The Airplane Thread

[Llarry]

Here's what makes all that noise when a B-1B flies: Four big General Electric F101-GE-102 afterburning turbofan engines. Rated at 17,000 pounds of thrust and 30,780 pounds of thrust with afterburning. Gulps fuel at a prodigious rate.

[Llarry]

I've told the story of the Vought F4U Corsair carrier fighter before: It was meant to be the replacement for the Grumman F4F Wildcat but handling difficulties kept it off carrier decks for a couple of years during World War II -- to the great benefit of the Marines, who loved it and amassed a great combat record with their F4Us.

There was a parallel story in the dive bomber category. The Douglas SBD Dauntless was to be replaced by the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver, but the SB2C had a difficult gestation. One problem was that it was a much larger airplane that its predecessor SBD, but still had to fit onto the same aircraft carrier elevators. For that reason, it was a little shorter than optimum and had a little less tail than optimum. It was also a more complex machine, with fewer manual and more automated systems. It took a while to iron the bugs out of the SB2C (also produced as the SBF and SBW) and gain acceptance in the fleet. In mid-1944 during the last great carrier battle in the Marianas -- known by the U.S. Navy as the Marianas Turkey Shoot -- many SB2Cs were lost to fuel exhaustion. A tragedy, but with a silver lining; the lost early model SB2Cs were quickly replaced with improved SB2C-3 and -4 models. They never won the affection of their crews like the SBD but they were more capable: They could carry more/bigger bombs and even could carry a torpedo in a pinch. The late model SB2C-5s served in the fleet until replaced by AD Skyraiders well after the war.

[Llarry]

The Chinese aircraft industry continues its (industrial espionage?) ways with a new Z-21 attack helicopter. Which appears to owe a lot to the U.S. AH-64. The Z-21 may share much in common with the Z-20, which is an improved H-60 copy.

[Llarry]

Tomcat Thursday!

F-14Ds of VF-31 and VF-213 return to Naval Air Station Oceana after the last deployment of the F-14 in 2006.

[BMWGUYinCO]

Originally Posted by Llarry

Tomcat Thursday!

F-14Ds of VF-31 and VF-213 return to Naval Air Station Oceana after the last deployment of the F-14 in 2006.

If you only got two words to describe a picture, this would definitely be:

PURE AWESOMENESS!

[Llarry]

Originally Posted by BMWGUYinCO

If you only got two words to describe a picture, this would definitely be:

PURE AWESOMENESS!

Those were the days of one F-14 squadron having 10 aircraft.

The "standard" USAF fighter wing is three squadrons with 24 aircraft each = 72 F-15s or F-16s. I've never seen a photo with close to that many aircraft in formation, but it would be quite a sight to see. Nowadays, there aren't many "standard" wings left, but there are still a few. We've seen photos of a USAF elephant walk, but what if you extended that by taking off and getting in formation?

[Lady Jane]

“German Luftwaffe Arado Ar 234 'Bltiz' (twin-engined) jet bomber, captured by U.S. Army forces, in a damaged hanger - Manching, Bavaria, Germany, c. late April 1945.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arado_Ar_234

[Llarry]

A casual look at any U.S. Navy aircraft carrier with air wing onboard should convince you that the decks are crowded. In recognition of this fact, the Navy has announced that the number of helicopters assigned to the carrier air wing will be reduced: MH-60Ss in the HSC squadron will number 5 rather than 8 and MH-60Rs in the HSM squadron will number 10 rather than 11. This should free up a little deck space for two future changes: the incorporation of a MQ-25A refueling detachment into the air wing and possible increase of EA-18G electronic attack aircraft.

[Llarry]

U.S. Marine Corps and Navy adversary training continues to expand with the incorporation of additional retired Swiss Air Force F-5Es and F-5Fs. Just this month a Marine Reserve KC-130J loaded the latest Swiss F-5E for transfer. This airplane will become an F-5N+ of VMFT-402, a second Marine adversary squadron to be established at the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, South Carolina. VMFT-402 will provide adversary training for East Coast squadrons, while VMFT-401 at MCAS Yuma, Arizona (pictured) continues to provide training for West Coast squadrons.

