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I also like this
The General Airplane Thread
- Thread starter Crash
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Interesting story on the Phantom aircraft...
I had to do a write-up on a Vietnam Veteran in my Vietnam History class. He was a section chief for five other aircraft at multiple airbases as well, but primarily at Binh Thuy Airbase in South Vietnam. The night before there was an attack on the base by Viet Cong, doing minimal damage at the most by only tearing up the perimeter fences. Air support via a C-47 gunship was suppressing the majority of it, but still enough to have a high alert sent throughout the base.
The next day, maintenance work was being done on one of the F-4s and the base came under mortar attack. While standing just a few feet above the horizontal stabilizer, a mortar round came and struck just a few inches to his back. He was lifted off of his feet and thrown several yards down in front of the plane.
After I got back home to make the powerpoint, I spent a few hours trying to find the attack records and the damage done to the Phantom. Sure enough, google had it kept safe. I was able to find loads of info of both the night before the mortar strike and pictures of his aircraft.
Here is a shot of the airbase. Maintenance was held just off of the runway to the left. Perimeter is basically the surrounding gravel road covered in a barbed wire fence. I was told to the left in the marsh like woods is where the offensive took place, although he was unsure as well:
The night before the mortar strikes. C-47 raining down bullets close to the river on the right of the frame above, most likely to prevent damage to the runway:
And this was his aircraft he was standing on. He had never seen this photo he said, and does not remember what it looked like after being hit, but recognized a few things in the frame like the bike off of the sandbags. He also recalled the fuel spillage off the left wing (doused in fire retardant) and that really helped proving this was in-fact the aircraft:
Needless to say, he was very fortunate to walk away, in one piece.
I had to do a write-up on a Vietnam Veteran in my Vietnam History class. He was a section chief for five other aircraft at multiple airbases as well, but primarily at Binh Thuy Airbase in South Vietnam. The night before there was an attack on the base by Viet Cong, doing minimal damage at the most by only tearing up the perimeter fences. Air support via a C-47 gunship was suppressing the majority of it, but still enough to have a high alert sent throughout the base.
The next day, maintenance work was being done on one of the F-4s and the base came under mortar attack. While standing just a few feet above the horizontal stabilizer, a mortar round came and struck just a few inches to his back. He was lifted off of his feet and thrown several yards down in front of the plane.
After I got back home to make the powerpoint, I spent a few hours trying to find the attack records and the damage done to the Phantom. Sure enough, google had it kept safe. I was able to find loads of info of both the night before the mortar strike and pictures of his aircraft.
Here is a shot of the airbase. Maintenance was held just off of the runway to the left. Perimeter is basically the surrounding gravel road covered in a barbed wire fence. I was told to the left in the marsh like woods is where the offensive took place, although he was unsure as well:
The night before the mortar strikes. C-47 raining down bullets close to the river on the right of the frame above, most likely to prevent damage to the runway:
And this was his aircraft he was standing on. He had never seen this photo he said, and does not remember what it looked like after being hit, but recognized a few things in the frame like the bike off of the sandbags. He also recalled the fuel spillage off the left wing (doused in fire retardant) and that really helped proving this was in-fact the aircraft:
Needless to say, he was very fortunate to walk away, in one piece.
- 5,076
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Northrop F-89 Scorpion
US Air Force's first jet all-weather interceptor, and one of the first to be armed with guided missiles.
And, Phantom!!!!! (Technically Phantom II)
Who says those can't pull gs?? (From an air show at Tyndall AFB in 2009
The reason this is the Phantom II is because the name Phantom originally applied to this aircraft, the Navy's first jet fighter, the FH Phantom, on display in the Naval Aviation Museum at Pensacola Naval Air Station.
