thought this might be an interesting thread...

so I'll start out..can anyone identify this a/c...

It's a Navy UD-69.

Grumman Tigercat,F7F. Monashee

Yep

F7 Tigercat is my 'guess' too. Have never read if any were actually used in combat. I recall Grumman built them too late to be deployed in WWII.

Definitely some one-off test variant of an F-7 Tigercat

F7F-2D Drone controller with a F8F canopy cobbled on back for the backseater.



Another link to a picture of the F7F-2D

Okay, here's another:

They were used in Korea. Also saw service as fire bombers her in the US. It's not really apparent in the photos, but the fuselage is so narrow it is almost odd to view them head on. Less than 36" is my guess.

Here's some pics where you can see how narrow the fuselage is on the F7.

Wildcat converted to a seaplane, catfish.

And btw - change the names of the files and upload them or it really becomes too easy.

Wow! That really is a narrow fuse.
Nice looking bird, btw.

experimented with ERCO floats...F4F3 was the AC used if I remember... non folding wings...

No cheating by right clicking the image.....

what is it and who made it?

Believe it's an XP-55 Ascender (Ass-ender) Can't rememebr who made it.

I didn't bother to post earlier, but F7F was my guess too. My uncle was sent to MIT to become an aeronautical engineer under the Navy's V12 program during WW II, and after the war went to work for Grumman. I'm sure he was involved with that generation of post-war aircraft, the F7F, F8F, and F9F. He took me to a couple of air shows at Grumman. My son is named after him.

Paul

last one was too easy...



addendum, little hint.. by the same guys who made the Mustang...

O-47B., built by North American Aviation.

now there is a man who knows rare a/c...

okay, here's a tougher one...

Sopwith Camel flown by Snoopy.

you're in the zone, this morning Ak Hunter!

Okay, how about this one.

Name this one.

B-36

You got me there. Never saw that one before.

Vultee XP-54 "Swoose Goose"

Aw, c'mon. You didn't think I was gonna make it that easy. Its the particular (very rare) variant of the B-36 that I'm looking for here.

That was one the DOE?? was using as a flying nuclear reactor test bed-they were actually thinking of trying to power aircraft with a nuclear reactor somehow?

C-99, IIRC only one or two were built.

The Stoughton airplane. Google is your friend.

SAAB J-21A

Yep. Just imagine a having a whole fleet of nuclear reactors flying around overhead.

Okay, Scoutmaster Rick got the Vultee first. Here's another to ID...

Douglas B-19.

Your Gogle-fu is strong, Jedi!

How about this one? (I'm off work with a broken toe. Can you tell I have nothing better to do?)

Here is one for you guys.

It's made by Locheed and I know the pilot of one who was a WWII POW that got shot down in one.

Didn't realize they had made other planes similar to the B-36.

Did a Google Fu for a B-36 most definitely different from the C-99

She's not a lockheed.
I'll give a clue by saying its a Douglas.

A-26 Invader

A-26

$%^ slow on the keyboard..

Ding ding winners!

Douglas A-25C Invader.. one of my favorite airplanes.

Seversky P-35. Ancestor of the venerable P-47.

Here's a rather obscure one.

My base was the only USAF base to ever use these and I've spent at least 100 hours in them...miserably.

Slow and no oxygen, so they were cold, slow and low altitude.

No cheating with the url.

C-23A

Bingo.

Beautiful photo, FB.

Okay, no cheating. What is this Frankenstein's monster of an airplane?

Dang, where's Pugs?
He would be eating this thread right up.

They fly them out of Ft Rich here in Alaska.

Can't take credit. Snagged that off of Yahoo, but that is Hohenzollern castle in the background, which I do have several shots of with RF-4C's from my personal collection.

Army I presume. We gave them our hand me downs. 10th MAS at Zweibrucken was the only Active USAF squadron to to ever fly them.

XF88 transformed to test transonic propellers!

P75 Eagle.

Weren't they a Polish made aircraft and wasn't the manufacturer called Short? A number of local cargo haulers used them as well as commuter airlines. When I was taking flying lessons I saw them critters all the time.

Love to see those. The Phantom was an awesome looking fighter.

Yep. The P-75 airframe used the outer wing panels of the Curtiss P-40, the tail unit of the Douglas A-24/Dauntless, and landing gear of the Vought F4U Corsair. The engine was located in the fuselage behind the pilot, similar to the layout of the Bell P-39.

Yes, I see them flying over the Glenn Highway all the time.

Ireland.

I have boxes of photos. I've put up some series before, but I'll try to put some more up as these aircraft threads are great.

Damn Foxbat, I thought the Irish were better engineers than that!

Right it's P75 Fisher Eagle. I mistook it with XF88B

Dom

FB that would be awesome!
When I was kid I spent part of my summers down in Tucson with my retired USAF uncle. We would always get to drive around AMARC, and I will never forget seeing all of those Phantoms. Just rows and rows of them everywhere. They just looked wicked, and fast sitting there mothballed even.

Hey, they were as tough as a cockroach. We never lost one during my time there. We did have an engine burn up a wing right in front of me once but it wasn't moving at the time.

But slowwwwww. Spent 10+- hours in one once going from Zwei to Rota, Spain. We had a head wind and the cars on the French highways below us were going the same speed.

SMRick, Thanks for the pics and additional info on the Tigercat! Good lookin' aircraft!

Okinawa during the Korean War. Nuke in the belly.

I understand sloooooooow. I took lessons using a Cessna 152. Many a time I looked out a window and saw the cars on the ground going faster than I was.

Ireland is a little bigger than the state of Maine about the size of Michigan. I suppose slow is okay on the island.

Yep. Just imagine a having a whole fleet of nuclear reactors flying around overhead. [/quote]

Especially with the questionable reliability of the B-36. Lots of crashes and IIRC at least one "broken arrow" from the B-36 fleet, although it's still one of my favorite plans of all time.

Here's a little tougher one.
From my personal collection.

Apologies for the fuzz, the I-Phone zoom is not all that great. Picture was taken today about 12:15 just west of Ocala, Fl. The writing on the side says......

US NAVY

Faster we go the behinder we get sometimes.

I wonder what they use the blimp for.

Navy used to have quite a few blimps down in the keys, but IIRC they were smaller than this one and unmanned.

Also used to be a USN blimp station at Opa Locka, but that's long closed.

B-29, my dad was a BB Stacker on those back in the day.

How about this softball?...

X-29

Here, I'll make the last one I put up a little easier. Extra points if someone can also name the aircraft it's sitting on.

SAC B-36 with the added jets. Used em in the Jimmy Stewart movie about SAC.

Space shuttle on a Boeing 747.

Russian Buran Shuttle on An 225 carrier i think...

Russian Buran (Blizzard) sitting on a An-225.

Good job.

Well, I was close just the wrong country!

Something a bit more modern, although no longer in service. Be specific, i.e. which model.

Not unless it's being hijacked by the Ruuskies! ( CCCP )

A

Nope

One down, two options to go.

F-14D Tomcat.

Navy boys will have to get that one, me don't know my Tomkitties.

Winner. The double chin pod under the sharks teeth is the big give away. Also some details of the cockpit that you can see if you really know what to look for and the burner cans (although those are the same as the B).

