Posted on 01/22/2006 4:44:45 PM PST by Ligeia
WASHINGTON - Low-flying fighter jets and other military aircraft are scheduled to run a series of training exercises around Washington Sunday tonight and early Monday morning.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command is conducting the training exercises over the Potomac River and around the city.
The exercise is designed to test NORAD's ability to intercept and identify aircraft that could pose a threat to the nation's capital. It involves several small Cessna aircraft and Learjets as well as an F-16 fighter jet and a Blackhawk helicopter.
NORAD has conducted such exercises throughout the U-S and Canada since the September Eleventh terrorist attacks. The exercises also help prepare for major events including the president's State of the Union speech later this month.
That's a safe assumption IMO.
I was wandering around DC right before the inauguration and saw a group of fighters go over really low. Cool, thinks I! Then this low rumbling starts, and ever so slowly a Stealth Bomber flies right over me. Coolest thing I ever saw in the sky!
One of the scariest, though, was while we were lined up at the U.S. Capitol as President Reagan was lying in state and the goofball governor of Kentucky flew around the National Mall in a private plane. I was looking for a shoot-down.
I'm glad the grown-ups are in charge.
Me too.
Why not? They never listen anyway.
I was on GW Parkway at Rosslyn a couple years back and two fighter jets (don't know which models) were coasting in at about 100 - 200 feet altitude. Looked like they were going to land right on Roosevelt Island (of course they weren't).
After living in the area for years, it's also clear that there are daily scheduled helicopter runs between facilities. I can almost set my watch by some of them (I won't say where or when they are, 'nuff said).
Finally, back when they were running the CAP flights over DC, it was pretty easy to ID which high-altitude jets were and were not CAP. Sometimes there would be half a dozen or more simultaneously, they'd never clear the horizon and would often do some very non-commercial types of maneuvers.
I didn't see or hear anything today. Perhaps they rescheduled to a more cooperative weather day. Darn!
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