XB-70A

Wow thanks I'm still a bit hesitant for the next, Hawker Tempest, Concorde, D.H Mosquito or Me 163...

Operation Chastise, 17 May 1943, 00:28 local time, Möhne dam. Wing Commander Gibson leads the way during this iconic night after having released his bouncing bomb. The second Lancaster following and piloted by the Cmdr Hopgood was hit by the AA fire then destroyed by its own Upkeep bomb blast. It took me some time before making it today. I was really taken by the envy to make a 617 Squadron draw but all my attempt yesterday were terrible. So I choose to make it in a much more close point of view. Alas it's far from being really good, the dam is horrible, I use some pictures of some Lanc' to get a good notion of the size but don't look at any modified models plans... consequence : the rear projector is placed too far back (it should be in the "bomb bay"). I also start the bomber front window too low so it stays here under the good one.

I hope it's not too much to make a second post, but this topic is such a liberation to me. Usually I'm totally bored at work and just scribble to past the time... and here since Tuesday it's just like if I was recovering this old envy to drawn. Today I started a Lancaster from 617 Sq flying during Operation Chastise, but the result is awful and the Avro bomber is hard to make with just a ballpoint pen. So instead I tried something else (I will make the Lanc' for sure). Atlas Cheetah D from the South African Air Force passing the Cape of Good Hope. The Cheetah has been made on memory but my notion of this geographic point is totally ridiculous. So I tried to find some pictures took from the sky, none of them were about the Cape itself... so I used a satellite picture and another from an aircraft. And I totally missed the Atar 9K nozzle.

I found SAM Simulator two days ago. It's a free first person game in 2D. You got many AA and SAM system available from the famous S-75/SA-2 to terrifying S-200/SA-5. One of the mission includes the down of Powers and his U-2C in 1960. Really interesting but I still can't play it efficiently (the manuals can be downloaded) and you stay inside all the systems, there is no external views. Available here : https://sites.google.com/site/samsimulator1972/home Just watch out, their files are on MediaFire but I didn't have any problems.

Thank you. I really enjoy these old fighters, and reading their story is always interesting ("When you're out of F-8's... you're out of fighters"). Oooow... so sad... Foch got a special place in my heart. As a child I received my first models from Heller, one Ariane 44LL made of something like 10-15 pieces and a beautiful replica of the carrier with a small flotilla of "Crouze" (like they were nicknamed in the F.N.). I totally missed her for her departure to Brasil in 2000, but was present at the coast of Brest for the Clemenceau final departure nine years after (...) Just like you I can just hope they will not scrap her. But honestly with what happened to the 25 de Mayo and Minas Gerais... I'm not really optimistic.

Vought F-8E (FN) about to land back on the aircraft carrier Foch during Operation Saphir II. I don't know why but I was taken by the need to draw a Crusader today. Strangely I did this scribble only on memory and put the 11 number on it without knowing anything about. Then after by making a quick research, I discovered that "11" actually was the last French F-8 to be catapulted in the night of the 28th October 1999 and so the last of all the Crusader to be catapulted form a ship by the way... For this special (and sad) event the deck officier use a sabre instead of the flag :

Years ago I was always drawing Starfighter because she was one of the simplest aircraft to draw without any model. Sharp lines, few details... do I tried to remake it this afternoon while eating (not easy with the fork in the other hand). A pair of F-104J climbing for interception... the problem is, like in most of the other scrawls, I made it only on memory. So when I compared it to a real F-104 picture... it was a shock of differences!

Without counting that more than a handful of studies agreed that Homo Sapiens is actually becoming sterile. The whole production rate of spermatozoids by the males is lower than years ago. ------ About the thread and as it's about animals, Ornithorhynchus (as a mammal) has always amazed me with its viviparity and male's venomous capability. Another one just impressed me when I was a kid, the Scolopendra Gigantea. This piece of s..t already bites me three times in my whole life and the result is I never sleep without a knife on the nightstand when I'm on the islands. Here they truly are the top predators among the insects empire, even attacking some young rats and little birds when they can... Venom and agility coupled to a pretty bright nervous system for an insect, this is a true predator.

