Well, Apple marketing has done it again it appears. Amazing to see the lines of people waiting to get an iphone on Friday. I was talking to an electrician this week and he was taking time off Friday to get one. Seems to be a cultural thing, standing/camping out in line ahead of something. Happened with latest Nintendo I think as well. I wonder if you then feel stupid if you go drive by the store the next day and see people just walking in and getting one with no line?
I don't even have an ipod or mp3 player yet, so I guess it'll be awhile before I do something. Although I try to be aware of newer things, there are times when I feel a twinge of the "old and out of touch" feeling. I remember when we were kids and we sometimes would talk about a new fad or thing to my parents or other adults, and they wouldn't really know much. I would think, "Man, they are so out of touch", and couldn't understand how they knew so little. Now, as I'm older, I realize I had school, friends, and fads to worry about, while on the other hand they had multiple things to worry and focus on like raising kids, dealing with their parents, dealing with jobs, insurance, cars, financial issues, etc. That old adage about "when you're young you think your parents know everything, when you're a teen you think they know nothing, and when you're an adult you realize they actually did know quite a bit" is so true.
A friend of mine went to Castle AFB in California for their yearly open house. It's an old decommissioned base where lots of old aircraft are stored, sort of an air museum. He had a chance to get into the cockpit of a B52 and SR71, both small. The SR71 Blackbird was a reconaissance plane that could fly at more than the speed of sound. Can't remember exactly how much. But fast! At that speed, the plane's surface heats up dramatically and metal expands. So the plane had fuel in it's wings and fuselage, and when it was on the ground the fuel leaked. It was only when it was flying fast that everything sealed up tight. Interesting concept and interesting engineering fact.
One of the retired SR71 pilots that was on hand told him that it is common for people learning to fly to radio to the air traffic controllers to give them a speed check. I think it was mainly to check their instruments. So the learners would radio in for a speed check and the controllers would radio back their speed in knots. For a small Cessna type plane maybe they were at 150 or 200 knots. (I'm not an aviation expert so I'm guessing). A knot stands for "nautical mile" and is about 1.15 miles per hour equivalent. Ships and planes use this term.
Anyway, the radio traffic is heard by all pilots. So for fun, the Navy pilots in So Calif would hear this and then request the same thing. Once the controller came back with "Navy 452 your speed is 700 knots" or something similar, there would be a quiet on the radio, as all the other learning pilots would be embarrassed to ask for a radio check since their speed was so slow compared to the Navy guys.
Now while the SR71's were supposed to be secret and thus maintain radio silence, toward the end of the program there were no secrets. So one day after a Navy speed check, the pilot of the SR71 requested his own speed check. After it came back as above Mach 1, there was dead silence from the Navy boys, and the SR71 pilots had a good laugh.
Update July 1:
My friend gave me a link to some photos he took that day at Castle AFB:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thelordofthemanor/sets/72157600289106919/
Also, he did some surfing and I found a website that contained the story:
http://fromtheinside.us/thinking/Groundspeed_Check.htm
Apparently the story is from the book "Sled Driver" by Brian Shul, who was an SR71 pilot for a number of years.
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