The Need For Speed

[kham]

Mirage F1 French AF

Some not bad low -level stuff

[schlamm]

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[kham]

617 Vulcans

English Electric Lightning

F4U Corsair

Few clips for Friday

[kham]

Navy Test Pilot Completes First F-35C Flight

Interesting , not sure what to make of the look of this thing. Seems odd looking at some angles, pretty sharp at others. The forward -hinged canopy is different, and it's certainly noisy enough for a single-engine bird

[nachtjaeger]

There's a "vanilla" Air Force version (F-35A) There's a STOVL version, too (F-35B.) Like the F-105- more of a bomb truck than a fighter- although it's supposed to be the equal of somewhere between 2 and 5 F-16 Fighting Falcons. Tons of internal storage for fuel and weapons, so it stays stealthy, and in a package the overall size of an F-16.

Navy Test Pilot Completes First F-35C Flight

Interesting , not sure what to make of the look of this thing. Seems odd looking at some angles, pretty sharp at others. The forward -hinged canopy is different, and it's certainly noisy enough for a single-engine bird

[water_bug_62208]

I wanted to share these clips of F-4 Phantoms taking off and share a story...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGXdLefL27M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rovrqWy ... re=related

Many years ago I was on a TWA connecting flight, possibly out of Saint Louis, Missouri, although it could've been Atlanta, Georgia. The plane I was on was taxing along then slowed and eventually came to a stop as the pilot waited for clearance to proceed onto the runway for takeoff. As we slowed the flight attendant came over the intercom...

"Ladies and gentlemen, in TWA's continuing effort to provide you, our customer, with faster service, we've added new aircraft to our fleet to get you there quick! If you'll look out the left side of the aircraft, you will see two of our newest additions!"

I was seated on the left side of the plane and had a window seat. As I looked out the window, I could only laugh and grin. There taxing by us, side-by-side, were two jungle camouflaged F-4 Phantoms of the Air National Guard. They obvious had priority for takeoff as they moved along.

I watched as side-by-side the F-4s swung smartly onto the runway and stopped. They ran through their final checks by manipulating their control surfaces, flexing their horizontal stabilizers, and kicking their rudders back and forth. Then the fun started as they locked up the brakes and lit their afterburners. Their twin exhausts glowed a brilliant orange as the thunder of their engines penetrated our aircraft and shook everything within the cabin. While many on the plane covered their ears in annoyance, me and a few other passengers who appreciated what we saw and understood the sound of freedom cheered the Phantoms on! They then released their brakes and roared down the runway in a high-peformance takeoff as they headed for the skies. Most impressive!

[nachtjaeger]

Thanks!

BTW, I ran across an interesting thing surfing the related links to the Vulcan vid. Apparently the same unseen hand which struck down the Avro Arrow (and possibly the YB-49 flying wing, also ahead of its time) killed the BAC TSR-2. Dang, those two aircraft (with engine and avionics upgrades) could still be in service today!

617 Vulcans

English Electric Lightning

F4U Corsair

Few clips for Friday

[Duncan Edwards]

I wanted to share these clips of F-4 Phantoms taking off and share a story...Most impressive!

Back in the '70s I got to spend a lot of time on the beach near Eglin AFB in the Florida panhandle. It was great to have a Phantom cruise slowly by as they got right down on the deck for "bikini patrol".

[kham]

Good old double ugly It still remains the meanest -and loudest- looking warbird ever produced.

Nacht, the thing about the B-model F-35 is that as of right now, it has been "deferred" which when you wade through the handwavium, might not ever make it to service. The A and C may be useable, since both models are heavily supported by other air forces. The CAF is talking about 70-80 of them, not sure which model, prob the A since carrier-capable is not needed. The ironic thing here, is that it's single-engine; once upon a time, when we had been operating another single-engine fighter (CF-104s) , one of the selling points for Hornets over Vipers was the 2-engine safety factor (utterly ignoring all the problems of asymmetric thrust when one goes tits up, but politicians are not known to be intelligent...) This translated into a significantly smaller number of aircraft, since the Hornet cost a bit more than the Viper.
Now, here we are again, but the topic never came up....

I do hope though, the C-mod works as advertised; naval aviation has basically bet the entire bird farms on one airframe.

I wanted to share these clips of F-4 Phantoms taking off and share a story...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGXdLefL27M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rovrqWy ... re=related

Many years ago I was on a TWA connecting flight, possibly out of Saint Louis, Missouri, although it could've been Atlanta, Georgia. The plane I was on was taxing along then slowed and eventually came to a stop as the pilot waited for clearance to proceed onto the runway for takeoff. As we slowed the flight attendant came over the intercom...

"Ladies and gentlemen, in TWA's continuing effort to provide you, our customer, with faster service, we've added new aircraft to our fleet to get you there quick! If you'll look out the left side of the aircraft, you will see two of our newest additions!"

I was seated on the left side of the plane and had a window seat. As I looked out the window, I could only laugh and grin. There taxing by us, side-by-side, were two jungle camouflaged F-4 Phantoms of the Air National Guard. They obvious had priority for takeoff as they moved along.

I watched as side-by-side the F-4s swung smartly onto the runway and stopped. They ran through their final checks by manipulating their control surfaces, flexing their horizontal stabilizers, and kicking their rudders back and forth. Then the fun started as they locked up the brakes and lit their afterburners. Their twin exhausts glowed a brilliant orange as the thunder of their engines penetrated our aircraft and shook everything within the cabin. While many on the plane covered their ears in annoyance, me and a few other passengers who appreciated what we saw and understood the sound of freedom cheered the Phantoms on! They then released their brakes and roared down the runway in a high-peformance takeoff as they headed for the skies. Most impressive!

[schlamm]

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