"No, n-n-nooooo don't... we swears to serve the one master of the forum. We will swear on the...on the forum!" More seriously, I used this True Lies gif as a signature in nearly all the forum I went since 2008. Strangely with someone transported by a Sidewinder missile, launched by a Harrier hovering, going true a destroyed building to hit another craft... it's so KSP!

I love the U.S. shuttle engaging the Buran-like one docked to the station. At the first sight I had the impression to be in Moonraker, when the shuttle with troops starts to attack Hugo Drax's station.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Snake Plissken

Today was really busy at the shop, but as always I keep on drawing during the short brake at 2 p.m. Ugly SR-71 engaged by S-75/SA-2 during a flight over Haiphong and Hanoi. Next KSP SSTO project...

How could I have miss this one?! I kept some good memories of the Diamond Star, stability, autonomy, confort and... the melody coming from the NG turbodiesel engine (derived from an Audi TT bloc if I remember correctly). Every time I was spooling up the throttle I felt like we were on a turboprop!.. and the slowness of the acceleration quickly sent us back to reality. I would say that the 168 hp of the engine made her a bit "fat", and the MTOW was superior of more than 100 kg to the MLW, not really a standard in the lightweight aircraft empire. Otherwise everything made her an excellent travelling aircraft for the peoples not in hurry (exception that our DA40 was wihout AP, so we practice relay every hours). A lot a persons took some videos of our flights but I think my favorite is this one, just for the engine sound :

Col. Taburet just took-off for the last time today. At 97 years old, he was the last surviving pilot of the French volunteer regiment Normandie-Niemen which fought on the Eastern Front from 1943 to 45. He started his carrer in the Armée de l'Air (French Air Force) at 18 in 1939 and arrived in U.S.S.R. in 1944, finishing the war with six confirmed victories and one probable. He then later kept on serving in Indochina and Algeria before retiring in 63. The mechanic André Peyronie now remains the last survivor of the whole regiment which claimed 273 victories and lost 52 pilots.

Woohooo! Thank you! It is the first time I engage myself in a KSP challenge. About the Saturn-Shuttle craft I saw it way before but never got any more interest than curiosity, then as you mentioned it, it's ZooNamedGame's project who gives me the desire to make one.

I have a small full stock Space Shuttle Sytem inspirated by the American one and called X-26A Eos : The craft is only made of stock parts but MechJeb was used (Ascent Guidance). Alas, I just realized its inaugural flight since and, to take no risks, made it without any crew members onboard. It consisted of a traditional climb to a circular 140 km parking orbit before meeting with a space station at 200 km, docking and de-orbiting from the 200 km. Due to an overshot I landed on the Island Airfield. The full flight album is available here : http://imgur.com/a/X2Mtn And the craft file here (it's the only way to proove it's fully made of stock parts) : https://kerbalx.com/XB-70A/Sleg-X-26A-Eos ----------------------------------------------- If it can't be elected I also have the Kronos-Demeter system totally inspirated by the Saturn-Shuttle project : This also was the inaugural flight of that version, but with some crew onboard here as I was just testing the new External Tank. A bit the same flight as for the first craft presented : circularization at 150 km, some studies made with the laboratory then we met with a space station at 300 km, docked to it then reduce the orbit to a circular 100 km and de-orbit to land at the KSC. Album : http://imgur.com/a/LRS2G Craft file : https://kerbalx.com/XB-70A/Kronos-Demeter-Saturn-Shuttle

Right now : - French (as the birth language) - American English (so tar from the perfection, but being in Florida for a year and half now helps me a lot) - Spanish... actually we start learning Spanish as a second "mandatory" language at school when I was 10. Yep, in our midget territory the English is an obligation at 7-8, and a second has to be learnt. But don't worry it strictly doesn't mean that we are good, it's even the total opposite as most of our teachers and what should be their passion of teaching are just pitiful at the best. So I, just like many others, do not speak Spanish, but a mix of Argentinian, Chilean, Cuban, Dominican, Peruvian, Puerto-Rican and Venezuelan... just showing the terrible mix of different teachers we got. And I used to speak a bit of : - Italian - Polish - Portuguese - Russian (Totally forgotten for now... apart of the insults) I would love to restart the Russian completely and learn my dreams of Hebrew than modern Persian.

