The Airplane Thread

[sygazelle]

Originally Posted by Dang3r

I'd say these carriers and the planes have come a long way. Here's a photo of my Dad's carrier, the USS Bataan, and also a photo of him landing his F4U Corsair. He loved the plane. Landing on carriers in the F4U, not so much.

[Lady Jane]

Short Sturgeon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Sturgeon

[ASAP]

Originally Posted by Lady Jane

They have certainly modernized their fleet since the '80s when they were still flying old Soviet aircrafts with questionable safety records.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LOT_Polish_Airlines

TU-134.

Attachment 3087349

IL-62.

Attachment 3087350

LOT Polish at this point has exclusively Boeing and Embraer aircraft...

Shorhaul is served almost entirely by 737 max / Embraer E and long haul is 787 Dreamliners.

The airline has had only 2 serious fatal accidents in the modern era and it was on the same soviet aircraft in the 1980s... one had a mechanical malfunction that the soviets tried to hide and the other was a poor original design.

Since the time, the safety record has been perfect.

[2008M36MT]

Originally Posted by chassis

Boeing 737 Max

I was flying twice a month on the LOT 737 Max usually, LHR <> WAW, right before Boeing grounded them. That photo brings back memories of running through that airport. I flew on their Dreamliner too from WAW on the way to Tel Aviv.

[Llarry]

Originally Posted by Lady Jane

Short Sturgeon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Sturgeon

The Brits have made some iconic wonderful airplanes, but geez some of 'em are seriously ugly!

[flybigjet]

The Avro CF-105. The best interceptor that never was.

https://www.19fortyfive.com/2023/01/...ssian-bombers/

[ezaircon4jc]

I always wanted to have a flight of two of these so I could call traffic as a pair of Shorts!

[Lady Jane]

Grumman OV-1 Mohawk

[Lady Jane]

Originally Posted by ezaircon4jc

I always wanted to have a flight of two of these so I could call traffic as a pair of Shorts!

[Fly320s]

Originally Posted by ezaircon4jc

I always wanted to have a flight of two of these so I could call traffic as a pair of Shorts!

The only plane to get a bird strike.... from the rear.

[Lady Jane]

Beriev Be-12 Chaika

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beriev_Be-12

[Llarry]

Resurrecting the topic of "most-produced" aircraft, I did a bit of research on the most-produced helicopters. This one is easy:
1) Bell UH-1 "Huey" 16,000+ (way out in front! I'm unsure whether this total includes the related AH-1 Cobra gunship)
2) Bell 206 Jetranger 7,340+ (I live in Christmas tree country and every year in late fall and early winter, the sound of helicopters -- mostly 206s -- picking up bundles of trees is incessant)
3) Mil Mi-2 5,497

Closing in on the Mi-2 is the Sikorsky H-60/S-70 helicopter; Google tells me the current production count is about 5,000

[Lady Jane]

Sud Aviation Vautour

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sud_Aviation_Vautour

[F87M2.]

mn

[Lady Jane]

English Electric Canberra.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Electric_Canberra

[flybigjet]

Originally Posted by Lady Jane

English Electric Canberra.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Electric_Canberra


Attachment 3089725

Trivia: They used to call this the “Cranberry”.
When I was a kid in Japan in the ‘70’s, they had a few of these with swappable wings- they were VERY long (think: glider).

They would climb super high at max endurance and fly around sampling the air from Soviet nuclear testing.

When they landed at Yokota AB, they’d have to go to remote parking and have the entire aircraft washed repeatedly with a special solution until it wasn’t “hot” (i.e. radioactive) anymore.

Not so sure that was a great job flying those modified sniffer jets.

R.

[Llarry]

Originally Posted by flybigjet

Trivia: They used to call this the “Cranberry”.
When I was a kid in Japan in the ‘70’s, they had a few of these with swappable wings- they were VERY long (think: glider).

They would climb super high at max endurance and fly around sampling the air from Soviet nuclear testing.

When they landed at Yokohama AB, they’re have to go to remote parking and have the entire aircraft washed repeatedly with a special solution until it wasn’t “hot” anymore.

Not so sure that was a great job flying those modified sniffer jets.

R.

The WB-57F (or RB-57F in some versions); almost a rival to the U-2 in altitude capability. Still flying all these years later but flown now by NASA. (Who I believe flies classified missions for the Air Force with the aircraft now and again. Note the small auxiliary jet engines under the wings.)

[Llarry]

The USA, aware of the Canberra's excellent altitude capabilities, thought "what if we gave the B-57 (American variant of the Canberra) more wing" and came up with the RB-57D. Weight is the enemy of altitude and unfortunately the wing was not up to the task. Several aircraft suffered broken wing spars, which led to the retirement of the RB-57D and the development of the RB-57F.

Here's a dramatic photo of an RB-57D sampling radiation from a nuclear test; the mushroom cloud is visible in the background.

[Lady Jane]

Originally Posted by Llarry

. Note the small auxiliary jet engines under the wings.)

I found this tidbit:

" The RB-57F was also fitted with two detachable Pratt & Whitney J60-P-9 turbojets mounted in pods attached to the wings outboard of the main engines. These auxiliary engines were air-started and only for use at altitude in flight. At altitudes above 40,000 feet (12,000 m), the J60s generated about 3,300 pounds-force (15 kN) of thrust each and increased the maximum altitude of the RB-57F by 2,000–3,000 feet (610–910 m)"

[3.0L]

I flew on the C-123 from our base camp to Ben Hoa AFB and back when I went on R & R. If I recall the history correctly, it was powered by two R-2800 radial engines plus two small turbojet engines (one under each wing, just outboard of the radial engines). The turbojet engines were usually used to assist the short field takeoff and have no throttles -they're either On or Off. And man, did that airplane move out smartly! I was very impressed that such an ugly work horse could perform so well. Ours was a bit of a beater as it had various zinc-chromate painted aluminum patches here and there.

[flybigjet]

Originally Posted by 3.0L

I flew on the C-123 from our base camp to Ben Hoa AFB and back when I went on R & R. If I recall the history correctly, it was powered by two R-2800 radial engines plus two small turbojet engines (one under each wing, just outboard of the radial engines). The turbojet engines were usually used to assist the short field takeoff and have no throttles -they're either On or Off. And man, did that airplane move out smartly! I was very impressed that such an ugly work horse could perform so well. Ours was a bit of a beater as it had various zinc-chromate painted aluminum patches here and there.

It was originally designed as an assault glider- the Chase XCG-20/XG-20.

[Lady Jane]

Originally Posted by flybigjet

It was originally designed as an assault glider- the Chase XCG-20/XG-20.

Interesting! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chase_XCG-20