Behold the C-5

I saw something cool today—the second-biggest airplane in the world in flight. I was treated to the sight of a Lockheed C-5 shortly after takeoff. (An ex-Air Force guy identified it for me. All I knew is that it was waaaaaaay bigger than a C-130.) I watched it make a lazy turn to the north and gradually vanish.

Wikipedia tells me that the airplane I saw today weighed at least 400,000 pounds, and had a wingspan just short of three-quarters of a football field. It’s so freakishly huge it doesn’t look real in the sky.

I’m fair at estimating distance along the ground, but I’ve never been worth a damn at estimating altitude (and the unusually large size of the aircraft messed with my perspective further). That said, I don’t think it could have been any higher than 2,000 feet when I saw it. When it turned just so and hit us with the noise full force, it was absolutely unbelievable. You could have screamed at the top of your lungs standing right in front of me, and I wouldn’t have been able to hear it. I swear my sternum was resonating.

It was one of those increasingly rare moments during which I felt like a kid again at the pure wonder I experienced. “Look what we can do!” I thought, giddily and unreservedly.

I deeply hope we can find our way past our technological adolescence without exterminating the human race.

Because that would suck.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

Possibly related posts (automatically generated):

1. Behold the $578 million public school The Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools complex, part of the public school system, was just completed on the site of the Ambassador Hotel, where its...
2. 44. Barack Obama, 2009- Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States today.  I wish him well. Today is not a day to pick...
3. Playing the field, or not As much as I love women, which is a lot, I was never any good at dating more than one at once.  I can only...
4. The Second Amendment survives Demonstrating adequate reading comprehension skills, five Supreme Court justices today ruled that the Chicago handgun ban is unconstitutional. Here’s to a blow against the alarmingly...
5. Happy Independence Day Dear readers, the new dishwasher is installed, and it looks like grilled ribs, beer, and explosives from here on out.  I hope you have a...