Who Likes Invaders?, P-2 Redux, While We're Looking at Big Stuff, How About a Fighter?, The Liftowheel, A SpAD, and A Big P-40

Just Can't Get Enough of The A-26!

With any luck you feel the same way about what is arguably the prettiest attack aircraft ever built. Mark Nankivil sent in a nice set of photos from the Tulsa Air and Space Museum's archives, highly appropriate since the Invader was built in Tulsa after that plant shut down production of the SBD and A-24. As is the norm around here, we'll let the pictures do the talking.

If you know anything about me at all you'll remember that I'm a sucker for aircraft under construction. Here's a fascinating view of an early Invader being built; it's mostly an airplane at this point but completion is still a couple of weeks away. The nacelles appear to be OD 41, making this A-26B an extremely early example of the type.  Tulsa Air and Space Museum via Mark Nankivil

Round and round we go, as 44-35281, an A-26C-30-DT, scrubs away all the rubber on it's port mlg tire! At first I thought we were looking at compass alignment here, but have since changed my mind. Maybe. Whatever they're doing, it would seem that quite a few airplanes have been down that road before,  at least if all the rubber in the middle of the apron is any indication of same. There's a placard on the nose of that bird that says Iron Project, and I have no idea what that signifies either; I've been through every resource at my disposal and can find nothing by that name. Nada. Zip. I even checked the Highly Unreliable But Everybody Goes There Anyway internet; still no joy! If any of you can shed some light on whatever this is, please drop us a line at the usual replicainscale@yahoo.com address. Please.  Tulsa Air and Space Museum via Mark Nankivil

If you're going to build it sooner or later you'll have to fly it. Here's 43-22254, an A-26B-5-DT, on a test hop out of Tulsa. Check out that nose; there are no guns and apparently no provision for them either; that's an extremely atypical proboscis we're looking at. There also appears to be some sort of funky antenna sprouting from the fuselage just aft of the pilot's window. Mystery Meat, as it were!  Tulsa Air and Space Museum via Mark Nankivil

Can't Get Enough of Those Oddball Neptunes

Those goofy SEA P-2s we ran a few days ago have stirred a bit of interest, it seems. Mark Nankivil took another look in his collection and came up with a few more photos that I think you'll enjoy. Who knows; you may even start buying up some of those unloved but highly-buildable Hasegawa P-2s for some conversion work. I know I'm sure getting tempted!

Here's a better shot of one of those green OP-2Es from VO-67. I'm particularly fond of this perspective because it gives a clean view of the underwing hardpoints---those appear to be TERs hanging off them. Note that this bird has far less green overspray on the national insignia than did 128416, which we looked at last time around. This photo was probably taken at either DaNang or CamRahn Bay in February of '68.  Bob Burgess via Mark Nankivil



And another 1st Radio Research RP-2E as operated by the Army in 1968. Although deployed to VietNam, Republic of, at the time, this aircraft is shown taxiing out at MCAS Iwakuni in Japan. Given the overall cleanliness of the aircraft I'd guess she's a recent arrival, probably en route to theater when this photo was taken.  Tom Doll Collection


Blackbird Singin' in the Dead of Night

Here's something a little bit different to round out our selection of Big Navy Airplanes for today. Enjoy!

You may have seen photos of this airplane before---I know I have, but not of this quality! A-3B BuNo 144847 was shot at NAS Alameda in May of 1967, immediately prior to her deployment to Places West. Note the deployed crew hatch just aft of the nose gear, and the insignia red warning trim around the gear doors. Tom Doll Collection

Now here's something you don't see every day! 149673 was also photographed at Alameda in May of 1967. The full-sized full-color national insignia, BuNo, and "NAVY" legend on the aft fuselage compromise the camouflage somewhat, but Holy Cow---what a neat looking airplane! 673 was a P-3A, but backdating the 1/72nd scale Hasegawa P-3C to this configuration would be a simple proposition, and those markings would be a breeze for anyone with a decent stock of decals on hand. Beauty!  Tom Doll Collection

If We're Talking Vietnam There's Only One Fighter Bomber

And that would be the legendary Republic F-105 Thunderchief, affectionately known as the "Thud" by former aircrew and aviation enthusiasts around the world. The 105 flew the majority of early and mid-war USAF strike missions over North Vietnam and suffered accordingly; the attrition rate for the type was nothing short of horrendous. If you're interested in such things, former "Thud" driver Jack Broughton wrote two of the best first-person accounts of F-105 operations in Vietnam; Thud Ridge and Going Downtown, both of which I highly recommend to you. The Thunderchief was heavily photographed during her combat career, but high-quality wartime photos can be difficult to find, which makes this one something special:

