Gunning the Lightning

forgive a young punk, '100 over the north?' 100 missions over North Vietnam?

The F-105 was a tired, old nostalgic piece of history when I flew it in 79-80. Not quite the 750-800 knot beast it had been.

Fastest I ever saw was 1.2 at 10,000 which is around 680 KCAS....this was with CL tank on it. Shook and wobbled like crazy.

We had a bunch of '100 over the north' Thud drivers back from the war as instructors at Del Rio when I was a 2/Lt T-37 instructor in the mid 60s. As far as I was concerned, these guys could walk on water.

One of ours (near the end):

As a kid growing up near Hill AFB, they had F-4s and F-105s. F-105 was my favorite aircraft for years.

forgive a young punk, '100 over the north?' 100 missions over North Vietnam?

Yep, I was always in awe of that patch. Had the honor of flying with a bunch of 'em in AFRes.

One has to lead the target. The A-4 with a fixed sight (usually added a small depression) had to lead quite a bit. My one time use of a gyro gunsight (in a test) was eye-opening and it went well. Must have been all that fixed sight practice.

The A-4 never had a gyro sign installed?

Skyhawk production models only had a fixed (but depressing ) gunsight. This has been explained in a few scattered places on this forum (I'll go look for one or two) however gyro gunsights along with sometimes air to air radar - amongst other worthwhile improvements were retrofitted - for example the A-4K KAHU was like an F-16 of the day avionics-wise.

Just quickly the A4G had a chance for THOMSON/Thompson-Ferranti gyro gunsight to be fitted but bean counters said no.

"...The RNZAF’s [KAHU upgraded] Skyhawks were equipped with the Ferranti model 4513 HUD which was unique in displaying both analogue and digital data..." http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafcms/mediafiles ... 2FD704.pdf [not there now]

Skyhawk A-4M NATOPS dated 1971: https://www.docdroid.com/1sXZ4xD/dougla ... manual-pdf (63Mb)

Using the search term: 'gunsight+skyhawk' one may find a few examples in the F-35 forum and perhaps in 'cold war era'?

Onesuch A-4 Skyhawk gunsight explanation: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=24483&p=406737&hilit=gunsight+skyhawk#p406737

Other forum parts: viewtopic.php?f=46&t=57025&p=440490&hilit=gunsight+skyhawk#p440490
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viewtopic.php?f=46&t=53537&p=408732&hilit=gunsight+skyhawk#p408732
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downscroll from here: viewtopic.php?f=46&t=53537&p=379139&hilit=gunsight+skyhawk#p379139

An UpDated A-4M HUD - I'll have to download this PDF to check out the details: [Of course it is NOT now at this URL]
http://rapidshare.com/files/122551631/S ... kyhawk.pdf
Try this one: https://www.scribd.com/document/2835794 ... kyhawk-pdf (41Mb)

After finally downloading the above PDF I see that the A-4M HUD reference photo below could not be found so I DUNNO.
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Without finding on my own computer or downloading the above PDF I've found this alternate so a first graphic is from it.

https://www.scribd.com/doc/170140049/Sq ... k#download (PDF 13.5Mb)

Four page PDF from other sources from my LARGE 4.4Gb PDF online has better quality HUD photos & more info attached.

F-35B seen firing a gun WUT!

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/3 ... of-somalia

But I thought the GUN didn't work?!
Melt down incoming at best fighter for canada board.
$5 says it was doctored.

F-35B seen firing a gun WUT!

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/3 ... of-somalia

But I thought the GUN didn't work?!
Melt down incoming at best fighter for canada board.
$5 says it was doctored.

Is "The Drive" even considered a serious or reputable source anymore?

No - but someone thinks it is - and so it goes. <sigh>

F-35B seen firing a gun WUT!

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/3 ... of-somalia

But I thought the GUN didn't work?!
Melt down incoming at best fighter for canada board.
$5 says it was doctored.

Is "The Drive" even considered a serious or reputable source anymore?

Probably not. But if the Fighter jet fired the gun, then ir fired the gun. Im not sure it matters if its on a site you like or it isnt. I suppose at some point news is news.

F-35B seen firing a gun WUT!

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/3 ... of-somalia

But I thought the GUN didn't work?!
Melt down incoming at best fighter for canada board.
$5 says it was doctored.

Is "The Drive" even considered a serious or reputable source anymore?

It's more reputable than The National Interest, Eurasian Times, etc...

F-35B seen firing a gun WUT!

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/3 ... of-somalia

But I thought the GUN didn't work?!
Melt down incoming at best fighter for canada board.
$5 says it was doctored.

The issues were with the internal gun on the F-35A.

F-35B seen firing a gun WUT!

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/3 ... of-somalia

But I thought the GUN didn't work?!
Melt down incoming at best fighter for canada board.
$5 says it was doctored.

The issues were with the internal gun on the F-35A.

Far be it for the media to report that those issues have since been resolved.