You got me. I don't remember the subtle differences betwixt the A and the A Plus...and I missed the "double chin" and the burner cans. kinda tough to look inside the cockpit

And this one?

A and A+ (later referred to as the B) could be recognized by the burner cans and some subtle RWR antenna differences. The D had the burner cans of the B (GE110-429 motors!) but all the avionics were different. New radar (basically an F-15E radar with more power and a bigger antenna), MFDs, a real HUD, Link-16, ASPJ (antennas in place of the leading edge extensions), and a long range IRST (hence the double chin pod). Ejection seats were the NACES as well and look different. No loops on top of the seat. There is also a box that sticks up in front of the back seat. It was for slaving the Radar, TCS and IRST to each other in creative ways.

Rockwell XFV-12.

I thought this was some sort of VSTOL demonstrator.

Thanks, with only about twenty hours of joy riding in type, at least I can claim setting my hair on fire

Right. Could have been the F35 30 years ago.

A little bit more difficult, may be, but with knowledgeable guys like you i doubt.

Only thing I could find on it. Leduc 0.10 ramjet atop a Sud-Est Se.161 Languedoc.

Google is amazing.

That's a 20 hours I daresay most of us 24hr guys would KILL to get, Jorge!!

You're really good at this game AkMntHntr!!
Dom

Be careful what you ask for: Link to funny story

If anything, i'm learning how to use Google.

I like it!

Oh yes, who gets to clean the puke out of the rear seat when the flight is over??

Hopefully the person who did it! ..or likely the Plane Captain. Get it in the bag! When flying folks they got a supply of bags.

Right on! prm, did you fly 14s in the service or some other fast mover??

Flew (rode in back to be more precise) F-14Ds for 12 years.

Sweet!
...and thank you for your service, prm.

Got a ride in a Phantom one time, first question out of the pilots mouth before climbing in was "What did you have for breakfast Sgt?" I answered "Nothing Sir." He said "Good, we are low on barf bags!"

From the PI to RSVN and he had to shake it out due to the engine changes it had gotten, DAMN good thing I always LOVED roller coasters as a kid!

Frigging zoomies were NUTS!

Ahhh yes, the old Lead Sled (F-4), glad I never had to work on those things.

Hey, back in the day we loved the ones with Navy & Marine markings, they would get right down in the mud, blood & beer for our ground pounders.

Hey what about the ones with the ghost for nose art?

Agree 100% Terry, they certainly laid the smack down when it was needed. Saved thousands of lives no doubt.

They done real good too Woody, but there is nothing like the smell of napalm in the morning, or any other time Charlie was around!

Nice, Terry!

When I was a little squirt(around 1973?) we used to watch the Idaho National Guard RF-4s buzz around the Boise area-they had the Vietnam era camo still, you know, grey underbelly with brown and olive paint on top-the crackle/roar of those J-79s? was awesome.

Wish I could have ridden in a Phantom. Cool jets!

Here's a bit of a challenging one (as far as regular mass produced fighters goes). I was just at this museum last week:

Dat be a Mitsubishi ZERO?

It's not a Zero. I thought it was too when I looked at it. A very close cousin though.

Jack?

Oscar? Tony?

Shot in the dark, perhaps-I don't know my late WWII Japanese stuff too well...

Is that a Hayabusa?

Oscar or Hayabusa, same thing. Turns out it was the Army's version of the Zero. That was new to me. Hayabusa = Peregrine Falcon in Japanese.

How 'bout this "special ops" plane?

That's the little story I tell the Suzuki 'Busa guys...about the ORIGINAL Hayabusa. Good one.

Westland Lysander

C-119?

No. Hint, it was the plane in the original Flight of The Phoenix.

Flying Box Car.

Sorry Terry, the Boxcar is a 119.

117?

C-82 Packet.

ID this American war bird...

B-10?

Is a mid stream variant of the B-29 with the R4360 Wasp engines, 20mm cannons in the turret. They labeled the as B-50s not long after.

martin B 10 or B 12....both looked close to the same...

glad I started this thread...didn't realize it got so much attention since this morning...

( PS... didn't need Google on this one...or the Ki43, Oscar)

nope Ki43 Oscar...and it wasn't a Zero equivalent..

Limey version of the Storch...

Here's one guys isn't eggsactly what you might think..

OH - my turn

Chevy Volt.

Avro 691 Lancastrian

NO now go sit down!

Hey here is a question for you guys who know more than I...
I saw airplane the other week and it wasn't anything I had seen before. I am assuming it was military as it didn't have and N-number on it.
On the fuselage side was the number 00322. It was a twin engine prop plane, high wing, and had a twin tail. Overall it was very stubby looking.
No other markings on the entire airplane that I could see.

Any ideas

Single or double seater?

Messykin Army Osprey

BINGO and ya don't get a pie!!

??

Sea Fury?

It looked like it side by side cockpit, and either carried passengers or light cargo. I wish I would have snagged a pic, but my kids had to pee.

Hawker Sea Fury T Mk.20 Dreadnought.

Sounds like an OV10 to me.

Another semi tough one from the Foxbat collection.



If you left click and hit view, you can see it bigger.

The OV-10 Bronco had seats like the F-15, the co-pilot/EWO sat behind the pilot.

Dats a Canberra !

Canberra (West German)

Sea Fury, but with a twist. This one has a 4360 Wasp mounted in it (as do most Reno-bound Hawker's). Standard engine was a Bristol-Centaurus 18 cyl. sleeve-valve; an engine with a whole lot of parts trying desperately to beat their way out.
I used to do a lot of work on these aircraft and engines for Kermit Weeks when he imported them from the Iraqi's.

Either a Canberra or a WD40.

Good job, I thought the West German markings might throw someone.

Softball, but a cool picture.

Picture a C-23 Sherpa but much rounder looking, without a wing strut/support, with a blunt nose and not as long in the fuselage.

U2

I know, I know, dats a U-2 like Francis Gary Powers got shot down in!

Technically no, fellas, not a U-2.

Close?

Is too!

TU2S? Trainer for the U2?

No it was very short nose to tail. It was parked on the tarmac across from a group of F-18 in from Miramar and its may a tad longer then they were.

The wing roots were at the top of the fuselage, the belly was low to the ground

See it is a U2!

OK, so it was probably flown by the Marines or Navy. Might be able to narrow it down with a search.

I bet he's thinking of a C-2 Greyhound.

Was this it?

TR-1

Ugh, the COD. Not my favorite way to get to or from the boat.

B-25. Was on the flight deck of the Carl Vinson right off Waikiki when we deck launched three of those as part of the 50th anniversary of VJ day.

Ding ding. I knew someone would get it.

I think that was just a coincidence. Its a former AFB that is now a commercial airport and a pitstop for military.
We often see harriers from Yuma, U.S.A.F. Globemasters, NASA onwned aircraft.
In fact that day there was a NASA T-38 Talon there too.
Pic from before the mystery airplane arrived:

I have about a 1000 hours in the C-2. It was an aweful ride in the back but absolutely fun to fly!

RH

Scratch what I had posted here...
Looking at more images Foxbat has nailed it!

Are you thinking of a Casa Skyvan? they are used by special people for jump training.

Edited previous post...
Looking at further images Foxbat nailed it.
C-2 Greyhound.

Other side of the globe right now so keeping up is too hard! You guys get them while I'm snoring.