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BobK
Premium
- 7,020
- Massachusetts, USA
Nope, it's definitely a Lockheed F-94 Starfire, which was developed as a sort of all-weather P-80/F-80. The Scorpion had a rather distinctive T-tail which is how the plane got its name in fact, while the plane that @CLowndes888 posted has a conventionally located stabilizer/elevator; note the fin has an obvious family resemblance with the Shooting Star. Also the F-89 was a twin engine plane while the F-94 has a single engine; note the family resemblance in the engine intakes also, with the P-80.
- 5,076
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Yep. I stand corrected. In all honesty, I didn't even look past the wingtip tanks and the intakes in the wing root......
The Scorpion's nose is much more tapered, also.
OK, let's go obscure!!! Here's one not a lot of folks can identify....
North American AJ-2 Savage.
The nearly identical AJ-1 Savage was the Navy's first atomic-capable bomber, and there is a story/legend/myth that this plane's existence saved the Navy's existence in the late '40s/early '50s. Supposedly, the Army Air Corps after WWII, and then the Air Force, lobbied Congress to disband the Navy and send that money to the Air Force, as it was obvious that all future wars would be fought with atomic weapons and the Navy not only had no way to deliver them, its ships would be sitting ducks against them. Maintaining the fleet would simply be a colossal waste of money.
The Navy presented this aircraft, saying that not only could they deliver atomic bombs, they could do it from anywhere they could put a carrier.
I can't vouch for the story, but it has the ring of having some basis in fact.....
The aircraft in fact were incredibly cumbersome on carriers, as angled decks didn't exist yet, and the aircraft could not be launched until it was on the deck, blocking all other air operations, while the wings were unfolded with a hand-cranked hydraulic pump. Similarly, on landing, it had to sit on the deck blocking further recoveries while the wings were folded with that same hand operation. As such, it was carrier-capable, but in practice operated from land bases.
It was powered by a 2400-hp 18-cylinder radial engine on each wing, plus a jet engine in the tail which was used only on takeoff and during bomb runs. The jet burned the same gasoline as the wing engines for fueling simplicity.
The personal significance to me of this airplane is that my dad was an avionics tech on these things from 1952 to '54, in Port Lyautey, Morocco, with occasional sea duty aboard the U.S.S. Coral Sea. In this pic, he's third from the left in the front row.
The airplane in the background took me a few minutes to identify..... It's a P4M Mercator, developed as a patrol plane/bomber, but that role was filled by the P2V Neptune, so the Mercators became long-range reconnaissance airplanes. They also supplemented piston main engines with jets for takeoff and combat speed. In the Mercator, a 28-cylinder radial hung on each wing, and in the rear of each nacelle was an Allison centrifugal-flow turbojet, a variant of the same engine found in the tail of the Savage.
The Savage in the first picture is on the tarmac behind the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, and is the only surviving Savage in the world.
The Scorpion's nose is much more tapered, also.
OK, let's go obscure!!! Here's one not a lot of folks can identify....
North American AJ-2 Savage.
The nearly identical AJ-1 Savage was the Navy's first atomic-capable bomber, and there is a story/legend/myth that this plane's existence saved the Navy's existence in the late '40s/early '50s. Supposedly, the Army Air Corps after WWII, and then the Air Force, lobbied Congress to disband the Navy and send that money to the Air Force, as it was obvious that all future wars would be fought with atomic weapons and the Navy not only had no way to deliver them, its ships would be sitting ducks against them. Maintaining the fleet would simply be a colossal waste of money.
The Navy presented this aircraft, saying that not only could they deliver atomic bombs, they could do it from anywhere they could put a carrier.
I can't vouch for the story, but it has the ring of having some basis in fact.....
The aircraft in fact were incredibly cumbersome on carriers, as angled decks didn't exist yet, and the aircraft could not be launched until it was on the deck, blocking all other air operations, while the wings were unfolded with a hand-cranked hydraulic pump. Similarly, on landing, it had to sit on the deck blocking further recoveries while the wings were folded with that same hand operation. As such, it was carrier-capable, but in practice operated from land bases.
