Thunderbird Club

[Miles_ONeal]

This, this, this.

I recall seeing a toy of one when a kid in the late 60s(?) and fell in love with it. Had no idea it was a real plane until a got book of planes a few years later.
My Dad and I in Mobile at the USS Alabama Museum.
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I'm 6' even. Or was then.

A-12, right?

 

[dagrev]

They're one of my all-time favorite jet fighters. In 1987, I worked in a building right across the street from the end of the main runway at Dobbins AFB in Marietta, GA. Roof access was in our suite with no lock on the trap door. Louis and I spent quite a few breaks on the roof watching the planes. Depending on wind direction they might be taking off or landing, but either way they at most 100 yards above our heads. Mainly F-15s and A-7s, but over time, some of pretty much every plane in the USAF or USN (there was a NAS there as well) came through. If taking off, the F15s would often go vertical right over our buildings; we'd feel the afterburner wash. If landing, some of the pilots would wave at us. Occasionally we'd get to see something unusual like a B-52 doing touch and gos. Sometimes we'd take our lunch and just go eat it standing at the chain link fence at runway's end, entranced like little kids. I got to sit in an F-15 Eagle at an air show there. And yes, we saw both the THUNDERBIRDS and Blue Angels there. 8^)

How cool is that!

 

[dagrev]

A-12, right?

Correct. It still looks more futuristic than anything (we know) we have now. Other than the B-2. Which oddly enough is basically a very old concept from the mid to late 40s. Northrop was a genius. I certainly hope there are some crazy things we don't know about.

 

[dagrev]

Went for a drive yesterday to Danville. Good Mexican restaurant there we like, and it's a nice drive. We stopped at a strip mall and went in a Ollie's discount store. Interesting find in that section. She seems overly interested.

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

I thought the series was mostly based on the "Bloody Hundredth", so far the book doesn't just focus on them.

Hawg!

Jug! as cool as the Ds were, the B razorback model (finished in silver) just looked like it meant some serious business…..wonder what Seversky thought when he realized what a winner that design turned out…

 

[SubHuman]

Correct. It still looks more futuristic than anything (we know) we have now. Other than the B-2. Which oddly enough is basically a very old concept from the mid to late 40s. Northrop was a genius. I certainly hope there are some crazy things we don't know about.

That is mind blowing that Northrup designed the YB49-2 in the 40's! Some say it was based on the German Horton HO-229 which had a wood air frame!
What doomed the Northrup Flying wing was several fatal crashes during proto testing. It took computer control to make the flying wing design stable to fly which resulted in the B-2 Bomber.

Jack Northrop, the aviation pioneer who founded Northrop Corp., was granted an extraordinary government security clearance just before his death in 1981 to see the company’s design for the B-2 Stealth bomber, which resurrected the “flying wing” concept he had invented in the 1940's.

B-2 Bomber payload!!!

I've seen the B-2 fly a few times and it is a beautiful but deadly piece of machinery.

 

[Stealth57]

That is mind blowing that Northrup designed the YB49-2 in the 40's! Some say it was based on the German Horton HO-229 which had a wood air frame!
What doomed the Northrup Flying wing was several fatal crashes during proto testing. It took computer control to make the flying wing design stable to fly which resulted in the B-2 Bomber.

Jack Northrop, the aviation pioneer who founded Northrop Corp., was granted an extraordinary government security clearance just before his death in 1981 to see the company’s design for the B-2 Stealth bomber, which resurrected the “flying wing” concept he had invented in the 1940's.
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B-2 Bomber payload!!!
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I've seen the B-2 fly a few times and it is a beautiful but deadly piece of machinery.

If you like big machine tools and early 80’s exotic technology, you would have loved the Rockwell B-1B manufacturing facility in SoCal. I got to see the 300’ long mill and something called vacuum diffusion bonding to minimize machining complex titanium parts. Young engineer in the candy store. We were analyzing the aluminum/carbon matrix used for the skin. Burnt rice hulls mixed with aluminum powder and then melted and extruded.

 

[Gaolee]

I would never, ever trust a shipping company to pack something.
I always pack stuff myself.
I had a near disaster with Fedmess.
Never again with anyone packing other then myself.

