"One's Too Many" wrote in message
om...
"Jim Fisher" wrote in message
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"john" wrote in message
He then stands it straight up with 4 white
trails of flame coming out and disappears. Cost of gas for that:
Probably $50,000

Hearing damage: For certain
Bunch of ragheads thinking twice about shooting at us: Priceless

That's just too cool, John.

Too bad we have that silly rule about not breaking sound barriers in
populated areas here in the states. I'd love to witness that some day.

True story supposedly, from two friends who told it to me, happened in
the late 1980's. They were fishing early one morning someplace in the
middle of nowhere northeast of the Abilene TX area, said they heard
nothing, no warning at all, dead silence not knowing anything was
about to occur when suddenly a pair of B-1B Lancers came screaming
over their heads maybe a couple hundred feet AGL with afterburners
glaring and sonic booms that knocked them out of their folding
lawnchairs, followed by the tremendous roar of the engines and
powerful turbulent wind blowing debris all around them on the ground
as the jets sped away. They said the experience was absolutely awesome
and they jumped up and down with joy, hooting and hollering like a
couple of rowdy drunken rednecks afterwards, wishing they'd turn
around and make another pass.

The location, Abilene, sounds about right since that's where the B1's
were based back then.

I was flying B-1s at Dyess from 1986 to 1991. I'm sure your friends were
impressed with the flyover, and I don't doubt their word, but nobody was
flying less than 400 feet and no one was flying supersonic in that area in a
Bone. Fast I'm sure, but not ss.

The no warning feature is one of the great things about the B-1. Flying low
in B-52s, the wild horses and cattle can see and maybe hear you coming.
They start running as you approach. In the Bone, they never moved. Didn't
see or hear us. Odd.

Cheers,

JB