Your favorite military aircraft

Big fan of the B-17G since dad co-piloted one over nazi Germany 35 sorties and made it into the Lucky Bastards club.  Other WWII favorites are the Corsair, P-38 Lightning, and P-51 Mustang.

Toured USS Constellation docked in Coronado before it was decommissioned years ago.  Only plane on the boat was an F-4 Phantom used for fire suppression drills...everything else had been sent to Myramar.  .

Got all the kids, wyff, and her dad back in the minivan rental after the tour and went exploring North Island. Was pre-911 and never got a second look from anyone.  Drove around the entire base.  Mostly looked like a giant aircraft junkyard.  Helicopters that had seen much better days.  F-14 Tomcats that had been gutted so thoroughly you could see daylight looking through the ass end.  Pardon,  I digress...

Don't give a shit about the F-35B anymore.  The F/A-18 Hornet is still the sexiest plane on the planet IMO.  

The  A-10C Warthog. is still good at pretty much everything

Probably this,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_XB-70_Valkyrie
Though the Blackbird was pretty damn cool.

B-25 Mitchell.  My dad and I scratch built a scale RCMB version with a 101" wingspan but have been too chicken shit to fly it.

NigelUno wrote:

Too expensive and unforgiving in my opinion but it's capabilities are sweet. It's too bad it's had so many issues.

I.B. Fine wrote:Probably this,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_XB-70_Valkyrie
Though the Blackbird was pretty damn cool.

SR-71 is still one of the most impressive planes ever built. It's only armament was cameras and speed

The Pantry wrote:Big fan of the B-17G since dad co-piloted one over nazi Germany 35 sorties and made it into the Lucky Bastards club.  Other WWII favorites are the Corsair, P-38 Lightning, and P-51 Mustang.

Toured USS Constellation docked in Coronado before it was decommissioned years ago.  Only plane on the boat was an F-4 Phantom used for fire suppression drills...everything else had been sent to Myramar.  .

Got all the kids, wyff, and her dad back in the minivan rental after the tour and went exploring North Island. Was pre-911 and never got a second look from anyone.  Drove around the entire base.  Mostly looked like a giant aircraft junkyard.  Helicopters that had seen much better days.  F-14 Tomcats that had been gutted so thoroughly you could see daylight looking through the ass end.  Pardon,  I digress...

Don't give a shit about the F-35B anymore.  The F/A-18 Hornet is still the sexiest plane on the planet IMO.  

The  A-10C Warthog. is still good at pretty much everything

I can't imagine what is must have been like for your dad and crewmates in those planes. Much respect to them.

The Pantry wrote:

I.B. Fine wrote:Probably this,

SR-71 is still one of the most impressive planes ever built. It's only armament was cameras and speed

..and it predated all the computer simulation design of today, slide rules and chutzpah.

The A10 will fuck your shit up and laugh at you while it strolls around above raining down 70 coke bottle sized depleted uranium rounds per second on your ass.

Snake Plissken wrote:

Sweet pic.

Still wondering how/why the Bone got funded

Classic: F4U Corsair (that engine has it's own sound and it is unreal).
Somewhat modern: SR-71, Lived in Okinawa on Kadena Air Base where they were based in the early 80s, spent many a day on "Habu Hill" watching them take off. There was also a test cell close to where our house was(here they would run up engines removed from the airplanes during maintenance)....Those things were loud as fuck even a mile away.

I also have a fondness for the massive C-5, our house in Hawaii was under the approach path into the airport and those things would fly over low and slow and shake the hell out of the house. I never got to ride in one but I did spend most of a flight from Honolulu to Auckland riding in the jumpseat in the cockpit of a C-141. I also clogged the toilet on that plane(puke) and they had to slide a new one in with a forklift during the fuel stop in Pago Pago. I was 9 years old.

As a Viet Nam era Vet I had friends who flew F 111B bombing missions from carrier decks.  
USN pilots are cocky little shits (most are 6'0 or under) and a lot of it comes from being able to land on a moving deck.

My god daughter is a USAF Academy grad who did well in intitial flight training and was selected to be train as an AFSOC pilot flying single engine modified prop U-28A's Spent a year after graduation learning how to fly in shitty weather and land U-28A 's  on short landing strips or just clearings.  She even got to experience being water boarded and mountain survival school as part of the training just in case things didn't go well.  Then 5 years of flying to and landing in places where the US may deny their existence. Security means she still can't talk about where she flew.

She now flys for a major US airline.

GRR Spartan wrote:As a Viet Nam era Vet I had friends who flew F 111B bombing missions from carrier decks.  
USN pilots are cocky little shits (most are 6'0 or under) and a lot of it comes from being able to land on a moving deck.

My god daughter is a USAF Academy grad who chose to fly small prop aircraft rather than fighter jets as a AFSOC pilot.  She spent almost 5 years flying missions she can't talk about carrying US personnel to places the US might deny having people in country.  Spent a year after graduation learning how to fly and land U-28A 's  on short landing strips or just clearings.  She even got to experience being water boarded and mountain survival school as part of the training just in case things didn't go well.  

She now flys for a major US airline.

The Pilatus PC-12 is a sweet plane, can fly into almost anywhere.

The greatest airframe achievement the world has ever produced: BUFF

Dr. Strangelove wrote:The greatest airframe achievement the world has ever produced: BUFF

Yep, recently confirmed that it's service life will exceed 100 years.

The Pantry wrote:

I.B. Fine wrote:Probably this,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_XB-70_Valkyrie
Though the Blackbird was pretty damn cool.

SR-71 is still one of the most impressive planes ever built. It's only armament was cameras and speed

I built the blackbird model as a teenager because it was so damn cool

Gomer wrote:The A10 will fuck your shit up and laugh at you while it strolls around above raining down 70 coke bottle sized depleted uranium rounds per second on your ass.

any any american kid that has to clean up the bodies it destroys ends up with multiple autoimmune diseases. That depleted uranium fucks you up after it initially kills.

I.B. Fine wrote:

The Pantry wrote:SR-71 is still one of the most impressive planes ever built. It's only armament was cameras and speed

..and it predated all the computer simulation design of today, slide rules and chutzpah.

Got to agree with this. My dad crashed in a Glider and never flew in a plane again. He refused to fly because of a mission crash in WWII. Weird.

Spitfire:


Lancaster bomber:

I'm amazed no Top Gun/GI Joe enthusiast hasn't said the F-14 yet.

It only had one purpose.

The Pregnant Guppy:

Or NASA's Super Guppy:
(FF to the last minute to see the takeoff)

I.B. Fine wrote:
I can't imagine what is must have been like for your dad and crewmates in those planes. Much respect to them.

Have posted this pic before, dad 3rd from right



Got a random letter early this year from a guy in Missouri.  Son of a former crewmate (TTE) with my dad.  Have talked with him a couple times since.  Really nice guy that has compiled info about the crew, all of which have passed.  Sent me a nicely done booklet of photos (many I had never seen before) and stories about the crew.  His dad is 2nd from left in the above pic.

As baby boomers, the guy and I both agree with the Greatest Generation term Brokaw coined years ago.

Some cool pics and info on this website dedicated to the Bloody Hundredth

https://100thbg.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=255:bloody-hundredth&catid=25&Itemid=581