I'm old but not that old. Still got my hardback copies of Patriot Games, Cardinal of the Kremlin and Clear and Present Danger. He was a great novelist. He is missed. Cheers Alex.

@mtmadigan82

8 ай бұрын

I just walked by my book shelves and thought the same thing😂

@williamschwartzkopf4068

8 ай бұрын

I've read Rainbow6 at least 10 times. If ever there was a Clancy book deserving of a movie it would be R6.

@RobFomenko

8 ай бұрын

I used to have the first 6 or 8 in hardback in very good condition. Divorce. Now somebody else has it, hope they appreciate it.

@danielbeshers1689

8 ай бұрын

I remember a Tom Clancy interview I saw 22 years and 4 days ago. I'd read several of his books but didn't know much about him as a man. He spoke so passionately and convincingly about how Islam is a religion of peace and the vast majority of Muslims are nothing like the hijackers. I still think about that.

@ryanomalley3705

8 ай бұрын

Even some young'uns read Clancy. I'm 23 but read the hunt for red October during covid. Bought a second hand on Amazon that was shipped from the states to me in Ireland and turned out to be a second print or the like lol.

I still think Red Storm Rising is one of the greatest stories, but it sounds like it's got a new challenger. I'll have to check it out. Great interview, Alex. Can't wait to see the rest.

We were stationed at Beale AFB Ca. He worked on the haboos 😊 SR71. Many evenings of full throttle acceleration 30,000 to 80,000 ft. Vertical. The whole base shook mach 3 sonic boom is different with the SR71 engines drown out the 3rd boom as well as alt. As a kid my dad took me to an engine test. Mounted on the ground. The stages of the massive jet engine was astounding. All the color changes during each stage of mach. Mach 3 full throttle the enging was pure white and translucent. You could see thru the engine, see the skyline behind. That sticks with you. And yes, the hyper sonic drone flew in the 80s. We saw it plain as day following the SR71 then literally accelerated out of sight in seconds. All dad said it works, Mach 6+, Amazing lets set off the fireworks now. Best 4th of july ever. Dad was proud and happy. Sandboxx thanks

The US Army just chose General Dynamics and Rheinmetall as finalists for the 4000 Bradley replacement IFVs. Could you do a Firepower series video about this program, the two finalists and the other three that dropped out. Or more generally the current state of IFVs (Bradley, CV90, Puma, Lynx) and their most likely future. Maybe even including anti air IFVs like some CV90 variants and SkyRanger.

@startourzdcs

8 ай бұрын

yeah id like to see that

@lukeskywalket2894

8 ай бұрын

This would be a pretty cool topic to see covered, yeah

@IndigoSeirra

8 ай бұрын

You certainly are dedicated. Hopefully he'll do it soon.

@josephworzel3815

8 ай бұрын

Would love to see this.

I’ve been hardcore Tom Clancy fan as well as a huge believer in our military. Reading the title of this clip I was hooked and like always I was blown away. No one can tell stories the way our soldiers can the new guard and the old. Great piece!

@leemarkley8496

8 ай бұрын

Tom Clancy is dead. This is an attempt to make money off Clancy, and this podcast is responsible, no doubt paid off for their effort.

@coreyleander7911

8 ай бұрын

"no doubt"@@leemarkley8496

I love AH’s knowledge, reporting and passion. Best out there.

@icrucian

8 ай бұрын

❤100%

@leemarkley8496

8 ай бұрын

Tom Clancy is dead. This is total fake.

@gorethegreat

8 ай бұрын

@@leemarkley8496 have you watched the video??

Thank you again for another scintillating, incisive and honest conversation regarding our nation’s efforts in the realm of hypersonic weapons and aircraft. Greatly appreciated, my friend. 👍🏻🇺🇸🦅🇺🇸👍🏻

Bought the book. Thank you! I loved Tom Clancy,s work. Love this genre treated so well.

I am 81, and still consider Red Storm Rising Clancy's best novel, and the best war novel of all time. I had a sister-in-law who was in the N.S.A.. Clancy was "asked" to explain the stealth fighter in the novel. He was able to show that there was enough public info to show he didn't have top secret info. He was under investigation for quite some time before being cleared.

@isparks9239

8 ай бұрын

Love that book

As always, Alex - amazing work. I love the professionalism of the US military, which you represent so well in these interviews.

