Speed CheckOne that recently (re)gained prominence thanks to reddit is the SR-71 "speed check" story. It originated with
Major Brian Shul. Shul has been making the rounds on the lecture circuit for many years now, which explains the popularity of the story. In
one retelling in 2016, he stated "I told this story one time in Seattle 20, 25 years ago and it became this urban legend or something." Major Shul seems to be quite the anecdote proliferator, as
Snopes wrote an article about a different speech he gave in Chico, California in 2001.
The Dreaded 7 Engine ApproachThis story about the pilot of a single engine jet fighter who ends up behind a B-52 is mentioned on an
Airliners.net thread in April 2001.
The Fighter and the Bomber/Cargo PlaneThis one is hard to research as the keywords that would help with the search - the type of airplanes involved - are updated to match the current generation of aircraft with each new generation. However, it usually involves a fighter being shown up by the pilot of a multi-engine airplane (commonly a B-52) who, while initially appearing to do nothing, uses the large size of his aircraft to "stretch [his] legs, [get] some coffee, [and go] to the bathroom". Other versions involve the latter shutting down two engines.
One version found on a forum dates back to December 2003. The fact that the same story
appears in a newspaper only four days later may point to when it entered the public consciousness.
I'm From the FAA and I'm Here to HelpAlthough often associated with Ronald Reagan with "FAA" replaced by "government",
one analysis notes that it predates his 1986 quote by at least 13 years. In the aviation world, this one appears to have been popularized by a poster titled "33 Greatest Aviation Lies" with a cartoon at the top that features the phrase. Based on an
example for sale on eBay, it was produced by Aviation Promotions, Inc. and, not coincidentally, dates to 1986.
With this post, I also decided to branch out into a pictures. A number of the images that bounded around in the early days of the Internet - thanks to websites like the
Oops List - still show up from time to time.
SquawksThe earliest confirmed
example I could find online dates to April 2000. However, it seems very likely to me that it predates the Internet by at least a couple decades. A search of Newspapers.com reveals that it received a lot of publicity in 1997, when it was passed around as a common sidebar in many newspapers. Interestingly, the
first instance specifically notes the Internet as an origin.
Stealth FighterAt some point, the staff at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base decided to add a "stealth fighter" to Celebrity Row. The
display featured three wheels and a ladder behind a sign labeled "F-117 Nighthawk Stealth Fighter". The joke has been
reproduced elsewhere, but it appears that it originated with the display at D-M. It may date to the War in Yugoslavia, as that was when the "[s]orry, we didn't know it was invisible" quote
seems to have appeared. This joke was carried forward into the aviation museum world, when the Museum of Flight announced plans to
exhibit Wonder Woman's Invisible Plane in 2013.
Canard B-17A photoshopped version of a B-17G, 42-38091, with the horizontal stabilizer abreast the cockpit and the wings at the rear has been confusing netizens for many years (
1,
2). (It even
appeared on WIX in 2009.) The image, which is usually associated with a jokes about "if Burt Rutan existed during World War II" dates to at least December 2005 when it was mentioned in a
Key Aero thread. (The linked URL is, unfortunately, not archived.) However, its fictional nature has not stopped at least one individual from building an actual scale model of the design.
EDIT (22-07-11): Reword the mention of the Snopes article in the Speed Check entry, as it turned out to be about a different speech.