Unique aircraft

[THE PILGRIM]

In a previous submarine thread we seemed to be going sideways in airplanes. So let's do a unique one-of-a-kind US aircraft thread.
Since I mentioned the B-36 in the submarine thread, I will start with the cargo version which is the C-99
The Convair XC-99, AF Ser. No. 43-52436, was a prototype heavy cargo aircraft built by Convair for the United States Air Force. It was the largest piston-engined land-based transport aircraft ever built, and was developed from the B-36 bomber, sharing the wings and some other structures with it. The first flight was on 23 November 1947 in San Diego, California, and after testing it was delivered to the Air Force on 23 November 1949.
I have seen the C-99 a number of times down in San Antonio. I see online that it has since traveled to Wright-Patterson and then down to Tucson. So at this time it is not available anywhere for you to look at.
As I mentioned in the submarine thread, there is a great-looking B-36 over at Tucson.
What weird one-of-a-kind American plane have your seen?

 

[BillyMagg]

In a previous submarine thread we seemed to be going sideways in airplanes. So let's do a unique one-of-a-kind US aircraft thread.
Since I mentioned the B-36 in the submarine thread, I will start with the cargo version which is the C-99
The Convair XC-99, AF Ser. No. 43-52436, was a prototype heavy cargo aircraft built by Convair for the United States Air Force. It was the largest piston-engined land-based transport aircraft ever built, and was developed from the B-36 bomber, sharing the wings and some other structures with it. The first flight was on 23 November 1947 in San Diego, California, and after testing it was delivered to the Air Force on 23 November 1949.
I have seen the C-99 a number of times down in San Antonio. I see online that it has since traveled to Wright-Patterson and then down to Tucson. So at this time it is not available anywhere for you to look at.
As I mentioned in the submarine thread, there is a great-looking B-36 over at Tucson.
What weird one-of-a-kind American plane have your seen?

Loved the B-36 photo, and I personally have several pics of the old XC-99 that was at Kelly Field around March of 1997, as my Dad was at Wilford Hall, the Air Force Medical Center, now closed thanks to the BHO team. He received an adult stem cell transplant thanks to the USAF and his Dr. at Scott AFB. Their is a small museum at Rantoul, IL where the old Chanute AFB is located...there is B-36 there as well. My Dad has been gone nearly 12 years, but I am still thankfull for that crew in Texas, especially a Red Headed Major, who took a special interest in my Dad, and a really sweet little civilian social worker. I know the black British aircraft nestled under the wing was some sort of long distance racer????

The coolest aircraft at Kelly was the B-58 Hustler, now that was a true widowmaker, that was actually flown by good old Jimmy Stewart, he was quite an airman, besides being a great actor!

For a laugh, my little brother Dan was apprehended by the SPs at Kelly for taking pictures of a revetment full of F-16s, preparing to patrol the no-fly zone in Iraq. They were "armed and loaded", they took his film out of his camara and ordered him not to return to Kelly ever again! Two weeks later I was there in my US optical sunglasses, snapping salutes to the gate-guards, and no I was never in the USAF, just a brat, but I always saluted going through the gates anyway, even as a child???? My wife thought that was so Kool she begged me to go through again, which I did, it did make the old AFB feel at home.....

 

[BillyMagg]

In a previous submarine thread we seemed to be going sideways in airplanes. So let's do a unique one-of-a-kind US aircraft thread.
Since I mentioned the B-36 in the submarine thread, I will start with the cargo version which is the C-99
The Convair XC-99, AF Ser. No. 43-52436, was a prototype heavy cargo aircraft built by Convair for the United States Air Force. It was the largest piston-engined land-based transport aircraft ever built, and was developed from the B-36 bomber, sharing the wings and some other structures with it. The first flight was on 23 November 1947 in San Diego, California, and after testing it was delivered to the Air Force on 23 November 1949.
I have seen the C-99 a number of times down in San Antonio. I see online that it has since traveled to Wright-Patterson and then down to Tucson. So at this time it is not available anywhere for you to look at.
As I mentioned in the submarine thread, there is a great-looking B-36 over at Tucson.
What weird one-of-a-kind American plane have your seen?

On a more current note, I flew my little brother Dan's Cessna 150 up to Quincy, Illinois where the only civilian Mig-29s in the free world are in captivity. "Natasha", check out her first flight on You-Tube, was locked away in a hangar, but I did get to do a hands on of her two sisters, and they are way to Kool?????

 

[gfy1960]

Have always been a fan of the Osprey. Though until a few months ago I had only seen pictures.

I was working in the yard one day and heard the distinct sound of dual rotors. Expecting to see a Chinook I looked up to a desert tan Osprey flying over.

I wish I was fast enough to take a picture.

 

[shouldazagged]

Nothing weird or one-of-a-kind, but several years ago I took a short flight on a 1929 Ford Tri-Motor that was eight years old when I was born.

People who traveled clear across the U.S. on those things had to be tough. Wicker-and-wood seats, NO sound insulation, and so shatteringly noisy that conversation at less than a shout was impossible. It was like riding in a steel oil drum with many people drumming on it with lengths of pipe.

Those old birds must have been very cold in winter, and a rough ride in any kind of turbulence. But I'm sure people in 1929 would have considered it a marvelous way to travel.

