UC Berkeley astronomy professor Alex Filippenko took to the skies on Wednesday when he flew with the U.S. Navy’s flight demonstration squadron — the Blue Angels.
He was chosen to fly with the Angels as part of the Navy’s Key Influencer Program, which chooses people who they believe help shape the attitudes and opinions of young Americans to fly with the squadron.
“It’s important to reach out and encourage kids to pursue math, science, engineering and technology,” Filippenko said. “This was one way to do so — I talked a lot about physics principles while on the ground and in flight.”
The jet was piloted by Lt. Mark Tedrow, who took the professor through various loops and twists as well as reaching 6.2 G’s during flight, which is approximately six times the strength of gravity on the Earth’s surface, according to Filippenko.
“The flight was out of this world,” he said. “They go real fast, and we broke the sound barrier at one point over the ocean. My body went through a whole bunch of really crazy feelings, and I almost passed out once or twice … it was a real thrill.”
Filippenko was joined by Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the pilot who, in 2009, safely landed a U.S. Airways plane in New York’s Hudson River.
The professor filmed his experience with the Blue Angels and has posted the video online.
Contact Andy Nguyen at [email protected].
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You, too, can be a recruiter for Death Inc. because nothing says patriotism like dying for Haliburton. Are you freakin’ SERIOUS?? I must’ve stumbled upon the Bob Jones University website because this sure as hell can’t be the Cal site.
The worst thing that ever happened to America was ending the draft because if they had to fight their war for Haliburton in the Middle East with college students, the whole thing would’ve lasted about 6 months instead of 11 years and counting. And we wouldn’t have crap like this appearing in the student-run newspaper, with assholes who have no idea what the military is about flying around as “ambassadors” for the military because they think it looks cool.
No, dumbass, you don’t look cool and it most definitely isn’t.
…Because we all know that the goal of science is to bring us better weapons. Great message Filippenko.
Good job pointing out Captain Sullenberger was a visiting scholar at Cal.