@leemarkley8496

8 ай бұрын

I liked Alex too, until he pulled this stunt. Tom Clancy is dead, but he pretends this book comes from Clancy. Totally false.

I remember as a kid, couldn't have been older than 10 (so ~1993), we were at the school library during class, and for whatever reason I picked up one of the Encyclopedias... As I paged through, just looking at the pictures, I came across one that stopped me in my tracks... it was the SR-71! From that point on, _from the photo alone,_ I was hooked! That was the coolest looking thing I had ever seen! I'd check that volume out any time I could, and solely so I could look at that photo of it flying over the mountains! (I never even read it's entry! lol) _30 years later..._ and I'd argue it *STILL* holds that place in my heart! 🤘😍🤘

Wow Alex! Christmas came early this year! What an amazing episode! Love to hear those stories and I can't wait to read the book! Keep up the good work brother!

"IIIII'm Alex Hollings" is such a great way to start your weekend.

Blackbird Diplomacy ! I like that concept.

damn that last bit about blackbird diplomacy and them (presumably) never opening the MiGs up because of it is badass

Purchased it just now. Tom Clancy was one of the best military fiction writers around. No one could dispute that The Hunt for Red October was a fine piece of work, especially considering the time that it was written. I fell out of favor with him after a while as they were getting repetitive and he was bringing ghostwriters in and then he died. So I really haven't read any of his since probably last century. Let's see if Don Bentley can do as well as Tom Clancy could. One thing I get annoyed about though is I get all rilled up about us having hypersonic airplanes and then you go and throw a big can of sand on it with the figures. But you know if anybody is going to be able to create the metallurgy and technologies that this thing requires it would be the United States. We may being the only country that has ever put spacecraft on the moon successfully but also put lots of men both on the surface and in orbit. And the only interstellar spacecraft we youmans have ever launched have been with an American flag on it. Hopefully these challenges will just be a walk in the park for our engineers. No it's actually going to be a lot of sleepless nights and long long hours. Let's just keep that tech out of the hands of people that don't deserve it.

A video about the AAS / FARA (armed scout helicopter) program would be cool. Sikorsky has the S-97 Raider compete with the Bell+Textron 360 Invictus. The Raider has troop capacity while the Invictus does not, but that gives the Invictus better stealth properties, just like the Boeing-Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche had. Not sure why Sikorsky they abandoned that design, as they first came up with it. Just to push a common scout and transport design when they already lost the Blackhawk transport replacement to the Bell V280 Valor?

This was his best work yet in the Tom Clancy book world... I enjoyed this book tremendously !!

@TamagoHead

8 ай бұрын

Was Tom formerly an insurance salesman? John McDonald reader here. Are the books better than the movies (usual case).?’

OUTSTANDING! One of your best yet, sir!😊

We did have a re-useable hypersonic aircraft in the early 1960s with the X-15 which clocked Mach 5.5 in 1963. A feat no other nation has been able to duplicate in the last 60 years.

@DallasBates-xm5vf

8 ай бұрын

But it was air launched, rocket powered, boost glide vehicle. Powered flight is only in boost phase an last a few minutes max. Then glide to the ground, almost no range, not quite an airplane but a manned rocket with a horizontal flight path, launched at high alt from the air. It dosnt take off it cant refuel it cant sustain max speed. Or can it be rapidly or immediately reflown without extensive refurbishment & or maintaince hours. Its still an incredible Marvel ot engineering non the less especially for the time (even tho nasa projects like mercury/Gemini / Apollo programs where accomplished around that time)

@billballbuster7186

8 ай бұрын

@@DallasBates-xm5vf I know how the X-15 works. I was talking about the Achievement which has not been equalled in 60 years.

@everypitchcounts4875

8 ай бұрын

Wasn't the Lockheed X-7 a re-usable hypersonic aircraft as well?

@billballbuster7186

8 ай бұрын

@@everypitchcounts4875 The X-7 was classed as an unmanned maneuverable vehicle that was tested close to hypersonic speeds. Mach 4.3, in the early 1950s. It was noted for outperforming all USAF SAMs, which caused much embaressment and led to its cancelation

This video is absolutely one of your best Alex.

"Slowed down to 2.8." EPIC QUOTE!!!!

So enjoyable, I hope you continue to post on KZread after you become rich and famous

One of the best parts BLackbird Diplomacy. It'd be cool to do a Blackbird story section on declassified awesome stuff that was done with the legendary plane.

Great interview! Thanks for sharing Alex!