I pack inside the case. They pack outside the case. If you pack the outside, they will say you did it wrong if anything happens and deny insurance. I use bubble wrap to fit around the neck so that when they drop the whole thing less is likely to happen.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

If you like big machine tools and early 80’s exotic technology, you would have loved the Rockwell B-1B manufacturing facility in SoCal. I got to see the 300’ long mill and something called vacuum diffusion bonding to minimize machining complex titanium parts. Young engineer in the candy store. We were analyzing the aluminum/carbon matrix used for the skin. Burnt rice hulls mixed with aluminum powder and then melted and extruded.

Rice flour for a gluten-free bomber!

 

[SubHuman]

If you like big machine tools and early 80’s exotic technology, you would have loved the Rockwell B-1B manufacturing facility in SoCal. I got to see the 300’ long mill and something called vacuum diffusion bonding to minimize machining complex titanium parts. Young engineer in the candy store. We were analyzing the aluminum/carbon matrix used for the skin. Burnt rice hulls mixed with aluminum powder and then melted and extruded.

Burnt rice hulls mixed with aluminum powder and then melted and extruded.
Amazing ingenuity that on the surface sounds simple but some complex atomic molecular processes going on there! Thank goodness we're the innovators that developed all of this technology first!

 

[Stealth57]

Burnt rice hulls mixed with aluminum powder and then melted and extruded.
Amazing ingenuity that on the surface sounds simple but some complex atomic molecular processes going on there! Thank goodness we're the innovators that developed all of this technology first!

I want to know who thought that burning rice hulls would yield pure carbon strands. Someone drop lunch into a Bunsen burner?

 

[Engle]

Went for a drive yesterday to Danville. Good Mexican restaurant there we like, and it's a nice drive. We stopped at a strip mall and went in a Ollie's discount store. Interesting find in that section. She seems overly interested.
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If she starts making special brownies, go slow!

 

[KB5]

Has anyone here strug up an Epiphone VP/60's in BEAD tuning? If so how did it work out and do you have any sound clips or youtube videos? Thanks.

 

[godofthunder59]

Bwahaha! I bought one of these little turds today. Neck is really good for a $219 bass

The neck is what sold me, the color well just lets say I would have preferred black. The blue's growing on me.

 

[SubHuman]

Anyone here a fan of Drop D tuners? I’m buying some Hipshot ultra lights for my T-Bird project and I see they have one. I have a P Bass with a Drop tuner and use it occasionally when I need to go real low.
Does the bird like to be dropped? Ha!

 

[MCF]

Has anyone here strug up an Epiphone VP/60's in BEAD tuning? If so how did it work out and do you have any sound clips or youtube videos? Thanks.

I have not. But am thinking about doing that. I need BEAD for maybe a dozen or so songs. I don’t play the VP much and it would be a perfect bass to dedicate to that with its decent pickups, tuners, and neck. I’m not sure how it will intonate though. It’s in another location and I doubt I’ll be able to check it thoroughly for some weeks.

 

[MCF]

Anyone here a fan of Drop D tuners? I’m buying some Hipshot ultra lights for my T-Bird project and I see they have one. I have a P Bass with a Drop tuner and use it occasionally when I need to go real low.
Does the bird like to be dropped? Ha!

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I think they’re great. But they have curtailed production of a lot of products.

 

[Instagator]

Anyone here a fan of Drop D tuners? I’m buying some Hipshot ultra lights for my T-Bird project and I see they have one. I have a P Bass with a Drop tuner and use it occasionally when I need to go real low.
Does the bird like to be dropped? Ha!

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All of mine with the exception of the 76 bicentennial have them.
They drop quite well. And that even starting at a half step down.

 

[Ringhammer]

Anyone here a fan of Drop D tuners? I’m buying some Hipshot ultra lights for my T-Bird project and I see they have one. I have a P Bass with a Drop tuner and use it occasionally when I need to go real low.
Does the bird like to be dropped? Ha!

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I have them on all six of my Gibson ‘birds. They work well. Three set up to drop from E to D, using 105’s, two go from Eb to Db, using 110’s, and one goes from D to C using a 115. Works great.

If you’re putting one on a Gibson ‘bird that uses the Gibson branded tuners with the set screw that is not centered, which are the ones on my ‘99, ‘97 and ‘95, you will need to ream the tuner hole a little bit.

If you want a black Y key one, I have one I’ll sell.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Has anyone here strug up an Epiphone VP/60's in BEAD tuning? If so how did it work out and do you have any sound clips or youtube videos? Thanks.

The plan was to possibly all of mine to BEAD, but so far only the bolt-on has gone that route. I'm currently undecided whether to do the others or leave them DGCF. Close, but no Snickers bar.