Originally Posted by
mike rondot
I remember those T-Bird sorties very well. It was my privilege to show back-seaters the fastest speed they were ever likely to travel on earth unless they went on to fly the Tornado. At 250ft over the sea, M:0.99 was around 660kts, depending on the temperature. The only reason to stay subsonic was fear of the drop tanks hunting and coming apart. You could see in your peripheral vision the noses of the tanks weaving around at high Mach. A few years later that fear was dispelled when we did the supersonic dive release trials of 1000lb bombs and CBU 87s with the centreline tank unfazed by the excursions outside its design envelope.
Talking about Backseat rides, I was on holiday in the North East this summer just gone and was visiting Beamish. On the last exhibt to see (the 1940s farm), and by thelLand girl volunteer was a bloke that looked famiiar. He had been on telly the week before on Countryfile (and I had mentioned his name to the missus, before the article was broadcast). I said "Excuse me? Are you?" to which I got the look of (you know me, but I haven't got a clue who you are!) and the reply of "Yes!". My reply was "Cat Techie, at Colt and you took me up on my first Jag Backset trip! The Land Girl was then asking the questions!