The Airplane Thread

[Lady Jane]

A Messerspit ?

[Llarry]

Having posted photos of the Navy dirigibles of the 1930s, let me post a couple of photos of the fighter that the USS Akron and USS Macon carried. The Curtiss F9C-2 Sparrowhawk was quite small, which suited the application well. It was powered by a 9 cylinder Wright radial engine and the performance was not particularly good. But it could operate from airships. The landing gear could be removed and replaced with an auxiliary fuel tank if the little fighter was to launch from and recover to the airship. Only six production airplanes were built and only one survives.

[Lady Jane]

[3798j]

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[Boomer 2019]

Originally Posted by Lady Jane

Attachment 3175731

Still a cool pic even if it is a stinkin' Russki SU-35.

[Lady Jane]

Originally Posted by Boomer 2019

Still a cool pic even if it is a stinkin' Russki SU-35.

SU-57 Felon.

[Boomer 2019]

Ouch! Close.. but no cigar.

[Lady Jane]

Originally Posted by Boomer 2019

Ouch! Close.. but no cigar.

The sun was in your eyes...

[Lady Jane]

A nice gift idea. I you can find one.

[Lady Jane]

Bristol Bagshot

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

[Llarry]

Among the thousands of North American SNJ trainers produced during World War II,
SN = Scout Trainer
J = North American
there were a number modified for aircraft carrier operations. I was reminded of this in the navy thread, where we discussed the coal-fired, side paddle wheel-propelled training aircraft carriers USS Sable and USS Wolverine, which trained aviators in carrier operations on the Great Lakes. Here are a couple of photos of those SNJs -- one from 1943 and one painted in postwar markings.

[Lady Jane]

The Bristol 188 "Flaming Pencil".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_188

[3.0L]

Originally Posted by Lady Jane

A Messerspit ?


Attachment 3175250

Spitfire with ME-262 jet engines.

[Llarry]

General Atomics, the company that produced the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper UAVs, also designed and has built a larger turbofan-powered stealthy unmanned air vehicle. The U.S. Air Force bought one and designated it the MQ-20 but further orders have not been forthcoming. Wikipedia says an undisclosed customer has bought several though, so apparently it is not a lost cause.

[flybigjet]

The XB-70 Valkyrie.

Decades ahead of its time (e.g. compression wave effect with the folding wingtips), but damn, what a pretty bird!

[flybigjet]

The B-36 Peacemaker. One of the only bombers to have never dropped a bomb in anger during its operational career.

There are four left in the country-- I've ridden my bike to all four:

USAF Museum in Dayton, OH (indoors).
Pima Air Museum in Tucson, AZ (outdoors).
SAC Museum near Omaha, NE (indoors).
Castle Air Museum in Atwater, CA (outdoors).

Well worth it if you're ever in the area of one of these museums.....

[Llarry]

Originally Posted by flybigjet

The XB-70 Valkyrie.

Decades ahead of its time (e.g. compression wave effect with the folding wingtips), but damn, what a pretty bird!

And the related F-108, using the same J93 engines and the folding wingtips as well. Like the B-70, cancelled due to high cost.

[flybigjet]

A little B-2 Spirit action.

[flybigjet]

[M5Rick]

Originally Posted by Llarry

And the related F-108, using the same J93 engines and the folding wingtips as well. Like the B-70, cancelled due to high cost.

Not that dissimilar to the BAC TSR-2 that was scrapped also.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BAC_TSR-2

[Llarry]

Originally Posted by flybigjet

The B-36 Peacemaker. One of the only bombers to have never dropped a bomb in anger during its operational career.

As a kid visiting my grandparents in El Paso, Texas, I would see B-36s fly over out of Biggs AFB there. Incredible sound with those six R-4360 engines!

The other bomber that did not drop a bomb in anger was the Boeing B-47 Stratojet, a medium bomber with six J47 jets, Over 2,000 were built. The RB-47H Electronic Intelligence (ELINT) reconnaissance version can be said to have seen combat, though; RB-47Hs made many shallow overflights of the Soviet Union in the 1950s and were fired upon. In July 1960, a Soviet MiG-19 shot down an RB-47H with a crew of six; two crew members survived and were imprisoned for a while. And I also hear rumors that RB-36s made high-altitude overflights of the Soviet Union in the 1950s, but none got caught.

Two Navy bombers (heavy attack aircraft) did not drop bombs in anger: the North American AJ three-engine (two recips and a jet) Savage and the North American A-5A Vigilante. Like the RB-47, the AJ -- in AJ-2P recon form -- apparently did do overflights of China in the 1950s. And the A-5A morphed into the RA-5C reconnaissance version which saw plenty of combat in Vietnam but without weapons; many were shot down.

[Llarry]

@flybigjet's post about B-36s never seeing combat got me thinking about other cold war combat aircraft that never saw combat. In addition to those in the previous post, what I come up with is:
F-101 -- The fighter version did not see combat; the unarmed RF-101 was a mainstay of the Vietnam war until replaced by the RF-4C.
F-102 -- The Deuce was deployed to Southeast Asia but I think strictly in an interceptor role and I don't think it fired a shot.
F-106 -- The Six I'm pretty sure was strictly North America and Iceland. No combat.
F7U -- The Cutlass was strictly 1950s and never saw combat.
F3H -- The Demon was mostly 1950s; gone before Vietnam heated up.
F4D -- The Skyray (Ford) was the same as the F3H.

Oh, and what about the "other guys"? The ASW and patrol aircraft, which are also combat aircraft. Those I'm not so sure about; S-2s, P-2s and P-5 flying boats were all very active off the coast of Vietnam. The Grumman AF was deployed to the Korean war but might very well never have dropped a bomb or depth charge or fired a rocket. I'll count that one.