Aircraft/Spacecraft/Aviation Thread

Thank you and your father for your services.

The U.S Navy doesn't always do things the most rational way. Just look at the LCS and the camouflage uniform. I am a civilian, but even I don't see the point of a camouflage uniform for sailors on base or aboard ships.

You mean something like these planes ^

an F-18



an F-22



and another F-18

Looks like sonic boom, to be honest.

Shoot, you most be an old timer if you're still cruising on the Lancer. I heard somewhere that getting a Bomber ticket is one of the hardest jobs to get in the Air Force.

Seems to be a worry that the Schiaparelli is Beagle 2 version 2.0 that would be a huge disaster.

Needs more Corsair









Also pretty sure any variant Corsair would beat an F-35 like 9 out of 10 times.

***

XF4U-1 claimed to be the first American fighter to exceed 400mph in level flight in Oct 1940 (although Lockheed guys said the P-38 did this... no date for that).  It is certainly the first single engine American fighter to do this.



The trademark inverted gull wing was due to the decision to match the most powerful radial engine they could find (R-2800) with the largest prop on hand (13ft 4 inch), while attempting to keep the landing gear a reasonable length.

Interestingly, the XF4U had bays in the wings for bomblets and a glass window at the bottom of the cockpit.  This was so it could fly over bomber formations and drop the bomblets onto them.

For the production model, the bomblets were deleted, and the armament was changed to 6 x 0.50 cal machineguns in the wings (from 2 x 0.30 in cowl and 2 x 0.50's in the wing), which necessitated change to the wing tanks.  To keep the fuel as close to the center of gravity as they could, they moved the cockpit rearward and slapped a 237gal in front of it.

Unfortunately the long nose, combined with the original birdcage canopy and inability to change the seat height made visibility a bit poor on landing.  Also it had a tendency to drop the port wing at stall, and if that wasn't enough the strut damping wasn't ideal and could cause it to bounce off the deck at landing.  Eventually it got a better canopy, adjusting seat, revised struts, and a little wedge on the leading edge of the starboard wing to address these issues, but for 1943 it was to be relegated to land bases.  It was drastically better than the Wildcats the Marines were using and they embraced it enthusiastically.  Eventually they made their way back onto carriers in '44 after the British had worked out most of the quirks with landing them on their carriers.

Nicknames: Whistling Death, Ensign Eliminator, U Bird, Hog Nose, Bent Wing Bird

Charles Lindbergh worked as a test pilot for Vought, and demonstrated that it could fly with 4,000 lbs of bomb while working with MAG-31.  This was similar to the internal payload of the B-25 medium bomber.

The prototype XF4U's XR-2800-4 made 1850HP.  The F4U-5's R-2800-32 made 2850HP.

Pappy Boyington often took naps in his Corsair.  He rigged the controls with bungees.

F4U-5N was the only prop plane to shoot down a jet in Korea.  Nevermind that Folmar was himself shot down moments later by four others.

The Corsair was retired from US service in 1957, but it flew with Honduras until 1979.

F4U-7's of the Aeronavale were tested with SS.11 wire guided anti-tank missiles, but these were not used in combat.

Bummer... Well, one more probe for the pits on Mars. The red planet is known for having something of a poor reputation for probes and landers. This sets the ESA back several years, if not a decade or more, and will doubtlessly affect funding from the various countries of the EU, since the ESA has something of a reputation (unfairly, I believe) of not being able to yield results due to critical mission failures such as this.

Here's a very pretty little fighter.

It's in Spain during the civil war and it's a Bf109B. In context of its time and in relative terms (to the rest of the world) this was probably the best 109 and even best Messerschmitt overall. At its time the best fighter in the world.



Condor Legion, of course.

In the old BSN thread I took upon me to post icons. I'm going to do something else here, now and then. I'm going to post somewhat uncelebrated aircraft, and sometimes aircraft you don't know about. This is an uncelebrated aircraft.



The Curtiss Helldiver II. It was not a popular aircraft. At the start, everything was wrong with it. And to add injury it was poorly manufactured as well.
It got thoroughly delayed - a couple of years, I think - and the Navy demanded a long list of fixes and changes. Those changes eventually resulted in a huge weight increase, which impacted range and payload, and it never managed to become a relaxing aircraft to fly. Main cause was that it had insufficient separation between wings and tailplane. This was demanded by the compromise between the three services (It was its days F-35, Army, Marine, Navy) and it was even shorter than the F-35).

The SB2C  eventually emerged as a useful enough dive bomber.

However, despite its unpopularity it went on, manned up and did the job, racking up a credible war record and playing a major role in the sinking of most Japanese battleships and cruisers. It served throughout the war and was last used in combat as late as 1954, by France in Vietnam.

^Wow, the Son of a Bitch 2nd Class.

As far as the 109 is concerned, it was a good design and managed to stay relevant throughout the war with updates.

What is fun is looking at the Battle of Britain period and the competing updates between the Spitfire and the 109 (and then 190).

Fortunately no Mustang pics yet.

But might as well throw in the mighty Jug! Namesake of the A-10











"Hey, do you think four .50 calibers are enough?"

"No, that is too womanly. Better make it eight."

One of the few single engine, turbocharged fighters of the period.  That was part of why the belly was so fat (ducting was at the bottom of the fuselage). The P-47M was also one of the fastest prop planes of the war (473 mph).  Powered by the R-2800.

Read Zemke's Wolfpack a while back. Had a model of Schiling's D.

I'm more a fan of the faster ones like these

the F-16



the Mig 31



the F-4 Phantom



the Saab Vigen



the F-3 Tornado



and the F-15 E

Avro Vulcan:



Cold War era nuclear bomber, played a critical role in the Falklands War.

The last one stopped flying last year after it became too expensive to maintain (also not enough people left who knew how to fly/maintain it), and I was lucky enough to see one of its last displays. Makes a noise like nothing else you've ever heard. Kinda sad to think it'll never fly again.