Here's one.

RB-45 Tornado.

and another

yup!

A current boondoggle.

Here is one....
Bad pic, but only one I have. The jet on the left closest to the camera.

F-94

Dave in WV
C-27 right?

Yes, F-94

Yes C-27J

That's our version of the one I showed earlier.

B-57

340boy, my oldest and best friend was an RF-4 IP in the Idaho ANG at Boise. He flew a bunch of combat missions from Thailand, went on to be a T-37 instructor (when I met him) then the RF-4 and finally an Alaska Airlines 737 jockey. He is now retired and lives in Eagle. None of which is of the slightest interest to anyone here.

I have 40 hours, mostly solo, in the bastardized AT-33. It was half T-33 trainer (two seats) and half F-80 (guns and rocket/bomb pylons) that I flew out of Cannon AFN, NM. They were used as in-country trainers for guys called up to Korea, and then mothballed until needed to upgrade us Forward Air Controllers who were destined to work with the US Army (an Army requirement). We called it "Instant Fighter Pilot School" because we came out of it with the genudamnwine official rating of "Fighter Pilot."

Ideas??????

US B-57's could only cartridge start. The engines were the same so the exhaust from one starter blew right into the cockpit on start up. The crew had to have the canopy open on engine start so the pilot was fanning with his hand to monitor the gauges as the engine was started.

I went through tech school with a photo interpreter for the Idaho ANG RF-4C unit. If your friend was still flying in that unit in the mid-late 80's he would have known him.

Rocky, did the At-33's you flew still have the .50's in the nose? All of them I turned while I was TA had the guns removed and the gun ports covered over.

Bristol, type 167, Brabazon.

Absolutely no clue, Flem. Except that it looks grotesquely underpowered.

Dave, yup. We had a pair of 50s and (IIRC) 50 rounds for each.

Yep right again..

Here's one.

EB-57

No. Take a close look at the markings.

Grumman F-7F. These were used for fire retardant drops in California in the early '60's. I listened to them take off at Redding and think my hearing was permanently damaged! We were standing about 20' off the runway as they rev'ed up to full throttle.

CF-100

Bingo !

Nope - NB-36. The NB-36 was designed to test a nuclear powered aircraft. A reactor was installed in the bomb bay and heavy lead shielding was installed behind the cockpit. It made several fights but was so lethargic (due t the very heavy weight) that it was finally grounded.

The reactor was never intended to power the aircraft but rather to give some experience in operating a reactor in flight. The Atomic Energy Commission did design and test a nuclear powered jet engine but learned that it spewed out so much radiation that they could never fly it over populated areas - the project was cancelled.

Made by Fisher Body (GM). One (of the 2 built) used to be on display at the USAF museum. In order to not design an entirely new plane, Fisher used P40, P-38 and several other aircraft parts (wings, landing gear, etc.) and incorporated them into their plane. Good idea, but a failure just the same. Also, what could do better than the P-51.

I've seen this photo before. It is of a French ram-jet powered research plane being transported by a "mother ship". Rem jets can only start at about 400+ mph, so the "mother ship" was used to carry it to altitude and jettison it so the engine could be started. The pilot sat in the "nose cone" which served as a shock cone and compressed the air for ignition.

I believe it is a British (Bristol?) Brabizon.

My Daughter in Law's brother flew them for the Defense Dept after he retired from the Army and has MANY hours in them.

CF-100's, B-57's, & T-37's were the loudest birds on the flight line in my days. CF-100's had a howling sound to them that was awful.

Here's a recent picture...

Candid

USA plane somewhere in Canada, Yukon Territory or Northwest Territories, during WWII, for construction of the CANOL project.

And I don't know the answer.

Bruce

A Playboy Bunny plane!

Air Force - 1 ?

The big one in the back

"After the turn of the century - in the clear blue skies over Germany..." Royal Guardsmen

Martin P5M. That's the later model with the T tail. Last flying boat in the Navy inventory, Worked on those blanks for two years at Sangley Point in the P.I. Had to have JATO bottles strapped on to take off from water. Had to have beaching gear attatched to tow up a ramp to park. Had two R-3350 piston engines. Used to spot ship movement and for anti-submarine duty. For the time was loaded with all kind of electronic gear. Thats a radar in the nose. Had MAD gear etc. Would be goofy for two days after a mission. Noise and vibration level high. Could carry bombs, mines, etc. in bays in the engine nacelles.

Very cool Roundup! Queen Easy was my father's plane when he was in VP 40!

When we're you at Sangley?

LagIng Handa!

When I was going to a Navy "C" School in the summer of 1958 there was still a squadron of P5Ms in service at NAS Norfolk dirctly behind the "C" School complex on the base. There was also the Navy's VTOL Pogo and Sea Dart sitting in storage not to far from the school also.



The F2Y Sea Dart built by Convair



The VTOL XFV-1 Pogo also built by Convair

My Dad took part of his gunnery training in a B10. Late 1942.

We had one of those at our base. Wing commnder used it to put in his hours for flight pay.

Good bit of my hearing loss came from T-37s.

One more reason to visit the Air and Space Museum at Balboa Park in San Diego. Theirs is the second of four Sea Darts constructed and the oldest surviving example
.

B25 with an RF 4 in the background...

F94....

further development of the F 80 and T 33...for ADC...

AN 25.. Antonov sumpin or other...

Bonus points for the variant. Hint: While working in the Lockheed Skunk Works, my father designed the racks that held much of the electronic surveillance equipment.

Martin Marlin I've seen those as a kid...

last of the big flying boats..

Navy Neptune, or USAF RB69...

B57, B17 and MiG 15

B 45 Tornado

( and I ain't havin' to use Google on these! )

Not that big.

Foxbat got it right. IL-76 Candid. Or C141ski' if you like.

Rotary wing...

Fixed again...

another cool ADC Bird of the time period...

or a Rougher Challenge... except for those that really know their A/C of the late 40s, early 1950s...

or for the Navy Buff's...

From the Bush Family Album:



Oh hell, the Air Force is going to kill me for this!!!

XF-85 Goblin. One of several attempts at the parasite fighter concept. Here's a picture with the trapeze slung under a B-36.

F-106 lying in the snow.

F-89 Scorpion or variant thereof.

yeah, dos sum Pimpin 20's!

And now for the rest of the story:

How's about these two for all of you.

I forget the details, but the pilot bailed out and the plane just glided to a wheel-up landing. It was repaired and flew again in the Texas ANG.

I think this photo was taken at the 8th AF Museum in Savannah GA. Excellent museum, visit it if you can.

AN-24. Used to intercept the ones in UN markings flying over Southern Iraq during OSW

According to WikiPedia:
All four remaining Sea Darts survive to this day.

XF2Y-1 Sea Dart, Bureau Number 137634, is in bad shape and is awaiting restoration for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C..
YF2Y-1 Sea Dart, Bureau Number 135763, is on display at the San Diego Aerospace Museum in the Balboa Park area of San Diego, California. It is on loan from the National Museum of Naval Aviation at NAS Pensacola.
YF2Y-1 Sea Dart, Bureau Number 135764, is on display at the Wings of Freedom Aviation Museum at NAS Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. It is on loan from the National Museum of Naval Aviation at NAS Pensacola.
YF2Y-1 Sea Dart, Bureau Number 135765, is on display at the Florida Air Museum that is part of the Sun 'n Fun complex at Lakeland Linder Regional Airport, Florida. It is on loan from the National Museum of Naval Aviation at NAS Pensacola.

