Pics of Blue Angels at Seafair.

[Coota0]

I can't believe no one has made any jokes about the P-51's outrunning the A-10

Edited August 10, 2004 by Coota0

[Godzilla]

Well I am at the Boeing Museum of Flight in South Seattle. I use to work for Boeing.

[rdenham]

As for P-51 and A-10: simply becuase they're the most common planes at airshows. If there's more types, you'll get a bigger formation.

The A-10 & Mustangs at Sea Fair were part of the USAF Heritage Flight. The P-51D With the red tail is named Val-Halla Serial #45-11525 and is flown by Maj Gen Bill Anders, USAF, Ret.

[Zentrandude]

Ah, THAT Tomcat. One of the very few museum F-14's that actually did fly with the squadron it's painted as. (90% of all F-14's in museums wear either VF-2, VF-41, or VF-84 markings, even if they didn't fly with them). Though it didn't fly with VF-84 in the configuration it's currently in. (It's in final 1990+ config, not 70's/80's when it was with the Jolly Rogers)

That F-14 is very famous--it is the subject of the famous painting, and was about the most-filmed plane in "The Final Countdown". Note that I can't find any reference to it being AJ202 as painted, only AJ204 and 206. Will have to watch movie more closely, see if I can find which it was marked up as then.

As for P-51 and A-10: simply becuase they're the most common planes at airshows. If there's more types, you'll get a bigger formation.

PS--font's all wrong for the "VF-84" and bureau number. Not that BOEING cares about how Grumman painted up their planes.

if the painting i have is accurately made by the painter in 1980. the f-14 paint configuration is didnt change much. only thing i see diffent the real one doesnt have the uss nimitz on it and the black around the cockpit area is not on the painting.

[KingNor]

I can't believe no one has made any jokes about the P-51's outrunning the A-10

have you seen the gun on a warthog, i make it a point to never EVER make fun of one.

respect is due to a plane thats called "a gun with wings" even if it does get our run by some 60 year old prop fighters :-)

[valkyrietestpilot]

this is 1 of my airshow favorites

[valkyrietestpilot]

and my other favorite heavy.jimmy doolittle called these" fat ladies" when he was training to launch them of a carrier

Edited August 22, 2004 by valkyrietestpilot

[Godzilla]

Man, I love those WW2 airplanes. They are sure pretty.

[KingNor]

are those four, forward facing guns on the right side of the plane there? does that mean it has EIGHT guns plus the nose gunner? wowza

[valkyrietestpilot]

kingnor,i believe this consolidated b-25 had the ability to house 5 fifty caliber guns in the nose glass & 2 hard mounted to each side of the cockpit(only fire straight ahead) for a total of 9(not including turretts & rear gunner) if you were running w/ just guns.you have to take a few out if you wanna put a bombadier in there w/ his sighting equipment.this bird lives at my local airport in the summer & the airbird museum in florida in the winter,so i can see her pretty much anytime i want.this baby is special cause 1 of the original members of doolittle's raiders donated 1 of their special made low-level bomb sites made special for their mission to this bird.it's mounted in the nose & it's autographed by the surviving doolittle's raiders.this is an ultra-rare piece of equipment & was even classified for a long time.i'm a rabid fan of these fine vintage ladies too.i really wanna see a P-38 lightning in person too.

i personally think the B-25 bomber looks like a cross between the B-24 liberator & the B-17 "fortress".the airframe shape resembles the boeing,but it's short more like the "liberator" the B-25 bombers were famous for their carrier launch for doolittle's raid on tokyo.i'm not sure how widely they were used in any other campagne

