Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer

Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer

My first thought when I first saw this was 'that's a B-24 Liberator' which struck a chord with me because my dad flew in one during WW2. But then I read the comments and someone mentions the tall tail fin, and I say 'wait a minute, B-24s had twin tails. What is this thing?' So I go looking and find that the Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer was a post war version of the B-24 developed for the Navy.

Starship Troopers

Starship Troopers Dropping In

Should have seen this coming. Evidently someone in the Air Force saw Elon's proposal for intercontinental passenger transport and said, shoot, we could use that to deliver troops, but then realized that maybe they would be reaching too far and scaled back their vision to just delivering material. But if Elon gets his rocket flying (and I expect he will, it's just a matter of time, probably a year or two), the Air Force is going to want to use it to transport troops and Heinlein's prophecy will have come true. Okay, Heinlein had troops dropping from orbit, each in their own reentry pod, but we would be sending them into combat aboard a Starship. Yes, it's not a real Faster-Than-Light Starship, but that is what Elon has christened his rocket, so in a manner of speaking, it is a real starship.

Via Defence Blog

De Agony of De Feet

ABC's WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS INTRO 1974
Ron Rondon

Posting has been a little more spotty the last couple of weeks. Perhaps you noticed, perhaps not. I like to think that I am a cool headed and a logical thinking kind of guy but evidence suggests otherwise. I got hit with a triple whammy the last couple of weeks and it kind of knocked me in the dumper. The Hyundai developed an oil leak that cost $700 to fix. That's the third time, hopefully this time it's for good. Then I got a call from the City of Portland building department about the building permits I applied for. Seems somebody got a permit for some work that was done back in 1995 and never got a final inspection, so now I need to modify the drawings to reflect both the new work and the old work. No problem really, just a call to the engineer, another week's delay and another expense. Lastly my back suddenly got much worse leading me to suspect I might need surgery. Just what I need. Went to see Dr. Linda and she basically told me there is nothing seriously wrong with me and that I should stick to my exercise and physical therapy. In other words, 'suck it up, cupcake'.

P.S. The crashing ski jumper is Vinko Bogataj from Yugoslavia. He wasn't injured and was ready to go again after his fall.

Photo of the Day

Spinning Discs and Submarines

Tam puts together ancient high-tech gadgetry with The Hunt for Red October, a story about Russian submarines and espionage. Don't see models of submarines very often.

Pistoleros

WW2 Navy Waves with Revolvers

Haven't come across any photos of girls with guns lately that weren't more about the girl than the gun, so it was nice to see this one. The guns are likely Smith & Wesson Victory Model Revolvers. Smith & Wesson made 800,000 of them.

Via daily timewaster

Quote of the Day

The stimmy checks will never stop, man.

"That's why I don't take politics all that seriously any more. It's Ivy League glee club catfighting, for the most part." - The Scratching Post

 

747 Global SuperTanker

747 Global SuperTanker

What a great photo! Just look at that airplane, all bright red, white & shiny! Unfortunately, fire fighting is a marginal business and the company operating this airplane has shut down. If someone else doesn't step up it may headed to the boneyard.

How do you scrap an old Boeing 747 aeroplane
quickpremiernews

In the video, Mark says they removed 150 tons of equipment and are left with 100 tons of aircraft. Wikipedia shows a range of weights depending on model, but all around 200 tons. Passenger load might be 35 tons and fuel load would be 200 tons.