It's Lonely at FL850

[JonRD463 146]

Reminds me of another oldie but goodie. "Los Angeles Center, Aspen 20, ground speed check."

 

http://b.johnwurth.com/aspen-20/

[wolke85 150]

Smashing shots!

[lzamm 143]

Gem of a post from the Concorde thread on pprune:

 

"Ancient tale.

There's this SR-71 Blackbird stooging around Cuba on a top-secret mission, at FL500+ and Mach 2+.... when they get a call requesting them to change heading "because of traffic at your altitude".
Traffic at THEIR altitude ??
Anyway, they comply, and shortly, yes, there's an Air France Concorde out of Caracas (Air France flew there in the early days) slowly sailing across their flight path.

Just imagine... two guys in bonedomes and full pressure suits, in a cramped cockpit, watching something like a hundred people in shirt sleeves or summer dresses, sipping their champagne and maybe just starting on their smoked salmon hors d'oeuvres, flying at their altitude and nearly their speed...."

[Ray Proudfoot 8,930]

 

Will,

 

Nice shots but I wonder what your speed was. Not above Mach 0.99 I trust otherwise the residents below will be highly unamused. :wink:

 

As a Concorde pilot I always comply with the rules and never break the sound barrier over populated areas. One route I often fly is Seattle down to LA. But 20nm+ off the coast to comply with the FAA. :smile:

[JAT 185]

Oooooo,baby.

 

nebojsa

[woodhick 504]

Dang Guy!!!   What a ride!!

[wckorb 34]

Will,

 

Nice shots but I wonder what your speed was. Not above Mach 0.99 I trust otherwise the residents below will be highly unamused. :wink:

 

As a Concorde pilot I always comply with the rules and never break the sound barrier over populated areas. One route I often fly is Seattle down to LA. But 20nm+ off the coast to comply with the FAA. :smile:

Well, I was probably touching mach 3 or so at this point. (oops) I know the sled flies a fair bit higher than the Concorde, but I am curious about how it would sound and feel on the ground when something that fast flies over. I'll just tell myself that modern car and house windows are strong enough that I won't be given a phone number to call when I land.

 

It's also a shame that planes like the Concorde could never cruise properly over land, otherwise we might not have had to retire all of them..

[Ray Proudfoot 8,930]

Will,

 

Mach 3???   Sorry sir, your licence is revoked.

 

If you're curious about how loud that sonic boom was have a listen to this on Youtube.

 

Loud eh? hate to think how loud yours was.

 

Yes, such a shame she was retired from service but negating that sonic boom was just too difficult.

[wckorb 34]

 

Sounds like a hundred shotguns going off!

In my defense, according to the sonic booms article on Wikipedia the Blackbird at full speed has a shockwave with less than half the energy of the Concorde(assuming it's up at FL800), and apparently the shock wave gets smaller as a plane goes faster. So hopefully no broken windows and ruptured eardrums :wink:

[Novation 534]

Touching the edge.

 

Amazing shots.