Bruce et.al.
The most inportant thing is that we were around to see and in some cases be a
part of it. We are the lucky ones. To see the things I have in my young 69
years is beyond words. Many times I set back and think how I got started in
hot rodding, flying and my career in aerospace and wouldn't trade it for
anything.
There are so many that have said gosh I wish I had done that, well a lot of us
did it and we are better for it. Bruce and I watched many good drag races at
Lions and other SoCal drag strips and myself was lucky enough to have driven
on most of the SoCal strips and in 1969 we went to Indy for the drags. We
didn't qualify but had the experiance of going there.
Drove at El Mirage, Bonneville and timed all of the Muroc events before 9-11
put a stop to them. Lots of different venues for a lot of people be it space
or racing or other pioneering, we have seen the best in our life time. Hope to
see a lot more in the years to come.
Always enjoy reading others backgrounds and stories. Keep them coming.
Glen ( still having fun)
----- Original Message -----
From: FastmetalBDF@aol.com
To: albaugh_neil@ti.com ; James.Tone@AES.com ; wester6935@comcast.net ;
speedtimer@charter.net ; land-speed@Autox.Team.Net
Sent: Monday, October 04, 2004 3:10 PM
Subject: Re: Hurricane Mesa
Neil : If not the very first, Col. John "Babe" Stapp was, indeed,
one
of the very early Rocketsled Riders. The extreme "G" forces were experienced
on both the acceleration and deceleration phases of the runs ..... I very
clearly
remember seeing a photo of him back then : He had two black eyes from
his own eyeballs surging forward at the run's end !!!
Now that's " G " Forces !!! ..... and he was one of many very brave
men in our early space travel pioneering, as was the better-known
"Chuck" Yeager of world record rocket plane history .....the X -15,
I think. As Glen B. mentioned recently, these men were the "Hot Rodders"
of our space program back then . Many young men follow in their footsteps
today ....... who knows how "far out" our grandchildren, and theirs,
might go one day ??? ONLY IN AMERICA .
bdf
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