It is considered impolite to speak ill of those who have passed away, so I will refrain from any comments at this time.

Poor Sarah…she’ll be going to school, this her senior year, into July probably.

Al Gore…Mr. Al Gore…please pick up the courtesy phone in the lobby of the Hotel Global Warming, please.

Below:  There’s a Prius in there somewhere.

Below: Lesa’s car….bought in Nova Scotia, it felt a little bit at home

Below:  What happens when you start getting bored shoveling show? Start building a Snow Fort Wall in case the Zombies come.  They never did, but there’s always NEXT time…

Below:  Kate and Squirt.  Squirt likes to be outside a lot, so he’s pretty grumpy when the weather does this.

Like I said…another 5-10″ expected tomorrow night, so strap in and enjoy the ride!!!

USS America (CV-66) was used, as was USS Ranger (CV-61) and Kitty Hawk.  This film shows that you can land almost ANYTHING on a carrier, if you wanted to/needed to.

From Aerospace Web:

The idea started in the late 1950s when the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was looking for a way to overcome the range limitations of the U-2. Possessing a useful range of about 3,000 miles (4,800 km), the U-2 simply could not reach every location of interest to the CIA given the locations of U-2 bases. As a result, the CIA began a cooperative effort with the US Navy known as Project Whale Tale. The purpose of this project was to adapt the U-2 for use aboard aircraft carriers. Testing commenced in August of 1963 when, in the dark of night, a crane lifted a U-2C onto the deck of the USS Kitty Hawk at San Diego, California. The vessel streamed off the coast on the morning of 5 August where Lockheed test pilot Bob Schumacher began flight test operations.

Head on over there to read more about the program. It appeared this capability was used only once to monitor a French nuke test in the south pacific. With the 103 foot wingspan (for comparison, a Tomcat had a 65′ wingspan), you couldn’t have a whole lot of other things on deck, making a carrier a pretty expensive U-2 Mobile Delivery Platform. Plus, even with an empty deck you had *better* be on centerline when landing.

I can imagine the headaches the LSO would have. Those big ol’ long wings creating a ton of lift would create an almost diametrically opposite landing sequence than a normal, conventional Navy tactical aircraft. “Long in the groove and flat” would be the hallmarks of a good approach, it would seem.

When you watch the video, take a look at the wind over deck requirements (by watching the flight deck guys clothes almost being ripped off) to get that thing airborne.  That ship musta been haulin’ the mail.

Hat tip to former VF-43 pilot extraordinaire and later F-4 nose-gunner Snively Evans and his son, LCDR Zach Evans for the email.

They have this HUGE statue of King Neptune down there on the beach – pretty neat.  Only bad thing is the beast was cast in…yep, you guessed it…China.

Some cool reflections of the sunrise on the hotel…double click it to enlarge and you can see a boom box inside the room made into a sort of redish ghost.

One last one….called solitary.

A great image slide-show is here, and here is one screen capture from that slide show.  As Tamas points out in his comment, there are 2 weapons stations between the engine nacelles – and that would be it.  Anything carried on hard points externally (if there are any hard points) either on the wings or on each nacelle would severely degrade whatever stealth capabilities it may have.   Also, look at the engines…another comment from Jason points out the engine nozzles appear to be conventional nozzels vice thrust-vector controlled exhausts – but we know the Russians have that technological capability by seeing the MiG-29M thrust vector test bed (go watch here – fast forward to 1:45, but the whole thing is facinating) so by these few first-flight images and videos mean nothing.

Photo courtesy kommersant.ru

Here’s a better video of the first flight.

Bottom line? At this stage?  Nice looking platform, but we can’t really make any determinations about capability in the 5th-generation fighter comparison until it is fielded as a full-up-round unit.  Mark this one in the “undetermined” category for the next handful of years.

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Russia just test flew a new stealth fighter aircraft design.  The Sukhoi T-50 prototype took off for its first test flight from the company’s production plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur on Friday – which would be today since the Sukhoi production facility is in eastern Siberia and that means they are however many hours ahead of us time-wise.

First impressions? A Russian F-22 Knock-Off – or at least looks like it, flies like it (or so we’re told).  It remains to be seen if it has the same or similar capabilities of the F-22.  Smallish vertical stabilizers.  Dunno/Can’t see if weapons are carried internally or externally, but if they want to maximize the stealthiness of the vehicle, they will *have* to be internal.We’ll just have to see.

Some pics:

Fri Jan 29, 6:00 AM ET

In this image made from a TV screen and provided by APTN, a Russian-made Sukhoi T-50 prototype fifth-generation fighter jet is seen during a test flight near the Siberian city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Russia on Friday, Jan. 29, 2010. Russia’s new fifth-generation fighter made a successful maiden test flight on Friday, the manufacturer said.

The below image seems to show a hint of extended leading edges on the forward wings – an aerodynamic effect first seen on F-16 XL test beds a number of years ago:

Those leading-edge extensions help in the high-angle of attack flight regime – they extend as long as possible the lift on the wings and delay the lift-killing that happens as the nose come up and the airflow over the wings, providing lift for the platform, slowly dies away.

What this means to whatever air balance of power out there in the world remains to be seen.  Whatever lead the US had with the stealth/flight capabilities of the F-22 Raptor may be short lived, although this sort of technology will not be produced as the old MiG series of aircraft were where thousands upon thousands upon thousands (over 10,000 for the MiG 2and its variants.  The old Soviet idea of quantity over quality does not apply so much in today’s technological battlefield).  Still, the Air Superiority and Air Supremacy in the battlespace we have come to count on and expect might have to be contested when and if we engage into the next peer or near-peer conflict.

Anyone headed to Paris anytime soon?  Perhaps you’ll see one there next year.

How’d you like this “university constitutional lecturer” telling the Supreme Court they are a bunch of whack-jobs and that HIS congress will pass a law going around their free-speech decision with Citizens United v Federal Election Commission?  Stay classy, dude.

In other words, if you can’t make a speech in an elementary school without your teleprompters, what CAN you do?

Terrorists and evil-doers quake….quake, I tell you, when they see this display of Obamaitis.

(and no, this was not photoshopped….direct from Yahoo news):

Seriously.  Who runs this administration’s PR shop?  They should be shot for letting something like this get through.  The Big Guy himself should be sitting in a corner with a dunce cap on for not recognizing how ridiculous this would look.

Ted Kennedy’s “seat” being occupied by a Republican…

Air America filing for bankruptcy…

The abysmal Heath Care Reform bill is all but dead…..

McCain-Feingold goes down in a Supreme Court ruling….

Chris Dodd is toast…

Harry Reid is most likely toast….

A Repub is in the Gov seat in VA…

A Repub is in the Gov seat in NJ…

Who knows who else is toast…..

And what do I hear on the radio this morning?  Pink, singing “Why do I feel this party’s over?”

Nice job, everyone!  But don’t get cocky.