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Ouch
Pitot to the forehead does not sound fun.
I’ve had the work-hassle-luxury of having to work on ac with additional instrumentation and more often than not, pitots on packages/instrumentation pods.
You have to advise EVERYONE not to handle things normally and to take a good look at the hardware before you start to handle it.
Good times. Crazy hardware. 🇺🇸
Wait for it…
Lol...I was told by an engineer that if you plug in all the things you want an aircraft to do...speed, range, payload, etc...it will spit out a sweep wing design. But then you factor in engineering design, cost of production and maintenance and it's no bueno.
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DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
Yup, Fast and Slow…& with the ability to fight LOW…all in one bird 💪🏼.
I think we’re down to just the B1 these days? And that bird is a sexy bitch! I’ve got some work that’s “B1 Adjacent” in the next few weeks…I’ll be walking over to take a peek at those beautiful beasts…if I’m allowed.
BTW, I think…uh…I believe… there are still a few of your FBs out there; but, I believe they may have a “Q” in-front of the “F”…&…sadly, I believe they’re used for low-fast-difficult targeting…
Also, doesn’t NASA still have one?
“Adjacent”…an ApplDude Designation so as to keep him informed enough to not do his usual. Adjacent comes from his use of Military Adjacent…which I think is a good pull on his part.
I never touched a Tomcat but I do know the 111 and B1 had lifelong fuel leak problems. Not saying they didn't get the job done but it took real work from slobs like me to make it happen.🙃
Fuel leaks were not a big issue with the Tom, but everything else sure leaked!
As I write this I now recall a stopover in Spain where we did tell them to not fuel it until we were ready to go…
Didn’t you guys have a huge centerline exterior tank you could carry? You guy on the later models could carry A LOT of exterior payload, right?
We only had two 2,000lb (whatever that equates to in gallons /6.8) externals. One on the bottom of each engine nacelle/ intake. That 4k plus 16k internal for a max fuel load of 20k.
The extra fuel was great for endurance and range, but didn’t help if going low and fast. The extra drag caused us to burn almost exactly 4k more fuel across a flight.
Edit: As for total loadout we only had four stations for bombs. Four big bombs or four small bombs. They could all be 2000 pounders, and that along with a full load of fuel and four A/A missiles put us right at our max catapult weight.
The F-15E has big conformal fuel tanks and can carry bombs everywhere!
A-6 in “Texaco” config carries 4x2000 lb fuel store plus a Sargent-Fletcher on the centerline drop. Internally we topped off with 16K, so about 25K lbs of sweet JP-5 for the thirsty Hornets.
Have you checked out the F15EX & it’s load capability?
I think it’s part C17! 😂
KA6?
Fly the race-track pattern then go back to the ship and do it all over again?
I’m laughing ‘cause I’ve seen guys roll their eyes when they get that assign…but, it gets you hours and tags!
🤣
Hey, you missed out on VTOL!
Can you imagine the cost and complexity of all those things plus VTOL added to the (imagined) 'Perfect In Every Way Aircraft' ?
I kept a Ziplock freezer bag in the left thigh pocket of my flight suit on every S3 flight I took (used it every flight, too) because of that stupid racetrack pattern.
We flew KA-6Ds on my first cruise in ‘91. They were designed for air-to-air refueling only and could not deliver weaponry. Mission cycles were typically no longer than a usual (~2 hours) as the F/A-18s would meet us overhead the boat for a quick top off. On rare occasions (usually joint ops) we would grab our own gas from a KC-135 (I think that’s the AF tanker?) and work a double cycle. Fortunately the A-6 had piss tubes that usually worked as advertised.
There were no KAs on my ‘93 cruise so standard A-6Es assumed tanker duties. The Sargent Fletcher refueling pod was an upgrade from it’s predecessor which had a tendency to leave the hose dangling inconveniently.
Fun story: a KA-6D on the America shit engine #1 moments before recovering (video on YouTube shows the aircraft narrowly avoiding the deck due to the pilot instantly raising the gear and going to mil power). The America was replacing us (FID) in the Med, so me and pilot “Elwood” Trafton flew a replacement KA to the America. The hijinx that ensued are for another day.
Pit Row
I’ve often thought a modern constructed F-86 with a single GE404 (F/A-18 engine) would be one of the coolest jets ever! Just a fun toy to go dogfight your buddies.
Wish there was a better video, but I was on the flight deck of the USS Vinson for this event. Launched a bunch of warbirds off the deck as part of a 50th VJ Day anniversary. We were right off Waikiki. The aircraft were craned aboard in Alameda, CA. (Hopefully I haven’t posted this before..)
When the Hawkeyes started turning, I stayed as far away from them as I could without falling over the side. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near a flight deck full of turning props.
Weren’t the Vikings also good at sucking things up?
Entering service in 1949, the Convair B-36 “Peacemaker” was a true flying fortress: a wingspan of 70 meters, a range of 16,000 km without refueling, and the capacity to carry almost 40 tons of bombs, including the first thermonuclear weapons in history.
Powered by six Pratt & Whitney R-4360 piston engines and four additional jet engines, it earned the legendary nickname: “Six turning and four burning.”
They had pretty big intakes, but weren’t all that scary to be around because we always knew where they were. Props are damn near invisible when they’re turning, so they always terrified me.
I felt the same. Big turning props, whether E-2, C-2, or whatever that recovery helo was called, gave me bad juju.
Jet intakes weren't a problem until on the cat. Any engine at full military power ingests a lot of air plus whatever is near the intakes.
An F-14 did leave me nice & toasty one time. I was on the wing preflighting an A-6 when a Tomcat conveniently turned its exhaust my way. I huddled next to the fuselage eyeballing the 60’ drop to the water and weighing my options. Fortunately the plane captain motioned the pilot towards the cat, saving me from a daunting yet epic plunge into the Med.
If there were turning props I was going another route. Nope, not going there. Under the tail of turning -18s was somewhat common, but even better was mastering every location to enter, or leave, the flight deck thus popping up at just the right spot.
The Corsair’s greatest advantage could also become its deadliest weakness.
Designed for carrier operations in the Pacific theater, the Chance Vought F4U Corsair featured distinctive inverted gull wings that folded upward to maximize precious space on crowded flight decks and hangar bays. Securing these massive wings into their rigid flight position relied on robust hydraulic pins and mechanical latches, which flight deck crews verified visually using mechanical indicator flags before every launch. However, in the high-stress, fast-paced environment of World War II carrier operations, where ships turned into the wind to launch aircraft every few seconds, human error or subtle mechanical fatigue could occasionally slip through pre-flight inspections. If a Corsair began its takeoff roll with an unlocked or partially engaged wing-fold mechanism, the structural integrity of the airframe remained dangerously compromised, setting the stage for an instantaneous aerodynamic catastrophe the moment the aircraft generated lift.
As the pilot pushed the 2,000-horsepower Pratt & Whitney radial engine to full power, the Corsair accelerated down the flight deck and rotated into the air. The instant aerodynamic lift acted upon the airframe, the intense upward force overpowered the unlatched locking mechanism, forcing the outer wing panel to snap violently upward into its folded position. Stripped of lift on one side while generating maximum thrust on the other, the heavy fighter rolled inverted at low altitude, plunging over the ship's bow directly into the churning ocean before the pilot had time to react. The carrier's forward momentum often made immediate rescue impossible as the inverted aircraft sank beneath the hull. These tragic mishaps forced naval aviation authorities to institute strict, double-redundant wing-check protocols, requiring deck handlers to physically push on wingtips while pilots manually confirmed pin engagements prior to every takeoff.
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