Blue Angels in Salinas

The Blue Angels are making an appearance at the Salinas Airshow the weekend of Oct 2.

I have gone to the Salinas air show for the last 3 years now. Amazing airshow and the Blue Angels are simply amazing.

Here is a Van Halen video that I love. Not sure when it was made (guessing the mid 80's while I was college). The video is "Dream", and it stars the Blue Angels.

Would be a cool trip

June 21st in Mohave California, the first privately funded spacecraft will attempt to become the world's first commercial manned space vehicle.

I have written about this project previously, very cool stuff!!

CNN.com - Private spacecraft blast offs June 21

SpaceShipOne will rocket to 62 miles (100 kilometers) into sub-orbital space above the Mojave Civilian Aerospace Test Center, a commercial airport in the California desert. If successful, "it will signal that the space frontier is finally open to private enterprise," explained a Scaled Composites release. - Quote from the story.

Scaled Composites web site - Builders of the spacecraft.

Photos on the Scaled Composites site

Thunderbird Pics and Video

Here is a collection of amazing pictures and video from the crash of an Air Force Thunderbird on Sept 14th. Absolutely amazing stuff, specially considering nobody was injured, including the pilot.

Mom, Dad, and Julie: This is why there was only 5 Thunderbirds at the air show in Salinas and not the normal 6.

Collection of Links that describe the crash as well as information about the below picture:

Thunderbirds accident report released
Pilot ejects safely at air show
Thunderbirds Crash: Truth In Images
All pictures are clickable to view them in full size

Cool Billionaire projects

Sir Richard Branson and Steve Fossett's newest aviation record setting attempt:

Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer

Attempting to fly around the planet without refueling in less than 80 hours with a single pilot. Very cool!!

Paul Allen's financed project:

SpaceShipOne

On Dec 11th, a significant milestone was achieved by Scaled Composites: The first manned supersonic flight by an aircraft developed by a small company's private, non-government effort. One of many small steps to placing a human into sub-orbital Space to claim the X Prize.

Both projects are being developed by Burt Rutan. I wouldn't be surprised that 100 years from now, he will be spoken of in a similiar way to the Wright Brothers.