Robin Olds is one of my greats. Wiki. Interview.

Steve Fossett achieved some serious aviation milestones, no doubt about it. However, "great aviators" don't fly in IMC (instrument meteorological conditions) with no instruments and no instrument rating.

Steve Fossett had an instrument rating, various jet type ratings as well as balloon and sailplane ratings. I wouldn't go so far as to call him the greatest aviator in the world but he was a very good one - setting dozens of world records in balloons, gliders, and powered flight.

Even very good aviators can make a critical mistake that kills them. For example, Frank Tallman was the top Hollywood stunt pilot for many years following the death of his partner Paul Mantz. Tallman died in a CFIT accident (controlled flight into terrain) when his plane struck a mountain on a routine flight. Scott Crossfield was truly a great aviator in anyone's book but he died when his 1961 Cessna 210 broke up at night in a thunderstorm. A readily available $2000 Garmin handheld GPS with weather receiver would've probably saved his life.

The plane also needs to have an instrument rating before being allowed to fly in IMC. As far as I know, his plane was a VMC only plane. Flying a VMC plane in IMC conditions is not good aviation.

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Oh, ye of little faith...

I'm with PraedSt on Robin Olds. There was much wrong with the Air Force back then, as there is much wrong with the Air Force today. Too many otherwise well-intentioned people making wrong decisions by refusing to make the right ones. Their politically correct lack of involvement and homage to perception over reality results, long term, in going down many roads on which the Air Force should never have been side-tracked in the first place.

Folks like BGen Olds, much as his outspoken predecessor, Billy Mitchell, stood up for what's right, stood up against what's wrong, and received flak from both throughout his career. The only reason Olds made it as far as he did was that he almost never made a mistake. If he had, they'd have taken him down for it long ago. Mitchell was taken down because of a scathing, but correct comment he made, in writing, after a lighter-than-air accident.

From his entry in Wikipedia: "Olds toured USAF bases in Thailand (flying several unauthorized combat missions in the process) and brought back a blunt assessment. Air Force pilots, he said, "couldn't fight their way out of a wet paper bag." To the surprise of nearly everyone else in the room, Air Force Chief of Staff John D. Ryan (another former SAC general and often at odds with the tactical fighter community), agreed with Olds. Olds later offered to take a voluntary reduction in rank to colonel so he could return to operational command and straighten out the situation. Olds decided to leave the Air Force when the offer was refused and retired on June 1, 1973."

Put simply, Olds earned three Air Medals with 39 oak leave clusters. He was a triple ace, with a total of 16 victories in WWII and Vietnam, the latter while the USAF kill ratio was around 1:1.

By contrast, Fosset was a thrill-seeking glory-hound. True, he was exceptionally great at amassing world records in many fields.

That doesn't make one a great aviator.

1. He didn't file a flight plan. This isn't required, but it's highly encouraged, and something most folks do when they're travelling any further than the local traffic pattern. Even average aviators file flight plans for all off-station flights. His only reported destination was "heading south to Highway 395, which runs north-south through Owns Valley."

2. An employee of the club which loaned him the airplane stated that he saw the airplane at "about 0825 or 0835 approximately 8 nautical miles (nm) south of the departure strip ... he saw it flying south at about 150 to 200 feet above the ground." Great aviators don't fly 150 to 200 feet above the ground, except: 1) during landing and takeoff, 2) when flying low-level military operations, as a way to both radar as well as spoil certain airborne weapons locks, 3) crop-dusting, 4) momentary loss of judgment, i.e., they were being "stupid." Thrill-seekers, on the other hand may very well go blitzing around power-line country willy-nilly.

3. He took off with enough fuel for 4-5 hrs or flight.

4. He flew into mountain at 10,100 feet, 600 feet lower than the top of the ridge. Sectional charts (mandatory for non-instrument rated flights) clearly depict min sectoring altitudes (MSAs) which even average aviators do not violate without exceptionally good cause (like either landing, or engine out). He wasn't near where he'd stated he was going to be. Despite having fully operational radios, he never filed a flight-plan while airborne (piece of cake) to let anyone know of his modified intentions, particularly vital when flying over mountainous terrain.

Fosset was a daring aviator. He set many world records, dozens of which remain unbroken. But he was a hot-dogging thrill seeker who's life was taken as a consequence of the very behavior he, and no one else, chose to take.

He wasn't a great aviator.

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If I set the budget, we'd have Ares and more. Unfortunately, I don't set the budget, and Ares is just too expensive and too far out for us to accomplish our goals within the budget we were given.

If we halt the ISS, all versions of Ares, and transport Orion and Altair aboard DIRECTv3's Jupiter family of Shuttle-Derived Launch Vehicles, we just might make it back to the Moon by 2020.

My bad, Larry - yes - Fosset had an instrument rating, as well as 350 hrs in the 6 months prior to the crash (a LOT), and multi-engine commercial ratings, as well. He was a well-educted and highly experienced aviator.

Piggy-backing on your trend, a neighbor of ours, former Navy pilot with several thousand hours, died in 2006 due to controlled flight into severe weather (similar to Crossfield). AOPA's push for ADS-B as a replacement for Mode-C, CAS, and surveillance radar, includes Wx uplinking via UAT.

Another friend, about 25 years ago, flew into the side of a mountain on a bright, sunny day with only mild winds. Reason? He tried climbing over a ridgeline from the leeward side.