[Lady Jane]

In the news today: G700 gets FAA certification.

[Llarry]

The U.S. Air Force became interested in combat aircraft for use in low-intensity conflicts in the early 1960s. To some extent this was due to U.S. President Kennedy's interest but conflict in Southeast Asia was heating up as well.

U.S. Air Force combat aircraft were generally designed for a high-end nuclear war with the Soviet Union. During the Vietnam era they were adapted for use with conventional weapons. But there were also a number of systems developed for counter-insurgency wars. Among the most numerous such USAF aircraft was the A-37 Dragonfly or "Super Tweet" -- an adaptation of the USAF's small T-37 Tweet primary jet trainer to conduct ground attack operations.

The A-37 first flew in 1964 and 577 were built through 1975. A large number of these (250+) were provided to the Republic of Vietnam Air Force, but the A-37 was also operated by USAF units.

Early A-37As were succeeded by upgraded A-37Bs. The dual controls of the T-37 were retained but they were most often flown with a single pilot. Later an observer was added and the resulting OA-37B became the forward air controller of choice over South Vietnam.

When South Vietnam fell to the Communists in 1975, many A-37s/OA-37s were evacuated, but dozens fell into the hands of the victors. They operated these for some years before a lack of spare parts finally led to retirement of the type from Vietnamese service.

After Vietnam, the U.S. provided OA-37Bs to a number of Air National Guard units for service as forward air controllers. The OA-37s lasted until A-10 Warthogs finally replaced them in the 1980s.

A number of other small air forces in Latin America and Asia used A-37s and OA-37s and a few of these are still in service today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cessna_A-37_Dragonfly

A note on photos: Most of the photos show aircraft with 4-8 external fuel tanks. For short-range or short-duration missions, there were plenty of pylons to mount bombs and rockets. I was unable to find a decent photo of a RVNAF A-37.

[JJ 911SC]

Originally Posted by Lady Jane

In the news today: G700 gets FAA certification.

Short of winning the lottery, I'll have to settle with Porter E195-E2.

https://businessaircraft.bombardier....-pdp-section-3

[flybigjet]

Originally Posted by Llarry

The U.S. Air Force became interested in combat aircraft for use in low-intensity conflicts in the early 1960s. To some extent this was due to U.S. President Kennedy's interest but conflict in Southeast Asia was heating up as well.

U.S. Air Force combat aircraft were generally designed for a high-end nuclear war with the Soviet Union. During the Vietnam era they were adapted for use with conventional weapons. But there were also a number of systems developed for counter-insurgency wars. Among the most numerous such USAF aircraft was the A-37 Dragonfly or "Super Tweet" -- an adaptation of the USAF's small T-37 Tweet primary jet trainer to conduct ground attack operations.

The A-37 first flew in 1964 and 577 were built through 1975. A large number of these (250+) were provided to the Republic of Vietnam Air Force, but the A-37 was also operated by USAF units.

Early A-37As were succeeded by upgraded A-37Bs. The dual controls of the T-37 were retained but they were most often flown with a single pilot. Later an observer was added and the resulting OA-37B became the forward air controller of choice over South Vietnam.

When South Vietnam fell to the Communists in 1975, many A-37s/OA-37s were evacuated, but dozens fell into the hands of the victors. They operated these for some years before a lack of spare parts finally led to retirement of the type from Vietnamese service.

After Vietnam, the U.S. provided OA-37Bs to a number of Air National Guard units for service as forward air controllers. The OA-37s lasted until A-10 Warthogs finally replaced them in the 1980s.

