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There were probably a half dozen anthills like this one in the aft debris field. The critters ate everything, it seems, but left the aircraft pieces behind. You can just make out several pieces in the clearing... those were much easier to see. What I needed was an army of giant ants. |
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The piece of "glass" on the left stood out nicely next to a teensy pair of desert flowers. This was in the forward fuselage area, so at first I thought it had to be from the canopy, especially since there were several other smaller pieces nearby. Then I remembered, the pilot and the RSO ejected, and the canopies landed just more than a mile southeast of here. That meant, at least to me, that it must've been a fragment of one of the camera windows, or a landing light... although I think it's way too thick to be a landing light. (UPDATE: A visitor to the site from the 6510 test group at Edwards has suggested that the glass reminds him of the prisms that were located on the wing tips, which directed the red and green colors from the nav lights. The bulbs were located inboard, to keep them from the extreme heat at the surface. I like this theory quite a bit.) |
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Couldn't miss this guy, could I? |
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Not exactly colors that hide well in the desert. |
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Zippo lighter, "Lockheed Propulsion Company". |
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O.K., the last one is a joke. I had become so confident on the first trip out to find this thing, I thought it would be fun, as we were all scrambling to pick up pieces, to stick this in there and see my old buddies do a double-take. I actually picked it up on eBay for around nine bucks. It is remarkable, however, in that you can date Zippo lighters, and this one has a date of manufacture of 1961, the same year 966 was ordered and funded (that's what the "61" in 61-7966 is about). She was delivered to the USAF in 1966, but who's counting... (While we're here, I might as well tell you I noticed my motel's phone number ended in 1967, the year 966 went down. There, I've said it.) However, finding nothing on the first trip was so frustrating, that I never felt it was appropriate to toss the thing on the ground and play dumb. So my friends escaped a little joke. You, dear reader, get to take the brunt, since someone had to. |