It was powered by a 2400-hp 18-cylinder radial engine on each wing, plus a jet engine in the tail which was used only on takeoff and during bomb runs. The jet burned the same gasoline as the wing engines for fueling simplicity.
The personal significance to me of this airplane is that my dad was an avionics tech on these things from 1952 to '54, in Port Lyautey, Morocco, with occasional sea duty aboard the U.S.S. Coral Sea. In this pic, he's third from the left in the front row.
The airplane in the background took me a few minutes to identify..... It's a P4M Mercator, developed as a patrol plane/bomber, but that role was filled by the P2V Neptune, so the Mercators became long-range reconnaissance airplanes. They also supplemented piston main engines with jets for takeoff and combat speed. In the Mercator, a 28-cylinder radial hung on each wing, and in the rear of each nacelle was an Allison centrifugal-flow turbojet, a variant of the same engine found in the tail of the Savage.
The Savage in the first picture is on the tarmac behind the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, and is the only surviving Savage in the world.
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Been in that museum before, was quite nice with all the open displays you can sit in. Never did get a chance to do the sims though..Northrop F-89 Scorpion
US Air Force's first jet all-weather interceptor, and one of the first to be armed with guided missiles.
And, Phantom!!!!! (Technically Phantom II)
Who says those can't pull gs?? (From an air show at Tyndall AFB in 2009
The reason this is the Phantom II is because the name Phantom originally applied to this aircraft, the Navy's first jet fighter, the FH Phantom, on display in the Naval Aviation Museum at Pensacola Naval Air Station.
- 5,076
- Panama City, FL
If it's been a while since you've been there, it's bigger now!!! They opened a separate 55,000 sq. ft. building behind the existing building in 2011. Some of the aircraft that used to be on the tarmac "out back" have been fully restored and brought indoors. Their total display space is now over 300,000 square feet!
- 4,019
- Riga
R L Bartini. There were several versions of this and the considerably smaller Ye-57. The A-57 shown would have been powered by five Kuznetsov NK-10 engines, each of 25,000kg (55,115 Ib) thrust. This 320 tonne (705,467 Ib) vehicle, with a length of 69.5m (228ft) and wing area of 755m2 (8,127ft2), was to have been water-based for operational flexibility and to avoid having to use vulnerable airfields (though it also had skids for airfield landings if necessary). It would have carried a 244N thermonuclear bomb internally, as well as a 2RS (later RSR) carried pick-a-back to the target at 2,500km/h (l,553mph, Mach 2.35) to serve as an accompanying reconnaissance aircraft. Together they could cover targets within a radius of 5,000km (3,107 miles), the Tsybin 2RS reconnaissance vehicle using its fuel only on the return flight
Carlos
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- 6,453
- Netherlands
Very cool @wfooshee , those Angels 
Someone I frequently game with online for the last year asked me if I wouldn't be interested to come over for the weekend to go to an event. I would, but then I would make it a month so I can go to a lot of places I'd like to see, one of them being an AFB. It would be awesome of course if I could see the Angels myself, but are foreigners allowed to go to an AFB?
Someone I frequently game with online for the last year asked me if I wouldn't be interested to come over for the weekend to go to an event. I would, but then I would make it a month so I can go to a lot of places I'd like to see, one of them being an AFB. It would be awesome of course if I could see the Angels myself, but are foreigners allowed to go to an AFB?
- 5,076
- Panama City, FL
Things like the museum at Pensacola Naval Air Station, and the Blue Angels practice shows, are open to the public, although they do ID checks entering the base, entering the museum, and entering the viewing area. Other bases which maintain publicly available facilities probably do the same. I would assume that whatever travel documentation you have would satisfy those requirements.
Several places do have museums and such on the bases, such as Ft. Sill in Oklahoma, an Army post dating back to the Old West.