A number of other small air forces in Latin America and Asia used A-37s and OA-37s and a few of these are still in service today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cessna_A-37_Dragonfly

A note on photos: Most of the photos show aircraft with 4-8 external fuel tanks. For short-range or short-duration missions, there were plenty of pylons to mount bombs and rockets. I was unable to find a decent photo of a RVNAF A-37.

During Viet-Nam, these were called "Super Tweets".

The T-37 Tweet was a (relatively) new trainer that the Air Force was using for the first half of Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT). The other half was completed using the T-38 Talon.

The T-37 (in pilot training use) was nicknamed the Tweety Bird (shortened to "Tweet"), the Converter (i.e. it converted fuel to noise), or the 2000 pound dog whistle (due to the high pitch of its motors). It was NOT overpowered with J-69 engines-- in fact, once you configured and were "rolling off the perch", you'd have the speed brake out and the engines had thrust attenuators that would pop out-- they were triangular-like panels that would pop out into the exhaust stream of the engine to limit thrust but keep the engine spooled. Since the motor took a loooong time to ramp up to full thrust, if you needed to go-around (i.e. abort the landing) you'd bring in the speed brake and the attenuators-- which made more thrust available when you needed it as the engines were already at a high rpm.

For the Dragonfly, they basically took the excellent J-85 engines from the T-38, pulled off the afterburner cans and stuffed them into the tweet. Thrust was no longer a problem. The "Super Tweet" would get up and scoot since it now had about double the thrust of the trainer model. And with the six hard points on the wing, it could carry a fairly stupid amount of ordinance for its size. The gun was a nice touch as well.

The fatal flaw in it was that it burned gas like a demon-- even with the large tip tanks, it was a thirsty jet, which affected range, loiter time, etc.

However, the guy's I've talked to who've flown them have all said that it was a hoot and a half to fly. Cessena got the basic airframe right when they built it as a trainer, and it only improved as an air-to-ground attack jet.

If only they could have figured out the fuel consumption issue.....

R.

[Llarry]

Yet another U.S. naval aviation might-have-been was the Vought XTBU-1 prototype torpedo bomber (a competitor to the Grumman/Eastern TBF/TBM Avenger) and its production development, the Consolidated TBY-2 Sea Wolf.

At the same time that Vought was working on their advanced F4U Corsair carrier fighter -- that would prove to be an excellent aircraft after a somewhat troubled development process -- they were also designing and building a prototype torpedo bomber to replace the Douglas TBD-1. The Vought XTBU-1 was given Pratt & Whitney R-2800 power. The competitor Grumman XTBF-1 Avenger, which lagged slightly behind in development, had to do with a less powerful Wright R-2600 of 1700 horsepower. The Vought entry was estimated to have a 50 mile per hour advantage in speed over the Grumman -- a major advantage.

The problem was that all these manufacturers were gearing up for very high rates of production. For instance, the Avenger ended up being largely manufactured in General Motors' Eastern Aircraft factories (as the TBM Avenger), as did the Grumman F4F Wildcat (as the FM Wildcat). This allowed Grumman to concentrate on rapid production of the F6F Hellcat in 1942-45. Similarly, the Navy wanted Vought to stress production of the F4U Corsair.

Production of the Vought torpedo bomber was thus farmed out to a former Mack truck factory in Allentown, Pennsylvania, that was taken over by a new branch of Consolidated Aircraft. I'm sure the problems encountered in Allentown were not unique to that plant, but asking motor vehicle workers to manufacture parts to aircraft tolerances was challenging to say the least. It ended up taking quite a while -- over two years -- to get the plant up and turning out TBY-2 torpedo bombers for the Navy.

The result was that only 180 Consolidated TBY-2 Sea Wolfs were built in Allentown before the end of the war shut down all production. By comparison, Grumman managed to build almost 2,000 TBF Avengers in 1942-43 before turning production over to Eastern -- Eastern in turn built almost 8,000 Avengers before the end of the war. 9,836 Avengers of all types were produced. It's easy to see why the TBF and TBM were the standard Navy torpedo bomber -- and provided years of service after the war in various roles. Another 50 miles per hour of speed would have been desirable, but not at the cost in time that the Navy would have to pay.

