Picture of the day

Awesome pic of the 104s fat tony!
I think that's my new Desk Top Pic for awhile....I was running this one.

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That picture of the Golden Hawks takes me back. the first big air show I remember going to was at NAS Pensacola. On the ticket that day were; the Blue Angels, the Thunderbirds and the Golden Hawks. Pensacola has always been home base for the Blues, Eglin AFB is about 45 miles away and at the time was home for the Thunderbirds. In the 60s is was common for the two teams to do combined shows. The Blues were flying the F11, the Thunderbirds the F100 and of course the F86 for the Hawks.
 
Of all the rides the Blue Angels have had, the absolute worst may well have been the Cutlass.

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This from Wikipedia:

The Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels, flew two F7U-1 Cutlasses (BuNos 124426 & 124427) as a side demonstration during their 1953 show season in an effort to promote the new aircraft, but did not use them as part of their regular formation demonstration. Both the pilots and ground crews found the aircraft generally unsatisfactory, and it was apparent that the type was still experiencing multiple teething troubles. Among the failures were landing gear failures, hydraulic failures, engine fires while in the air and on one occasion a landing gear door fell on a spectator grandstand but through sheer luck did not injure anyone.

During the Blue Angels' first airshow appearance in 1953, pilot Lt Edward "Whitey" Feightner, the former program manager for the F7U, experienced a total loss of hydraulics on a full afterburner takeoff and steep climb. While trying to gain enough altitude for ejection he was able to stay with the aircraft until the backup system came on. He clipped trees on the end of the runway, causing the left engine to flame out. With hydraulic fluid streaming back in a bright flame, he made a hard turn and got the plane back on the runway, much to the excitement of the crowd. Later, while traveling to an airshow at Naval Air Station Glenview in Chicago, Illinois, another Blue Angel pilot, Lt Harding MacKnight, experienced an engine flameout in his Cutlass, forcing him to make an emergency landing at NAS Glenview. Traveling with him, Feightner was redirected to make his landing at Chicago's former Orchard Airpark, which had been expanded and renamed O'Hare Airport. The runway had just been completed and was covered with peach baskets to prevent aircraft from landing until it was opened. Feightner was told to ignore the baskets and land on the new runway. As a result, Feightner's F7U became the first aircraft to land on the new runway for Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.

Following these incidents, the two Cutlasses were deemed unsuitable for demonstration flying and were flown to Naval Air Station Memphis, Tennessee, where they were abandoned to become aircraft maintenance instructional airframes for the Naval Technical Training Center.
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And the classiest support aircraft ever fielded by anyone had to have been their Constellation.

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And here's a lot of talent in one picture:

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fat tony said:
A lot of the CF104 Starfighter pics at the link show Cdn. jets with recce pods. Similarly I viewed the airframe of a Polish Mig 21 now in the US which was last used in the recce role. At one pt. it was possibly set up to hunt CF104's. Who knows?
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Any of the Polish MiG-21M/MF/PF/PFM (NATO 'Fishbed J, D and F') fighter variants and other Warsaw Pact MiG-21s would have hunted the CF-104, given the opportunity.

The Polish (and other Warsaw Pact operated) MiG-21RF (NATO 'Fishbed H') variant would have carried the Type D optical reconnaissance pod (basically a daytime only camera pod) on the centerline, but CF-104s on the ground would have been a target like any other.
 
fat tony said:
A lot of the CF104 Starfighter pics at the link show Cdn. jets with recce pods. Similarly I viewed the airframe of a Polish Mig 21 now in the US which was last used in the recce role. At one pt. it was possibly set up to hunt CF104's. Who knows?
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After 1975 all of Warsaw Pact air forces training included low level interception.Push for it was big enough to justify refurbishment of Mig-15,17,19 that would otherwise go to smelter.
Those low level interceptor trainers usually had camo applied but sometime in early 80s that was changed and factory grey paint was used.
Exception was Soviet Far East districts where camo on interceptors was used possibly all the way till 2000s.I don't know what are regulations now.

Mandatory picture:

Completely forgotten French Breguet XIX.Export hit in its day,it served in great many air forces and was used to set a long list of records.Fought in many wars in Asia,S.America,Africa and Europe.Afaik Croat Air Force was last user of armed version-it spotted and attacked Tito's partisans in Yugoslavia .

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Fuselage skeleton of a Vickers Wellington Type 271 prototype medium bomber aircraft.
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Appears there is a stowaway on board.
 
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donor said:
After 1975 all of Warsaw Pact air forces training included low level interception.Push for it was big enough to justify refurbishment of Mig-15,17,19 that would otherwise go to smelter.
Those low level interceptor trainers usually had camo applied but sometime in early 80s that was changed and factory grey paint was used.
Exception was Soviet Far East districts where camo on interceptors was used possibly all the way till 2000s.I don't know what are regulations now.

Mandatory picture:

Completely forgotten French Breguet XIX.Export hit in its day,it served in great many air forces and was used to set a long list of records.Fought in many wars in Asia,S.America,Africa and Europe.Afaik Croat Air Force was last user of armed version-it spotted and attacked Tito's partisans in Yugoslavia .

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Thanks for that one, mate. I'd never heard of it.
 
Barnes Wallis designed a lot, Wellington, producing first the Tallboy (6 tonnes) and then the Grand Slam (10 tonnes) deep-penetration earthquake bombs and of course the dambuster bomb.

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fat tony said:
He had an engineering degree through University of London. Pretty cool. Looks like it might have been via correspondence.
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Seems people had a much more creative mentality in those days, lots never got a university education and performed way beyond their pay grade.

Grizz
 
Grizzly Adams said:
Seems people had a much more creative mentality in those days, lots never got a university education and performed way beyond their pay grade.

Grizz
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Electronics were pretty basic and computers were rudimentary at best. Everything was mechanical. Much different from today. Still lots of genius out there and even lots of opportunities but mostly in 2nd and 3rd world nations. It seems that everything has to be accessible through an I pad or cell phone in 1st world nations.

Mr Barnes Wallace had a great mind and understood everything that was structurally needed at the time for the Vickers Windsor. Likely, he even understood the electronics and hydraulics. Same goes for the engines/fuel. He was the right person in the right place and proved it. Likely lots of the innovations he designed into the Vickers Windsor were adapted to the Lancasters which were already in service and manufacturing facilities were also set up and running.

Still lovely utility style bomber with an exceptionally strong air frame, which was likely very expensive/tedious to build at the time.
 
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