Great pic. I got to see a Bone show off at an airshow in Ohio about 12 years ago, and man, nothing that big should be able to do what that beast can do. They took off on full afterburner, got about 250 feet off the ground, slammed it over into an 80-degree left bank, and disappeared behind the trees like an F-16 on Barry Bonds' best roids.
It's the second-loudest plane I've ever heard.
}:-)4
That made me recall the loudest noise I ever heard. Probably in 1961 or 62, I was working for Martin installing Titan I ICBM's in their silo's in eastern Washington at Moses Lake.
Our headquarters and operations base were at the Air Force base, Larson AFB, now closed. B-52 were stationed there - hot and ready.
I was walking from the parking lot one day when I heard B-52's starting up. Smoke and thunder. For the next ten minutes I watched as 9 B-52's taxied into position, formed up on the runway and then ran down the runway in echelons of 3 about 1000 yards apart and lumbered into the sky. The fury of hell seemed to have been unleashed. The ground and the air shook!
Of course at that time, we wondered if....this was it! Word came down shortly afterward that this had been an exercise. The relief was palpable.
The first wouldnt be the B-58 Hustler would it?