about the same amount as it took my old 460 powered F-250 4x4to get out of my driveway.

Tip tanks and landing gear weren't "extra"...

They were always there.

What a beast.
I remember driving to Florida in 1968? 67? South of Atlanta the whole freeway stopped next to a runway and everyone was lookin west.
Why not stop and see what was goin on.
A few mins later a HUGE military transport roared into the air.
One of the first C5A flights there.

A year or two later at the Cleveland airshow, a thunderstorm swept over. The entire show waited it out inside a C5A