Posted on 11/01/2021 1:34:11 PM PDT by BenLurkin
One time I saw a SR-71 in flight, it looked like a spaceship, all dull black and angular. Ominous, not graceful.
That’s right, my error. F-111s were swing wings also— mixup Friend’s dad flew that mission- flew out of UK and didn’t get clearance to fly over (Spain?). Yeah, F-111 was retired, and replaced by fixed wing F-15 Strike Eagle for medium range precision bombing, and its replacement is (F-35?) but F-15s are still in service. For supersonic bombing role— replaced by the B1B Lancer with swept wing. Will refresh memory on aircraft. Thanks for the jog.
“...and didn’t get clearance to fly over (Spain?).”
France.
For a while, in FL in the 60’s there were North American A5 (later A3J) Vigilantes, US Navy carrier-based. Land based (with nukes) at Sanford NAS of that time. Successor to the Douglas A3 Skywarrior.
Figures-— Frenchies had a lot of investment in ELF Aquitaine oil wells which Qadaffi had been getting a piece of and he later eventually nationalized... and.... Hitlery got them back for the Frenchies through the “Arab Spring” coup she and pals in the Clowns planned. The French loved this.
Oh, the other reason for the killing of Qadaffi in the “Arab Spring” was because he was coining gold coins sold on the market through Libya- NOT the City of London. Some FReepers here may know what happened to Libya’s gold reserves— as to who got them or the control... could be the French.
All of the above was why the Frenchies would not allow US aircraft to go over their airspace to attack their golden goose. It was Libyans who blew up Pan Am 103, for which Qadaffi later paid victims families. That flight had the deputy see eye ehh chief of Beirut station as well as a number of other US intel people.
Frenchies— love the Patton quote about the French. So JoeBama buddies up to Macron (both of them very “french” iykwhat i mean).
Yes, the French were very heavily invested in North Africa (Libya; Algeria; Morocco).
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