Great aviators are great not because they don't make mistakes. They're great because they take the time and effort to avoid situations where they're forced to rely on their exceptional skills. Pilots who forget that usually find, sooner or later, circumstances where they get themselves into a situation out of which their skills or the limitations of their aircraft become the weakest link in the chain. I would submit that the ability to avoid such easily avoidable situations is one of the key skills of being a great aviator.

I again submit that Fosset wasn't a great aviator.

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If I set the budget, we'd have Ares and more. Unfortunately, I don't set the budget, and Ares is just too expensive and too far out for us to accomplish our goals within the budget we were given.

If we halt the ISS, all versions of Ares, and transport Orion and Altair aboard DIRECTv3's Jupiter family of Shuttle-Derived Launch Vehicles, we just might make it back to the Moon by 2020.

I really hope someone can pick his most recent project and go on with it
http://www.fossettlsr.com/index2.html

It'd be great to have a race between Bloodhound SSC and Fossett's car (formerly Breedlove's car) over the next few years.

Doug

Now this is a cool video - it's got my blood pumping!!!

I'm not keen on Breedlove's approach, as just from looking at it and knowing what I do about shock wave propogation, I think it has some serious design flaws.

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If I set the budget, we'd have Ares and more. Unfortunately, I don't set the budget, and Ares is just too expensive and too far out for us to accomplish our goals within the budget we were given.

If we halt the ISS, all versions of Ares, and transport Orion and Altair aboard DIRECTv3's Jupiter family of Shuttle-Derived Launch Vehicles, we just might make it back to the Moon by 2020.

Noble seems to take the Apollo approach to raise the level of engineering for his country. (btw,according to Aldrin, returning to the moon could do the same for sustainable engineering, if done right)

As for Breedlove's (Fossett's) craft: I don't immediately see a problem with it. It appears that both Breedlove's and Fossett's craft would have the inlet behind the bow shock, thus getting extra compression. Just by the looks of it of course, I didn't do any calculations. Thrust SSC didn't have this for supersonic velocities in the range Bloodhound is aiming at (again, by the looks of it), but then again, it was mainly subsonic, in which case the inlet position may very well be enough backwards, so that makes sense. Anyway, it's something easily spotted even in an analytic shock pattern simulator. So we can safely assume they did that part correct on all three craft .

What was the problem you saw, mugs?

The starfighter engine remains a popular one for land speed records. A US based team is using a starfighter flown by Yeager for their car. "Clip the wings" is more or less their car concept .

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The gull-wing rear wheel struts have a long enough chord that transonic shock waves reflected off the desert floor will produce some serious lift, possible enough to unstick the rear wheels.

I saw that! They're still at the 500 mph stage with their latest set of wheels. When it comes to strength of materials, that's just 20% of what's required for the 1,000 mph barrier.

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If I set the budget, we'd have Ares and more. Unfortunately, I don't set the budget, and Ares is just too expensive and too far out for us to accomplish our goals within the budget we were given.

If we halt the ISS, all versions of Ares, and transport Orion and Altair aboard DIRECTv3's Jupiter family of Shuttle-Derived Launch Vehicles, we just might make it back to the Moon by 2020.

And another:

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@Mugs: I see what you mean. Though it's possible that the reflected upstream would only reach these surfaces at speeds way higher than what this car is designed for, and hence they would be in the wake behind the reflected shocks during the ride. We'd have to do the calculations to be sure. But it certainly is something they need to look into with this design.

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I think Breedloves initial plan was to get up to 650 or so (in what would have been a new record ahead of Thrust 2), and then drive it remotely thru the sound barrier to see how it did, before getting back in it.

I'm a member of the Bloodhound SSC 1k-Club, I'll be at the first supporters meeting next Sunday....and whilst I seriously doubt the ability of the American Eagle project, and have some reservations about Breedloves old car - I still want someone to come up and at least tickle the Thrust SSC record to shove a firecracker up the backside of British Engineering for Bloodhound SSC.

I had a thought... Is there anything in the rulebooks which says that the vehicle has to come to a stop on the surface? Or does it just have to run the course on the surface?

If the latter, put the 105's wings back on and simply take off after the run in one direction instead of spending miles trying to slow it back down.

It'd give you quite a bit more room to accelerate...

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If I set the budget, we'd have Ares and more. Unfortunately, I don't set the budget, and Ares is just too expensive and too far out for us to accomplish our goals within the budget we were given.

If we halt the ISS, all versions of Ares, and transport Orion and Altair aboard DIRECTv3's Jupiter family of Shuttle-Derived Launch Vehicles, we just might make it back to the Moon by 2020.

Alternatively, come in for a fast landing, and start your run at 300km/h instead of 0.

The wheels they use for the land speed record would be horrible wheels to perform a landing with though, and as they wouldn't be retractable, you'd get a rough flight.

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At mach speeds, absolutely!

__________________
If I set the budget, we'd have Ares and more. Unfortunately, I don't set the budget, and Ares is just too expensive and too far out for us to accomplish our goals within the budget we were given.

If we halt the ISS, all versions of Ares, and transport Orion and Altair aboard DIRECTv3's Jupiter family of Shuttle-Derived Launch Vehicles, we just might make it back to the Moon by 2020.