And Sandy.

Actually it is the new Delta Submersible Fleet.

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/2ad3007...e-bef6afff7f8c

To be fair, the Air Force was... "more than a dozen" F-22s left at Tyndall...

I'd hate to guess that loss, you can see some of them in a topless hangar, plus what looked like MU-2's? I'll bet brack water doesn't do much for the gee-whiz electronics.:eek:

All were in a non flyable status.

If it were MY collection of unflyable Raptors in the path of 13' storm surge, I'd load at least a few on flat beds and drive them north. An expensive hedge, for sure... but worthwhile with an actual national asset valued over a billion dollars. We need every F-22 we've got (had?); this is truly devastating to our national defense.

You would have to take the wings off to flatbed them. I suspect that’s not easy. We could not even flaked a A4 with a 24 foot wingspan. The Raptor has a 44 foot span.

I'm sure none of it would be easy. But at $135M a pop, when we're already hundreds short of the quantity (I think) we need, I wish they had found a way.

I wasn't there and I don't know the details, but I've been in the military long enough not to trust that all the right decisions were made in advance of this historic storm.

If I were CFO, I'd make sure the insurance policies were paid, then dispatch the entire MD88 fleet and a few A320's to the lowest windy'st airport with instructions to leave them unchocked with the tires really pumped up and parking brakes released. Then if the airplanes appeared repairable, spread the word that the liquor kits are still onboard. Scavengers will finish them off searching for booze.

... probably the reason I'll never be CFO, but we would have a most excellent quarter at $11.5 million per.

Find a Vietnam era F4 pilot and hire him as a sub-contractor. "3,500 feet of steel matting and one engine will do, we can air start the other one on the climb out"

Locate Charlie Tutt & Bill Panke, insert a 12 pack of reasonable quality beer, find a lakeside, wait one hour and learn what is possible with a 50,000lb war machine in a serious state of disrepair :-)

I can't believe the value we leave lying around the panhandle (and have for years) without a hardened safe hangar that can accommodate fighter size aircraft. Just look at the hurricane plots over the last 100 years.