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That time an SR-71 Blackbird pilot hit the afterburners and did a flyby of the tower of Sacramento Airport
‘The tower controller said "Beautiful, beautiful, come back and do another one. I said I better not, I'm gonna go to Beale, Maury Rosenberg, SR-71 Blackbird pilot.
The moment Captain Tim Lancaster was sucked out of the plane he was piloting in 1990.
A wrongly-installed panel on the windscreen of British Airways Flight 5390 fell out and caused the captain to be pulled halfway out the aircraft at 17, 000 feet. As the pilot began to lose consciousness, the flight attendant holding onto him also began to develop frostbite.
The ordeal lasted 22 minutes in total and Tim Lancaster survived with only minor injuries, although the flight attendant holding onto him, Nigel Ogden, retired in 2001 after struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder.
F-117A - GRAY DRAGON II
One of the most unusual experimental configurations in the history of the F-117 Nighthawk.
"Gray Dragon II" was an experimental F-117A used as a flying testbed, wearing a distinctive light-gray finish instead of the iconic black associated with the operational Nighthawk fleet.
The concept explored a fundamental problem: while black was effective for nighttime operations, it created a strong visual contrast against bright daytime skies. A lighter gray finish could make the aircraft considerably less conspicuous against atmospheric haze, clouds and the horizon, exploring the potential for more effective daylight operations.
The experiment never replaced the famous black scheme across the operational fleet, leaving Gray Dragon Il as one of the most distinctive chapters in the history of stealth aviation.