 

[Scottwig]

The B-17 Aluminum Overcast is in Columbus OH at the OSU airport this weekend. Check it out if you're in the 'hood!
Still some seats available for rides, too.

 

[DR505]

Here's my favorite, always be one of a kind to me...I took this one off the San Diego coast in '90, one of our very few Mach 2 capable birds:

 

[LostintheOzone]

B-36

I remember seeing the last of the B-36's in operation. I lived in El Paso TX in the 50's and there were some at Biggs AFB (SAC). They flew right over our house as we were only a few miles from the base. I've also been to Wright Pat in Ohio. Some interesting stuff in there and worth a visit.

 

[Kanewpadle]

This was the baddest aircraft of the 60's other than the SR-71. So far ahead of it's time, it just didn't fit in.

B-70 Valkyie

 

[carpriver]

As and old Air Force air freighter. I would not want to load the C99 everything would have had been floor loaded.
I had the chance to offload one of the last C-133 in 1968 at Cam Rhan Bay. It had huge rolls of electric wire.

 

[LVSteve]

Convair F2Y Sea Dart is close to unique, but it was not the first jet seaplane or flying boat fighter. I believe that honour belonged to the Saunders Roe SR.A/1

 

[Road Rat]

Here is one - definitely one of a kind - built in the early 1960's to collect radar information from soviet nose cones launched from Tyuratam missile site in what is today Kazakhstan to the Kamchatka peninsula impact area.

Extremely expensive aircraft - the extra space in the fuselage forward of the wings is the radom housing. The on board radar could track a one square meter target at 2,000 nautical miles. Cooling system for the radar was massive.

It operated for years from Shemya Island Alaska until it got caught in a crosswind on landing was was flipped and totaled!!

 

[LTC]

Back in my USAF days, when I was more of a sprout, I spent time at the Chanute AFB twice. There was a nice collection of static aircraft scattered around the field. Those that come to mind are the B-36 and a B-58. I love looking at B-36's and really enjoy watching the movie "Strategic Air Command" with Jimmy Steward and I think June Allison. Great shots of the B-36's in flight and the musical score suited the movie. There were also scenes with B-47's.

LTC

 

[rwsmith]

Flying Wing

Northrop YB-49 Flying Wing. Really cool looking plane that didn't do much.

Famous for dropping the A-Bomb on the Martians in "War of the Worlds"


Aw, that's not really fair. Development was abruptly canceled. The plane could have done the job it was designed for and the concept was later used in the B-2 Bomber. In 1980 the elderly Jack Northrop was allowed to see one of the B-2 prototypes, vindicating his ideas.

 

[BigBoy99]

Worst Aircarft

I have a book entitled, "World's Worst Aircraft." Very interesting as it has a lot of the ones which were the flops.

 

[Hamster65]

Here's one for you. The F-104E Starfighter.
A big *** jet engine, tiny little wings and some poor fool up front to steer the thing.

 

[427mach1]

Here's one for you. The F-104E Starfighter.
A big *** jet engine, tiny little wings and some poor fool up front to steer the thing.

For a "one-off version", look up the Lockheed CL-1200. When Lockheed closed the Burbank plant in the early 90's, a couple of our guys went out and got all the wind tunnel models and records. The inventory is maintained in Georgia and we have a high speed wind tunnel model that I initially thought was an F-104. It turned out that they had taken the F-104 model and converted it for testing in the CL-1200 configuration. It appeared that the model had just been thrown in the box when the program was cancelled.

 

[cmort666]

Northrop YB-49 Flying Wing. Really cool looking plane that didn't do much.

Famous for dropping the A-Bomb on the Martians in "War of the Worlds"


Aw, that's not really fair. Development was abruptly canceled. The plane could have done the job it was designed for and the concept was later used in the B-2 Bomber. In 1980 the elderly Jack Northrop was allowed to see one of the B-2 prototypes, vindicating his ideas.

The problem with the YB-49 was that, like the similar German concepts, it wasn't operationally practical until the development of computers small enough to fit inside an airplane and offload some of the control duties from the pilot.

Inherently unstable planes like the F-117 and B-2 have computerized control systems which relieve the pilot of the the need to constantly keep the aircraft from diverging. Imagine what it would be like to try to fly the plane pictured below WITHOUT a computer constantly keeping it trimmed:

 

[cmort666]

Here's one for you. The F-104E Starfighter.
A big *** jet engine, tiny little wings and some poor fool up front to steer the thing.

The F-104 was a good plane in its intended role as a high altitude, high speed interceptor.

Where things went off the rails was when the Luftwaffe (and others) tried to turn it into an economy version of the F-105. It was NEVER intended to be a close support aircraft with heavy loads of air to ground ordnance. That LOTS of Luftwaffe F-104s augured in shouldn't have surprised anybody. It was like taking a Spitfire MkV and trying to use it like a P-47.

 

[billwill]

Have always been a fan of the Osprey. Though until a few months ago I had only seen pictures.

I was working in the yard one day and heard the distinct sound of dual rotors. Expecting to see a Chinook I looked up to a desert tan Osprey flying over.

I wish I was fast enough to take a picture.

View attachment 154357

Lots of times while fishing along the NC coast near Camp LeJeune, you will get to see the Osprey in action. Cool plane but not exactly "stealthly" That is one loud sucker! Amazing when it transitions from vertical to forward flight.