The F-111 Aardvark

F-111F Aardvark

This is a swing wing fighter/bomber.  I think we have found there to be a difference between interceptor and fighter and bomber.  Planes that go fast can't turn quickly.  Dog fights seem to equal the playing field.  They occur at high to mid subsonic speeds.  An interceptor can fire missiles at long range maybe even while supersonic but needs to slow down if it engages in a dogfight.  The f-111 had the swing wings to help it in a dogfight.  I understand that it was not a good dogfighter.

I am having trouble deciding about this shot.  I got the spot light out of the frame in the top right but did not see the light rays from it until I processed the HDR image.  Those rays even show up near the concrete on the left.  I like the perspective of the shot and the plane is sharp.  I wish I had another go at it.  I might try to move to my right and try to eliminate those rays.

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Supersonic Flight

We have previously considered the need for an all moving horizontal stabilizer on supersonic aircraft.  Without it, the aircraft became uncontrollable in the trans-sonic region of flight.  There was a lot of research going on in the 40's and 50's.  I remember hearing in the news about Chuck Yeager, flying the X-1.  They discovered that need for the all moving horizontal tail through that research.

North American F-86 Sabre

 The F-86 would sometimes go supersonic in a dive.  It would become uncontrollable.  They eventually added an all moving horizontal tail surface to correct this.  I wish that I could find one with this horizontal stabilizer. 

Soon, planes came along that had the power to travel supersonic in level flight.  The F-102 Delta Dagger was one.

F-102 Delta Dagger

At the beginning of its development, It could not seem to get past the sound barrier even though it had been designed to do so.  More research revealed the need for the Whitcomb Area Rule.  If we draw an imaginary line down the central axis of the aircraft front to back and calculate the area of the vertical slices, the area needs to stay roughly equal in the central portions.  This calculation includes where the wings are attached.  The fuselage must get smaller where the wings attach to reduce the overall area.

F-102 Delta Dagger

They applied that rule to the f-102 and it would then travel supersonic.  You can see how the fuselage reduces in cross section where the wings attach.

B-1 Lancer

Knowing about this, we can notice it in other supersonic aircraft.

Convair B-58A Hustler

 Today, we take such things for granted in our aircraft.  Thanks to those who worked so hard to make these discoveries.  

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Visit to Dayton

Andrew, Evie and Carrie

The visit to Dayton included a dance recital in which Evie participated.

Evie and Friend

Reed's Scoring Shot

We went to a basketball game in which Reed scored a field goal.

Reed Playing Soccer

The morning soccer game began at 7:50 AM.  Too early for me!

I made a video of Caleb showing his Lego Creations but it is unavailable at this time.  He seems to me to be a Lego Master Builder.  He makes difficult subjects.  I have not checked but I think that he probably has a large box of building materials stored somewhere in his room

As always, thanks to Evie for vacating her bed so that I could sleep in it.

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The Huey

Bell UH-1P Iroquois

A recent visit to the National Museum of the United States Air Force yielded this image.  I wished for more light on the subject.

The "Huey" was a work horse in Vietnam.  It passed through several iterations through the years beginning with UH-1A.  At some earlier time it was designated the HU-1A from which the nick name Huey came.  It was changed to UH for utility helicopter.  The US Army flew the early versions in Vietnam.  

The Air Force got into the act with the UH-1F.  It requested a more powerful engine than that of he UH-1B.  The US Marines used the UH-1B in Vietnam.  The US Navy flew the UH-1K

The UH-1P, pictured here, is an upgraded UH-1F.  You can read about the evolution of this aircraft at Wikipedia.  It made me aware of the different versions of this iconic aircraft.

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Young Hawk

Broad-Tailed Hawk

I was collecting my recording gear the other morning when I turned around and saw this hawk sitting on a branch close by.  I tried not to panic.  I keep a camera setup on my telephoto lens for such occasions.  It did not take long until I was firing away.  I have since decided that I need to clarify, in my mind, the way to set a single focus point on this camera.  The limbs in front of the hawk were throwing off the focus.  I went through 336 shots on my computer and my eyes were beginning to cross.  The focus was just a little off in most of them.

Broad-winged Hawk

The hawk was patient with me and allowed me to work angles and light. I even followed it after short flights away from me.  I was able to come away with a couple good shots.  This one is the best, I think.

I think it is a young hawk.  I considered Red-tailed, and Red-shouldered hawk and well as Marsh Hawk as an ID.  I finally settled on the Broad-winged because of the vertical splotches on the chest and the yellow irises.  I wish I remembered an impression of it's size.  I could have used that in the ID.

Anecdotally, I remembered hearing the crows making the kind of racket that usually indicates they are chasing a hawk before I saw this bird.  I wondered if this bird flew close to me to get away from the crows.  I don't think that an adult bird would have come so close to me.  

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Tadpoles in Winter?

Pond Ice Hole

I noticed this break in the ice the other day while walking my trail.  I decided to walk out on the bridge to see if I could discover the reason for it.  The temperature was right at freezing and had not changed over night.  I decided there must be a source of heat under the water.

When I looked down, I saw movement.  It looked like tadpoles and they were as large as I have seen.  I called my grandsons and their dad brought them over to see.

Bullfrog Tadpole

The tadpole could barely turn around in my thin aquarium.  It had small hind legs.

Bullfrog Tadpole

I am starting to think that tadpoles do not always mature to frogs in one season under water.  I think that I would expect this one to become a frog this season.

Bullfrog Tadpole

The boys thought these the largest tadpoles they have seen.

Bullfrog Tadpole

I looked at Wikipedia and saw a picture of the bullfrog tadpole which gave certainty to my identification.  Even the smaller ones without legs looked to be the same kind.

I was telling the boy's grandmother about this later and she said that she had kept bullfrog tadpoles in her classroom for a season.  A parent bought them in.  She also brought pond water saying that they don't tolerate tap water well.

Could this be a sign that spring is just around the corner?

Back to the ice-less water, I wondered if the congregation of all the tadpoles might be making the the heat which melted the ice.  There were dozens of them down there!

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Macro Photography IV and Geology

Subject

I set out in this session to produce and image which showed detail throughout.  This was captured with the Sigma 105 mm macro lens on a Sigma 2x converter with a canon 500d closeup lens mounted up front.  It gives a 2.6x on the sensor image.

Sigma 105mm lens on a Sigma 2x converter with a Canon 500d mounted

This arrangement is much better balanced and the movements generated by the focus rail are small enough.  

Machinist's Scale at 2.6X

While producing the image at the top I could not help wondering what I was photographing.  It is a "rock" I laid out for photographing.  The tiny inclusions are in my opinion definitely metal of some kind.  Initially I was thinking quartz for the bedding and that would mean that the metal was either gold or copper.  The metal seemed corroded so I decided that it was copper.  As a last check before writing about it, I decided to check the hardness.  It cleaved under the pressure of the standards stones.  I eventually determined that it was soft, 3 to 4 on the mohs scale.  I checked its reactivity with acid and it was an effervescing one.  That leads me to believe it is Calcium Carbonate or something like it.  I am now completely unsure about the metallic inclusions.  I am almost completely sure they are metal.  Help!  The bedding has perfect cleavage.  I think I can see cleavage lines in the shot at the top.  It does not taste salty.  It is soft.  It reacts with acid.

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