Nieuport XI

[Barrett]

The Feb. 2000 issue of Flight Journal (now available) has a pilot report on Rhinebeck's N.11 with a fair degree of detail on rotary engine operation. There's an SR-71 on the cover, which pretty well covers the aeronautical spectrum!
It's awesome to think that the Blackbird, which is late '50s/early '60s technology, is publicly rated at Mach 3+ but according to a Highly Reliable Source, the "speedometer" registers past Mach 7.
Unrelated fact: p. 72 has my alltime favorite aviation photo.

Thanks, Barrett, As you probably know the Nieuport V strut series aeroplanes are my favorite. Being that I own one.

[stephen]

Heard a story from a friend... was it one of you guys?... who told me they saw the SR 71 land in Florida late one morning and asked the pilot how fast it went. The pilot said that was classified, but the friend in question pressed him for at least a clue. The pilot smiled and said he could still have an early lunch in Paris if he wanted.

Was told to me second hand a several years ago, so I hope I didn't cross the story up too much... but you get the general idea. This sucker could move. I can't help but think they still have a couple on active service somewhere, for something.

A variation on the question-and-answer being the pilot who, when asked how fast his machine could go, replied, "If I told you, I would immediately have to kill you".

[mike_baram]

In early 1970 I hitched a ride to the kibbutz I was working on in Israel, and the driver was a pilot from the neighboring airbase where newly delivered Phantoms were based.
During our brief conversation, I asked him what the top speed of the Phantom was. His reply was a very terse "Don't ask."
Oh, well, I got the answer from that week's issue of Time Magazine. You can go overboard with security precautions sometimes.

[Barrett]

Mike is definitely right about the military proclivity to go overboard on "sensitive" information. Some years ago, either late-late or early-early, Robin Olds and 2 or 3 of us were refighting The Vietnam Thing. Robin, who had just taken over the 8th TFW in Thailand, went to 7th AF HQ in Saigon, expecting (not unreasonably) to learn about the MiG air order of battle. He was met by a bespectacled captain--nonrated, Robin was quick to point out--who said, wide-eyed, "Gosh, Colonel. We can't tell you that. It's SECRET!"
Robin DID get his info, after some effort and decibel increase.
Someday I'll relate what he is pleased to describe as "The Great Train Robbery In the Sky."

[Reinout]

Barrett,

What's in your favourite picture? Ursula Andress wearing a towel and wings?

Kind regards,

Reinout

[mike_baram]

Reinout,
Have you considered for one moment that Barrett might have other things on his mind besides towel-clad 60's sex symbols? After all, there's more to life than Ursula Andress. Like Sophia Loren, for example.
Regards,
Mike

[Barrett]

Alright you guys; I guess I gotta compartmentalize my preferences. Sheesh!
For WW I aero movies, no doubt whatsoever: Ursula Undress, er, Andress, with a towel at half mast floats my boat every time.
For WW II German photos, my hands-down favorite is Maj. Pips Priller, CO JG-26, in his BMW roadster with the duty blonde in the passenger seat, posed with his freshly-painted FW-190. It don't get any better than that
EXCEPT
On p.72 of the current Flight Journal, as part of an excellent article on the Women Air Service Pilots, there's my heart-throb photo since the time I started flying and noticed that girls were different (from guys, that is.) Come to think of it, all those events occurred about 19-ought-65, the same time Ursula appeared in TBM. But I digress.
Louisa Thomson is the severely cute WASP with a backpack 'chute slung over one shoulder, about to deliver a photo P-38 (F-5) somewhere. Maybe if I've been really-really good (and what are the chances?) I'll meet her grand daughter at an airshow in Y2K.

[mike_baram]

Louisa Thomson is the severely cute WASP.....

WASP? Didn't they have affirmative action back then?????