Forum: Military Aircraft of the Cold War

SixerViper wrote:

Somehow the Russkies just can't seem to get the lines quite right on these airplanes.

If any one of those got it close to right, I'd have to say, that it was the Tu-154. With the exception of the engine nacelle sizes, and the vertical stab, I'd say that the Russkies almost got it right, when compared with the 727.

Having seen the Condor a lot, both at Charleston, and downrange, I'd have to say that it's really not bad looking for a cargo plane, but whoever designed the Condor's landing gear was smoking just as much crack as the designer of the C-5's landing gear. When they made the Condor, you can tell that they wanted the C-5's fuselage, but with the empennage of say...a 747.

The Candid (Il-76) is nowhere near as good looking as the C-141 was. The 141 looked better than the Candid, even when it was painted in that @$$-ugly Europe One scheme. A little back story on that: In my squadron, we have squadron pics from each year, dating back to the 1980s when my squadron was assigned to Norton AFB (now a civvy airport in San Bernadino). The 1986 pic had a good looking -141, painted in the classic MAC white-on-gray scheme (think, "Hanoi Taxi"). The next year's pic, for 1987, had the same -141, but painted in Europe One.

Talk about an easy way to completely ruin the looks of an otherwise nice looking jet!

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sferrin wrote:

lampshade111 wrote:

and so could SM-3. THAAD may also be able to hit a bomber at high altitude.

No way in hell either of those could hit a plane.

Could you explain, please? I'm just curious.

The kill vehicles for teh SM-3 and THAAD are exo-atmospheric.

This means that they engage the target outside of Earth's atmosphere. They have no maneuver wings and are not aerodynamic.

snypa777 wrote:

SFERRIN! The XB would have been a beauty...Those foreplanes/canards spoiled it for me though!

Oh, and the Blackjack was just a BONE-CLONE! Still pleasing to the eye though!

You ever see the canards on the Boeing entry? Much like with the X-32/X-35 "it coulda been worse". Laughing

Prinz_Eugn wrote:

sferrin wrote:

lampshade111 wrote:

and so could SM-3. THAAD may also be able to hit a bomber at high altitude.

No way in hell either of those could hit a plane.

Could you explain, please? I'm just curious.

Here is SM-3's kill vehicle. It can't see it's target until the nose of the missile has been ejected and as you might imagine it's not going to do too well in the atmosphere. THAAD at least can operate inside the atmosphere but again, it's not really suited to hit aircraft as it's booster is designed primarily to get the KKV going really fast in pretty much a straight line. Those fancy manuevers you see in some launches are to burn off speed and not something it's going to be doing once it's got up to speed, much less after it's seperated from the KKV. The KKV can manuever side-to-side to refine it's position for a hit but it can't perform a turn.

TC wrote:

One of the few SR launches I was fortunate enough to see WAS a night launch. I remember just being able to make out the shape of the aircraft, and seeing those two bluish-white afterburner flames. Very cool...and it was about as loud as the BONE as well. However, for those who never had the opportunity to see it, seeing the BONE launch at night is quite a similar experience.

I used to see it takeoff from McClellen. One time just after takeoff it nosed up about 30 degrees, snaped right 90 and pulled HARD. I never thought about one pulling such a tight climbing turn, but then again A-12 was supposed to be a fighter. You also had no problem seeing a 30' flame in daylight. Shocked

Awesome tank! As far as the night launches go, it didn't get much prettier than this

Blackbird all the way. Now that was a beautiful plane. Imagine letting one of those babys loose at an airshow doing a highspeed run with burners on ?? : Very Happy

That would be a sight.

asianviper wrote:

Imagine letting one of those babys loose at an airshow doing a highspeed run with burners on

Umm...RIAT, and Farnborough during the 70s and 80s? Edwards and Beale airshows?

Don't have to imagine anything. Been there, done that...Habu crews have several T-shirts.

Umm...RIAT, and Farnborough during the 70s and 80s? Edwards and Beale airshows?

Damn! I wish i was there to see that but i was still a little kid during the 70s and 80s Smile

. Seeing a sight like that stays with you forever. Youre a lucky man TC......as well as an older man Razz

I was at Farnborough this year and it was pretty cool, they had the only airworthy Vulcan do a flying display there and i have to say i was impressed with the old girl very noisy and very powerful and also a very beautiful plane.The Typhoon put on a good display as well as the A380. The pilot in the A380 was amazing, I have never seen a plane of that size banking so steeply. I was pretty impressed at how quiet the A380 was as well.

Well, I wasn't alive for the famous Farnborough '74 appearance. I wouldn't make my debut performance for another 6 years, however, I am old enough to have seen the Habu fly several times before it was retired the first time...it never failed to impress!

I've never seen the A380's demo, but I've flown the C-17's demo profile several times. For the size of the Moose, it can put on a no Sierra impressive show.

Ok, I'm prolly gonna age myself here, but I did get to see the Habu do its night time stuff quite often while stationed at Kadena in the early 80's (VERY impressive) I was in T.A. back then and we were tasked with removing the drag chute after it landed every time. Sitting at the E.O.R. watching her fly over your head on final was the coolest thing I ever saw. After he released the chute we would scurry out onto the runway and pick up the drogue and main chute and carry back to the hangar. Even got a tour of the facility once. (I knew the O.I.C. and one of the pilots) She was deifnitely the sexiest plane I ever saw fly. And talk about power !!!

From Farnborough 1986 (fairly sure anyway) where one of them was flown so hard the aircraft was subsequently grounded IIRC. Not condoning it obviously but it probably WAS somewhat impressive.

Where's the nearest F-22 Raptor squadron in Florida. Tyndall AFB, right?

Scramble a flight of four to intercept the Blackjacks.

Forum: Military Aircraft of the Cold War

Tu-160 "White Hype"