"Big Kahuna" was an F-105D-20-RE assigned to the 357th TFS/355th TFW during 1969. Note the red trim on her gear doors and the extensive damage to the paint around the wing pylon and gas bag, as well as the strake in the area of the over-run hook which allows the yellow Mil-P-8585 zinc chromate primer to show through. Like so many of her breed, 61-0109 ended the war in a heap of twisted metal outside of Hanoi. She was shot down on 2 March 1969, with her pilot MIA.   Bob Burgess via Mark Nankivil

Of course, some of the F-105 fleet managed to survive the war, finishing up their days in AFRES or ANG units. Here's an interesting example of one of those airframes.

Remember that MiG-17 Mike McMurtrey photographed outside a Texas antique store a few months ago? Here's a companion for it! "Rebel Rider" is an F-105D-5-RE that went to MASDC in 1981 after a career with the Guard and now resides behind an automotive repair shop in St Louis! She appears to be largely intact and a good candidate for restoration as a display aircraft. Restoring her to flying condition (and supporting her maintenance requirements and thirst for JP-4) would be a different matter entirely!  Fred Harl

And here's her nose, or more properly; fuselage, art. Judging from those punctures "Rebel Rider" may have served as a BDA airframe at some point after retirement from active status. Anybody have any shots of her when she was flying?  Fred Harl

It's Not An Airplane, But It's For An Airplane...

We don't shy away from the unusual around here---if it has anything to do with American military aviation there's a good chance it'll end up on these pages sooner or later. In that vein here's something a little out of the ordinary  for your viewing pleasure; the Republic Liftowheel!

So there you are, taxiing along in the F-105 of your choice, when BANG, you get a blowout! (Or maybe HISSSSS, you get a flat; it's all the same for the purpose of this discussion!) Do you call Triple A? Do you reach in the trunk and pull out your lug wrench and jack? NO! You call for a Republic Liftowheel. Frequent contributor Mark Nankivil sent along this shot along with some commentary:

One item of curious interest was the Republic Liftowheel. I have never seen this before and the owner claims to have not found reference to it in any manuals related to the F-105. If you look at the main landing gear doors for the Thud, at the bottom is a square panel that can be detached. This allows access to the back of the wheel axle and is where the Liftowheel is physically attached to the wheel/axle. In the event of a flat tire, this panel is detached and the Liftowheel slipped onto the back of the axle. What's interesting is that the axle point of the Liftowheel is eccentric and is a wheel within a wheel of the whole unit. Once mounted, the aircraft can be rolled away with the Liftowheel taking the load of the flat tire. Very interesting! Ever seen this before or know of reference material for it?

Not me! How about it, readers? Anybody out there have anything to say about this? Maybe a T.O reference? If so, you surely know the drill; the address is replicainscale@yahoo.com . Bring it on!

Another VNAF SpAD

The VNAF were a gutsy bunch, no doubt about it. Their A-1 Skyraiders were frequently ridden hard and put away wet but never failed to perform, and the courage of their pilots is well-known to all.

Gettin' ready to go find Charlie. This 23rd Tactical Wing A-1H, formerly BuNo 135322, taxis out for another mission on 20 May 1968. The aircraft is minimally loaded, carrying only a quartet of Mk 82 GP bombs and a full load of 20mm. Note the Gull Grey canopy frame, and the natural metal areas of the cowling. Of particular interest to modelers is the extensive exhaust staining on her fuselage. Operational Skyraiders were generally dirty Skyraiders!  Bob Burgess via Mark Nankivil

As Finished as It's Likely to Get

I've had a little bit of extra time here lately, and have in consequence been able to get a couple of long-term projects completed. One of those was the Hasegawa P-38G you saw a few installments ago--the one where I installed the props the wrong way (and am I ever glad to get that one done---no more P-38s for this buckaroo for a while, by Golly), but I also managed to complete that 1/32nd scale P-40N we were looking at. Here are a couple of photos to show how it came out:

All done, and an easy date in every respect. In spite of its modular fuselage breakdown and Hasegawa's undeserved reputation for making such things difficult, the kit pretty much built itself with little need for filler or profanity. The sliding portion of the canopy has an odd sit to it which I just noticed, but it's not attached to the airplane and can be easily tilted back into position. There's an antenna running from the main wire to that white insulator that's between the antenna mast and the position light, but it's really thin and you can barely see it here. There's a tiny bit, and by that I mean not much at all, of Eduard in that cockpit, mostly placards and a set of belts---all the big stuff is from the kit. A set of QuickBoost exhausts might be nice (I don't know if they make them for this kit or not, though) but that's about the only area that could stand significant improvement in my rarely humble opinion. It's a good kit, ya'll.