As for just entering a base, probably not. Most do not have public facilities, and unless you have a business reason for it, you don't enter, foreign or not.
And yeah, if you come for a visit and want to see more than what's near your buddy's home town, allow enough time to see what you might want to see. This is a BIG place over here. I've posted this before, but sometimes Europeans have difficulty visualizing what they're up against with travel plans. For example, a straight line from Rotterdam to Rome is almost 800 miles. A line that long will not reach the Mississippi River from the Atlantic Coast, and it's not even close to reaching the Rocky Mountains from the Mississippi River!
This picture is the border lines of western Europe overlaid to scale over the Great Plains of the central U.S.
Several places do have museums and such on the bases, such as Ft. Sill in Oklahoma, an Army post dating back to the Old West.
As for just entering a base, probably not. Most do not have public facilities, and unless you have a business reason for it, you don't enter, foreign or not.
And yeah, if you come for a visit and want to see more than what's near your buddy's home town, allow enough time to see what you might want to see. This is a BIG place over here. I've posted this before, but sometimes Europeans have difficulty visualizing what they're up against with travel plans. For example, a straight line from Rotterdam to Rome is almost 800 miles. A line that long will not reach the Mississippi River from the Atlantic Coast, and it's not even close to reaching the Rocky Mountains from the Mississippi River!
This picture is the border lines of western Europe overlaid to scale over the Great Plains of the central U.S.
Carlos
Premium
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- Netherlands
Things like the museum at Pensacola Naval Air Station, and the Blue Angels practice shows, are open to the public, although they do ID checks entering the base, entering the museum, and entering the viewing area. Other bases which maintain publicly available facilities probably do the same. I would assume that whatever travel documentation you have would satisfy those requirements.
Several places do have museums and such on the bases, such as Ft. Sill in Oklahoma, an Army post dating back to the Old West.
As for just entering a base, probably not. Most do not have public facilities, and unless you have a business reason for it, you don't enter, foreign or not.
And yeah, if you come for a visit and want to see more than what's near your buddy's home town, allow enough time to see what you might want to see. This is a BIG place over here. I've posted this before, but sometimes Europeans have difficulty visualizing what they're up against with travel plans. For example, a straight line from Rotterdam to Rome is almost 800 miles. A line that long will not reach the Mississippi River from the Atlantic Coast, and it's not even close to reaching the Rocky Mountains from the Mississippi River!
This picture is the border lines of western Europe overlaid to scale over the Great Plains of the central U.S.
Awww look how cute my country looks! (Where it says South Dakota, it's in the 'akota') Thanks for the information man 👍 I guess getting the documents wouldn't bring any problems. I do kinda understand how big it all is but not really until I've seen it myself. Wouldn't mind going with a plane to some other place but I like driving and really want to see things, I love cruising
Must not forget to check how to validate my drivers license. Maybe rent a bike too...I love photography so I want to go to some AFB's to do some spotting, I assume that is possible without entering the base. Never seen an F-22 irl, or F-35 but I wouldn't want to specially go somewhere to see that ugly jet
Seeing aggressors would be awesome. And then what you said, go to some museums too. Good one. Seeing an SR-71 is somewhere on the wishlist Oh and B-1 Lancer, B-2, B-52.. Yeah that would be great..Guess it's time to find where I can see all that. Then plan a route in Google maps or something.
Heh. Europe is tiny.
Except for Russia.
Well, when everybody or should I say everything, is or runs on vodka then you'd better give them some space..
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@Carlos
You should check out the air and space museum in Dulles then. From Dulles airport to the museum they have shuttle bus service all day long (as far as how long the museum is open) and the museum has just about everything (Concorde, Discovery Space Shuttle, B29, SR-71, A7 Corsair, Learjet 23 for FedEx, ME 262...)
Their site
As far as spotting jets scooting around, the most active place I've ever seen is in Florida at Pensacola, where @wfooshee has some spots.
