April 18, 2005
More GoogleMaps funness
Here's a row of what appear to be F-22s parked at Langley AFB in Hampton Roads, VA. Didn't think we had that many of them. You can count (at least) an A-10, F-14, F-16, and (bonus!) an F-117 parked in this shot of the Fallon Naval Air Station in Nevada. There's also a bunch of other planes I can't identify.
The naval station at Norfolk, VA is the largest naval base in the world, and home to several US aircraft carriers as well as dozens of other warships. In this image we see one carrier (could be any of the four Nimitz-class carriers stationed there - and what appear to be a few submarines in drydock. The USS John F Kennedy is stationed at the naval station in Mayport, FL.
Fort Bragg, NC is home to both Delta Force and the 82nd Airborne.
Fermilab in Batavia, IL, is so big that you have to zoom out or you can't see it all.
Dang, I could spend way too much time doing this.
Yea, I actually just discovered KeyHole. I was going to relay it to you, but looks like I'm too late! I'm gonna download the 7-day trial version. I hear that you can 1) zoom closer than the Google images, and 2) view any place in the world. Have you tried the trial version?
Posted by: Ryan Musser at April 18, 2005 7:57 PMHas our military bulked up much in the past 5 years? Or is this mostly leftovers?
Posted by: Tyler Grisham at April 18, 2005 7:58 PMAs for the shot of Jersey, I had noticed the same thing when I zoomed out to see the whole US. You can very distinctly see the state of NJ. For me too, the first thing that came to mind was the parking lot nickname. Hehe. But the same is for the state of MA, too. So why is it like this? As for the shot of Fermilab, that's sweet. Why the circular lay-out, do you know? What do they do inside of it?
Posted by: Ryan Musser at April 18, 2005 8:12 PMWhat you're seeing at Fermilab is the shape of the underground particle accelerator. Read more here.
Tyler: The F-22s are kind of new, but we recently decomissioned the entire F-14 class of fighter, and plans for expansion in submarines, planes, ships, and other war machines have been routinely canceled or scaled way back over the last 10 years. The military has been stripped way down from its Cold War levels.
Posted by: ryan at April 18, 2005 8:37 PM