I didn't even recognize those as having Aussie markings. Learn something new everyday!

Boomerang

don't know about the rifle...

Lockheed P2v

Brewster Buffalo?

Wirraway

Hi Seafire,

Think it's North American Fury FJ1 of the navy, the FJ2 that came later was developped from the F86 Sabre but the FJ1 was built before the 86.

Dom

Rifle is Sauer 202.The planes are already identified!!

here's a Buffalo Jorge...

the other Australian one is a Wirraway Boomerang..

I got to handle one of those once before.. what beautiful rifles! I really liked those and the old Sako 75s...and the 1990s vintage Tikkas, not that new plastic one they sell now..

Agusta A129 Mangusta, Italian attack helicopter?

thanks!

F 106 sleddin'!

Rocky, I envy you and your friend your experiences in the AF.

Also, thank you for your service to this country, sir.

I figured it had to be something like that.

I understand the Navy is doing live bombing practice at Pine Castle Range in Ocala this week.

I'd bet that blimp was en route to observe bomb results.

Here's a pretty easy one. But a cool plane anyway.

Pine Castle and Lake George complex, man what a nightmare to bomb there! way too constrained, way too many people around and hell, half the time we went in there to lay a string of DST-36s we first had to do a few passes at proscribed altitudes just to shoo-off the inbreds fishing in the lake. And on the bombing range, the parameters were so tight you really had to be careful not to sling a blue pill off target..

340boy, sometimes I read my own bio and am half-convinced that nobody could have had such a highly improbable life.

But I did.

Israeli(designed) Kfir??

Rock, from what I know about you, you are definitively not one of those poor souls who lead boring, insignificant lives, never tasted fear, victory or defeat and of course like Patton said YOU never " shoveledshit in Louisianna!"

I was there in 1956 and 1957. I was attached to FASRON 119 (Fleet air service squadron). We weren't a flying outfit but pretty much doing repairs on the P5m's. Worked with VP-40 and 42 plus a couple of others. Also with VQ-1, which was a different story.

Mabuhay!

Wouldn't it make sense for the Navy to share Avon Park with USAF? Avon Park is considerably larger and inherently less prone to people being around.

A little less easy. ID this bird wreck....

F-101 Voodoo.

F101 Voodoo.

7 seconds faster

We've used Avon Park as well, but it was always busy. USN really screwed the pooch (again) when our leadership sucked up to the klintons and gave up Vieques and Roosy Roads. That was really the best place for us to train as well as Fallon of course but that's kinda far especially for those lousy Hornets

Bastid!

Geeze, you guys know your stuff!
And I thought I was an aircraft loon.

A little tougher...

Hustler?

Yup.
Pretty worse for the wear,also!

20 years in the USAF helps a little..........and i've got a brown belt in Google-Foo.

One of my favorite all-time aircraft; and no hook!

, Jorge.

I have never seen a B-58, but I hear that the AF museum in Nebraska? has one in good shape??

Also, I bet that thing was a beast to fly. Too bad they didn't have a longer service life, though.

Damn! You guys are good!

I heard they were a maintenance nightmare plus the mission changed. Maybe one of our USAF brethren can enlighten us? It was one HELL of a speedster though!

I should close one eye. Kind of unfair for a photo interpreter to play this game.

I seem to recall hearing they drank fuel like a wino as well i.e., lousy combat range. And like you mentioned, the mission changed, due to improved SAM's and interceptors.

Isn't that like counting cards at the blackjack table?

Okay, one we all know this one but I love the lines on this "pretty bird"....



She was built 3 miles from where I type this.



The North American XB70 story.

Her loss still saddens me to think about. Photos of her last flight and loss are at this link: Death of a Valkyrie

Boeing YC 14. It was right on the tail and #1 engine cowling. lol

Plinker, that is my favorite aircraft ever built. She is amazing to see up close, even 50 years later.

My wife's callsign

There used to be a complete B58 in an aircraft park just outside the gate to what was Carswell AFB in FT Worth Tx. There was a B36 too along with several other planes. Don't know it it is still there or not.

My uncle Jim Hejl was lead engineer on the B58 and spent almost his entire career working on it. Closed his working days out on the TFX.
At the time he was working the project was hush hush so he never could say much about the Hustler. He did tell me that it could and did in a few instances partially melt the leading edge of the wings and the pilots had to be carefull not to go as fast as it could. True or not I don't know. Just what Unk Jimmy said.

Swiss Hawker Hunter.

An easy one.

Nailed it.....again! F-58 Hunter

P-61 Black Widow

The cause of man made global warming!

Oh, and it's a B-47!

Right Jorge, but with your aircraft recognition training it would be a dead give away. To me the Black Widow's lines are riight up there with the P-51 Mustang.

Northrop P-61 Black Widow night fighter.

jorge you should know this one..

You kiddin'? my flight recognition SUCKS. Hell I missed one that I actually flew in (although not my operational airplane) the F-14-D!

There is also a P-51 variant that was rather rare (forget the nomenclature) but it was a "Twin" Mustang.

Convair F2Y Sea Dart. Used the skis for takeoff and landing, pretty crzy design.

The P-82









Also came in a night fighter version complete with radar:

The US Navy flew Kifirs from Oceania Naval Air Station (Virginia Beach) for combat maneuvering training purposes in the late 1980's. I've got a picture of one in US Navy markings somewhere that I took during an open house.

Beechcraft X-38 Grizzly.

IO saw one in the Consolidated (Confederate) Air Force museum hangers in Galveston in the late 1990's. Cool plane.

Good catch.

There is a Northrop P-61 on display at the National Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Annex at Dulles airport.

I thought the Navy used them as dissimilar aggressors or is that what combat maneuvering training is in Navy lingo?

The same.

OK. Sheesh, that's a long phrase for that. We just called ours "Aggressors". LOL

And this one?



and another, yes it can fly...

And this one?



and another, yes it can fly...

Sorry send it twice....

Caspian sea monster on the 2nd.

Very good, Alekseiev KM Caspian sea monster, you're right. Destroyed in crash in 1980.

I've always thought these were one of the prettiest A/C made, with very clean lines....especially the Mark 6...

SE 5000 Baroudeur is the first one.

Although they never entered service, JUST THE THOUGHT that the USA could build them, is what made the Soviet Union develop the Mig 25 Foxbat.

With you Seafire. The Hunter Mk6 was one of the cleanest aircraft i've seen!
Dom

I remember some old show about the B-70 that mentioned one the Valkyrie(sp?) project engineers thought the B-70 looked liked "a cobra sitting on top of an orange crate".

A fantastic aircraft.

You're the king of google-fu or a very well informed fan!

Anther pretty A/C... a friend of the family, flew those after going into SAC,.. being a previous WW2 P51 Pilot...with the fighter jock mentality... Colonel Lappo.... Dad knew him and I went to school with his son... actually saw him interviewed on the History Channel's "Wings" series in the 90s, on the B 47.

Stationed in Michigan at a SAC based in the 50s, a bar room tete d'tete broke out between some of his squadron mates, when they were being laughed at by some F 101 Pilots of ADC..