When I was in scouts I frequently was able to go into army and air force bases, but I'm not sure if that's something within the government that allows us to. I know there was some paperwork to be filled out, just not sure what papers. But any civilian can't just walk up to the gates, GTA can tell you the rest of the story.
I think the majority heavies like B1's and B2's are all on the east side of the US. B52's generally tend to be based more in the desert near Nevada and Arizona.
There's also that aircraft carrier in New York (The Intrepid I think) that has another Concorde on it along with a few other things (another SR-71). But yeah... plane spotting isn't my thing so not sure where to find the F35... F22's are in Pensacola though, along with ospreys..
You should check out the air and space museum in Dulles then. From Dulles airport to the museum they have shuttle bus service all day long (as far as how long the museum is open) and the museum has just about everything (Concorde, Discovery Space Shuttle, B29, SR-71, A7 Corsair, Learjet 23 for FedEx, ME 262...)
Their site
As far as spotting jets scooting around, the most active place I've ever seen is in Florida at Pensacola, where @wfooshee has some spots.
When I was in scouts I frequently was able to go into army and air force bases, but I'm not sure if that's something within the government that allows us to. I know there was some paperwork to be filled out, just not sure what papers. But any civilian can't just walk up to the gates, GTA can tell you the rest of the story.
I think the majority heavies like B1's and B2's are all on the east side of the US. B52's generally tend to be based more in the desert near Nevada and Arizona.
There's also that aircraft carrier in New York (The Intrepid I think) that has another Concorde on it along with a few other things (another SR-71). But yeah... plane spotting isn't my thing so not sure where to find the F35... F22's are in Pensacola though, along with ospreys..
- 5,076
- Panama City, FL
F-22s are here in Panama City, at Tyndall, which is a training base for them. They're not flying ALL the time, but it's not hard to find them when they are. F-35s were being tested at Eglin, 50 miles or so west of here. I really don't know how far along that program is, whether they're still "testing" or whether they've actually deployed anywhere.
Display aircraft within a hundred miles of here include 2 museums. There is the Naval Aviation Museum at Pensacola Naval Air Station, and the Air Force Armament museum just outside of Eglin AFB between Panama City and Pensacola. A little farther out is the museum in the park where the battleship U.S.S. Alabama is moored, in Mobile, Alabama.
I found a site that lists major US air museums, and includes links to their sites. I just wasted 45 minutes of my employer's time looking around..... Have a look here.
Display aircraft within a hundred miles of here include 2 museums. There is the Naval Aviation Museum at Pensacola Naval Air Station, and the Air Force Armament museum just outside of Eglin AFB between Panama City and Pensacola. A little farther out is the museum in the park where the battleship U.S.S. Alabama is moored, in Mobile, Alabama.
I found a site that lists major US air museums, and includes links to their sites. I just wasted 45 minutes of my employer's time looking around..... Have a look here.
Brett
Premium
- 8,632
- Oklahoma
Speaking of the F-22, I saw two fly over Oklahoma City last Monday. I apologize for the incredibly crappy pictures. Surprisingly, I did not instantly recognize what I was looking at and was slow to grab my phone. One I realized what I was looking at, I did not have a lot of time to grab pictures and was excited that I was able to see a couple F-22s.
There is just one Raptor in the first picture and two Raptors in the second. Bonus: My S2000 is in both pictures.
There is just one Raptor in the first picture and two Raptors in the second. Bonus: My S2000 is in both pictures.
- 4,763
- Houston, TX
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- Panama City, FL
I'll see your JATO A-4 and raise you a C-130. At night!
(This was 2008, the last year they did the JATO demonstration with the Blue Angels C-130. The day after these was the last time it was done! My camera back then was a lowly D50, so these are incredibly noisy.. MAX ISO was only 1600, and these were worked pretty heavily to get an actual image!)
