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A summer of drought and high temperatures means wildfires are a very real threat here in SoCal.

And here we go!

A brush fire that started near Interstate 15 in the Cajon Pass north of Highway 138 ripped through cars trapped on the freeway and destroyed at least five homes Friday afternoon.

That’s about a hundred miles northwest of us. But the smoke is already here.

Shirtless man runs onto airport runway

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Police arrested a shirtless man believed to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol after he scaled two fences and ran onto a runway at San Diego International Airport, briefly interrupting flights.

Airport authority spokesman Jonathan Heller says all incoming and outgoing planes were halted for about seven minutes Thursday evening.

Heller says a maintenance worker spotted the man as he climbed over the fence near where planes wait before takeoff. Police say the man scaled a perimeter fence ringed with barbed wire before that.

Couldn’t wait in the TSA line like everybody else?

LONDON — Britain is set to take delivery of its second Rivet Joint signals intelligence aircraft from US contractor L-3 Communications in the next few weeks according to sources familiar with the program.

The new aircraft will join the first RC-135W Rivet Joint aircraft delivered to the Royal Air Force in late 2013 to replace BAE Nimrod R1 spy planes.

via L-3 to deliver Rivet Joint aircraft to UK.

This is one of those programs that doesn’t receive a lot of attention. One of the key aspects of airpower is that it requires fast, accurate intelligence to generate targets, otherwise it’s simply a means of disposing of jet fuel. And the Rivet Joint is very useful for generating that intelligence.

It’s also a rather stupendously expensive aircraft. And given the crippling austerity the RAF is working under, that tells you just how important signals intelligence is to the RAF and, in a  more general sense, airpower itself.

As CaptainNed in the comments of another post reminded us, today also marks the anniversary of the 1969 launch of Apollo 11.

What can we say?

I am fairly sympathetic to actually keeping recruiting stations gun free. Physical security for weapons in rented retail spaces would be an issue. But there simply is no reason why reserve centers and national guard armories cannot implement a physical security/counter-terrorism plan that includes an armed servicemember on duty during drills.

On August 1, the National Air and Space Museum will join with the United States Marine Corps and the National Museum of the Marine Corps to bid adieu to one of the most important American military aircraft of the past 50 years, the Boeing CH-46 Sea Knight, or “Phrog,” as it is almost universally known among Marines. Although often overlooked next to the Vietnam-era Huey in the pantheon of helicopter fame, this aircraft may well have been at the forefront of more American military operations in peace and war than any other. The Phrog, named for its squat, amphibian-like appearance and tendency to bounce when taxiing (the origin of the “ph” is a bit more obscure), has been the unsung hero of Marine Corps operations since June 1966 when squadron HMM-265 began operations in South Vietnam.

via Phrog Farewell – AirSpaceAirSpace.

The August 1st ceremony at Uvdar-Hazy will mark the formal sunset of the Marine’s CH-46 Sea Knight service.

Originally designed for the US Army, the Boeing Vertol Model 107 would serve with the Marines and Navy throughout the Vietnam War, and in virtually every military operation since then, right into the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

As a child, I recall the HH-46Ds at NAS Whidbey as the station SAR birds. And indeed, the only thing I recall ever actually seeing my father fly was a Phrog.

Pharewell, old friend. You’ve more than earned your retirement.

Poe’s Law.

H/T to Art T.

At 5:29:21 AM on July 16, 1945, the “Gadget” implosion plutonium nuclear device was detonated, unleashing for the first time the nuclear fire upon the earth. 70 years later, we still struggle with the issues of nuclear warfare and proliferation.