The Final Word, I Think
You'd be surprised by how much e-mail a video of a fast plane generates.Almost immediately after I posted the link to what was titled F-18 Hornet Ultra Low High Speed Fly By, I started receiving e-mail indicating that it wasn't an F-18 and that it was probably faked.
Then I received e-mail from a former F-18 pilot, which means he has scoredboard. Here's what Tim Hibbetts had to say:
As a former F/A-18 pilot, I can tell you that it is not, indeed, a Hornet.
The posted explanation isn't correct, either, though; it's an Alpha Jet and the guys appear to be British. But this appears entirely kosher (having seen something similar). You won't be able to tell the affect on the guy in the video because the plane is sub-sonic, but the noise is very evident from the cameraman's reaction. The guy standing there has bowels of steel, though.
Tim also included some outstanding links. First, French pilots (Tim's comment: [this] makes me cringe, because these guys are constantly one second from tying the low altitude record (the guys who studied this stuff determined that one second's inattention, straight and level, is enough to kill anyone flying below 50' and above 360 kts).
One second. Yikes.
Also, video of ultra low-altitude passes by Blue Angles pilot John Allison over San Francisco Bay in 2007.
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