Archive Video A Day – 25 November 2009 – Gear Down at Mach 3.2

By Parrothead Jeff, on 26 November 2009

Yeah, I should’ve done a bit of photography today. I screwed up and I know it’s my own damn fault.

Hopefully, this short video from a while back might at least partially redeem me

I’ve said before that I’m an associate member of the Road Runners Internationale, but it’s been a while. I missed their reunion this year, but I went to the past two. I’ll be at the next one – count on that.

Two years ago, I got to listen to some of the old hands up at Groom Lake tell stories of those days in the late 50s and early 60s. One of those old hands was General Sullivan. I didn’t have a very good internet connection at the time and couldn’t get to YouTube from work, so one of my buddies over at F-16.net, AFTSCrash, was kind enough to upload it after I emailed it to him.

Here’s what I wrote at the time over at F-16.net:

Most of the people around here know about the A-12 AKA Project Oxcart. I suspect that not many have heard this story, however.

I got to videotape some of the old hands at the Road Runners reunion when they got up to speak about their time up at “The Ranch” and some of what happened up there. One of the speakers was Brigadier-General (Retired) Dennis Sullivan. Gen. Sullivan was one of the A-12 pilots who flew the jet out of Groom Lake as well as out of Kadena, Okinawa on operational missions. Gen. Sullivan’s entire presentation (I got it all on tape) was great – especially hearing about the time he had six or seven SA-2 missiles launched at him over North Vietnam and how he was able to watch them push over at about 90,000 feet, go to pursuit, and detonate behind the jet before they could catch him. There was only one fragment of a missile found in the chine area which was about the size of a fingernail – and he still has it.

One of the stories he told was about the world record that would never be broken – Mach 3.2 with the landing gear down ! No, he wasn’t the pilot who did it, but it’s one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard !

Here’s the video of Gen. Sullivan telling that story:

Enjoy

And I bet Glenn and Buck thought they’d seen bad landing gear over speeds !

Have a great day

Buck

November 26th, 2009 at 1006 · Reply

Actually: not. I had very little to do with aircraft during my career. I was only stationed at one base with an active runway in my 22 years, and that was Yokota… so all I saw were trash-haulers.

True story: The very last thing my Ol’ Man (a retired AF Lt Col with over 20 missions in B-17s over Germany) said to me as I was getting on the plane to go down to Lackland back in ’63: “Stay away from airplanes.” It was probably more serendipity than anything else, but I did just that.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, Jeff! Glenn and Kath, too!

Parrothead Jeff

November 27th, 2009 at 1119 · Reply

Thanks for the correction there, Buck I just figured you’d had some time due to some of Glenn’s comments

And a Happy Belated Thanksgiving to you, too

mach 3.2

March 16th, 2010 at 0811 · Reply

[...] aircraft which has a service ceiling of 80,000 ft, tearing a maximum of 3.2 Mach (2170 mph) …Parrothead Jeff & Friends Archive Video A Day 25 November …Archive Video A Day 25 November 2009 Gear Down at Mach 3.2 … One of the stories he told was about [...]