AirPower and firepower are outstanding presentations that are my best listens

Good stuff. The mind boggles at the technological challenges that are continually being overcome at this bleeding edge.

VERY cool! I have ordered that book from my library in Kindle format. Looking forward to reading it. Thank you! As the little skunk on the tail fin sez, "SPEED IS THE NEW STEALTH."

Saved this to my SR 71 playlist.

Nice job Alex, I like how you're brought the old to the new and full circle. I'm excited and we'll go out and pick up that book real soon.. thank you

Here is a topic I was hoping you would address: How AWACS and cargo planes shoot down or defend themselves from enemy air to air missles or ground ot air missles.I saw a small reference to a air to air missle that can be used to shoot down incoming enemy missles. I am very curious how we would defend ourselves agaist the J-20 and its super long legs. Thanks for all of your great work!

one of the best reports, up to the last minute!... good job Alex!

Every edition of Airpower is special.😀

Youre Alex Hollings and im mesmerized Sir.

lol "slow down to mach 2.8" yeah aside from shuttle pilots not a lot of guys can say that. even with the forthcoming SR72 and other developments in aviation, the SR71 is just one of those planes that makes me feel like a kid again. the diplomacy story at the end is cool, not quite enough to beat the LA Speed Story for me but still pretty awesome. can't wait for more of the interview.

Excellently done, Alex Hollings!

Another great vid, Alex. Can't wait to pick up this book👌🏽

Love these stories. You should do more of these stories with our service men and women.

Thoroughly enjoyable video from start to finish!

I loved it when Gen. Behler caught himself, "I slowed down to Mach 2.8.....that's kind of funny, slowing to 2.8???"

That 'Blackbird Diplomacy worked wonders - both in Nicaragua, as well as over Hanoi. "Pardon me, folks. I'm just passing thru, Mach 3". With such extreme generated heat and commensurate power requirements, I assumed that at Mach 5+, the aircraft would have to fly VERY VERY high, like above the Karman line, for all but the briefest re-entry period that the mission might require. Otherwise, the power consumption would require essentially constant refueling, which to my knowledge, would require the aircraft to repeatedly slow back down to subsonic speeds, defeating the very purpose of hypersonics.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this episode!

Sandbox News and Real Engineering now have a shared character. Just remember the hypersonic truck

A fantastic edition, Alex !

Many thanx Alex! Pass on my regards to Don & Bob. GR8 vid 👍👍

You are an amazing writer Alex, amazing.

Fantastic video. Loved hearing these guys tell their stories. Well done, Alex!

"They never unloaded those crates". That's some serious Sun Tzu stuff right there. Blackbird Diplomacy indeed.

nothing to add just commenting for youtube algorithm Another great video, Alex

I just added the book to audible account, i cant wait to listen to it

Loved that story about the blackbird flight!

Alex, another great episode!

Great book. Loving JRjr

dude, this video is just to good . . . thank ya, soo much.

As far as how to deliver weapons, one solution could be to use a rear-ejecting bomb bay like the one in the A-5 Vigilante. Then you don’t have to worry about the effect of the Mach 5+ slipstream on the bay doors or on the RCS (except from the rear aspect).

And as “We all know the Corvair is unsafe at any speed” I’m David Lewis and this is AirPower

Great story about Nicaragua at the end.

I've been looking for a reason to read the the new Jack Ryan universe. This sounds like a good place to start.

I could be wrong, but i think it was Jerry Pournelle's idea, that he called Rods from God, or Thors hammer. He still talks about them and even included them in his book Foot Fall. Jerry Eugene Pournelle was an American scientist in the area of operations research and human factors research, a science fiction writer, essayist, journalist, and one of the first bloggers. In the 1960s and early 1970s, he worked in the aerospace industry, but eventually focused on his writing career.

Loved this. Thank you.

Hunt for the Red October and Cardinal of the Kremlin are my favorites Sum of All Fears, Clear and Present Danger, and Rainbow Six were also pretty good

@TamagoHead

8 ай бұрын

Agreed 👍 on the movies! I hope library system has the books.

Great stories. Please keep them flowing.

Alex, thanks for the updates on the really cool and challenging engineering. Stealth plus hypersonics - a blend of counterforces to pull it off. I'm sure the Chinese are all out to listen in on the tech. The Chinese actually were reported to have fired off a secondary "projectile" during the test of their FOB vehicle a year or so ago. This might be akin to opening a weapons bay to launch a missile or projectile of sorts.

