Unique aircraft

[zoom6zoom]

Unique in that it went into a vertical climb, opened the bomb door located between the engines and the payload used gravity to drop.

But not used in that role, as it was believed that carrier landings flexed the frame enough that the ordnance might not eject successfully. So thus became the RA5

 

[zzzippper]

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

I was at an LZ in Taji, Iraq one night waiting for a Blackhawk. Four Ospreys whizzed (no better word to describe the sound) in out of the night, rotated from horizontal flight to vertical, and landed. It seemed like it was out of Star Wars.

I've worked on military airplanes all my life but the most unique I have seen was the XB-70 at Wright-Pat.

 

[zzzippper]

Beechcraft A17F, the Howard Hughes racer.
The "holy graal" of unique antique airplanes. People have spent fortunes and years searching for it.
A friend of mine was searching for it in the late'70s and snooped in a lot of buildings and on the sites of long-abandoned airfields in California. Some buildings had not been opened in decades. No luck.
I'd sure like to fly it!
View attachment 154451

Looks like a stagger wing Beech.

 

[zzzippper]

A while back, I met a retired Marine brigadier flyer here in town.
I Ask him what he flew in WWII.
He said he flew several aircraft, but at the start of the war he was flying the F2F Buffalo. It was not just slow, it was painfully slow.
When translated into Japanese, it means big slow ugly airplane that's a lot of fun to shoot down.
Of his original squadron at the start of the war, he was the only one to survive the war.

Yet the Finns used it to great effect. Just as the Soviets used the P-39 and P-63. Two more airplanes we built but weren't smart enough to use.

 

[hittman77]

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.

Funny ..... I saw those sitting out on the concrete late this afternoon! Welcome to Quincy BillyMagg.

 

[nagant]

How about a twin mustang

 

[THE PILGRIM]

How about a twin mustang

You bet! The only one ever saw is down at Lackland AFB, TX.

 

[MrTrolleyguy]

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

 

[wundudnee]

My Dad worked for Convair in 1952 on the B-36. His job was installing control cables down through the wings. He said he thought he put the same cable in and out over and over as they changed length by temperature.

He also said for a Kansas boy he never came so close to freezing to death down on the SanDiego bay at night.

My son was a REO on an EA-6B Prowler that was a stretched version of the EA-6 intruder. They called the station wagon with mom, pop and all the kids. The crew was a pilot and three REOS.

He flew two tours off the Nimitz around Iraq.

 

[BillyMagg]

Yet the Finns used it to great effect. Just as the Soviets used the P-39 and P-63. Two more airplanes we built but weren't smart enough to use.

Actually the Soviets weren't savvy enough to realize how dangerous those two aircraft were to fly, with the mid engine, and driveshaft, a stall/spin was a thrill waiting for the opportunity to happen. Give me a Mustang, Spitfire, Me-109, Hawker Sea Fury, even a Thunderbolt, but please don't give me a P-39 or P-63, they did probably beat freezing to death. Very kool looking aircraft, but that aft CG was BAAAAAD! The Mustang, P-38, Hellcat, Corsair, and Bearcat where all outstanding and fast... billy

 

[BillyMagg]

Funny ..... I saw those sitting out on the concrete late this afternoon! Welcome to Quincy BillyMagg.

Thanks hittman77, I graduated from HLG in May of 84, loved going to the Quincy Mall, nice to meet another resident of Central Obamastan....how else do you think we got those Migs, have you seen the old Mig-21, apparently that and Natasha are locked away on the field???

 

[Hamster65]

As a Navy brat growing up in the late 60's, early 70's, I thought this plane was the coolest. I had never seen a plane with drooping tail wings. I always thought it looked pretty wicked. Now though , I like the looks of the A10. If I could be a pilot, that would be the plane for me. You have two big engines, fly slow, shoot everything walking, crawling, standing, running. Hey what is there not to like.

Heh..........I almost forgot about the A-10. It is indeed one of the coolest aircraft the Air Force has ever used.

 

[rcnixon]

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!!

I believe that's the RC-135E Rivet Amber, it came to a bad end in the Bering Strait in 1969.

Boeing RC-135 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the early 90's, I used to see what I believe was a Pitcairn Autogiro flying west of I-287 in NJ. Ironically, I was at the old North Branch RC flying field when I would see it.

 

[DR505]

My Dad worked for Convair in 1952 on the B-36. His job was installing control cables down through the wings. He said he thought he put the same cable in and out over and over as they changed length by temperature.

He also said for a Kansas boy he never came so close to freezing to death down on the SanDiego bay at night.

My son was a REO on an EA-6B Prowler that was a stretched version of the EA-6 intruder. They called the station wagon with mom, pop and all the kids. The crew was a pilot and three REOS.

He flew two tours off the Nimitz around Iraq.

VAQ-138 was in CVW-9 when I was on the Nimitz in VF-211.

 

[PR24]

Caspian Sea Monster

Soviet Ekranoplan, ground effect plane/boat. The pilots had to have steady hands on the yoke.

 

[nagant]

You bet! The only one ever saw is down at Lackland AFB, TX.

I saw one at the confederate air force in Harlingon Texas years ago. The old pilot said a young gut tried to land it (ten feet of the ground). Needed a reversed pitch prop for one side. I don't remember it having 2 cock pits but may have.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Actually the Soviets weren't savvy enough to realize how dangerous those two aircraft were to fly, with the mid engine, and driveshaft, a stall/spin was a thrill waiting for the opportunity to happen. Give me a Mustang, Spitfire, Me-109, Hawker Sea Fury, even a Thunderbolt, but please don't give me a P-39 or P-63, they did probably beat freezing to death. Very kool looking aircraft, but that aft CG was BAAAAAD! The Mustang, P-38, Hellcat, Corsair, and Bearcat where all outstanding and fast... billy

American hero Hervey Stockman flew a P-39 at gunnery school at Kingman, Arizona. He later flew the P -51 Mustang in combat.
Hervey said that all a hot day on the gunnery range, but you needed some fresh air you just rolled down the window. The mid-engine P-39 have a door and rolldown window. Will do a thread on Hervey down the road.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

How about a twin mustang

Do not realize that's a Twin Mustang was flying that recently. The one you saw flying did later crash. It and one other are now at Wright Patterson. There's one at Lackland and two others in private hands, for a total of five in the world.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Yet the Finns used it to great effect. Just as the Soviets used the P-39 and P-63. Two more airplanes we built but weren't smart enough to use.

The British also weren't smart enough to fly it. They were begging for Air Planes, we sent them some P-39s. They test flew a few, and decided This Dog Won't Hunt. They sent them down to North Africa where they were effective in the ground attack mission.
The cannons firing through the prop was effective. That's what the Ruskies used them for. You put them up against the 109s, you gonna have a short day!

 

[cmort666]

A while back, I met a retired Marine brigadier flyer here in town.
I Ask him what he flew in WWII.
He said he flew several aircraft, but at the start of the war he was flying the F2F Buffalo. It was not just slow, it was painfully slow.
When translated into Japanese, it means big slow ugly airplane that's a lot of fun to shoot down.
Of his original squadron at the start of the war, he was the only one to survive the war.

The Finns did much better with them against the Soviets.

Of course the Finnish Buffaloes didn't have all of the naval junk on them that the U.S. ones did, and they were fighting the Soviets, who'd just gotten done slaughtering their own officer corps more efficiently than the Germans did in '41.