Anybody know why all these F18's have been flying around here lately?

[ChriswUfGator]

Ock, by the time of their final retirement, the Iowas were pretty damned technically advanced indeed. At least as advanced as any other surface cruiser, and with a shitload more firepower. Their problem was budgetary, they are gigantic and the funding doesn't exist to have a 1k+ man crew on anything but an aircraft carrier. Although moving forward, one has to wonder whether when the world is going to fleets that emphasize airstrike ability with limited ship to ship combat ability whether a ship with 3' of armor plating on the decks and hullsides and some big ass guns wouldn't be quite effective. It's hard to sink an aircraft carrier with another aircraft carrier...fighter jets can defend as well as attack. Missile and torpedo countermeasures are pretty advanced nowadays too. The Iowas are too large and expensive to be practical, but a smaller ship witn the same capabilities would be pretty effective against modern navies, at least from this layman's point of view.

[stjr]

Was in the park with my grandson today and he heard the buzz of a prop job... Boy was it! A silver P51 flying south along the St. Johns River south of Green Cove. Cool as hell because he wasn't too high... Wonder where THAT bird lives?

OCKLAWAHA

Ock, there is a good chance this is the plane you saw, owned by local citizen David Marco.  He has flown it at the Blue Angels air show the last few years including in October as pictured below:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mdl_photography/5164812329/

[cityimrov]

The best military weapons we have today are very boring.  A barrage of missiles fired from a boring location can take out any battleships out here today. 

If you want something cool, there's Hollywood!  Even real explosions aren't really that interesting compared to the stuff Hollywood makes.

[Ocklawaha]

Ock, There are several Full sized.(not stunt 3/4) vintage P-51's at Kermit Weeks' Private Airport south of Disney on I-4. it might have been one of them.

Think it was probably the Jacksonville plane posted by stjr. Don't know what that Packard drinks but the old Thunderbolt that was over in Herlong when I was a kid went through 2 gallons a minute! A real Zero would be a treat to see. I was walking in a very pretty quiet tree lined neighborhood dropping off an Express Mail one day when I about jumped out of my skin.  3 formations of 3 planes each... Imitation Zeke, Kate, Oscars, Betty, Claude, Tony, the whole damn Japanese family right over the tree tops. My dad was a WWII pacific veteran, and I never thought it would effect me like it did but it absolutely gave me a chill. Sort of like the time I was in Bogota while M19 shelled the city from Cerro de Monserrate!  Soldiers came rolling around the corner in a line of APC'S shouting to me to "Get that car (Mercedes) out of sight and take cover the Communists are coming!" Echos of good ol CHE whom I would have shot myself had I ever had the chance.  

Absolutely another WORLD CLASS museum - attraction that should by all rights be in Jacksonville. Damn, Orlando will dig a F***ING canal for the USS Iowa before we move on our little tin-can.

OCKLAWAHA

[cityimrov]

Ock, There are several Full sized.(not stunt 3/4) vintage P-51's at Kermit Weeks' Private Airport south of Disney on I-4. it might have been one of them.

Think it was probably the Jacksonville plane posted by stjr. Don't know what that Packard drinks but the old Thunderbolt that was over in Herlong when I was a kid went through 2 gallons a minute! A real Zero would be a treat to see. I was walking in a very pretty quiet tree lined neighborhood dropping off an Express Mail one day when I about jumped out of my skin.  3 formations of 3 planes each... Imitation Zeke, Kate, Oscars, Betty, Claude, Tony, the whole damn Japanese family right over the tree tops. My dad was a WWII pacific veteran, and I never thought it would effect me like it did but it absolutely gave me a chill. Sort of like the time I was in Bogota while M19 shelled the city from Cerro de Monserrate!  Soldiers came rolling around the corner in a line of APC'S shouting to me to "Get that car (Mercedes) out of sight and take cover the Communists are coming!" Echos of good ol CHE whom I would have shot myself had I ever had the chance.  

Absolutely another WORLD CLASS museum - attraction that should by all rights be in Jacksonville. Damn, Orlando will dig a F***ING canal for the USS Iowa before we move on our little tin-can.

OCKLAWAHA

Why don't we have a large scale war museum here?  We're the center of "military patriotism" here and a museum would attract a ton of visitors.  We could even piggyback of Florida's marketing for tourist and have real tourist from all over the country come to this city!  People would have a reason to stop by Jacksonville other than it just being a speed bump to Orlando & Miami.  

Imagine the amount of people we would attract for the "Drive a Real Tank around our Obstacle Course."

Anyone here ready to start one?

[Ernest Street]

Let's start bugging Kermit Weeks to open up some expansion space at Cecil!
Maybe it will turn into a smaller branch of his museum?
He could have his Naval collection here.
In his blog he is talking about a High speed train.

 http://blog.kermitweeks.com/

BTW.I was one of the Laser operators at his opening Party in 1996..they had night re-enactments of bombing and strafing with Pyro technics on the ground and yes they had the Firework Acrobatic Plane that had at least a 30 minute supply of Fireworks strapped to the wings.

[fieldafm]

These boys did the flyover for the Jags game Sunday.  Not quite the show the Florida Air National Guard puts on, but those Navy flyboys rarely can hold a candle to the ol' Country Club Boys of FANG. 

[Coolyfett]

Go!

[stjr]

These boys did the flyover for the Jags game Sunday.  Not quite the show the Florida Air National Guard puts on, but those Navy flyboys rarely can hold a candle to the ol' Country Club Boys of FANG. 

Someone needs to ask the Jags to implore our military friends to fly down the center of the field or at least once in a while over the east stands.  There are some of us in the west stands that have bad site lines when they tend to fly almost directly over the top of the west stands.  The B-52 pilot did a nice down the middle flyover.  Hate not getting the full view of these birds.   

[Ernest Street]

I'm sorry I missed that one!
A B52 Flyover is definitely a whole stadium flyover! That's a BIG jet.

[RiversideLoki]

The flyover for the Jags/Raiders game was cool, but they didn't line up on the stadium very well and ended up flying over the west side of the stadium. Had to lean out to see them, but I love the growlers. Fully loaded they just look mean!

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

The flyover for the Jags/Raiders game was cool, but they didn't line up on the stadium very well and ended up flying over the west side of the stadium. Had to lean out to see them, but I love the growlers. Fully loaded they just look mean!

I love it when my growler is fully loaded, too.  Mmmmmm Beer.

[RiversideLoki]

I love it when my growler is fully loaded, too.  Mmmmmm Beer.

BCB HIGHFIVE