Wednesday Overnight Open Thread - February 26, 2025 [TRex]

Good evening Horde. The time has come for mid-week shenanigans of the overnight variety.

This is the Wednesday night ONT. You might sense a theme this week.

For those participating in the Wednesday ONT 2025 prediction challenge, the prospects of the Epstein files release is increasing. AG Bondi said tonight on Fox that flight logs and other lists may come as early as tomorrow. Stay tuned...

Top Photo:

This single photo includes five significant pieces of military aviation history that now live in close quarters in the National Museum of the US Air Force. Can you name them all?

Lockheed Have Blue Radar Cross Section Model - this model was built for radar testing in 1975-76. Two full scale prototypes followed (both crashed and were buried in the desert). The effort led to the F-117 Nighthawk.

Northrop Tacit Blue - The only one built. In the 1980s, this prototype was built to validate radar cross sections of curved surfaces. It influenced B2 design. Notice the thin exhaust opening at the rear. There are only intakes on the roof - no other air inlet openings.

Lockheed YF-12 - The only surviving example of three built. The YF-12 came before the SR-71 Blackbird. It was armed with missiles and built to intercept high altitude supersonic bombers.

North American XB-70 Valkyrie - The only one in existence (one crashed and another was halted while under construction). High altitude Mach 3 nuclear strike bomber.

Grumman X-29A - one of two built, it is the world's first forward swept aircraft to fly supersonically.

A tour of the Air Force academy by a 2018 grad:

A few moments of Maiden: Iron Maiden is not everyone's musical taste, but "Aces High" fits with the theme. It also takes big brass ones for a British band to play live - complete with Churchill speech and WWII video - at a concert in Germany. Rock am Ring 2014.

Too soon?

Because we can. Scarymary, this is for you:

Beware the mummy's curse: Last undiscovered tomb of Tutankhamun dynasty found

I have seen this movie. Waking up cursed priests in Egyptian tombs with supernatural powers rarely turns out well. Proceed with caution.

The saddest photo you have ever seen:

This is the happiest video clip you have ever seen (Ace posted previously, but worth seeing again if you missed it):

Molson Canadian: what to drink when you are chasing beaver.

SitRep:

History nugget:

In World War II, the US military airdropped pianos for the troops. Yes, airdropped pianos. Not cartoon pianos. Real pianos. They were called "Victory Verticals."

Called the Victory Vertical or G.I. Steinways, the pianos were sometimes airdropped onto battlefields to provide a bit of relaxation. They were manufactured in Steinway's Queens factory and mostly sold to the U.S. government.

At first, Steinway was prohibited from building pianos due to government restrictions on iron, copper, brass, and other raw materials. The factory bided its time producing coffins and parts for troop transport gliders, until it was granted a contract to send specially designed pianos to commissioned war soldiers. Steinway proceeded to make over 3,000 "Victory Vertical" pianos designed specifically for troops in battle between 1942 and 1953. The pianos came in olive, blue, and gray drab. In 1942, the first "Victory Vertical" was dropped by parachute, complete with tuning equipment and instructions.

Dear Wednesday ONT readers, I give you...the World's Longest Journey by Pumpkin Boat.

I will admit to being conflicted. It cannot be easy to grow a gourd large enough to carve into a vessel capable of navigating waterways. The paddler then must churn the water with force and direction and sustain that effort longer than any other that has come before. Not saying that TRex can do any of that. But how many other potential pumpkin paddlers are there? Did this winner float to the top of the ranks or were they the only one daft enough to make the attempt? I raise a beverage in their direction for earnestly undertaking something so fantastically useless...but does it warrant a WORLD RECORD? On the other hand, perhaps these are precisely the types of things that deserve recognition of human accomplishment.

Dunno. Remember, I have a small dinosaur brain.

SpaceX Starship Flight 8 on Friday? That is the word from SpaceX.

The launch window opens at 6:30pm ET.

If you are a true space geek, read the SpaceX summary of the mishap investigation from Flight 7.

Live Stevie Ray Vaughan for a big ONT finish:

Written correspondence can be sent to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Are you lurking? Come out and play. Behave yourselves while participating in ONT activity. Or at least misbehave in amusing ways that puts you in the running for comments of the week.

posted by Open Blogger at 10:00 PM

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