Major ( at the time), Lappo stated he could take a B 47 anywhere they could take an F 101, to which really made the Voodoo pilots laugh...

well evidently up in the air not long afterwards, over Lake Michigan both units were up in the air at the same time and one of the F 101 pilots, called him on his statement of being able to take a B47 anywhere a F101 could go... so a Voodoo pilot, took a 101 under the Mackinac Bridge, that connects the upper and lower peninsula of Michigan...

after doing so, the 101 Pilot radios, 'let me see ya do that!'

so Major Lappo radios back... "wanna follow me?"

he took the B 47 under the Mackinac Bridge, to the amazement of the following F 101... after that, he loops the B 47 and brought it back under the bridge for a second pass... the 101 pilot wouldn't follow it...

needless to say, when they landed, they both found themselves grounded.. as freaked out motorists on the bridge had notified authorities...

my stepdad's AF career started out in SAC in B 47s..those and F 4 were his favorite two A/C he flew in his career...

he flew C 130s in Vietnam, with the Air Commando units, and he had a lot of respect for the damage a 130 could take and bring the crew home.. but of course those didn't have the glamour of the B 47 or the F4....

he also talks about the wildest stunt they did, was a Colonel in a unit he was with, collected old sports cars...on a flight to England, the Colonel ended up buying an MG/TC or TD over there.. against regulations, they had the MG loaded and secured in the bombbay of a B 47, and then flew it back to their base in Kansas, basically smuggling it into the US past customs etc...

some of the stuff that was done after WW 2 and in the early days of SAC, were pretty wild...

hey, I'm doing mine straight up! No google Fu!

it was an F 82 that shot down the first enemy A/C during the Korean War...

Seafire,
Cool!!

I would have given a left !@# to see that B47 fly under a bridge.
(I always liked the F-101, also)

Smithsonian had one at Silver Hill when I worked there in the later 60s... that was a fun A/C to climb around in...

they also had a batch of the old German A/C that was brought back for evaluation after WW 2, and after the AF was done with them, many were donated to the Smithsonian..and were stored out at Silver Hill....

which was Heaven for a high school kid, and Airplane Buff such as myself...

Not really. I'm 76 and as a lad lived in Southern California. I've seen the B-19 both in the air and on the ground. At one point lived near NAS Los Alamitos, Douglas aicraft and North American Aviation. Saw lots of stuff.

And set a record:

The F-82B on display, Betty-Jo, flew from Hawaii to New York on Feb. 27-28, 1947, a distance of 5,051 miles, the longest non-stop flight ever made by a propeller-driven fighter.

http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=284

Bruce

340 Boy...

bet you would have loved to be in my shoes when I was in high school...I am originally from No Virginia... and was an airplane buff from about 11 years old... besides living in England for 3 years as a kid, being around all of these old WW 2 bases, that Nato still had opened in case war ever broke out...I went to school on one base that had a skeleton crew to keep it functional.. RAF Molesworth...had B 17s there with the 303rd BG in WW2...there were still a few B 17 body parts around at a junkyard area on base.. we kids use to go play on and around given the chance... the control tower and the airfield was left readily available to be operational in about 48 hrs if needed...miles of the old Nissan huts were standing, that had been boarded up when the war ended...

my Jr high requested of the Air Force to let us have the old briefing room for a squadron as an auditorium... so they did in 1965....it was to be cleaned up by our gym class in the winter, when it was raining all the time.. our school at the time was like 75 to 80% girls.. so it was assigned to the boys gym class...

when we went in there to clean it up, it had been locked up for 20 years, since 1945... dark, full of dust, half the lights didn't work...

it was like a movie theatre..with the floor sloping down toward the stage... behind the stage was a curtain and a big wall behind it...we cleaned this place up every day for a couple of weeks..

when we pulled the curtain back from the wall, on the wall was a large map of NW and Northern Europe.... still marked and hanging on the wall, were all the information for the flight crew briefings on the last bomber mission flown from Molesworth by the 303rd in 1945....

for those of us that were aviation buffs, we freaked out when the school wanted it all torn down... or gym coach was a WW 2 gunner on a B 17, and he was thrilled so many of us boys were taking it all in...however the school won and the map was taken down and the curtain taken down and washed... as it was full of dust...
I'll continue this on a new post..

a/c were all around us there in England in the mid 60s.. when we went there in 1963 the AF had 22 active bases in England...plus there were RAF bases all over also...the sky was always full of the sound of jets...

we lived off base and the English kids didn't get out of school for a short summer vacation until the first of August.. we got out at the end of May... so there wasn't very many kids to play with in June and July... so parents use to actually drop we kids off at each others houses just so we had other kids to play with.. all we American kids living in the area...

there was about 5 of us, playing down at the park one day in 1965... it was on the Ouse River, and across from it was just farm fields...

we paid no attention to jets flying over, when this one did catch our attention tho.. it stopped in mid air and then descended down to the ground like a helicopter would... we're standing there with our mouths open and jaws on the ground...

it landed in the field across the river... the pilot got out, and walked around the plane checking stuff out.. we jumped up and down waving at him... he waved back several times....

climbs back into the AC and then it hovers in the air, goes vertically up slowly and then proceeded to take off like a regular plane when it got enough altitude...

of course we boys can't wait to get home and tell our dads what we had seen that day...

and of course no one believed us... I think I am still grounded by my old man for 'lying' and 'making up stories'.. another guy who use to hitch a ride into base with the old man, was told the same story by his kid... 'yeah, my kid came home and told me the same stupid story'....

unbeknowst to them... what we saw was the Hawker Harrier in its development stage before it entered service......

the other cool A/C that we saw all the time from the British RAF flying around were English Electric Lightnings and Avro Vulcans..

some Meteors and Hawker Hunters were still in service also at the time...

What a discovery for a young airplane lover. Thanks for sharing, Seafire.

Kind of off Subject but I remember climbing all over this plane on old E US99 south of Portland,OR. My Aunt and Uncle owned a Motel alittle south of the gas station.

and the final one, you'd love to have walked in my shoes...

I was assembly line building model Airplanes since I was 12...

I joined the IPMS, International Plastic Modelers Society in England as a kid... it was mainly populated by Adults...

when I was in high school, and we were back home in Virginia there was a chapter in the Metro DC area...so when I got my drivers licenses I started attending regularly, with my buddies who worked at the hobby shop I worked at in Springfield there..

This happened pretty quick, but there was this old retired Colonel that was older than mud back in the late 60s... but he was impressed with some of the models me and my buddies brought in for display... he was setting up the National Guard Museum and asked us if we would like to build displays of various planes for the museum... we would donate our time, but they would supply all the kits, decal markings, paint, glue etc...

in return we got to have a pass that allowed us to go just about anywhere in the Library of Congress to research whatever we needed, plus he was also on board with the Smithsonian as a consultant, and worked with folks building displays for their aviation stuff... and plus we would get free and unlimited access to Silver Hill.. which is basically the Smithsonian's Garage... a left over logistics warehouse area given to them after WW 2 closed...

we jumped on it..we also got on board building displays for the Smithsonian...

