Years ago I met a guy from Cuba, he was a fairly new immigrant who finally just got fed up with the Commie B.S. and got out with his family's money. He also commented on the supermarket and told me one day "Chico, Ju can get bananas all year round."
Walkaround MiG-25 the last operational foxbat in the world. The end of a legend
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Years ago I met a guy from Cuba, he was a fairly new immigrant who finally just got fed up with the Commie B.S. and got out with his family's money. He also commented on the supermarket and told me one day "Chico, Ju can get bananas all year round."
Many times I have walked the flight line.
nicky4968
Member
When I was young I was a Banshee.
Now I’m a C5A.
Now I’m a C5A.
As a wee lad the F-104 Starfighter was my airborne infatuation.
Mine was the B-58 Hustler. I mean, it was the Hustler after all.
YeshuaIsa53
Member
Had a model of the X-15 as a youngster.
4,520 mph
I like a lot of our flying machines, too.
4,520 mph
I like a lot of our flying machines, too.
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I grew up in Lancaster CA with the kids of the people associated with the all of the test flights at Edwards.
Many times I would be in class when a sonic boom, or 2 or 3, would hit and someone would say, "Oh, that was Capt/Lt. somebody, they are testing the X-__" or some such.
Downtown Lancaster businesses all had heavy plate glass windows curtesy of the United States, the early store front glass broke due to the sonic booms.
Many times I would be in class when a sonic boom, or 2 or 3, would hit and someone would say, "Oh, that was Capt/Lt. somebody, they are testing the X-__" or some such.
Downtown Lancaster businesses all had heavy plate glass windows curtesy of the United States, the early store front glass broke due to the sonic booms.
LVSteve
Member
We heard a surprising number of sonic booms in Ft Worth when I lived there '67-'68. We assumed they were associated with the development of the F-111.
Used to hear sonic booms all the time back in the 70s-early 80s. Back then the Air Guard was flying F4s.
venomballistics
Member
The jet age gave us a huge performance boost ... but the craft lost a lot of soul.
WW2 embodied a certain pinnacle of aircraft design. No aircraft of the war could be accused of being sterile.
WW2 embodied a certain pinnacle of aircraft design. No aircraft of the war could be accused of being sterile.
LVSteve
Member
Hmm. I've read the biographies of a couple of test pilots from that era, and it is clear to me that the "craft" came in varying degrees of competence.
Countrycuz
Member
I remember as a kid in 1960s flyover country jets were unusual, even airliners. I saw some with a distinct delta wing, I always assumed they were F-102 or F-106's. There was a sonic boom once in a while.
cherrypointmarine
Member
I hear you CH4 ! There's nothing like seeing an F-4 taking a cat shot at night . Seeing one with a full combat load you have to wonder how it gets off the ground . They did it all , air to air , bombing runs , recon and the wild weasel .
YeshuaIsa53
Member
Think I'll like the X-59.
YeshuaIsa53
Member
We may be facing more of the Sukhoi Su-57 in the future. It is one of my favorite fighters, though not ours.
The steel was typical Soviet economy. I think it had titanium only on leading edges. The rivets weren't flush EXCEPT those in the airstream where it affect drag. And the electronic tubes. The tubes were extremely rugged and would take an Electromagnetic Burst better than our integrated circuits as well as surviving the extremes of cold and air pressure from ground to altitude.
ggibson511960
Member
Soviet Bottle Rocket
Like all aircraft the MiG-25 is an arrangement of compromises. The goal was to go as fast as possible, as high as possible to act as a point defense interceptor. The Soviets were wary of the supersonic B-70 and other high altitude, high speed penetrator threats under development. The MiG-25 effectively countered the threats that never materialized, a triumph of Soviet central planning. That's not to say that the MiG-25 was not capable. It was the second fastest production military aircraft, exceeded only by our SR-71. All that speed came at a cost. The early engines were like bottle rockets with 50 to 100 hour service lives, later extended to 1,000 hrs. Soviet economic limitations held the Tumansky R-15BD-300 engines to the crudest of designs, burning enormous amounts of fuel and narrowly optimized for high altitude, high speed operation. Incredibly, they were single shaft turbojets with fixed, non-cooled stators and no internal blade cooling. The power turbine was a single stage. The engine made incredible power by using fuel guzzling some afterburning in most operational modes except subsonic.
