Sailors aboard the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford began testing the ship’s new electromagnetic aircraft launch system in Virginia’s James River on June 5, but before they can launch real aircraft, they have to practice. It’s not quite like a real, live flight deck, but it’s close. Gone are the cargo pants, brightly colored turtlenecks and helmets. Instead, a sailor in blueberries and a hard hat mimics the signals of a deck handler before the catapult launches a weight sled out over the river in a graceful swan dive. The slow motion impact with the water at the end is rather dramatic. EMALS testing began June 5, the latest step…
Browsing: Aviation
This post was written by Battle Rattle’s James Sanborn. Comedian and retired Marine Rob Riggle takes to the skies in this “Top Gun 2 audition tape” skit for popular comedy website Funny Or Die. In it, Riggle posits that he’s a dead ringer for the supporting actor post beside the famed flier Maverick. When he mounts up and begins to practice his lines, the Blue Angels pilot goes full throttle in the two-seater F/A-18 Hornet. Spoiler alert: Riggle lets out some kind of squeal, and then passes out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8Pi0-nFKNM In addition to his career as a comedian featured in movies…
The woman in this picture probably doesn’t look familiar to you, but it’s likely that you know something about her. Christine Fox is the former Maritime Air Superiority specialist who inspired Charlie, the Top Gun instructor who took off with Maverick’s heart in the 1986 movie named after the Navy Fighter Weapons School. She’s also the Defense Department’s acting deputy defense secretary, as of Dec. 3, a position she’ll hold while the Pentagon searches for a permanent replacement for outgoing Deputy Defense Secretary Ash Carter. Fox never actually taught at Top Gun, but she used her math and physics background…
Play beach volleyball while wearing dog tags, duh! As Naval Air Forces tries to figure out exactly what happens when it stands down four air wings and cuts two more to minimum safe flying levels, Maverick and Goose know how they’ll keep busy, as this meme that’s been floating around shows. That’s one of the perks when CWVs 2, 9, 17 and 7 get dismantled, and CVWs 1 and 11 are cut to the bone because of the sequester. One bone to pick: Maverick would never say that they would be “playin’ beach volleyball with the guys,” because clearly during…
What does complacency sound like? I think I might have a transcript of it on my desk. We had a story in this week’s paper about a a couple of guys in a Super Hornet who completely missed the target range and ended up mistakenly dropping a 500-pound bomb in a national forest in Florida. The funny thing that didn’t make it into that story is the back-and-forth chatter between the pilot and NFO as they were getting ready for a COMPTUEX training run last May: Pilot: I’m gonna waypoint designate 47, is that cool? NFO: Yeah! Pilot: Yeah! Work…
