Warplanes, it must be admitted, are pretty cool. When the F-15s and F-16s fly over our hilltop, there's no confusing them with commercial jetliners. The fighters sound bad, and they look bad. And when they hit the afterburners, baby, it gets a whole lot scarier. Shortly after 9/11, some idiot refueling his plane in Scappoose, Oregon asked what the tallest building in Portland was, joking that he was going to fly into it. This may come as a surprise, but folks at the airfield called the joke in.
I happened to be mowing the front lawn when the first pair of fighters blasted overhead, maybe a hundred feet above the house, on full afterburners. Scared the begerbils outta me. Then came another pair, same deal. Before they cleared the Tualatin Valley, they came back, still full-bore. Turned out they were doing a grid-search for the joker's aircraft, and I believe they meant business. Man, I'd never experienced anything like it.
As it happened, the feds found the joker's aircraft and confiscated it. They also arrested him and yanked his pilot license. Interesting times.
The next generation of warplanes, which will accompany fighters, are going to be different: they'll be motherships packed with drone babies - some of which will be released to do recon, others armed with Hellfires. And they'll be released in swarms. Welcome to the new world of warfare.
