Fanclub X-wing Series Fan Club: Home of the Dancing Gamorrean

I don't know. (Brief pause while the shocked gasps fade away. )

My best guess is that something potentially dangerous is embedded in the canopy. Could be electrical heating elements to defog the canopy, like the wires on your car's rear window defogger. Or it could be lightweight explosives like det cord, to blow the canopy off when the pilot ejects.

 

Sure that makes sense. Wow I stumped you. I better log this one.

 

Great article! II laughed so hard.

I was on the USS Missouri in Astoria Oregon prior to it being towed to Pearl Harbor in the late 90s. Left an impression

 

I took a tour of Missouri's sister ship USS Wisconsin years ago. As I was walking the decks, I felt like I could sense how thick the steel armor was, and it felt weird for that much steel to float.

And here's a Valentine's Day story that makes my heart warm:
14 February 1991: An unusual incident occurred during Desert Storm, when Captains Tim Bennett and Dan Bakke, United States Air Force, flying the airplane in the above photograph, McDonnell Douglas F-15E-47-MC Strike Eagle, 89-0487, used a 2,000-pound (907.2 kilogram) GBU-10 Paveway II laser-guided bomb to “shoot down” an Iraqi Mil Mi-24 Hind attack helicopter. This airplane is still in service with the Air Force, and on 16 August 2016 logged its 12,000th flight hour.
Captain Bennett (Pilot) and Captain Bakke (Weapons Systems Officer) were leading a two-ship flight on a anti-Scud missile patrol, waiting for a target to be assigned by their Boeing E-3 AWACS controller. 89-0487 was armed with four laser-guided GBU-10 bombs and four AIM-9 Sidewinder heat-seeking air-to-air missiles. Their wingman was carrying twelve Mk. 82 500-pound (227 kilogram) bombs.
The AWACS controller called Bennett’s flight and told them that a Special Forces team on the ground searching for Scud launching sites had been located by Iraqi forces and was in need of help. They headed in from 50 miles (80.5 kilometers) away, descending though 12,000 feet (3,658 meters) of clouds as the went. They came out of the clouds at 2,500 feet (762 meters), 15–20 miles (24– 32 kilometers) from the Special Forces team.
With the Strike Eagle’s infrared targeting pod, they picked up five helicopters on the ground and identified them as enemy Mi-24s. It appeared that the helicopters were going to drive the U.S. soldiers into a waiting Iraqi blocking force.
Their Strike Eagle was inbound at 600 knots (1,111 kilometers per hour) and both the FLIR (infrared) targeting pod and search radar were locked on to the Iraqi helicopters. Dan Bakke aimed the laser targeting designator at the lead helicopter preparing to drop a GBU-10 while Tim Bennett was getting a Sidewinder missile ready to fire. At four miles (6.44 kilometers) they released the GBU-10.
At this time, the enemy helicopter, which had been either on the ground or in a hover, began to accelerate and climb. The Eagle’s radar showed the helicopter’s ground speed at 100 knots. Bakke struggled to keep the laser designator on the fast-moving target. Bennett was about to fire the Sidewinder at the helicopter when the 2,000-pound (907.2 kilogram) bomb hit and detonated. The helicopter ceased to exist. The other four helicopters scattered.
Soon after, additional fighter bombers arrived to defend the U.S. Special Forces team. They were later extracted and were able to confirm the Strike Eagle’s kill.

 

Long overdue honors for a Tuskegee Airman lost in 1945: https://www.inquirer.com/philly/col...l6APe-gxPmZTxt5NeuNGCDjv2Rvi8GrXTEVuzt4O-U5fc

 

Trying to still stay optimistic about Wars these days. Would this be the thread to drop in a new fan-cast for the X-Wing series? Or would that be a derail?

 

I'd love to see an updated fancast, since TROS I've gotten three friends to read the X-wing series so I'm thrilled

 

I don't think it would be a derail. A sidetrack from the Black Sheep maybe, but I can multi task. But we can dream...if Disney makes X-wing: the TV series...

I'm terrible at fancasting.

 

I've no issues with it, not a derail more of a fun sidetrack. Folks can multitask. We do it for the GoL thread all the time between tasks, RPG talk and the Jedi pondering the meaning of their own belly button lint.

 

Well, it was the X-wing thread before it was the Black Sheep thread. So maybe we're re-railing it?

So, are we setting fancasting rules? Can we do de-aging? Or do we have to replace Denis as Wedge?

 

On a related theme, have any of our players thought about which actor will play their character when the Black Sheep movie is filmed?

 

It will be the most expensive movie...

 

Ethan is Viggo Mortensen:

 

I love other people's fancasts but I'm useless at them myself. No good with faces.

 

If we have access to a time machine, Basil Rathbone or David Niven can play Kayn. If not, I'll settle for Antonio Banderas.

 

The woman in my avatar, that represents Lou, was a stunt woman for numerous films and was used in Rogue One so I'll stick with her. Here is a front view.

 

I've thought about it but haven't quiiiiiite figured out who yet.

 

Contact lenses. Actresses use them all the time. Done & dusted!