L.A. Marathon: Scenes From A Real Loft

It ain't the New York Marathon, and the 6th Street Bridge is not Verrazano-Narrows, but there is no dearth of activity in every realm of this fledging kernel of a metropolis. The streets, the L.A. Ditch, er River, and all manner of air activity was the order of today wherever the route ran, even where my purgatorial loft happens to sit. Here is a photo and video of the what happened in the air.

What I found fun was that which most angelinos might find most disturbing: a small flight of AH-1 Cobra gunships. Replete with missiles that would fail to discriminate between potential collateral damage and the shooter that would be wasting his (or her) time opening fire in a crowd during such an internationally watched event, the Cobra is an amazing, fast and heavily armoured gunship.

Six inches of armour keeps the pilot and nav comfortable from ground-based small arms fire. The two main rotors imply speed and manoeuvrability; the pylons offer a variety of offensive weapons and the small size of the ship allows landing in seemingly impossible environmental conditions.

 

 

On the other end of the spectrum was the LTA (Lighter Than Air) ship. I waited for it to get near the Library Tower, as I like that sort of image. (I am a big fan of the Empire State Building, and while even my parents were not alive when the Hindenberg first visited New York City and said building had its mooring vane for what was supposed to be the world's way of air travel—and we all know that that ended when the same airship that made such a splash also made its spectacular crash landing—I am nevertheless greatly appreciative of that first moment.)

-BusTard

Comments

[Bert Green]

I'm doing a show this month of painting of dirigibles:

http://www.bgfa.us/artists/rosenfeld