Cool airplane photo thread

Curious, why not?

 

Earlier this week there was a wildfire a few miles away. Hot and dry. Not a good feeling. Crazy smoke. Luckily it moved away from folks and no lost property. Then light rain, cooler temps, and a lot of work by firefighters and it's under control.

As it was raging they had three different tankers dropping retardant and a few Army Blackhawks dropping water from their monsoon buckets. Plus a spotter plane. Quite the air show.

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Lots of issues with the gun gases, including stalling the engines.
How The A-10's Avenger Cannon Went From Terrible To Terrifying (twz.com)

 

Two Navy flying boat disasters in 1 picture. Martin P6M SeaMaster and behind it a Convair Tradewind, something the Navy could not wait to scrap all of. They pulled them out of service and decided to chop off the tails so the public could not tell what kind of aircraft they were at the scrapyard as they were almost new.


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Hooray for 1956! New Yorker and Roadmaster(?).......wait; maybe a Desoto? And a Century?
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The Tradewind's main problem was those wretched T40 turboprops, which ruined every other airplane that used them; at least the Tradewind went into (limited) production. The Britsh Double Mamba was the same concept, but at least it worked most of the time and allowed the Gannet to have a fairly long service life.

 

I recall that just before Christmas leave from the Naval Academy in 1955 the big story was the P6M crash about 60 miles south of us.

Seem to recall that another one also crashed on the Eastern Shore a couple of years later. Presume they were flying out of Pax River.

Best regards,

Robert

 

Cool aircraft lighting up!!




From Habubrats on facebook

"The SR 71 with a green flare is when TEB hits the air each flight was equipped with 16 shots of TEB this chemical when mixed with the JP7 caused the afterburner to be lit Image Unavailable, Please Login Pilots used counters on the throttle quadrant to keep track of how many shots they had remaining. On long-duration flights with multiple stages of refueling and high-altitude cruise flight, pilots had to carefully manage their TEB supply. "


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Sometimes the coolest looking machines are not the best performers. The P6M did look like something from a science fiction book.

Glad you enjoyed the Ferrari Club 2024 event at Road America last week, I know I did!! Great show.

 

Another cool NAVY prototype from 1958. And an aircraft that makes the A10 look like a walk in the park to ground troops.


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What a cool pair! I always really liked the F-16XL. Apparently both examples are in storage at Edwards AFB according to wiki…..Had a soft spot for the F20 tiger shark too. And the TSR2 and NDN Firecracker. Must be a thing for the also rans!

 

Look at how many fails we have now on space vehicles and high performance aircraft. I think without a doubt we more issues then just safety. Can you imagine the US in 40 months doing what they did between 1942-1945? And look at what a mess the space program is in. No one wants to put in the massive extra effort required to get things done. Let's face it, we are a lazy country now.

 

Lazy, and timid.

 

From SIERRA HOTEL AERONAUTICS on facebook

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Magnesium sure burns nicely.

 

And the XB-70 really DID look like something from a science fiction book! It’s utterly amazing to me that this was going to be the future of weapons delivery as seen in the ‘60s and yet here we are in 2024 with……the B-52.
could have got loooooong odds on that!!!

 

Saw this actual aircraft take off at STL back in 1982 on a test flight at the factory. And he did do a Viking departure



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Back in Jan (of this yr) it was undergoing restoration at the Museum of the United States Air Force. Sat outside for yrs before they finished the current building additions.

 

Streak Eagle came through Cannon AFB around 1976 after setting all the records while I was stationed there flying F-111Ds. She looked like a real racehorse and really contrasted with our 50,000 lb dry weight Aardvarks.

 

Image Unavailable, Please Login Just a nice looking Bonanza on the East Ramp at PAFA. It looks fast even when parked.

 

777-200

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