That canopy sits a little better in this view, and you can see that other antenna wire too! Sometimes a photograph will show something that's not easily noticed in real life, such as the light silvering around the fuselage national insignia decal! The stickies are by Zotz and are of excellent quality, but I have to admit to struggling a bit with those stars and bars. That seems odd to me since the nose art, which by its nature has quite a bit of clear decal incorporated into it, went on without a hitch. The stars were another story entirely, and this one will have to be fixed; no doubt about it. The white theater markings aren't actually white but rather a whitish grey, which I think looks better. You pays your money...

And this star's ok. The demarcation of the white theater markings on the tail is provisional; it's a typical treatment often seen on 7th FS/49th FG P-40Ns during the time period modeled (1944), but as far as I know there's no profile photo of 00 (or 10, which it was before it became 00, a fact that could give you another option for that nose art) showing the empennage. A nod's as good as a wink to a blind horse, I suppose...  Those spoked wheels come with the kit as an option, although my boxing (the famous 15,000th P-40) wants you to use the P-40E wheels that are also included with the model. That's because of the wheel cover markings on that particular airframe; if you're building any P-40N except for that one you'll probably want to use the smaller diameter spoked wheels seen on most operational Ns. I stuck a gas bag under the model because I like the look of that tank down there, but by the time 00 was flying combat ops a 500lb GP bomb (also included in the kit) would have been just as appropriate. All the photos I've seen of this airframe show it to be fairly clean, so weathering was kept to a bare minimum on the model. Sometimes that's The Right Thing to Do.

A lot of people buy Zotz decals because of their exceptional quality. A lot more people buy them because they do some of the best nose art around; this presentation is unquestionably the best scale representation of "Milk Wagon Express" ever offered to the modeling public. Panel lines that run through that artwork were lightly accentuated by scoring along them with an extremely sharp #3 artist's pencil, a trick I learned from Austin modeler Brad Perry. One thing about those markings; Zotz provides the thin white striping that appears on the nose of the real airplane, but they terminate it as an open "square". It's my opinion that the striping is actually the edging for a color, which I think was dark blue---photographs of the nose art appear to show a darker area forward of what I'm presuming was a trim line for said color. If I'm correct (and it ought to be pretty obvious that I think I am, since I built the model that way) then the color and its white trim most likely go further back than the decals provide for, terminating in a point. That sort of thing would be in keeping with pre-War AAC/AAF practice and makes a great deal of sense to me. Comments are welcomed.

The 49th had a long-standing history of putting different nose art on each side of its P-40s regardless of the variant. Most of us first became aware of the bawdy side of the 49th way back in the mid-60s when Len Morgan published Ernie McDowell's P-40 monograph which included several shots of the 7th's late-War N-models. That, plus subsequent publication of Squadron Signal's often-underated 49th FG title (also by McDowell) led a lot of us to believe that "Daddy Please" and "Milk Wagon Express" were two different airplanes, a misconception not helped by the fact that this particular airframe wore the same nose art with two different side numbers at different points in its career. A couple of things stand out in this photo: You can see once again how that cheat line goes back under the nose, and you can see that I never managed to get a clean demarcation on the tip color of that spinner! I tried, gang; Lord knows I tried, but I gave up on my 5th attempt. Sometimes I'm really good at that kind of stuff but sometimes I'm not, and painting concentric rings on a spinner can be a Puppy of a Different Persuasion under the best of circumstances. I did what I could...  Speaking of that prop and spinner, that gap you see is a direct result of using the kit-supplied poly cap for attachment. Omission of the cap and hard attachment by cement might be a better way to go. Finally, quite a few of the 49th's P-40Ns had white gauze filters inside those nose grills. I considered adding them after I'd drilled out all those holes in that panel but ultimately decided against doing it. Such is life.

The Relief Tube

Last time around I think we only had one entry in this ever-popular portion of our modest effort. Today we have a few more than that, so let's begin.