Lunatics at work. Wonderful.

Alex, thanks for another great video.

Excellent! I look forward to your related videos!

Thanks, for your references.

Thanks! Bought the book.

Спасибо за интересный выпуск !

Top speed of the SR-71 is probably more limited on the materials that make up the airframe than thrust of its engines. Mach 3.3 is *economy cruise* where the flames stay with the flame holders…

Great episode!!!!!!

Did I miss the part where he explained how they deployed the tungsten rods from a hypersonic aircraft? My guess was that they ejected it out of a slot or port in the rear of the fuselage or wing, but I didn't hear the book's solution.

Consistently great content.

More! More!

Great One!

The story and themes remind me of novels like "The Flight of the Old Dog" by Dale Brown. One of my favs! Will have to get this one on my reading list. Still, I have to wonder, why worry about hypersonic aircraft at all? What about SSTO that delivers kinetic response from LEO? Certainly, all of that tech that SpaceX is developing could be (or may already be) getting leveraged for military applications. Seems that may get around many of the issues encountered with atmospheric hypersonic systems.

You're right, thruster guidance is nothing new. From the RCS thruster packs on board space vehicles from their inception, to the one I'm surprised you didn't mention: the Patriot PAC-3 family of missiles, with 180 solid fuel rocket boosters all packed into the nose right behind the warhead and guidance system, the solution to guiding rockets has always been "just strap a tiny rocket on it lol". Also, "we needed to maintain 45 degree bank to stay in the confines of Nicaragua"--that statement is insane. They needed to override the bank limiters to stay inside a _country._ That really brings home the statement that "at hypersonic speeds, effecting a 180 degree turn becomes shockingly continent-sized." Holy shit.

I get genuinely excited when I see a new Sandbox video. I'll definitely be reading this book.

Loved it !!!!!

Always awesome.

Great commentary!

Beyond excellent.

🎯 this channel hits the spot 🎯

Extremely thought provoking episode! Thanks Alex! I wonder if there is any research into Mach+ micro drones that could do the same type of pinpoint accurate "target" elimination. I picture the same shape of airframe but in a smaller undetectable package. See, thought provoking!

Hope to see some stuff declassified in a one or two decades. I´d not be surprised if they already got several iterations of hypersonic planes but none of them was really as useful as they thought.

Funny that they are making a "Darkhorse" craft when in the Dale Brown Patrick McLanahan books there are regular appearances of the "Black Stallion" reusable space planes. Would be fun to see Brown interviewed on this channel

Great episode-cover nuclear propulsion rockets next.

@Alex At 12:20 my eye caught 3 aircrafts on the shelf behind the general. Does anyone know what the make and model aircraft is on the right? I know the U-2 is on the left. In the middle is a model A-12/SR-71. But I am not familiar with the right one.

Would you consider covering a video on the failed launch attempts by the U.S navy to field the most recent hypersonic missle and its qualities/future/potential?

Behind Bob Behler's head there are models of a U-2, a SR-71 and a black airplane of the like I have never seen before.

Good one! They always are but this was a little extra interesting.

From a technical standpoint, we have the ability to field a fast strike capability now. Put a kinetic warhead on an ICBM, and you can basically hit any target in 30 minutes. It would not be too difficult to add a similar capability to a Navy ship, with a shorter range but at a more affordable cost.

Guess I've got to put another book on my list.

Im ashamed. I didn't even know that Tom Clancy had passed. He's been gone ten years. Man, oh man. I dropped the ball big time.

@Maplelust

8 ай бұрын

yeah you did.

0:08 Woo, he's got two F-4(E?) Phantom IIs in the middle of that collection, i like that guy (your collection?).

Awesome.

If I could build an RC plane using attitude jets instead of control surfaces in the 80s, I'm sure modern engineers could do far better nowadays. And I'm a computer jockey, not an aerospace engineer. With SCRAM, they could easily shunt intake air into cylinders to power attitude jets. I also wonder if anyone's played around with M5 thrust vectoring? Not exhaust deflection but redirection. A huge thanks for such a great episode, one of the top 5 of 2023. /cheer

22:30 A pilot with this much experience is still worried about disorientation at night and forcing himself to rely on his instruments. That's a very sobering lesson for any pilot.

Content Suggestion: Bell 360 Invictus

I can only imagine the number of maintenance hours per flight hours on such an aircraft