Edited August 22, 2004 by valkyrietestpilot

[valkyrietestpilot]

the top pic is of a torpedo/bomber.i can't for the life of me remember the designation or company responsible for her,but these guys decimated yamamoto's carriers at the battle of midway.they are absolutely huge in person.tv & pics never do 1 of these justice.it is a collossal plane to see in person.she's crewed by 3.1 pilot,1 ball turret gunner behind the canopy & 1 radio operator down in her belly.i think this is the bird pres.bush senior was shot down in too.bad thing about these is,if you crash,the pilot is the only guy w/ a chance to get out.the small hatch to the radio man almost always jams shut & the ball trurret guy has so much to undo & maneuver around,he'd never have enough time to get out,so that scratches going up by him to get out for the poor radio guy too

i really like it asthetically though.big,tough girl

(this is also the model of plane used in flight 19 from florida that got lost in the bermuda triangle)

Edited August 22, 2004 by valkyrietestpilot

[David Hingtgen]

For the F-14's configuration, I meant physical configuration. Though I don't know of any museum that's ever back-dated an F-14 to be correct for how they'll paint it.

[F-ZeroOne]

Some B-25s had no less than eight .50 guns in the nose, plus the two turret guns, plus up to four sidepack guns. Needless to say, you didn't want to be standing in front of one when it opened fire.

The first B-25s modified in this way were done by a USAAF officer called "Pappy" Gunn. When he was asked if the extra guns upset the B-25s centre of gravity, he replied that he'd thrown the centre of gravity away to lighten the planes!

Later B-25s were factory fitted with the guns (rather than field modifications), and some B-25s actually had a 75mm gun, for anti-shipping use. Mitchells were widely used in the Pacific, especially for making low level bombing and strafing runs, and were generally regarded as being much more forgiving of pilot error than the high performance but very "hot" B-26 Marauder.

The plane with the open torpedo bay doors is a Grumman TBF Avenger. I'm afraid it wasn't torpedo bombers that did the damage at Midway - it was mainly the dive-bombing "Slow But Deadly" SBD Dauntlesses. Five of the six Avengers which took part in that action were destroyed, while the even less fortunate pilots flying Douglas TBD Devestators were almost wiped out. Also, its a sad fact that American torpedoes for at least the first three years of the war were defective and often failed to work properly.

The torpedo bombers sacrifice at Midway wasn't in vain - their approach drew off the Japanese carriers Zero fighter cover, which allowed the dive bombers to attack almost unopposed.

Having said that, the Avenger went on to have a long and successful career for the rest of the war, and also served with the Fleet Air Arm, who I believe at one point considered renaming it the "Shrike"! (the Britsh often renamed US planes this way - the Wildcat became the FAAs Martlet, while it was a British suggestion that gave the P-38 its famous name, rather than the originally chosen "Atlanta!").

Edit: by the way, the Mitchell is a North American design, not a Consolidated make...

Edited August 22, 2004 by F-ZeroOne

[valkyrietestpilot]

maybe,it's the B-24 liberator that i'm thinking consolidated made? hmm,oh,well

[F-ZeroOne]

maybe,it's the B-24 liberator that i'm thinking consolidated made? hmm,oh,well

Yes, the B-24 was Consolidated (I have to admit, I had to go and check it!). Another great plane, made in absolutely ridiculous numbers by modern standards, especially considering the USs relatively late entry into the war.

Mind you, B-17 pilots did use to claim that a B-24 formation nearby was the best escort they could get - because B-24s couldn't fly quite as high as B-17s, German fighters tended to go for B-24s first!

[Mislovrit]

For additional information on the B-25 Mitchell you may want to look here. http://www.vectorsite.net/avb25.html

[rdenham]

This is what the F-14 on display at the Museum of Flight in Seattle looked like when it arrived from NSAWC at NAS Fallon.

F-14A BuNo #160382

1977 AJ 202 VF-84

1982 AJ 206 VF-84, CVN-70

3-31-87 to 1-14-88 VF-84

1990 AE 112 VF-11

1994 NL 104 VF-51, NAD North Island (KNZY),

8-31-2000 to 4-2001 NSAWC

April 2002 Museum of Flight, Seattle, Washington

Edited August 23, 2004 by rdenham