The sky-high aircraft and aviation thread

Second British F-35B delivered to Eglin--flown by a British pilot

The short take-off vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft, known as ZM 136, was flown to the sea-side base by RAF Sqn Ldr Jim Schofield. It was accompanied by a US Marine Corps F-35 flown by USMC Maj Adam Levine.

Cool.

At least this one doesn't choke the pilots. I still find it very incredulous this craft can replace a host of other craft in their roles.

Single mission aircraft (expect the A-10) are gonna go the way of the dodo. The problem was that the Do D added VTOL in the mix. That's like asking for a microwave that can read poetry. If the USMC needed VTOL so bad, they could have designed an aircraft with JSF systems, weapons and landing gear but made for them.

There is no way in hell the JSF can replace the A-10 in overall ground attack capability. The A-10 hails from the days of expecting planes to take a hit. Or in the case of the Ugly flying gun dozens of hits and losing chunks of wings and keep flying. The aircraft is amazing at surviving catstrophic damage.

I agree the Marines should have had a VTOL or STOL type craft seperately designed for them from the ground up. The VTOL model is looking like the weakest link in the F-35's. I think the other two in the long run might be ok but the Marine one bothers me.

No matter how bad our current aircraft woes are they can't be as bad as this horrible thing. The "Thunder Screech" it generated negative physical effects including nausea and head aches. Reported one case of prolonged exposure incapacitated someone inside another craft and gave anothe seizures. I saw somewhere it cause some poor sod to shit his pants after being exposed for about 10 or more minutes.

edited 19th Oct '12 8:20:55 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Ah the 1950's, when "Batshit Insane" was a feature of new designs. The Goblin fighter, the nuclear powered bomber (not armed, powered) and the "flying saucers" the Do D wanted to build.

Oh I remember the nuclear powered planes. Nuclear powered rockets might come back as a form of propulsion.

Douglas A2D Skyshark: Hey, it's an American Fairey Gannet clone!

Indeed, though the Gannet was even uglier. I kind of like it because it's so ugly, in fact.

Yep, the Gannet is a cool kind of ugly in a way.

There's a story in Phoenix Squadron about a US pilot flying up to an AEW Gannet for visual ID during an exercise. When he dropped in next to it, cruising along with one engine shut down and prop feathered, the pilot reading a book, all he apparently radioed back was "I think I found God".

This may be of some interest:

http://www.faireygannetxt752.com/ and it looks lovely.

On the A-10 issue, I take it the idea of a folding wing cats and traps version is completely unfeasible?

edited 20th Oct '12 12:06:13 PM by TamH70

There's another one at The Museum of Berkshire Aviation. Need to go there again, sometime.

The Fairy and U.S. clone are actually kinda neat looking.

Tam, Fairchild aviation tried to sell the A-10 to the Navy and to our allies. This was when the F-16 made is debut. Noone wanted the slow A-10 when they could have the fast and sleek F-16. The Navy is in love with fast movers for the strike and ground attack mission. The only way the Marines were going to get a Harrier replacement after the cold war is by piggybacking onto the Navy's jet.

The USAF would love to forget the A-10. A newer version with folding wings and landing gear to land on a carrier would entail a new production line. Not gonna happen. Some proposed a turboprop ground attack for Special Forces and to sell to our poorer allies.

Man did the air force fight that one, limiting it to only a few airframes.

The USAF would love to forget the A-10, that is true. But there will always be at least one Brit wondering why we don't just navalize the ones in the Boneyard if the Yanks don't want them.

They'd love to forget it because its success terrifies fighter jocks, in that it's ugly, slow, gets the job done, and gets way too close to the Army. Ew.

So, doing their job and protecting their brothers and sisters on the ground is seen as a bad thing then? Thought the Air Force had got over that shit after Normandy. When the US 8th Air Force ended up being on the Luftwaffe's Order Of Battle. Ya know, considering the amount of American and Allied ground troops their bombers dropped their loads on...

Like my great grandad always said: 'When the RAF went over, the Germans ducked. When the Luftwaffe went over, we ducked. When the yanks went over we all ducked.'

Never underestimate Interservice Rivalry. And that most likely totally doesn't count because they were the Army Air Force back then.

Though it has more to do with the fighter jocks feeling they (and as such, their entire branch of the Armed Forces) are above such menial tasks as CAS.

True. Their real job is flying troop transports.

edited 22nd Oct '12 10:06:20 AM by InverurieJones

Nevermind, you fixed your egregious grammatical error.

edited 22nd Oct '12 10:07:11 AM by Balmung

I did. If I'm making that one, you know I'm not well.

Oldest surviving Battle of Britain pilot dies at 99

With the recent talk on one of these threads about JASDF paint schemes, here's the latest two:

• F-15J
• 40th Anniversary of the Phantom II

...and very nice they are, especially the Phantom scheme.

edited 24th Oct '12 3:14:09 PM by Greenmantle

Very nice looking indeed.

I'm kind of glad our military isn't the only reenactor group still flying the Phantom.

I like the Phantom lots. Even though the smoke trails its engines left behind could be seen from SPACE, it was one tough bastard of a ship. Especially when the Americans realized that only having missiles in an age when dogfights were still possible was a bad idea and stuck a Vulcan cannon in its nose.

If we still had the Ark Royal, with its attendant Phantom fighters in 1982, the Falklands War would not have happened. The Argentinians would not have had the balls to invade.

Sometimes a plane can change history by its very absence.