(This was 2008, the last year they did the JATO demonstration with the Blue Angels C-130. The day after these was the last time it was done! My camera back then was a lowly D50, so these are incredibly noisy.. MAX ISO was only 1600, and these were worked pretty heavily to get an actual image!)
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- 22,551
- Arizona
- HamiltonMP427
I've been to the USS Alabama and crawled around it for a few hours. There's also a sub there I believe on ground that we did laps through for about thirty minutes to see who could run the length of it faster...
Edit:
Behold, the pregnant Guppy:
Gup can be seen in Tuscon.
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- KCCO
I know NASA has one, is it the same one?
- 2,436
- Atlanta
- atomicjellyfish
I love photography so I want to go to some AFB's to do some spotting, I assume that is possible without entering the base. Never seen an F-22 irl, or F-35 but I wouldn't want to specially go somewhere to see that ugly jet
Dude... if AFBs are what you want, Wright Patterson Air Force Base has the National Museum of the US Air Force. That's in Dayton, Ohio. If you have the means to get out there for 2 days at a minimum you HAVE TO GO THERE.
They have all of the planes on your short list there plus many more you won't see anywhere else. The concept and presidential hangar are all gems - that's where old Air Force Ones are plus things like the YF23, Tacit Blue, the only remaining XB-70 Valkyrie and a bunch of other weird and record breaking stuff.
And I do mean a minimum of two days. That museum has so much stuff it's impossible to really see it all in a day without rushing through everything. Even if you do rush through it I'm still not sure it can be done in a day
.I have no idea where in the US you plan on going, but if you're coming all the way out here you might as well try and hit up Ohio. And then stop in Atlanta so we can get drunk.
edit: and you don't really enter the base to get in IIRC. The only time you do is for the presidential and concept hangars and for that they drive you in by bus. As long as you don't look like a terrorist they won't question you
Dan
Premium
- 15,396
- United States
*Tries to hold back laughter*
- 5,076
- Panama City, FL
From our home movies, 1962 or -3. I was 5 or 6 at the time, but I remember the "broken airplane."
I know where The Netherlands is. I've walked the dike, in wooden shoes, no less! From '64 to '66 my dad's company had us in Germany. We lived in Wurselen, a bit outside of Aachen (no umlauts on my keyboard!) We would go to movies in Holland because they weren't dubbed, they were subtitled, so we could understand them. In Germany they were dubbed, and it was hopeless. (Sound of Music? Auf Duetsch? Seriously?????)
There was also a park we used to go to a couple of times a month. All the rides were human-powered, either by the kids on the ride, or by a parent generous enough to do the labor for a group. I loved that place, but I have no idea what it was called, where it was (except in Holland,) or whether it still exists. here's a few pictures from there of my sisters and me. The first one is obviously a rocket ship, so it stays on-topic for the thread.....
I know where The Netherlands is. I've walked the dike, in wooden shoes, no less! From '64 to '66 my dad's company had us in Germany. We lived in Wurselen, a bit outside of Aachen (no umlauts on my keyboard!) We would go to movies in Holland because they weren't dubbed, they were subtitled, so we could understand them. In Germany they were dubbed, and it was hopeless. (Sound of Music? Auf Duetsch? Seriously?????)
There was also a park we used to go to a couple of times a month. All the rides were human-powered, either by the kids on the ride, or by a parent generous enough to do the labor for a group. I loved that place, but I have no idea what it was called, where it was (except in Holland,) or whether it still exists. here's a few pictures from there of my sisters and me. The first one is obviously a rocket ship, so it stays on-topic for the thread.....
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- 22,551
- Arizona
- HamiltonMP427
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Location...484-Pima_Air_Space_Museum-Tucson_Arizona.html
Former NASA Super Guppy, now on display, NASA still runs a Super Guppy though.
- 2,694
- Knoxville, Tennessee
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I wouldn't say the F/A-18 is, or at least to the extent of. It does a pretty good job as the F15 replacement, although I like the F15 a lot more.
