Warbird Information Exchange

I said the 'essence of the forum'. Have a look through the archives from when the forum started,(from the very beginning, before this format came about) you'll get the idea, plenty of years of great discussion , without any tabloid raising its head.
Anyway, I am sure the bringing up of 'disrespecting the astonauts' will invite some indignant feed back which will eventually see the thread consigned to the trash, where it belongs

Re not reading the topic, already explained how I was roped into it, along with most others, previously. If the thread was titled 'Tabloid that has nothing to do with Warbirds', I wouldn't have read it!
As it stands I shouldn't need to read it.....because it shouldn't be on here.......period!

Dave

An interesting fact is that as there is no mention of the word 'Warbird' in the Oxford English Dictionary, so as of yet it is not an official word with a set definition, and is in fact just slang. Perhaps we should bring this to their attention as it has been in common usage around the world for many years and forms part of many organisation's names.

It doesn't appear in lesser dictionaries such as Collins either.

However Wikipedia does have a definition. It states:

"Warbird is a term used to describe vintage military aircraft. Although the term originally implied piston driven aircraft from the World War II era, it is now often extended to include all military aircraft, including jet powered aircraft, that are no longer in military service. Vintage jet aircraft in flyable condition, however, are much rarer due to technical complexity.

Sometimes, the term "Warbird "also applies to newly built replicas of vintage aircraft, such as Allison V-1710 powered Yak-9s from Yakovlev, Me 262s built by the Me 262 Project and FW 190s by Flug Werk.

Restored warbirds are a frequent attraction at airshows. Highly modified as well as "stock" warbirds can also frequently be seen at air races, since late-war fighter planes are among the fastest propeller-driven planes ever built. The most popular warbirds for races seem to be the P-51 Mustang, the Hawker Sea Fury, the F8F Bearcat, the T-6 Texan and the F4U Corsair."

That for me encapsulates the essence of the word well. Preserved vintage military aircraft. As the shuttle is neither preserved, vintage, military nor an aircraft, I doubt it's a warbird.

It is still in use and younger than most serving military aircraft or airliners, so not vintage nor preserved.

It is not military as NASA is a civilian organisation, a department of the US Government with international involvement and support. Sure, some of their crews are sourced from the military but not all. If I recall right Neil Armstrong was a civilian.

And it's a rocket, not an aircraft as such. You'll never see one displaying at an airshow. It's not intended to fly around, it goes straight up and comes straight down.

Oh and the overwhelming thing about warbirds are they or their type have served in a war. Otherwise they're just a 'bird'. They usually have some sort of combat capability (though not always) such as guns, bombs, etc. These also do not fit the NASA Space Shuttle profile.

And lastly, the article doesn't even have anything to do with the shuttle or its missions or whatever. It's just another looney nutjob story...

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Even if a thread is a dead horse, and is conclusively proven by distinguished WIXers (whatever that means) to be not pertinent to the body of readers, and you can't stand reading what is here, how does a thread get 1339 hits (at last count)? I can't believe you people (or me) are still posting on this thread....

So my supposition is that (since not ONE female member on WIX has posted on this thread) Lisa Nowak is every male WIXer's secret fantasy. C'mon, it's okay. You can say it. And if you've already asked your signifigant other to wear a diaper driving around the neighborhood with a flight suit and wig on, that's okay too, unless that person doesn't know the reason for doing so...

Love hath no fury like the spurned shuttle buddy...

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Uhhhh.....not for me, thanks.

HOWEVER....

How thoroughly bada$$ is the guy, Oefelein?? It's not enough that he was an F-18 pilot and then an Astronaut. He's got two NASA chicks fighting all over him AND one of them was sending him cyber-sex text messages while he was on the shuttle.

THAT is something to aspire to.

Boy, it takes a lot of convincing to get something designated an honorary warbird around here.

NASA does a pretty good job of preserving the Shuttle in flying condition. The average shuttle is 20-25 years old. And while NASA isn't a military organization, they have "handed the keys" over to military crews to perform military missions.

Granted, it still is in use, but so are a few F-4s. Do we have to wait for the last F-4 to retire before calling it a warbird?

Neil Armstrong never flew on a Department of Defense Space Shuttle mission (and never flew on the Shuttle, period). The crews for the DoD missions were all military. There were strict clearances that had to be obtained to fly on the DoD flights. To this day, many of those crews can't talk about what they did on those missions.

For the last 10 minutes (or so) of it's flight, the Shuttle does not come straight down but flies according to the same laws of aerodynamics that all other aircraft also adhere to. It is indeed an aircraft at this point of it's journey, unlike a capsule floating down under a parachute.

The Shuttle did serve in a war...the Cold War. It's the same war that many other aircraft have served in. Once the Cold War was over, the shuttle stopped flying the DoD flights.

Actually, this has been a fun discussion. The more we talk, the less inclined I am to call the Shuttle an honorary warbird. I'm now more inclined to call it a warbird, period.

Obviously this is due to the misleading thread title, not the "only in America " tabloid story contents!

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Bad-A$$? He's not an F-15 or L-5 pilot is he? F-15 and L-5 pilots know better than to get caught...

Alright, so you are working in the multi-gazillion dollar environment in space, and some one sends you a carnal message. Questions are:

1. Is this a distraction worthy of doing actual biometrics on concentration ability to determine the efficiency of people receiving such messages? I mean, we manly men think about it once every 10 seconds, or so my wife complains. How do such text messages increase, or otherwise impact the non-carnal thought processes?
"Hey, stop ramming the robot arm in and out of the intake nacelle."

2. In the multi-gazillion dollar environment, with SEVEN OTHERS, how do you explain sudden changes in clothing contours for no apparent reason?
"I'm not happy to see you, I'm just keeping my solar panel wrench warm."

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Read Mike Mullane's book Riding Rockets for some VERY humorous (and R-rated) tales of flying in space and being an astronaut. He noted that when you wake up in space, certain parts of the body are extremely, um, stiff.