Just a single torpedo squadron equipped with TBY-2s in 1945 and they shortly thereafter transitioned to TBM-3s. Many of the 180 TBY-2s were scrapped with very few hours of flight recorded.

Photos:
1) The Vought prototype
2) and 3) The Consolidated production TBY-2
4) The winner

[Llarry]

It occurs to me that I have posted a large number of photos of U.S. Navy aircraft taken over many years without explaining the colors. Suffice it to say that a full explanation of colors from the beginnings of Navy aircraft until now would take pages and pages of mind-numbing text. But I think I can briefly describe recent decades.

Navy and Marine Corps aircraft were very colorful in the 1920s and 1930s -- the so-called "yellow wing" era when the upper wing surfaces were painted yellow. There were also varying tail colors and engine cowling colors that denoted the unit. I won't go into those as that is wall-of-text stuff.

In December of 1940, that era came to an end as the aircraft were to be painted overall light gray. The national insignia remained a large blue circle with white star and a red dot inside the center of the star. (not pictured)

In October 1941, just before U.S. involvement in World War II, new painting instructions were issued. Now upper surfaces -- as seen from above -- would be blue-gray while lower surfaces remained light grey. Rudders were to be striped with 13 stripes of alternating white and red.

It was soon found that any red was frequently taken as Japanese and there were instances of friendly fire. Accordingly, in mid-1942 the rudder stripes as well as the red dot in the national insignia were eliminated.

In January 1943 the color scheme was completely changed: Now upper surfaces were sea (dark) blue and lower surfaces were white, with an intermediate color of medium blue dividing the two. The scheme lasted most of the rest of World War II. And it goes without saying that when a new color directive was issued, it took quite a while for all aircraft to be repainted.

In June of 1944 the scheme changed again -- this time aircraft were to be painted overall sea (dark) blue. This overall blue scheme lasted for years -- only in 1955 were the colors changed to gull gray on upper surfaces and white on lowers. That two-tone scheme -- originally designed to minimize damage from nuclear flash -- lasted almost thirty years when the overall gray scheme that is still used today was introduced.

During the early part of the gull gray/white period, helicopters and patrol planes were painted engine gray, frequently confused with sea blue. In the late 1960s, they were repainted gull gray. Patrol planes were normally painted white on top rather than the bottom, to better reject heat.

That is the vastly simplified version of Navy and Marine tactical aircraft colors from the 1920s to today.

[Llarry]

One of the interesting deviations from the standard allover sea blue scheme was that for utility squadrons, which towed targets for fleet gunnery practice, etc.

Here are a couple of TBMs in 1948 in the utility scheme. Colorful!

[Llarry]

In the mid-1960s, when U.S. tactical aircraft first entered combat over North Vietnam, they had essentially no electronic support measures (ESM) or electronic countermeasures (ECM). The North Vietnamese likewise had a very unsophisticated air defense system.

As seems to be the case in all wars, that situation rapidly evolved. The USSR and China provided North Vietnam with radars, radar-control anti-aircraft artillery and ultimately surface-to-air-missiles. Without ESM, U.S. pilots would not even know that they were being targeted and without ECM would have no method of countering enemy radars.

The McDonnell-Douglas A-4 Skyhawk was the principle light attack aircraft of the U.S. carriers and of the Marine Corps squadrons stationed in northern South Vietnam. The A-4 desperately needed upgrades to minimize vulnerability to enemy air defenses. At the same time, the A-4 Skyhawk (also known as the "Scooter" due to its compact size) did not have much room to add electronic components. The solution came in the form of a hump in the dorsal area behind the cockpit. Late model A-4s: A-4Es and A-4Fs, were retrofitted with this hump along with the associated electronic black boxes. The final A-4 variant, the Marines' A-4M, came straight from the factory with the hump. The vulnerability of the A-4 was reduced and all was good.