Silver Hill is just warehouse upon warehouse, of stuff just full of all the stuff the Smithsonian owns.... you do a tour to be shown where everything is... and after that, you show an ID badge they issued you, listing you as an employee... you sign in and sign out... and after that, even as a high school kid, we could go into about anywhere we wanted to..

I have set in the cockpits of so many different and famous A/C few would believe.. I have sat at the controls of the Enola Gay, with no one over my shoulder to tell me to "get out of there kid!".. except my buddies wanting their turn...

I've sat in the Mercury and Gemini capsules, X15 cockpit, all of the German A/C cockpits of the stuff brought back stateside after WW 2 for test and evaluation..

ME 262 Nightfighter, Do335 fighter, FW 190s, ME 109s, ME 410 just to name a few....

and just about any American A/C from WW 2 and before...plus all sorts of test stuff...X1 that broke the sound barrier, X 2, X 3, X5..

the dream ended in Dec 1970 when I left to go to college in Boston...but for a high school kid, I lived in heaven from 1968 to 1970.. funny tho, only the buddies I had who lived and breathed Airplanes thought anything of it..but even bringing my 'airplane buddies' was no big deal... about every other Saturday, I spent all day at Silver Hill over in Maryland there..

took my G/F over there, and here response was 'oh this is boring!'...

not for me tho!

yeah Archie.. that is a B17.. everytime I am up in Portland, I always swing by there just to look at it...they have been trying to restore it for years...

the cockpit and nose have been off of it for years now....

I still just walk around it and my mind goes to thoughts of what life was like for the crews who flew them into combat...

according to the info posted around there, that gas station was one of the highest volume gas stations in the USA in the late 60s and early 1970s... so I guess the B17 on pylons over head really brought in the customers...

The aircraft isn't so tough, but you need to get the country and role.

The USMC also had a squadron equipped with Kfir's at Yuma that was tasked with the same mission. They were leased from the IDAF, I believe.

ACM and they didn't last long, maint nightmare and short airframe life, then again we bent the schit out of them

Alright, i'll give it a shot. F-5, USAF, Aggressor.

Good work, AKmtnhntr.

Aggressors out of Alconbury that spent a week at our base teaching our Rhino jocks to avoid getting their asses flamed.

OK, here's a 2 fer. Easier to scan that way.

The ground crew to the right of the 1st jet obviously had a rough night.

I remember our squadron flying against Aggressors in the PI, always had fun going there for Cope Thunder. I remember their color scheme was a blue camo but I think they had a few that were that were the same color as that one. Good times.

Fiat G1? and OV-1 Mohawk

G91, actually, but you were close enough.

And yes, on the OV-1 as well.

Kudos to all.

Top one is a CAC Wirraway, second one is a CAC Boomerang, and yes, also a Sauer 202 (Sig line)

Here's one for you guys to try your luck at. Sure you'll get it pretty quickly.




Have fun!

I believe that's a YA-9, the forerunner to the Warthog.

(Guys - I'm really stupid when it comes to technology. Is there an easy way to post pics here on the 'Fire? If someone could provide a quick tutorial, I'd be most grateful.)

The Y-A9 was actually the loser in the ground attack competition that was won by the A-10. It actually would have made a terrific follow-on aircraft for the Forward Air Control mission.

To post pictures, sign up for a free account at Photobucket, upload your pictures and then copy and paste the link that appear in a drop-down box.

How about this one? hehe

Vigilante!

Here are a few that I've always been fond of (or intrigued by):

Great thread.

Here is one nobody will get... Sweden's latest stealth fighter...



John

F-15

Nothing to identify but I thought you'd all like to see it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx-uZZVc0dE

A

Alconbury was where my old man was stationed at in England for 3 yrs....back then, they converted from the RB66s which went to Vietnam and were replaced with the RF 4C...first unit in Europe to get them...

also saw on the Website about the history of it, that the 10th Tac Recon Wing, later changed over to their mission having them equip with A 10s...

those same early Phantoms ended up going to the MN NG at Hermantown, outside of Duluth in the early 1980s...

when deer hunting in No MN, at times you'd see them come doing low level passes, at about 800 mph or more...

at that level, you could not turn your head fast enough to follow them as they buzzed across the horizon..

EA-6A. Where's Pugs, he'd know this one!

G 91 Fiats and a Mohawk...

Pugs is still in -8 gmt land. That's a VAQ-33 one. Flew with them a fair amount for fleet support with them playing missile.

Okay, not much challenge identifying this one since it's marked clearly on the fuselage. The challenge here is to name the movie that it starred in, and what it was called in the movie. Extra points if you can name some of the jet's supporting cast.

At the risk of having any future sources of potato bologna cut off (I actually found a couple of rings in Albert Lea and then left them in the freezer at my son's house when we left), I'm going to propose that the same stealth technology be applied to lutefisk.

Ok, a more mundane platform but one I have an affinity to. Specifically what model, type of ordnance slung and how can you tell?

President Obama, please step aboard the new invisible AF!

The 10th TRW RF-4C's were at Alconbury until 1987 when the 1st TRS shut down. Most of the newer RF-4C's at Alconbury were integrated into my squadron at Zweibrucken (38th TRS), making us the last Tac Recce squadron in Europe. The rest of the RF-4C's from Alconbury were sent stateside.

The A-10's came to Alconbury around 1988, maybe late 1987. I was there TDY for a month in April 1986 and then for a couple days in 1987 and at that time they had the RF-4C's, Aggressor F-5's and TR-1's.

One from Way Back:
(no cheating on the ID)

Another oldie:

The Great War strikes again:

Alot of Reeaaaly cool photos guys....

I am happy to go along with anything that will reduce the amount of contact I have with lutefisk!

John
PS: I was just thinking how many reading our posts are confused. Not that we have ever had inside jokes here at the 'Fire before...

Another one that my father has an affinity for...

Stoooof!

The turbo prop version that CDF is using!

Skoookum!

LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No one identified this one so I'll give it up. It is the Boeing Skyfox. I used to see the one below during it's flight testing at Mojave airport. It was a modified Lockheed T33 made to be an economical alternative to the A10 Warthog.

Plinker,
Wild looking bird.
You've been posting some cool stuff, much of it I have never heard of.
Nice to live near Palmdale,looks like.

XB-51 obviously . Was used in the show "tales of tomorrow" episode Plague from space. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0717040/ no idea on what it was called

S-3B (ESM pods on wingtips a dead giveaway) load out looks like a TER with three.mk-82's snakes

S-2 Tracker or C-1. It's been too long to remember but it looks like it has the MAD stinger.

There was another full length movie about test pilots, Toward the Unknow, where the XB-51 played the role of the Gilbert XF-120.



The 51's costars were William Holden, Virginia Leith, Lloyd Nolen, and a very young James Garner. If you are into X-planes its a good movie to see. Much of it was filmed on location at Edwards AFB with the full cooperation of the Air force, and an lot of hardware is on display. Some of the flying featured in the movie was done by the Thunderbirds.

Toward the Unknown

Correct, as well as the chaff/flare buckets. On the ordnance, even though those look like M-904 fuses, they might be DST-36s and I'm sorry to say I can't tell for sure!

Always good to see that vintage hardware thanks for the tip Rick.

Very cool! Nieuport.

Weren't the mines painted differently? I'm not really sure. Looks like a standard high drag Mk-82 to me.

