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The pilot is flying a stunt plane when the right wing breaks off...not a good thing. (The first post had a bad URL.)

Frustrated by the state and federal gridlock on solving Seattle's transportation problems, Mayor Greg Nickels suggested secession at a Thursday luncheon.

4/20/2007 - GILA BEND, Ariz. (AFNEWS) -- Missouri fighter wing goes to wild, wild west From the ground, the Barry M. Goldwater Range looks like the set of a 1960's Clint Eastwood spaghetti western. The air is dry enough to taste, and the ground sprouts an occasional cactus. The mind can only envision what creepy kinds of scorpions scurry along these barren sands near Gila Bend Air Force Auxiliary Field. This is home for rattlesnakes, Gila monsters, road runners and endangered antelope. Earlier this year, it was a target for many of the 442nd Fighter Wing's bombs in an operation...

All Sonic, No Boom Eric Hagerman For a closer look at the QSST concept inside and out, launch the photo gallery.If you’re ever lucky enough to fly a Quiet Supersonic Transport between New York and Los Angeles, you’ll have just enough time to get through a movie—a short one. Instead of the usual six hours, it will be a 1,100mph, two-hour hop. The QSST, as the proposed luxury private jet is known, could be the first civilian supersonic plane approved for overland routes, thanks to aerodynamics designed to muzzle its sonic boom. Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works has been developing the...

"This is a public declaration to Hillary Clinton and all the leftie youtubers out there. Yes, there is a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, and I am a member. I am ashamed that I am in the conspiracy, because the left wing only controls the television networks, the news media, Hollywood, most NGOs, most PACs, the UN, and only a few other organizations that in no way create a conspiracy. So here is my secret membership card with name redacted. Yes I am a member of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy." FREEPERS, if you are a youtube member with a webcam,...

Wing Bowl 15 will be 'Philly vs. the World' Sold-out event planned for Feb. 2 at Wachovia Center Wing Bowl, that home-grown sauce-slobbering extravaganza, will have some new wrinkles for its 2007 incarnation, Angelo Cataldi of WIP (610 AM) announced last Monday. With its theme of "Philadelphia Vs. the World," the Feb. 2 event will try harder to produce a local hero. Only five professional eaters will be allowed in the 15th annual celebration of poultry and pulchritude. They'll be chosen by the International Federation of Competition Eating.

State responds to potential pandemic should bird flu wing our way Leslie Newell Peacock Updated: 8/31/2006 A visit to the World Health Organization’s pandemic alert website on Aug. 14 found this news: Avian influenza — situation in Indonesia — update 26 The Ministry of Health in Indonesia has confirmed the country’s 57th case of human infection with the H5N1 avian influenza virus. The case is a 17-year-old male from a remote village in Garut district, West Java Province. He developed symptoms on 26 July and was referred to hospital on 9 August. At the hospital, medical staff suspected H5N1 infection...

Boeing has completed a large prototype 787 wing section, and now engineers will try to destroy it. On the first day of the Farnborough Air Show outside London, Boeing released details and photos of the 50-foot-long section — the longest piece of the new jet's structure yet built and the first largely plastic wing for a jet airliner. Boeing's message at the year's premier aviation showcase: The 787 will soon be a reality, not just a computer-generated image. In a pre-show briefing to Seattle journalists, 787 program chief Mike Bair fairly gushed about the way the wing's structural components had...

AL ASAD, Iraq (July 13, 2006) -- The Marine Corps is comprised of Marines from all over the United States, but one particular squadron has 12 percent of its warriors coming from the one place where the towers are tall, the farmlands are vast and the spirits are strong -- New York. The Empire State is home to 16 of the Marines with Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 463, Marine Aircraft Group 16 (Reinforced), 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing. "It was surprising to find out that there are a lot of New Yorkers in the squadron," said Sgt. Michael Walton Jr., ordnance...

6/6/2006 - LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFPN) -- Commanders at Wilford Hall Medical Center have approved a plan slated to improve medical responses to hurricane emergencies throughout the continental United States. The 59th Medical Wing’s Critical Care Air Transport Team Rapid Hurricane Response Plan was approved and adopted May 26. Hurricane season began June 1. “The newly designed program’s aim is to be forward-thinking and have people consider what could possibly happen in a hurricane prior to the event,” said Capt. Shaun Westphal, CCATT pilot unit nurse manager and creator of the response team program. “The program is slated...

LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. (AFPN) -- He wears a battle dress uniform and looks just like any other maintainer working on a F-22 Raptor, but this Airman is very different from most others in the 27th Aircraft Maintenance Unit here. He is paid by the hour, reports to a different supervisor and has a 70-mile commute to and from Richmond to come to work every day. His name is Tech. Sgt. Scott Browning. He, and 60 other members of the 192nd Fighter Wing, Virginia Air National Guard, work here as pilots, maintainers, fire rescuers, services and command post personnel. “The 1st...

3/3/2006 - WESTHAMPTON BEACH, N.Y. (AFPN) -- Amid the quiet picturesque towns sprinkled across Long Island, N.Y., are more than 800 Airmen who are a part of history. They are the men and women of the 106th Rescue Wing -- a unit that battled the “Perfect Storm,” witnessed the TWA Flight 800 disaster, supported response efforts after the Challenger explosion and saved countless lives in and out of combat. It is also the oldest Air National Guard unit in America. And with each passing day, these guardsmen remain flexible to meet the needs of any mission. “What is really amazing...

Conservative Republicans who are upset with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are heading to Bakersfield this weekend and are certain to vent their feelings. However, most experts say a full-blown conservative revolt against the GOP's only major candidate for the state's highest office is unlikely. The California Republican Assembly, which represents the conservative wing of the Republican Party, will gather at the DoubleTree Hotel starting Friday for its election-year nominating convention. CRA president Mike Spence was among conservatives who until recently were threatening to lead a movement to withdraw the Republican Party's endorsement of Schwarzenegger. However, that threat appears to have been...

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Someday you may be invited to fly in the back-seat of one of your country's most powerful fighter jets. Many of you already have -- John Elway, John Stockton, Tiger Woods to name a few. If you get this opportunity, let me urge you, with the greatest sincerity . . . Move to Guam. Change your name. Fake your own death. Whatever you do, do not go. I know. The U.S. Navy invited me to try it. I was thrilled. I was pumped. I was toast! I should've known when they told me my pilot would be Chip (Biff) King...

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) - California's law requiring that wine with "Napa" on the label be made from Napa grapes has scored again in court. The state Supreme Court upheld California's labeling law last year. Bronco appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal from Bronco Wine Co. in its long-running legal challenge to the law. This case revolved around three Bronco brands, Napa Ridge, Napa Creek Winery and Rutherford Vintners. A California law passed in 2000 requires that if a wine has Napa, or a related name like Rutherford, which is...

AL ASAD, Iraq (Jan. 3, 2006) -- Marines are blazing new trails for an expeditionary Air Traffic Control detachment in Al Asad, Iraq. The detachment, primarily based out of Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Ariz., is a mix of Marines from Marine Air Control Squadron 1, based at MCAS Yuma, MACS-2, based at MCAS Cherry Point, N.C., and MACS-24, a reserve squadron based at Ft. Worth, Texas. The detachment recently expanded its role from controlling aircraft in and around Al Asad, to broadcasting information via pictures across western Iraq. A Joint Interface Control Cell team from Al Udeid, Qatar, helped...

AL ASAD, Iraq (Dec. 30, 2005) -- On Sept. 11, 2001, a young Trinidad native who relocated to New York with his family three years earlier was sitting in a U.S. Military Entrance Processing Station, waiting to take his first steps toward his future as a Marine. The terrorist attacks that day delayed his trip to Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C., but steeled his resolve to become a Marine. "It was like watching something from a movie," said Sgt. Andre G. Joseph, a personnel administration chief with Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 26. "I was upset about it, especially...

AL ASAD, Iraq -- The people of Iraq voted in a general election to decide on a permanent 275-member Iraqi National Assembly, Dec. 15. Throughout the country, Marines, Soldiers and Iraqi Security Forces provided protection so Iraqis could vote in secure locations. One of the important roles in providing security for the elections was that of the female U.S. service members who searched female Iraqis at voting stations. Marines from the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing at Al Asad eagerly volunteered to play a part in history and help the women of Iraq secure rights for themselves in a free society....

HIT, Iraq (Oct. 25, 2005) -- The yellow footprints at Marine Corps Recruit Depots are the beginning of a new chapter for every Marine and are never forgotten. For a new battalion of Iraqi Soldiers, their different life began with the faces of 11 Marines and one Sailor from the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing. The 2nd MAW (Forward) Military Transition Team met their new recruits June 9, and spent the next few months training them to become the 1st Battalion, 2nd Brigade of the 7th Iraqi Army Division. The team assembled during May and after receiving a close quarters combat...