Saturday, August 20, 2005

Thunderbirds

Marsha and I went to the Chicago Air and Water Show with [info]purpurachicago, who graciously played hostess and chauffeur.

At the end, the Air Force Thunderbird team of F16Cs started zooming around doing precision drills. They were awesome - they can go faster than 1300 mph. I want one! But they weren't able to do their whole routine because a small piece of one aircraft fell off into the lake. Someone on the radio thought it was a thing on the wing that allows you to attach air-to-air missiles to the plane.

That didn't sound like a very important part. The 6 planes were all still flying fine, as judged by the naked eye from the ground. So why couldn't they just finish the show? Don't they know - the show must go on?

Then again, would you want to do precision drills - flying way too close to other supersonic planes - when you've been shaking parts off your wing? Perhaps not.

You've got a good excuse
When parts start shaking loose.

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