Not really, I saw them in both gray and the OD green. I agree with you but now I'm racking my brain trying to discern the differences (if any) externally.

This is one I wasn't familiar with...



Unfortunately, the sign gives it away.

great thread.
Lots of good old birds.
Some I've never seen or heard of.
and many other's I just forgot!

Several to chose from...

It's a Whale!

Douglas A3D Skywarrior carrier born attack bomber. Saw them when i was kid visiting the CVA59 Forrestal of the 6th fleet in Marseille.

Dom

They used to fly out of NAS Whidbey Island up until a couple of years ago. While stationed at NAS Patuxent River as a Senior Chief and later as a Civil Service Employee my brother was a lead on the EA-6B Program up until he retired in 1998 and moved back out here to nthe Northwest.

The jet with canadian colors was the Avro Arrow, could have been one of the best fighter interceptor of it's era, even better than FA but the program was killed by politics and Canadian Air force bought CF104Gs....
Dom

When they pushed the throttles up to the firewall on those two unmuffled Pratt & Whitney's no one slept.

And many of them are on display today, including the Fieseler Storch, Dornier Do335, Horton Brothers flying wing, Heinkel He 219 Uhu (Owl) night fighter, FW 190, Messerschmitt 109, Messerschmitt 163, Messerschmitt 262 and, Bachem Viper Natter.

,

The second world war brithish aircraft look like a Boulton Paul defiant without it's four machine gun turret. But not sure. Some were converted in target towing plane.
Dom

Hip, Fitter A and B's.

2nd Picture:

Hips, more Fitter A & B's and at least 1 Fitter trainer and what looks like a Beagle.

Soviet litter in the 'Stan?

Last late summer I was with Fighter Pilot Dad out in the shop yard kibitzing black guns with a couple "civilians" when we all heard a funny jet (military aviation is rare) howl.
We all turned and looked, Dad and I immediately turned back to each other and said "Aggressor" while the others just went "Huh."
Dust blue camo F-5. First one I have ever seen in Montana, dunno why he was here.
Still, kind of a neat little "together" moment -- Dadster ain't getting any younger but he still has eyes.

Was with the wife outside Nellis AFB one day. THEY HAVE MIG29's!! Talk about doing some real-world aggressor flying! I looked at the birds and did a double take. REAL Fulcrums!

US has Mig29 Fulcrums

The US acquired, tested and flew soviet fighters that were acquired from a variety of sources, including eh Israeli's, Egyptians, Indonesians and probably others. This is documented in the book "Red Eagles - America's Secret Migs" see: http://www.betterworldbooks.com/red-eagles-id-1846033780.aspx . I have a friend (retired USAF fighter pilot that knew several of the USAF Mig pilots. I only learned of his knowledge of the program when I gave him a copy of the book.

We also flew some Mig-29's from the Germans after reunification.

Well, I suppose I hafta. Here's the Combat Sky Pig, or Pilot Sandwich...





And the three-ton dog whistle...



That odd little emblem above the forward spin strake marked the absolute very last student mission ever flown in this type aircraft. After 40 years!

That is the beauty of it!

Rocky - my father-in-law did the initial design of the Cessna 336/337 Skymaster aircraft as a consultant to Cessna (He designed virtually all of Cessna single engine planes in the time between 1948 and 1975, plus others). There are some interesting stories in this!

When he died 2 years ago, we threw out literally bookcases of design and other studies he'd done for Cessna, Beach and Boeing. He still had the initial 336 concept drawing that Cessna gave him in 1958 (the plane first flew in 1961) framed on the wall. He specified a boundary layer air intake for the 336 to cool the rear engine, but Cessna took the cheap way out and just made a circular scoop that did not cool sufficiently. He then did the detailed design for the boundary layer duct that became standard on the 337.

Neat!

Rocky, that last photo really grabbed me. I was stationed at CAFB 67-71. I called them Tweety Birds when talking to friends, but never knew anyone else called them that.

Sitting in an AF field ambulance about 30 feet from an ideling T-37 for over an hour without ear protection was the beggining of my hearing loss. I was there responding to an inflight emergency. A bird had penetrated the canopy(sp) knocking out the instructor pilot. The student sucessfully landed the plane.

Fantastic mission! I never did it like you did, but I did just enough to gain a real appreciation for the term 'fire in the cockpit.'

Nice, Rocky!

The Tweety Bird insignia on that aircraft is a nice touch.

I think you could probably ID this since it's already had a passing mention on this thread.
The points will be for naming the Air force that utilized it, what they called it, and in which conflict it saw most of its action.



I reckon someone'll get it pretty quickly.

Also just wanna post these 'cos......I dunno, those Eastern bloc designs just look fantastic in my eye.

Aussie,
I like the looks of the newer Sukhoi birds, also- though I don't know the type of that one in your first photo. SU-27,perhaps?

SU-35

Thank you!

Another one of my favorite Sov birds is the MiG-31. That thing is a beast:

When I hear "Sukhoi" I always think of "ground nail."

Hey! That's a MiG, not a Sukhoi in that picture!!
Hehehehe....

I'm wondering of that gun-equipped(!) Oscar Douche is Panamanian. As of about two years ago, the PAF was still using them as light counter-insurgency birds.

Websterparish, my time at Columbus was '72-76. I went back two years ago to witness that last Tweet flight. I hardly recognized the base it had changed so much.

I'm offended as I'm a Tweedie.

When I was in the Navy there was a fellow sailor stationed alongside me with the last name of Sylvester.

I've heard all the Tweety Bird/Sylvester jokes.

deHaviland... thought it was a DH 4, but your pic ID said a DH2... not much diffference in the 4 and the 2 evidently.. probably more powerful engine on the 4..

earlier in the War before the Sopwith Camel.. the Strutter...

I always was paritial to the SE5A....and my favorite allied A/C of WW 1 being the Spad 7 thru 13...

It just occurred to me that the T-37 was the only "Tweeting" I've ever done!

What was the answer, Aussielad? Or or you waiting for more than one guess?

Poking around on You Tube, I found this vid. I think airshows aren't as fun as they used to be

It's been more than a couple years since the EA-6A's were gone. VMAQ-4 transitioned to the EA-6B in 91, VAQ-309 and VAQ-209 right after. They are down to about 5 active squadrons flying the Prowler and they'll finish the transition to the F/A-18G by 2013.

Here is an interesting plane (in the foreground) that was state of the art, but killed by political jealousy. It never made it to production. Most Canadians on here will know it right away, because its death was so controversial.

Avro Arrow - probably the most advanced aircraft of its time.

Mig-29 at Paris Air show. The pilot ejected just before crashing and landed safely. The Russian ejection seats are probably the best in the world, even better than the Martin Baker's.

Lawn Dart...

"Lawn Darts"

That's what we called the Hunter drones, before sorting out the Cyl Head problems.

This ain't rare, just very COOL.

Now that would have been fun.

Hey Rocky, seems no-one is taking any guesses on my last question about the aircraft designation. It is a Cessna 337, but no takers on the conflict, operating air force, and their designation for the aircraft.




Sorry for tardiness on reply, time differences and all. A man's got to sleep.

As others noted, it's a Fulcrum that played lawn dart at the 1989 Paris Air Show.