Speed excursions over Mach 3 were possible, but at the cost of immediate engine replacement, a Cold War bottle rocket akin to the German Me-163 Komet. It did manage to shoot down a few U.S. jet aircraft in Middle East scuffles, but allowances must be made for pilotage.
BTW, my guess for those weird cruciform thingies in the inlet ducts is spargers for fire suppression liquid. Every part of the Mig-25 ran hot, especially the engines. They could be straightening vanes or hot wire anemometer flow measurement probes. I love aeronautical puzzles.
Like all aircraft the MiG-25 is an arrangement of compromises. The goal was to go as fast as possible, as high as possible to act as a point defense interceptor. The Soviets were wary of the supersonic B-70 and other high altitude, high speed penetrator threats under development. The MiG-25 effectively countered the threats that never materialized, a triumph of Soviet central planning. That's not to say that the MiG-25 was not capable. It was the second fastest production military aircraft, exceeded only by our SR-71. All that speed came at a cost. The early engines were like bottle rockets with 50 to 100 hour service lives, later extended to 1,000 hrs. Soviet economic limitations held the Tumansky R-15BD-300 engines to the crudest of designs, burning enormous amounts of fuel and narrowly optimized for high altitude, high speed operation. Incredibly, they were single shaft turbojets with fixed, non-cooled stators and no internal blade cooling. The power turbine was a single stage. The engine made incredible power by using fuel guzzling some afterburning in most operational modes except subsonic.
Speed excursions over Mach 3 were possible, but at the cost of immediate engine replacement, a Cold War bottle rocket akin to the German Me-163 Komet. It did manage to shoot down a few U.S. jet aircraft in Middle East scuffles, but allowances must be made for pilotage.
BTW, my guess for those weird cruciform thingies in the inlet ducts is spargers for fire suppression liquid. Every part of the Mig-25 ran hot, especially the engines. They could be straightening vanes or hot wire anemometer flow measurement probes. I love aeronautical puzzles.
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THIS is GORGEOUS.....
The P-80 Shooting Star. When these break formation I LOVE that cruciform shape in the blue sky!
I used to live in the flight line of the Charleston AFB. ANG F-106s galore and sometmes they'd do tricks. One was doing HOT touch and goes and almost ran over a light plane coming in for a landing. One thing about the 106, the only good view was straight ahead. When an airshow was coming in, you'd see some great and really weird looking planes. There was a pasture at the end of our street where my Sis in Law was horseback riding when the B-2 bomber circled over them. This was before there was even SUPPOSED TO BE a B-2 Bomber. Some brass came out and asked them politely to forget what they saw.
PS: It may seem weird, but one of my favorite Thunderbirds planes was the T-38. They weren't supersonic but didn't need to be and their nimble and plenty fast enough performance at the air shows as well as the cool paint job gave me goose bumps.
The P-80 Shooting Star. When these break formation I LOVE that cruciform shape in the blue sky!
I used to live in the flight line of the Charleston AFB. ANG F-106s galore and sometmes they'd do tricks. One was doing HOT touch and goes and almost ran over a light plane coming in for a landing. One thing about the 106, the only good view was straight ahead. When an airshow was coming in, you'd see some great and really weird looking planes. There was a pasture at the end of our street where my Sis in Law was horseback riding when the B-2 bomber circled over them. This was before there was even SUPPOSED TO BE a B-2 Bomber. Some brass came out and asked them politely to forget what they saw.
PS: It may seem weird, but one of my favorite Thunderbirds planes was the T-38. They weren't supersonic but didn't need to be and their nimble and plenty fast enough performance at the air shows as well as the cool paint job gave me goose bumps.
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