The irony of my life is I don't totally trust things that fly in the sky but my entire working life I was associated with aircraft, including my years on the Hill where I worked for two pilots and was privileged to meet a good number of greats in aviation. One of my bosses was instrumental in building the Smithsonian air museum and he arranged for an early morning tour conducted by Mike (?) Collins, the astronaut. I wasn't important but I had a front row seat to some interesting history.
I'm excited you were witness to so much history. I think that must hast been very memorable to be toured by Mike Collins! You should write a book or a blog!
God bless you, but no. When I first started working on the Hill, with an inside look on what it was like to give up privacy and actually face the pitfalls of money and fame, I got a very clear revelation about the price one pays. It was too dear for me. Not for all the rice in China would I enter that fray. And I do not regret that decision but acknowledge I have had an interesting life behind the scenes.
I have seen what the pursuit and attainment of money has done to my brother. Money isn't that important to me, and nothing is worth the loss of my privacy. I'm glad you ultimately didn't get sucked in also.
I know the feeling. I may be different though. My lack of trust isn't because I have a fear of flying (I don't) - it is because I know what can be easily done to most planes by the passengers. Specifically the ones with entertainment systems are the ones I worry about the most.
Note - most of the egregious vulnerabilities as well as potential pathways between the public airplane network and the control network are likely fixed, or are impossible to exploit in the case of an airline using a one-way fiber data diode that doesn't have a physical return path. If they rely on a firewall or ACLs for protection they are vulnerable. There may also be new(er) vulnerabilities now due to ground-to-air satellite communications (not StarLink, but other satcom). A DHS red team broke into a plane on the ground in an airport using this method a few years back.
.
Here are a couple articles talking about these vulnerabilities:
I believe the first world countries and their airlines are probably safe from most - if not all - of these methods now. Third-world airlines... if your plane has chickens on board you might want to pray.
Lol. No chickens, but we once caught a flight from Beef Island where we met the pilot in the bar and takeoff was delayed because of goats on the flight line. Does that count?
I've been on everything from military planes, to little baby prop planes that carried 6-8 people, to Lear or Gulfstream jets, to the biggest Air Bus/Boeing planes. The Gulfstream I was on was a flight from Peterson AFB to Scott AFB, and on to Andrews AFB. My dad was getting a kidney transplant while I was at NORAD so I got emergency leave and took space-A to get home. The only flight out was marked as private, but a General saw me at the counter and overheard me talking about my Dad. He offered to take me on that private flight, and it turned out he was the Superintendent of the Air Force Academy, and was a former Thunderbirds pilot. His pilot was also a former Thunderbirds pilot. Both of them were great guys. I may have been on one of his last flights since he retired around that time. He even did the take-off and landing himself, and turned it over to the pilot in-between.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_R._Hamm
One of the baby prop planes I was on got boxed in by another plane and a fuel truck while at the gate waiting to take off, and me and 3 more male passengers had to get out - in freezing and snowy weather - and push the plane 180 degrees and then about 50 feet towards the runway so the pilot could turn on the engines safely.
One time on China Southern the flight attendant had to give me her jump seat so my legs would fit. The room between the seat rows was just too narrow and I couldn't sit down. I towered over everyone on the plane.
I also took the same flight every Friday for over a year a while back, and the same flight attendant always had my snack and a Scotch waiting for me when I boarded. Nice older lady getting ready to retire. She would give me a bag with the wine that had been opened on the flight (recorked) so I could take it home - they can't use it the next day anyway - and have a couple of good dinners with my wife before I turned around and left again Monday morning. I flew 166 flight segments that year.
I've also been on flights where we were struck by lightning (once even at the gate while the door was still open), a guy died on one and we were expedited for landing and taxi straight to the gate at DFW, and I've sat beside several celebrities (I always got upgraded when I flew all the time). I sat next to Pitbull (and his dog), Amar'e Stoudemire (and the rest of the 2004 US Olympic Basketball Team was all around us), and President Carter was even on one of my flights, although he sat in Coach. Amar'e let me try on his $50k watch with diamonds all around the face, and Tim Duncan let me try on one of his rings. I sat next to a Dallas Cowboy defensive player once (can't remember his name - they haven't won since the late '90s) and he let me try on his Superbowl ring. It didn't even fit my thumb.
My favorite one was an emergency leave flight (when my dad died and I was overseas) on a C-5. The flight was nearly empty (aside from the cargo) so the crew chief asked me if I wanted to go into the bay and throw a football around for a while. That bay was huge! I'm sure the chief knew why I was on emergency leave, so he kept me occupied instead of sitting there thinking about a funeral. We went from Germany, to Bangor Maine, to Andrews AFB. My family still lived in Maryland so it was the perfect route for me.
