:19:00
Flying an aircraft
can be a great deal like that.
:19:02
What's a race driver feel like?
:19:04
Why does a guy want to drive
in the Indianapolis 500?
:19:07
I guess, perhaps, the risk of dying,
:19:10
being killed is part of it
that makes it thrilling.
:19:16
[Floyd] I can tell when the aircraft
feels right, when it"s about to stall.
:19:20
I can tell when I can"t
pull another fraction of a pound...
:19:24
or the airplane will stall,
flip out and spin on me.
:19:28
I would follow a pathway on something
like a TV screen in front of me...
:19:31
that would direct me
right, left or center--
:19:33
follow the steering,
keep the steering symbol, uh, centered.
:19:36
I'd see a little attack light
when we'd stepped into attack.
:19:40
I could pull the "commit'' switch
on my stick,
:19:43
and the computer took over.
:19:45
A computer figured out the ballistics,
the airspeed, the slant range...
:19:49
and dropped the bombs
when we got to the appropriate point,
:19:51
in whichever kind of attack
we"d selected,
:19:53
whether it was flying straight and level
or tossing our bombs out.
:19:58
So it was very much of
a technical expertise thing.
:20:01
I was a good pilot, you know.
I had, uh, uh,
:20:05
I had a lot of pride
in my ability to fly.
:20:12
You're up there
doing something that, uh,
:20:15
mankind has only dreamed of; the flying,
especially at night, in an aircraft.
:20:19
The A-6 is one of the few
that can really do it the way we did it.
:20:23
Um, a World War II aviator would not
even dream of doing the things we did.
:20:27
It's definitely
the ultimate in aviation.
:20:42
Almost everybody
has blown off firecrackers.
:20:46
The thrill you get when you
see something explode as a child,
:20:49
or even as an adult almost.
:20:51
You put something in the can
and watch the can blow up in the air.