James May on The Moon

[Mojocvh]

Fantastic program!

I think May did exceptionally well to overcome his claustrophobia the first time his visor was locked down and to push on TBH.
As for the 70k decompression test (which is all part of the usual preflights I am told) with the flask of water boiling away due to the near vacuum, I think it hurt somewhat!!

[defblade]

That was a great programme... I'm not James' biggest fan by any stretch, but that was good

When he said (something like) "then they had to find men to sit on top of 7,000 tonnes of exposive" I was bouncing up and down saying "I'll do it! Still, now!"

[jmorgan]

defblade said:

That was a great programme... I'm not James' biggest fan by any stretch, but that was good

When he said (something like) "then they had to find men to sit on top of 7,000 tonnes of exposive" I was bouncing up and down saying "I'll do it! Still, now!"

Certain levels of "I'll do it" though. I would with Apollo but not with the shuttle. Hats off to them as well. Also someone has a finger on the button that can blow the whole lot up, crew or no crew should the need arise.

[Eric Mc]

jmorgan said:

defblade said:

That was a great programme... I'm not James' biggest fan by any stretch, but that was good

When he said (something like) "then they had to find men to sit on top of 7,000 tonnes of exposive" I was bouncing up and down saying "I'll do it! Still, now!"

Certain levels of "I'll do it" though. I would with Apollo but not with the shuttle. Hats off to them as well. Also someone has a finger on the button that can blow the whole lot up, crew or no crew should the need arise.

That chimes with my thinking as well.

I would have a lot more faith riding a Saturn V (or any Saturn for that matter) than the rather iffy Shuttle system.

[AstonV12]

I am really suprised that the MIG 25 was recorded at well over 100,000ft..

The MiG-25 possessed exceptionally high performance, with a maximum speed of Mach 3.2 not to mention an acknowledged 1977 world altitude record of 123,523.58 ft (37,650 m) in a specially prepared MiG-25 is still awesome, even 44 years after the MiG-25 Foxbat's initial flight. The current service status of the remaining MiG-25's is unclear following the break-up of the Soviet Block but some of the 1190 aircraft produced were still operational in 2006 in both interceptor and reconnaissance roles.

http://www.military-aircraft.org.uk/jet-fighter-pl...

[FourWheelDrift]

AstonV12 said:

I am really suprised that the MIG 25 was recorded at well over 100,000ft..

You can pay to fly in a Mig-25 to 80,000ft

Photos - http://www.simonward.com/cgi-bin/page.pl?adventure...

[insurance_jon]

doesn't the mig 25 experience look a bit Heath Robinson compared to the U2 one? Considering an extra 10k on the altitude? i.e no space suit? Don't worry about the crack on the cockpit?

[Gridl0k]

The crack in the cockpit bit was the icing on the cake. Love the Russians.

There's a great bit of video of the guys who ejected after crashing into each other's Migs at Farnborough Fairford landing, discarding their parachutes and lighting up a fag.

Edited by Gridl0k on Wednesday 24th June 16:14

[Eric Mc]

I was there that day. It was scary.

One of those chaps was later killed in another crash.

[Dunk76]

Looking at that Simon Ward MIG-25 flight, I'm not sure who'd I'd trust the least;

Russians in very old MIGs

or

South Africans in very old Lightnings.

[Eric Mc]

The former, I think.

Just to let you know, the BBC are featuring all sorts of "extras" on their "Red Button" options.

Last night I watched the excellent 2007 Chris Lintott interview with Apollo 17 Commander, Gene Cernan.

[Gridl0k]

Dunk76 said:

Looking at that Simon Ward MIG-25 flight, I'm not sure who'd I'd trust the least;

Russians in very old MIGs

or

South Africans in very old Lightnings.

You can guarantee (unless the offer was made by the US initially) the Beeb looked at both the Foxbat and Lightning options and ran away scared, ending up with a U-2R ride.

Who flies the U-2R, USAF or CIA? Or NRO?

[bobthemonkey]

USAF.

NRO is sats only.

CIA used to operate the U2 as overflight of the USSR would be more politically difficult with military pilots.

[FourWheelDrift]

Thunder City only take the Lightning up to 50,000ft. Only 5,000 above James previous high altitude ceiling so not really the experience the programme was after. I think also it is there only briefly before coming back down, with the U2/TR1 they could stay at 70k for quite a while.

[Eric Mc]

Gridl0k said:

Dunk76 said:

Looking at that Simon Ward MIG-25 flight, I'm not sure who'd I'd trust the least;

Russians in very old MIGs

or

South Africans in very old Lightnings.

You can guarantee (unless the offer was made by the US initially) the Beeb looked at both the Foxbat and Lightning options and ran away scared, ending up with a U-2R ride.


Who flies the U-2R, USAF or CIA? Or NRO?

Definitely not.

The BBC sent one of their chaps up in one of the Thunder City Lightnings a couple of years ago for their "Earth - The Power of the Planet" series.


Regarding the U-2 operators, these days the U-2s are in the USAF inventory and carry full USAF markings and serials. Back in the 1950s however, the early U-2s were operated by the CIA nad carried no markings.