The irony of my life is I don't totally trust things that fly in the sky but my entire working life I was associated with aircraft, including my years on the Hill where I worked for two pilots and was privileged to meet a good number of greats in aviation. One of my bosses was instrumental in building the Smithsonian air museum and he arranged for an early morning tour conducted by Mike (?) Collins, the astronaut. I wasn't important but I had a front row seat to some interesting history.
I'm excited you were witness to so much history. I think that must hast been very memorable to be toured by Mike Collins! You should write a book or a blog!
God bless you, but no. When I first started working on the Hill, with an inside look on what it was like to give up privacy and actually face the pitfalls of money and fame, I got a very clear revelation about the price one pays. It was too dear for me. Not for all the rice in China would I enter that fray. And I do not regret that decision but acknowledge I have had an interesting life behind the scenes.
Well, I agree, fame is not for me, either!
I have seen what the pursuit and attainment of money has done to my brother. Money isn't that important to me, and nothing is worth the loss of my privacy. I'm glad you ultimately didn't get sucked in also.
I know the feeling. I may be different though. My lack of trust isn't because I have a fear of flying (I don't) - it is because I know what can be easily done to most planes by the passengers. Specifically the ones with entertainment systems are the ones I worry about the most.
Note - most of the egregious vulnerabilities as well as potential pathways between the public airplane network and the control network are likely fixed, or are impossible to exploit in the case of an airline using a one-way fiber data diode that doesn't have a physical return path. If they rely on a firewall or ACLs for protection they are vulnerable. There may also be new(er) vulnerabilities now due to ground-to-air satellite communications (not StarLink, but other satcom). A DHS red team broke into a plane on the ground in an airport using this method a few years back. . Here are a couple articles talking about these vulnerabilities:
https://ioactive.com/in-flight-hacking-system/ https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/magazine-features/inflight-cyberattacks/
I believe the first world countries and their airlines are probably safe from most - if not all - of these methods now. Third-world airlines... if your plane has chickens on board you might want to pray.
Lol. No chickens, but we once caught a flight from Beef Island where we met the pilot in the bar and takeoff was delayed because of goats on the flight line. Does that count?
Pretty much.
I've been on everything from military planes, to little baby prop planes that carried 6-8 people, to Lear or Gulfstream jets, to the biggest Air Bus/Boeing planes. The Gulfstream I was on was a flight from Peterson AFB to Scott AFB, and on to Andrews AFB. My dad was getting a kidney transplant while I was at NORAD so I got emergency leave and took space-A to get home. The only flight out was marked as private, but a General saw me at the counter and overheard me talking about my Dad. He offered to take me on that private flight, and it turned out he was the Superintendent of the Air Force Academy, and was a former Thunderbirds pilot. His pilot was also a former Thunderbirds pilot. Both of them were great guys. I may have been on one of his last flights since he retired around that time. He even did the take-off and landing himself, and turned it over to the pilot in-between. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_R._Hamm
One of the baby prop planes I was on got boxed in by another plane and a fuel truck while at the gate waiting to take off, and me and 3 more male passengers had to get out - in freezing and snowy weather - and push the plane 180 degrees and then about 50 feet towards the runway so the pilot could turn on the engines safely.
One time on China Southern the flight attendant had to give me her jump seat so my legs would fit. The room between the seat rows was just too narrow and I couldn't sit down. I towered over everyone on the plane.
I also took the same flight every Friday for over a year a while back, and the same flight attendant always had my snack and a Scotch waiting for me when I boarded. Nice older lady getting ready to retire. She would give me a bag with the wine that had been opened on the flight (recorked) so I could take it home - they can't use it the next day anyway - and have a couple of good dinners with my wife before I turned around and left again Monday morning. I flew 166 flight segments that year.
I've also been on flights where we were struck by lightning (once even at the gate while the door was still open), a guy died on one and we were expedited for landing and taxi straight to the gate at DFW, and I've sat beside several celebrities (I always got upgraded when I flew all the time). I sat next to Pitbull (and his dog), Amar'e Stoudemire (and the rest of the 2004 US Olympic Basketball Team was all around us), and President Carter was even on one of my flights, although he sat in Coach. Amar'e let me try on his $50k watch with diamonds all around the face, and Tim Duncan let me try on one of his rings. I sat next to a Dallas Cowboy defensive player once (can't remember his name - they haven't won since the late '90s) and he let me try on his Superbowl ring. It didn't even fit my thumb.
My favorite one was an emergency leave flight (when my dad died and I was overseas) on a C-5. The flight was nearly empty (aside from the cargo) so the crew chief asked me if I wanted to go into the bay and throw a football around for a while. That bay was huge! I'm sure the chief knew why I was on emergency leave, so he kept me occupied instead of sitting there thinking about a funeral. We went from Germany, to Bangor Maine, to Andrews AFB. My family still lived in Maryland so it was the perfect route for me.
Still no chickens though...
Fun stories. Sounds like you had an interesting career. Veteran?
You don't trust things that fly in the sky?
I don't much trust the sneaky critters that come in the house and fly either.