Carlos
Premium
- 6,453
- Netherlands
Thank you all for your input gentlemen! (@Swagger897 @wfooshee @GregTheStig ) If you can come up with more, throw it at me
I think you mean west swagger? I'm not sure I want to drive all the way to Nevada to see bombers.. That's really a long drive! My route is now starting at NY and ending in Florida, so from Florida to Nevada is easily a 40 hour drive
And I have those museums on the list that you guys gave me, Dulles, National USAF museum, AF armament and naval aviation museum. I think visiting those 4 is enough for one month, don't want it to be like 'another museum' or 'again...'.
This is the work in progress plan
(I see an X but when I go to edit it shows up.. Can you guys see it?
https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5643/21659314991_d13053c7fa_o.jpg)
We can make that work Greg
That is very cool!! I didn't even walk on wooden shoes, ever!
The Germans are still dubbing everything
Pretty annoying.
I'm guessing that park is somewhere south in the Netherlands? I've tried to search where it is but I can't find it
Maybe you have a photo with the name of that restaurant on the left, in your last photo.. Those photos are pretty good quality too, what year was that?!
I think you mean west swagger? I'm not sure I want to drive all the way to Nevada to see bombers.. That's really a long drive! My route is now starting at NY and ending in Florida, so from Florida to Nevada is easily a 40 hour drive
And I have those museums on the list that you guys gave me, Dulles, National USAF museum, AF armament and naval aviation museum. I think visiting those 4 is enough for one month, don't want it to be like 'another museum' or 'again...'.This is the work in progress plan
(I see an X but when I go to edit it shows up.. Can you guys see it?
https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5643/21659314991_d13053c7fa_o.jpg)
We can make that work Greg
From our home movies, 1962 or -3. I was 5 or 6 at the time, but I remember the "broken airplane."
I know where The Netherlands is. I've walked the dike, in wooden shoes, no less! From '64 to '66 my dad's company had us in Germany. We lived in Wurselen, a bit outside of Aachen (no umlauts on my keyboard!) We would go to movies in Holland because they weren't dubbed, they were subtitled, so we could understand them. In Germany they were dubbed, and it was hopeless. (Sound of Music? Auf Duetsch? Seriously?????)
There was also a park we used to go to a couple of times a month. All the rides were human-powered, either by the kids on the ride, or by a parent generous enough to do the labor for a group. I loved that place, but I have no idea what it was called, where it was (except in Holland,) or whether it still exists. here's a few pictures from there of my sisters and me. The first one is obviously a rocket ship, so it stays on-topic for the thread.....
That is very cool!! I didn't even walk on wooden shoes, ever!
The Germans are still dubbing everything
Pretty annoying.I'm guessing that park is somewhere south in the Netherlands? I've tried to search where it is but I can't find it
Maybe you have a photo with the name of that restaurant on the left, in your last photo.. Those photos are pretty good quality too, what year was that?!
- 2,694
- Knoxville, Tennessee
The F/A-18 semi-replaced the F-14 Tomcat (along with the A-6 Intruder and A-7 Corsair II), not the F-15 Eagle. F-15 is Air Force
The reason the Hornet (and Super Hornet) couldn't completely fufill the gap that the Tomcat left behind when it was retired is mainly due to range. The Tomcat could fly further and faster, with a heavier payload than the Hornet series could. The Tomcat also had a more powrful radar, with a range of over 120nm. Two Tomcats could data-link their radars further increasing range as well. Tomcat's main issue when compared to the Hornet was maintenance, as the Tomcat was a very sophisticated bird. Many more man-hours of maintenance were required for the 'Cat vs the Hornet, which is part of why it was retired. The other problem was Dick Cheny ordering Grumman to destroy F-14 tooling in the early 90's, ending production along with hurting spare parts supplies.
Grumman originally planned on making F-14 varients up till 2000 before the destruction of the tooling.
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