Cool airplane photo thread

Not really that great a photo, but this BT-13 is for sale at 85K on Barnstormers. Anyone want something that will let you park with the Corsairs?

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Why the aluminum cowl? It should be the color of the fuselage. As far as parking with a Corsair... I had a brief experience with the BT-13 and it will never be on my favorites list. Yeah, I know. To each his own....

 

Funny you should mention that since Balls 8 (B-52) was the drop vehicle for a bunch of those test articles.

 

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This kind. Just read it. Incredible stories. The stuff these guys had to deal w and overcome makes for incredible stories...

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A revised edition of the New York Times bestselling classic: the epic story of the golden years of American space exploration, told by the men who rode the rockets
On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, and the space race was born. Desperate to beat the Russians into space, NASA put together a crew of the nation’s most daring test pilots: the seven men who were to lead America to the moon. The first into space was Alan Shepard; the last was Deke Slayton, whose irregular heartbeat kept him grounded until 1975. They spent the 1960s at the forefront of NASA’s effort to conquer space, and Moon Shot is their inside account of what many call the twentieth century’s greatest feat—landing humans on another world.

Collaborating with NBC’s veteran space reporter Jay Barbree, Shepard and Slayton narrate in gripping detail the story of America’s space exploration from the time of Shepard’s first flight until he and eleven others had walked on the moon.

Thread hijack over.

 

That image of the Thunderbirds and the KC-135 reminded me of how much they used to hate their T-38s when they had them. It sometimes required a 2 or 3 hop trip to get the team to their show location because of no air refueling capability and short legs. That and they were flying trainers when all of them were fighter pilots.

 

This came to me from a retired F4 pilot who is on Fchat. He drives a 575
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I think all the other countries flight demo teams do fly trainers.

I remember when the Blue Angles flew F4's. They called it the loudest show on earth.

 

Brian- USAF flew F-4s for a while, too, from 1969 to 1973 before the bean counters decided they needed to save money. Those F-4Es were so specialized they could not be easily converted for CC missions. When USAF got rid of the T-38s, they made sure their F-16s could be (theoretically) converted to combat capable.

 

Makes you wonder what they did.

I was told something I found surprising by a Navy pilot friend about the modifications. This was a number of years ago so it may no longer be true. The Blue Angels planes modified the oiling system, maybe fuel too, do not know, so it would continue oil feed in negative G. Their long period inverted required it. I would have assumed it was SOP in a combat aircraft but was assured it was not. He said "we really dont do negative G maneuvers and in a short transition for a very brief moment it doesn't matter.

 

Brian- In combat about the most negative or zero G we would use would be in a bunt maneuver that unloaded the aircraft for a short period of time for maximum acceleration while essentially weightless. Everything had to be tightly strapped down, especially the aircrew, and dirt and other junk still tended to float up.

Useful in aerial combat against a much more maneuverable opponent. In an F-111 rolling to 45 degrees bank and then bunting usually had the air-to-air guy going high to turn inside you. By the time he figured out you were not pulling, the F-111 was separating at a very high rate and out of AIM-9 range. Nothing except a MiG-23 or F-14 got through the Mach like an F-111F with the wings swept.

That was a very long time ago.

 

Interesting and good stuff.I worked on the Boeing LBJ proposal and it's good to see that the final output did okay at the hands of good pilots. Long time ago is correct for me, 1962-1963, I think. Tons of overtime and the departure of my wife at the time.

 

This is one of the last F-4Gs that flew at Nellis. I had a friend that was an instructor there until he retired in 1996.

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I was also fortunate to know "Sparky." He was my friend's dad. The Wild Weasel guys still hold a reunion in Las Vegas. Impressive bunch of dudes.

https://www.acc.af.mil/News/Features/Display/Article/203774/an-original-wild-weasel-remembered/

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From the OC Air Show yesterday.

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Nose art. Too many to post. More at the link

https://thechive.com/2021/06/25/perverted-ww2-nose-art-36-photos/

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A little history.
http://www.americanairmuseum.com/aircraft/11051