The Aviation Thread [Contains Lots of Awesome Pictures]

Just saw this on Wikipedia(don't know if it's a repost)

American_Flag_F-117_Nighthawks.jpg
 
Uncle Sam's Spitfires

Google, your friend and so forth.

USAAF also used DH Mosquitos and there is or was one in the USAF Museum at Dayton, AFB Ohio. I was surprised when I saw it there.

(KaJun may know more about it?)

:smile:
 
stealthy!!

what do you mean last flight before retirement? those already did their time? how old are those? 10yo? 15? kind of a short lifespan for a plane if you ask me...
 
stealthy!!

what do you mean last flight before retirement? those already did their time? how old are those? 10yo? 15? kind of a short lifespan for a plane if you ask me...
First flight was 1981, retired in 2008.
 
Uncle Sam's Spitfires

Google, your friend and so forth.

USAAF also used DH Mosquitos and there is or was one in the USAF Museum at Dayton, AFB Ohio. I was surprised when I saw it there.

(KaJun may know more about it?)

:smile:

Indeed there are some on display toward the back of the WWII gallery, between the B-17 and B-25. Man I know that museum too well. :lol:

https://pic.armedcats.net/k/ka/kajun/2011/06/11/IMG_0791.JPG

https://pic.armedcats.net/k/ka/kajun/2011/06/11/IMG_0780.JPG

I don't seem to have a proper photo of the Mosquito but you can see it behind the Spitfire in the second photo.
 
One of the aircraft shown in the video was a Canberra (Wiki), which has not been pictured in the Thread before.

Canberra Argentine AF​

:)

I remember hearing from a pilot at RAF Marham a tale about the Canberra (he flew them from there before they were retired). It was of a Red Flag exercise between the USAF and RAF, and was a competition in reconnaisance. The game was simple, both Air Forces had to get an aerial image of the main Government building without being deteced.

The US sent a U2 aircraft, which was detected by the RAF before she had even left US airspace. The USAF promptly contacted the RAF to inform them they couldn't do any better, to which the RAF replied with a photograph of the White House taken by a Canberra only hours before.

I don't know how true the story is, although I have heard it a few times from various people within the RAF. I hope it is true! :lol:

Anyway, here's a recently-edited image from the GR4 photoshoot.

http://img51.imageshack.**/img51/1293/web1ej.jpg
 
stealthy!!

what do you mean last flight before retirement? those already did their time? how old are those? 10yo? 15? kind of a short lifespan for a plane if you ask me...

In service since the 1980's and rather limited in what it can do and what it can carry. The killer for those planes is that to keep it under budget it raided the parts bin from planes like the F-104, F-18, P-3 Orion and a few others. A lot of those parts are now VERY hard to find and the F-117 fleet was expensive to maintain for what it does, so they handed that job over to the Raptor.
 
"Dust Up" trip report (aired on Thursday, but I finally got around to clearing it off my PVR): Not really worth watching. Same kind of overplayed drama as in Ice Pilots, but less of it; in its place, we have a different kind of drama...DRAMA ABOUT PLANTS.
 
The Colditz Cock: possibly among the most daring stories in aviation, involving a little glider built to make one short flight that never even happened. That was for the best of reasons, though, WWII ended before it was needed.

Wikipedia said:
The Colditz Cock was a glider built by British prisoners of war for an escape attempt from Oflag IV-C (Colditz Castle) in Germany.

Following the execution of 50 prisoners who had taken part in the "Great Escape" from Stalag Luft III, the Allied High Command had discouraged escape attempts, though the plan to build a glider was encouraged in order to divert the energies of the prisoners from descending into boredom and tedium. The idea for the glider came from Lieutenant Tony Rolt. Rolt, who was not even an airman, had noticed the chapel roof line was completely obscured from German view. He realised that the roof would make a perfect launching point from which the glider could fly across the River Mulde, which was about 60 metres below.

Wikipedia link

The only known photo of the original glider:
Originalglider.jpg


The replica, which was successfully flown with the builders of the original in attendance:
Colditz_glider_replica.jpg
 
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Glad that the crew got out OK, but that is a real sad sight. :cry:

In the UK, there is only one airworthy B-17, the Sally-B (wiki).

Wiki said:
One of the key events in the flying calendar for Sally B is an annual tribute flypast following the Memorial Day service at the American Military Cemetery at Madingley, Cambridge. This takes place over the May Bank Holiday weekend. Flypasts over former Eighth Air Force bases are also carried out whenever possible during the summer months.
 
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