The picture is actually a still from a video that was being shot at the time. The video is permanently ingrained into my brain as me and another analyst sat there an entire day (at FTD) playing the video (over and over) for engineers and systems analysts. It was a big deal at the time because it hadn't yet been determined what caused the failure. Turned out an engine ate a seagull or two.

I have a couple of the stills from before the crash and as it crashes, I'll see if I can find one to scan.

LOVE the Warthog, big flying gun!

Here is the Fulcrum earlier in the day before it crashed.
There were two there IIRC and you can see the vert stab of the 2nd to the right, but I believe this one on the left was the one that crashed later in the show.

I'll take the Martin Baker NACES over anything Russian. Have you seen the pics of the Canadian F-18 that lost a motor during an airshow and the guy punched out? The seat has even righted itself within feet of leaving the jet. The parachute then is shot uo via a rocket so you don't have to fall to fill the chute.

Here's a link. Link

My bad. I posted a picture of a Mig ground nail. Below is the Suhkoi version of the ground nail...



"What's this button do, comrade Yuri? Yuri??"

Maybe this one will stump you guys.

Jeff

Just wondering (seriously) , does it fulfil a similar role to one of these???

Rivet Joint

Yep.

I'm impressed! USAF RC-135. Many versions out there, to include Rivet Joint.

Jeff

That link is to an amazing set of photos.

Don't know Aussie...is the a recon plane? That is the RC-135's role.

Jeff

A friend of mine flew the P/F 51 in the late 40's then transitioned to the F-82 for the Korean war. He's now gone but IIRC he really preferred the P51. He bought a surplus P51 which he flew for a number of years.
One interesting piece of info that he told me was that he would have the engine serviced and the people could never get the timing right. He finally tracked down all the manuals on the aircraft - about a three to four foot stack of them- since he figured that a combat aircraft ought to be readily serviceable in a forward base area and he found that in one manual the timing was clearly spelled out -- by aligning-something- and some marks through the engine area and the timing was perfect.

Hey Jeff, It's a BAE (formerly Hawker Siddeley) Nimrod, more akin to your P3 Orion.
Ie. Maritime patrol/surveillance and ASW.

A good friend of mine has a couple of tours under his belt in the 'Stan on board the P-3. Apparently the platform performs just as well over the desert as it does over water.

So I suppose yes, similar roles (surveillance) for your Nimrod, P-3 & "rivet Joint".

Troy

Small 10 picture B 70 Gallery...

[img]http://www.sr-71.org/photogallery/xb-70/[/img]

Not rare, but one of my favorite Century Series and 1950s jet fighters... the Super Sabre...just a clean good looking A/C..

Explain the tail modification in the bottom photo.

Alright, somebody else that likes the really old warbirds.

Hi plinker,

If you like airshow crashes you can go to You Tube you have some with Martin Baker ejection seats: Blue Angels (april 2007), Thunderbirds (the one of sepember 2003 is rather nice), and one of the nicest but not for the poor guys looking at: the Ramstein accident.
If i recall well these aircrafts were not russians and pilots too...

Accidents are what they are accidents. No need to mock the pilots or technics. Russians crafts are not so bad. Your aggressors teams use some of them with success. During these show pilots push the craft to their limits and above to impress most and sometimes it fails...[b][/b]

It was an attempt to get rid of compression issues and tail buffetting that the p-38 experienced at high speeds. it wasn't successful, and they went to compressions flaps under the wing that would deploy, usually in a dive and restore control usability.

Here is an earlier RC-135 Rivet Joint that I took at Hellenikon AB in Greece in 1987.

The Ramstein Flug Tag disaster involved Italian aircraft and pilots though, even if it was an American military air show. However, your point is well taken.

Another Ghost of the Great War. I could see Ingwe flying this paint scheme.

And no fair peeking at the link.

Bull

B-29ski

Air and Space magazine had a great article a few years ago about how the Soviets recreated the B-29 into the TU-4 including, since Stalin had said make a direct copy, the graffiti and grease marker notes inside the structure.

That's funny.

But the sad thing is, you know the boys working at Tupolev weren't about to not copy it literally. Too many vacancies at the posh dachas East of the Urals.

Thanks for the link. I did not have that one.

The General Electric jet engine group had asked the airforce for some jets that were equipped their engines. GE wanted to do a flying photo shoot for PR purposes. I believe the GE photographer was in a Lear Jet.

The group of aircraft rendezvoused near Victorville, CA, outside Edwards AFB airspace. (You can see the photo shoot pictures here.) It was reported that the GE photographer radioed the F104 pilot and asked him to get closer to the XB80. "Closer." "Closer." "Closer." The Starfighter got caught in the XB70 turbulence and was flipped into the Valkyrie's tail. The F104 pilot was killed instantly.

The airwaves crackled, "Midair!" The XB70 crew wondered who got hit. They did not realize it was them. In the spin downward, only the copilot was able to eject. The chief test pilot was apparently pinned helpless in the spinning aircraft.

That was the "What will we do with this thing now?" experiment.

From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_P-38_Lightning

"Very early in the Pacific War, a scheme was proposed to fit Lightnings with floats to allow them to make long-range ferry flights. The floats would be removed before the aircraft went into combat. There were concerns that saltwater spray would corrode the tailplane, and so in March 1942, P-38E 41-1986 was modified with a tailplane raised some 16-18 in (41�46 cm), booms lengthened by two feet and a rearward-facing second seat added for an observer to monitor the effectiveness of the new arrangement. A second version was crafted on the same airframe with the twin booms given greater sideplane area to augment the vertical rudders. This arrangement was removed and a final third version was fabricated that had the booms returned to normal length but the tail raised 33 in (84 cm). All three tail modifications were designed by George H. "Bert" Estabrook. The final version was used for a quick series of dive tests on 7 December 1942 in which Milo Burcham performed the test maneuvers and Kelly Johnson observed from the rear seat. Johnson concluded that the raised floatplane tail gave no advantage in solving the problem of compressibility. At no time was this P-38E testbed airframe actually fitted with floats, and the idea was quickly abandoned as the U.S. Navy proved to have enough sealift capacity to keep up with P-38 deliveries to the South Pacific."


It would have looked something like this model, which used a standard tail.

That looks like the vintage of RC's we had at Offutt. I was there in 84-85 in the 55 AMS. Used to work on the electronics that were on board. We also supported the EC-135 and E-4 NEACP as well.

Jeff

Not peeking, but it's a Russian copy of an Americian B-29. At the end of WWII Several B-29s made emergency landings in Russa after making bombing runs on Japan and the Russians used them as templates in developing their version of the B-29.

I've been told by Air Force jocks that the F-104 was one of the toughest fighters to fly. Most have told me the 104 was just a manned rocket.

I don't know for sure.

The 104 was nicknamed the "widowmaker" in Europe. There were still Italian and German 104's in use when I was stationed in Germany. We had an Italian F-104 go down en route to our base for an exercise. Took half a day for us to find it. Pretty much ended up an aluminum hole in a hillside.

The Germans lost about 110 Luftwaffe pilots in Starfighters. The fact that the early versions of the 104 had downward firing ejection seats didn't help the situation. If you had to punch out at low altitudes you were in a world of hurt.

TU 4... Tupolev 4

Yeah, that's an older RC. I looked up the tail # and that one had served in Vietnam and then was retrofitted in the early 80's as a Rivet Joint.