The hump became a way to date a photograph of A-4 variants -- hump = 1960s-on. The Reserve force got in on the action, too, as older A-4Cs were upgraded with the hump as A-4Ls. The Marines even fitted some two seaters as forward air controller aircraft as the OA-4M and these had the hump as well.

On the other hand, as @smokinjoe64 can attest, A-4s used for adversary training usually had the hump removed; for adversary training, lightweight and low drag is good.

Photos:
1 to 3: A-4E, A-4F and A-4M
4: OA-4M
5: A-4L as retrofitted
6: Adversary A-4F "Super Fox" with hump removed

[Llarry]

A couple of footnotes to my post above (#2655) on Navy & Marine Corps aircraft colors:

-- There were units during WWII, Korea and Vietnam that flew all-black aircraft for night missions. Among the most celebrated were the Consolidated PBY "Black Cat" Catalinas that operated against Japanese forces during World War II.

-- For reasons that don't make a lot of sense to me, during the Vietnam era there were some experiments in painting carrier aircraft in Air Force-style camouflage colors of green and brown. The last I checked, there is very little foliage on an aircraft carrier deck! Here's an A-6 from the 1980s so painted.

[ezaircon4jc]

Originally Posted by Llarry

...
-- For reasons that don't make a lot of sense to me, during the Vietnam era there were some experiments in painting carrier aircraft in Air Force-style camouflage colors of green and brown. The last I checked, there is very little foliage on an aircraft carrier deck! Here's an A-6 from the 1980s so painted.

Kind of like sailors wearing blue camo now. Don't fall overboard, the blue camo blends in real well with the ocean!

[Llarry]

For many years -- 1950s-on -- there was a large interceptor force of the North American Air Defense Command with U.S. and Canadian fighters: F-86s, F-89s, F-94s, F-101s, F-102s, F-106s, F-4s, F-15s and F-16s off the top of my head. No Soviet bombers allowed! The remaining air defense aircraft today are just a few squadrons of aging F-15s in the Air National Guard.

Anyway, in the good (?) old days there was the McDonnell F-101 Voodoo. The Voodoo was one of the early supersonic fighters and had some handling quirks that could catch the unwary pilot but was widely used by NORAD U.S. and RCAF squadrons.

Here's an F-101B Voodoo from back in the day. Or it could be an F-101F, which was an F-101B with full dual controls used for pilot training.

[Llarry]

Originally Posted by Llarry

The Douglas SBD Dauntless was to be replaced by the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver, but the SB2C had a difficult gestation.

Another problem with the introduction of the SB2C was that it was replacing a much-loved SBD. The SB2C service introduction started in 1943 but there were a few holdouts that clung to their old reliable SBDs until mid-1944. One was VB-16.

Here's an SBD-5 of VB-16 from the Lexington flying in the vicinity of the Palaus in late March of 1944. It appears that they've already dropped their bombs. The post projecting from the near wing is for a small Yagi radar antenna used for surface search; wartime photo censors often deleted these antennas but missed doing that in this wartime photo for LIFE magazine.

Edit: I've neglected to add in my various posts on the SBD that the airplane had a major disadvantage: It did not have folding wings to minimize deck space and furthermore the construction of the SBD wing was such that folding wings were an impossibility -- unless a whole new wing was designed. The SB2C, despite its drawbacks, could be folded and parked compactly.

[Lady Jane]

Originally Posted by Llarry

The Voodoo was one of the early supersonic fighters and had some handling quirks that could catch the unwary pilot.

Yes, my Dad said that it had a tendency to pitch-up and flat spin. You had to deploy the drogue chute to get the nose down and recover. You had to eject if you were below 10k' feet and not recovered. The last casualties were in the mid '70s at RCAF Bagotville when the Voodoo pitched-up after take-off. Both pilot and REO ejected but were too low.

EDIT: Story here. https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=54964