Hey, you. Yeah, YOU! Were you annoyed, even traumatized as a child by muppet shows? No ? Come on, look into your darkest memories! Still not? Go deeper! So now? Yes? So you remember these terrible big kitchen gloves with their shrill voices? Don't you always wish to get your own revenge about? Then... here... comes... Gali the Alligator! Also available in its original French version : More seriously I just re-discovered this video today. When I saw it the first time in 2008 it was like a revelation against the Muppets, just like the crazy Meet the Feebles.

Alouette II + A300 proto + MS.760 + Concorde ? Whoooooo Toulouuuuuuuse. More personally, as my pseudonym said my favorite since I discovered it at 4 years old in a book was, is and will ever be the Valkyrie, for the militaries... In the civils, the Boeing 757s rocked me as a child with her Rolls-Royce RB.211 melody during all my afternoons at Juliana airport. An also it was one of the best to go after if we want to play "Superman" at the fence. The 747-classic were too powerful for us and the 727/DC-9/Yak-42 were too weak. Also I feel something particular for the Tu-142...

Now as I re-discovered this topic it makes me realize that most of my tiny shuttles use the Thud... they are present on nearly all these spacecraft.

Today was an occasion to create another small SSTO inspirated from the B-1A this time... while the two others are in orbit. I found it's totally inadequate for orbital transport as it got only 600 m/s available once in orbit at 140 km. So to pass the time I just built a small craft to discover the Kerbin biomes I never went before on the career : The OT-2A Diplococcus (not Diplodocus). Powered by two Panther turbofans, she's way to heavy for her size but this gives her some long legs. Geronimoooo... damn... we're not on a rocket.... Just the time to get some inspections of her possibilities and... ... we head for the western desert at a ridiculous cruising altitude and speed. Some flat area at 2 o'clock seemed to be good for a landing. Initiating descent. Mmmh, not so flat finally. Anyway we kept on. The landing gears should support enough stress. The braking chute appeared to be more than helpful here! The suspention acted as some terrible srings, the poor OT-2A bouncing two times and requiring some hard throttle work to recover from each. Bill got the job to repack the chute while some science points were collected. Here is where I stopped today and with a problem, the science points could be transmitted but we all know what it means, or I have to go back to the KSC. And I should re-place the main landing gear much more to the nacelles center.

Mmmh... these lines! When its comes to the Valkyrie I'm so disappointed there is not a "Love this" button instead of just "Like this".

The story of the Tu-160 is a bit particular. If Rockwell already made its B-1A flying while Sukhoi (after the T-4 cancellation) and Myasishchev O.K.B. were working on a new supersonic long-range strategic bomber, the Tupolev design bureau made the Tu-22M flew much more sooner (even if it was since the beginning conceived as a medium range bomber). Actually most of the work on the Tu-160 was made by Myasishchev with its M-18 and a huge presence of the Zhukovsky center engineers. Tupolev was then selected to improve and complete the project with its much more adapted research locations and as important : adapted assembly lines. More interesting between these aircraft is the fact that if the F101 was a great achievement for General Electric (as P&W already made the TF30 run a lot of time before), Kuz' and its NK-32 nearly create a revolution in the low-bypass turbofan history.

Your creation remembers me the famous Edgley EA-7 "Optica" : Thanks I always have loved the magnificent M-50 and its uncommon configuration, mixing top of the art modernity (for its time) and 40's-50's technology. Alas another victim of the much more potent ballistic missiles...