Forum: Military Aircraft of the Cold War

As promised, here's a few more pics:

F-16.net Sponsor

more from me. NAS 892 Sqn FG.1s in action. Found these on one of my old hardrives

Awesome Asif! I love that last one, where they're leaving the deck in full "Reheat". One detail about the British Rhinos that I finally figured out made them look odd when compared to the J79-powered birds, is the lack of "Turkey Feathers" on the Spey's nozzles.

TC wrote:

Awesome Asif! I love that last one, where they're leaving the deck in full "Reheat". One detail about the British Rhinos that I finally figured out made them look odd when compared to the J79-powered birds, is the lack of "Turkey Feathers" on the Spey's nozzles.

The Rolls-Royce designed engines do not use turkey feathers, they use a translating shroud design with small petals to vary the exhaust nozzle area. If you look at the RB-199 for the Tornado you will see that turkey feathers and thrust reverser systems are not very compatible.

On the R.N. pictures, the black letter "Omega" was chosen for the marking as it is the last letter of the Greek alphabet, and at the time it was thought that 892 Squadron FAA would be the last fixed-wing Naval Squadron.

The white letter "R" is the code for HMS Ark Royal and the white "007" on the nose is the individual aircraft identification, the squadron's Phantoms were numbered from 001 to 017.

I'm quite certain that everyone in that squadron wanted to fly "007" at least once. While deployed, I flew in a bird with the tail number -007, and that was well worth the hero shot I had made of me with my 9mm drawn. Laughing

asiatrails wrote:

The engines had to be changed as the cats on the RN carriers were shorter stroke (provided less energy) than the cats on the USN carriers. You got the take off performance back by increasing the low altitude thrust capability of the engines.

As a stop gap measure, the "J" models were stationed in the Falklands for local air defence.

While that was the reason for the change, the USMC VMFA-531 proved it unnecessary in 1973 during cross-deck ops between USS Forrestal and HMS Ark Royal. They were able to land F-4N (BuNo 151477) on and later take off from the flight deck of Ark Royal.

nice pics!!!!!!!!!

wh1skea wrote:

asiatrails wrote:

The engines had to be changed as the cats on the RN carriers were shorter stroke (provided less energy) than the cats on the USN carriers. You got the take off performance back by increasing the low altitude thrust capability of the engines.

As a stop gap measure, the "J" models were stationed in the Falklands for local air defence.

While that was the reason for the change, the USMC VMFA-531 proved it unnecessary in 1973 during cross-deck ops between USS Forrestal and HMS Ark Royal. They were able to land F-4N (BuNo 151477) on and later take off from the flight deck of Ark Royal.

Our birds were operating with a reduced fuel load. They could takeoff and land, but never with a full bombload. The Speys and longer nose helped quite a bit on the little Brit carriers.

Did the RR engines make more thrust than the J79s?

Slightly. The Speys produced slightly more thrust than the J79s, at 12,140 lb of thrust (MIL) and 20,500 lb (AB), compared to the J79's 11,905 lb (MIL) and 17,835 lb (AB).

However, the fastest model in the F-4 family was the J79-equipped "Recon Rhino", the RF-4.

J79s phantoms had a faster top speed, but Spey phantoms had a better climb rate and acceleration. Allison-built Speys might have made their way into U.S. phantoms if the Tomcat has been cancelled.

I used to have a couple of matchbox models of 892 Sqn #007...I always liked the mix of blue and red they had on those particular birds.

bjr1028 wrote:

Allison-built Speys might have made their way into U.S. phantoms...

As was said previously, the U.S. and U.K. Phantoms did not have a common engine bay. If it weren't impossible to do (which, IIRC, it was), it would have required extensive modifications to accomplish.

OTOH, I had read of a plan which would have re-engined American Rhinos with P&W turbofans, and 1980's technology avionics, as a contingency, had the F-15 been cancelled.

Quote:

The engines had to be changed as the cats on the RN carriers were shorter stroke (provided less energy) than the cats on the USN carriers. You got the take off performance back by increasing the low altitude thrust capability of the engines.

USN and USMC Phantoms have operated from RN aircraft carriers....