Post amazingly cool pictures of aircraft (Volume 1)

[glazbagun]

I cant believe noones posted an F-104 Starfighter yet. Surely the coolest looking fighter ever? I'll try & rectify this tomorrow....

[millband]

You guys might like to watch this on Tuesday night:

BBC said:

BBC 2 - Earth: The Power of the Planet
Tue 27 Nov, 9:00 pm - 10:00 pm 60mins

Atmosphere

Dr Iain Stewart investigates the Earth's atmosphere by taking a flight in a jet fighter that can go beyond the lower layer of the atmosphere into the stratosphere. He uses this flight to introduce the four key layers in the atmosphere, and the vital roles each layer plays.

Mr Stewart takes his ride to the stratosphere in one of Thunder City's Lightning T5's, the lucky bugger.

[Eric Mc]

Wedgie - don't forget that the Americans used Canberras too - including some highly modified ones which could outperform any of the British versions. NASA still has two of them in service - one which has been making regular visits to the UK in recent years. Do a search under "Martin B-57".

Regarding the Buccaneers at Red Flag, that story is definitely true but it is much too recent to have featured on the old 1960s programme "Tonight". For a start, the RAF only started operating Bucaneers in the early 1970s. Secondly, they only started entering Red Flag from the mid to late 1970s. From what I recall, the story was mainly covered by BBC's "Nationwide" programme and possibly "Newsnight" - which has been running since 1978.

Edited by Eric Mc on Tuesday 27th November 08:01

[Marquis_Rex]

Very impressive.
As impressive as the ME 262 Jet engine plane was, its always the Piston engined WW2 stuff that pulls my heart strings more.
The rebuilding/reconstruction of the Me 262s again is cool, but this caught my eye, and had I the money, this is where it would go

http://www.flugwerk.de/diary.shtm

Brand new rebuilt Focke Wulfs FW 190s and P 51 Mustangs

[Eric Mc]

It's a pity they have to use American or Polish engines in the rebuilds. Still, they look fantastic.

A GENUINE Fw-190A is being rebuilt in the UK, with the proper BMW 801 radial fitted. So, we'll get to hear what they REALLY sounded like.

The new build 262s look great but they too have modern engines - which is just as well as the original Jumos had a life between overhauls of just 10 hours.

[gopher]

Eric Mc said:

Regarding the Buccaneers at Red Flag, that story is definitely true but it is much too recent to have featured on the old 1960s programme "Tonight". For a start, the RAF only started operating Bucaneers in the early 1970s. Secondly, they only started entering Red Flag from the mid to late 1970s. From what I recall, the story was mainly covered by BBC's "Nationwide" programme and possibly "Newsnight" - which has been running since 1978.

It was 1977 208 Sqn Buccs basically won every task put to them simply because of their low flying ability, in fact that first Red Flag was won by the RAF outright, however from that point on the USAF were wise to our tactics and wins were not so easy in future.

At some point in the exercise the yanks, under cover of darkness, sneeked into the RAF compound and painted red stars on the cockpit sides of the Buccs to signify their "enemy" status.

[johnnywb]

Wedg1e said:

Snoggledog said:

Almost on topic...

Does anyone remember the "Tonight Programme" with Cliff Michelmore? The reason behind the odd question is that my father constantly harps on about one show where the nice people from across the Atlantic were embarrassed at Red Flag when they tried to track a Buccaneer which was flicking in and out of the sand dunes. Apparently our cousins failed miserably to get a lock on the plane. Does anyone know where I could get a video / dvd of this just to shut him up?

Reminds me of the one where the USAF were bragging how they had some pics taken of one of our planes from one of their U2s or similar, 30,000 feet higher up.
So the RAF produced a picture taken of the U2 by a Canberra, 30,000 feet higher still

...and the exercise where the USAF were suposed to track a Vulcan and several RAF fighters by radar, but lost the fighters. They had their planes looking everywhere for our boys... only to find they were flying along just underneath the Vulcan and hiding in its radar signature

Reminds me of the story of the B2 at one of the air shows where the RAF managed to track it on the Rapier system, don't think the Americans were very happy about it.

[HSVGTSCoupe]

sjp63 said:

ive seen that guy with the microlight being followed by birds - its amazing....hes French you know.. What birds are they????

I think the birds are french too

[minimoog]

glazbagun said:

I cant believe noones posted an F-104 Starfighter yet. Surely the coolest looking fighter ever? I'll try & rectify this tomorrow....

FM said:

[Yertis]

Doesn't the Voodoo look pretty?

[Shar2]

For those that mentioned the Fw190, there was one at Duxford earlier this year.

[Eric Mc]

I've always liked the Voodoo in its various guises. I visited one of the last operational Voodoo squadrons in the USAF back in 1981 - the Texas Air National Guard unit based at Ellington Air Force bases just outside Houston.

All the ultra low level antics of the Buccaneers eventually led to a number of serious accidents when wing spars began failing.

[spitfire-ian]

dougc said:

The one and only Sqn Ldr Ray Hanna AFC getting acquainted with the grid at Goodwood in 1998

I've posted that already on page 12

[jmorgan]

OK, picked from the Dryden image gallery. Here there is a movie section as well.

Made by one of these, and a 104 as requested. Good eh?

See the vid of what its like here

Some more for the hell of it



Where'd they come from?



And this one because what it and a few blokes did was amazing.

[NikB]

What an awesome thread

I don't think this has been done yet....

Edited by NikB on Tuesday 27th November 09:47

[Fume Troll]

Spectre/ Spooky




C-130 Hercules refuells a CH-53 over Tel-Aviv




C-130 rocket assisted take off




Early rjection test


Spitfire and Typhoon


Cheers,

FT.

Edited by Fume Troll on Tuesday 27th November 09:45

[Eric Mc]

That's not an early test ejection. In fact, it looks quite recent. I would guess the 1990s - judging from the motif "Canada" painted on the side of the T-33.

The old Royal Canadian Air Force ceased to exist in around 1966/67 when all Canada's defence armes were merged into the generic "Canadian Armed Forces" and from that time that was what was painted on the side of the aircraft - in English on one side and French on the other. More recently, this has been abbreviated to "Canada".

[D-Angle]

A couple from the Falklands:

[Snoggledog]

gopher said:

Eric Mc said:

Regarding the Buccaneers at Red Flag, that story is definitely true but it is much too recent to have featured on the old 1960s programme "Tonight". For a start, the RAF only started operating Bucaneers in the early 1970s. Secondly, they only started entering Red Flag from the mid to late 1970s. From what I recall, the story was mainly covered by BBC's "Nationwide" programme and possibly "Newsnight" - which has been running since 1978.

It was 1977 208 Sqn Buccs basically won every task put to them simply because of their low flying ability, in fact that first Red Flag was won by the RAF outright, however from that point on the USAF were wise to our tactics and wins were not so easy in future.

At some point in the exercise the yanks, under cover of darkness, sneeked into the RAF compound and painted red stars on the cockpit sides of the Buccs to signify their "enemy" status.

Thanks for the info chaps. It gives me a point of reference now so I can do some research.

[jmorgan]

I remember seeing a film from Red Flag when I was in the ATC. From a hazy memory showing what looked like the view from a tracking thingamybob. The woman (or the systems) was trying to lock on to two Buccaneers flying low and criss crossing each other at next to zero feet. I think the comment was "if you want to see some flying, go outside". Think they gave up, defenders that is.