🇺🇸 Mild-mannered professor by day. Astrophysicist by night. Methodist, Smoky Mountain hillbilly. Observational research on active galaxies & galaxy evolution.
Joined November 2014
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Great story:
I know first hand this is true. Early in my fighter pilot career (1980 timeframe), our 79th Tactical Fighter Squadron was deployed to Ovar, Portugal for "Open Gate 80" exercise. One of our assigned missions was to take our pair of F-111E jets and try to play the role of "Red Force" with a mission objective to see if we could successfully "sneak up" on the NATO Fleet in the Atlantic Ocean.
We carefully calculated the "ducting layer" (where radar energy can be ducted well beyond the horizon) from the atmospheric data over the ocean that day. The ducting layer was calculated to be 340 ft above mean sea level (MSL). So we chose to sneak in supersonic at 400 feet above MSL. We refueled from a KC-135 Tanker to top-off our 34,000 lbs of JP-8 fuel capacity (we would need every drop of it for this mission) before diving down to the deck.
We used our Low Altitude Radar Altimeter (LARA) to calibrate our barometric pressure altimeter to precisely match the LARA at 400 ft MSL. We then turned off the main radar, terrain-following radar (TFR) and LARA so we were emitting no electromagnetic energy from our F-111E jets.
We cruised as a 2-ship in line-abreast formation where I was positioned 6,000 ft abeam my flight leader. We set our supersonic cruise to about Mach 1.15 so that there was just enough extra thrust left for me to maintain formation with Tiger Lead. I noticed my flight lead's F-111 was totally enveloped in a cloud of vapor from the supersonic shock waves with only the tip of his nose visible and then realized that I must look the same when flight lead looked at me!
We managed to reach about 25 miles from the NATO Fleet undetected, but we knew that at that range, hiding just above the ducting layer now would no longer keep us hidden and Fleet radars would soon spot our non-stealthy F-111's. I was doing my best at scanning the skies above and around us for "bandits" when I spotted an F-14A Tomcat roll inverted and do a split-S maneuver that arrived supersonic, co-altitude and co-speed with us.
I called out to my Flight Lead on the UHF Radio (not remembering we were now on the NATO Fleet common frequency for safety) and said: "Tiger Lead, Bandit, Deep 6 O'clock, co-altitude, 8,000 feet, stagnated." Then, a voice that was not my Tiger Lead's voice came up on the UHF Radio and said, "Stagnated, eh?"
At that point, I watched that Tomcat march up slowly to my left wingtip and we were looking each other eye-to-eye in fingertip formation. He then flipped me the fighter pilot greating ("the bird") then smartly saluted and pitched up and out to head back to the carrier. Don't tell me that a Tomcat cannot fly at Mach 1.2 on the deck with ordnance because I have witnessed it and it was VERY IMPRESSIVE!
We were also aware of a Soviet Trawler that was shadowing the NATO fleet while gathering intel. We happened to spot it, and Tiger Lead wing tagged me into close fighting wing formation and we both went to full afterburner and lowered ourselves to about 150 ft MSL and flew directly over that Soviet intel ship at Mach 1.2+ in full afterburners. I am sure we broke some glass and destroyed some surveillance antennas & equipment with that pass.
It was a day I can never forget and I can attest fully to what Charles Smith @softwarnet stated about the Tomcat being able to achieve Mach 1.2 (~910 MPH) as ABSOLUTELY true!
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Had two leaks from the upstairs toilet dripping through the kitchen ceiling. One was the cutoff valve—not the most accessible, short pipe, & a compression fitting that made me worry it would be tough to do before class. Three trips to neighborhood h/w store & $36 later—fixed!
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Tim Hamilton retweeted
Computer send the picture of Jensen Huang with the Chinese spy to my wife with caption "us". Now send crying laughing emoji and "jk". Computer send "jk". Send "jk" right now. Computer call my wife. How recall message. Computer write a love poem to my wife immediately make no mist
babylonbee.com/news/all-nati…
This has my vote. Ratify it now!
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Tim Hamilton retweeted
Every so often, I like to post my 1993 study of how to build a base on the moon & sustain it. At that time, going back to the moon was so toxic to @NASA, I had to pretend it was just an innocent intellectual exercise. I got some money from @NASA_Marshall to spend a few hours on it and publish it. Now, with a few updates, I think it is still a viable plan where, among other practical matters such as annual tonnage requirements, my proposition that NASA be a partner in a consortium that has many goals greater than just going there. homerhickamblog.blogspot.com…
Tim Hamilton retweeted
Hearing lots of people say that the Nvidia CEO’s affair with a Chinese spy is somehow acceptable because they have the same last name.
But I still believe that two Huangs do not make it right.
I bought a 75th anniversary edition of the collected Winnie-the-Pooh stories before my daughter was born—even before we were married. I was looking forward to reading them to my children and bought it in anticipation.
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Tim Hamilton retweeted
To celebrate STScI’s 45 years as stewards of space astronomy, we viewed the institute with a 110 film camera, a format that was available in 1981, our first year in operation. Among these photos are objects that were just ideas then, such as a model of #NASAWebb. Credit: STScI.
ALT A sign hanging on a brick wall with the STScI logo and the words: Space Telescope Science Institute.
ALT The view of the Webb Mission Operations Center from a hallway shows four large computer screens with the time at 19:04.
ALT A faded square image of a man working on an image of an object in space on a computer screen.
ALT A tightly cropped image of a model of the James Webb Space Telescope’s primary mirror near a window.
Tim Hamilton retweeted
The last thing Jensen Huang sees before leaking secrets about the new Nvidia AI chip:
Tim Hamilton retweeted
Please join me on Thursday from 5pm-7pm on the 2nd floor in the Galerie des Amis at River Oaks Square Arts Center in Alexandria, Louisiana for my solo show. I hope to show you my experience in Alexandria through my art. All original art will be available for purchase. I will also sell prints of each piece in my studio. See you there
I'm giving my talk on the discovery of quasars to Astronomy class today, and I'll be using my standard joke that "Redshift Killed the Radio Star." But I'm not as certain that any of the kids in the class would get the reference.
Dad and I stayed up very late that night watching ABC News live coverage of people crowding up on top of the wall.
Il y a 37 ans, ce « flash » de l’agence @AP tombait dans toutes les rédactions.
À noter que le « flash », rarissime, constitue le plus haut degré d’importance d’une dépêche, devant « alerte » (anciennement « bulletin ») et « urgent », deux niveaux beaucoup plus courants.