First out of the gate is one of the P-47Ns in our last installment, an airplane named "DNIF". In that piece I admitted I didn't have a clue what that meant. A couple of our readers did know and came to the rescue for the rest of us as noted here:

Interesting that you should run the Jahant P-47N images this weekend. I was searching Flickr.com for images of any 58th FG P-47s, and came across a collection of photos from Ie Shima posted by "saipanbolt". In his photostream of the 318th FG were a number of images from the 507th FG, also on the island, and there was a great shot of the starboard side of Chataugua with the same Indian princess facing forward and the name on the fuselage, too. That's a new one on me---thanks!!! pf



Also, "DNIF" is an acronym used frequently in the USAAF/USAF by we medical types, meaning Duty Not Involving Flying", i.e., you're grounded until medically released. It was only obscene to the pilot hearing those words or reading that stamped image.  Frank Emmett

And from contributor and aviator Keith Svendsen:

DNIF is a duty restriction imposed by the flight surgeon: Does Not Include Flying/Flight. Sick and shouldn't fly? You're DNIF!  Keith Svendsen

We recently ran some early FJ-3 Furies on these pages, leading Tommy Thomason to write:

Phil,



 If you noted that the later FJ-3s had a hard wing (no slats and a fuel tank) and that it was retrofitted, I missed it. Attached is a picture of one. (Unfortunately, I couldn't open the attachment. We'll run some shots of hard-edged -3s another day. pf) Note that the little leading edge piece on the ammo bay door is missing...  T

Thanks Tommy; I'm pretty sure that note was omitted! And speaking of notes, if you aren't already doing it you need to check out what Tommy's doing over at http://tommythomason.com/ .

Reader and old friend from our days at Misawa, way back in high school, Jack Dusenberry provides clarification on a photo we ran of his dad last time. 

I was tickled to see the picture of my dad and the mules on your blog. I decided to throw that one in to show how young he was . He says that one reason for his survival was that he had "old timers" as pilot and copilots(29 and 30 years old) . I also think there was more than a little bit of luck involved and his crew had good luck rituals that were strictly adhered to .He carried a lucky rabbit's foot ,some carried four leaf clovers ,and one crew member insisted on urinating on the same rock before each mission . The fellow forgot to perform his task before getting on the truck before one mission and the entire crew demanded that he be taken back to perform his task !



The picture of him and his crew (which we didn't run because of that copywrite thing. pf) appears to have come from Russell Strong's First over Germany  (long out of print) and Dad has an extra copy that he has promised to give to me but keeps forgetting to do so .I have seen copies on the internet with prices as high as $180.00 ,so I hope he remembers at some point.  Jack   What a treasure! Thanks for sharing your dad's memories with us, and give him our best. pf

Finally, here's a note from Don Jay that some of our younger readers may not quite understand.

After Dec 30, Kodachrome will be no more. Dwayne's Photo of Parsons Kansas is the last place to develop the film and they will stop this Thursday. For those who grew up with this iconic staple, it's demise has forced a change on us-like it or not.


I will mourn the loss of one more link to our manual, analog past. Twitter, Facebook, and email do not replace handwritten letters. Texting is not a phone call. MP3s and CDs cannot duplicate the richness of vinyl. The internet is not a newspaper. A blog is not a diary. And digital photography does not reproduce film's qualities.



Easier is definitely not always better and I fear these small losses of reality as we digitize ourselves are lessening us in some intangible way. Après moi, le deluge. dj

By way of explaination for those of our readership who might know only digital photography, Kodak's Kodachrome was the world's leading transparency (read "slide" here) film for decades. The stuff started out as K10 at an extremely slow ASA 10 rating, then morphed into the K25 and K64 that most of us knew and loved. Other manufacturers tried to equal it over the years but nobody else ever managed to get the same resolution, crispness, and color saturation of Kodachrome. I can only surmise how many thousands of frames of the stuff (mostly K25) were cranked through my Nikons while I was still shooting, and how many more thousands of frames were exposed by the folks who's work you regularly see on these pages.

Kodachrome was special. Just ask Dave Menard, Tommy Thomason, the Morgan Boys, Mark Nankivil, Maddog Kerr, Jim Wogstad, Keith Svendsen, Don Jay, or any of the other photographers who's names you've read on photo tag lines both here and other places over the years. To steal (or maybe paraphrase) a line from an old John Wayne movie: "It was a way of life. It was a good way." RIP, Kodachrome.

And that's what I know. Have yourself a happy (and safe and reasonably sane) New Year's Eve. Be good to your neighbor and we'll meet again real soon.
phil

The Road Goes Ever On, Those Ryans, The Falcon, A Noisy 'Vark, 'Varks on the Prowl, Token Rhinos, and a Spiffy Hoover

The Only Thing That Stays the Same is Change

Some of us (not all of us, unfortunately, but some of us) are lucky enough to have a Neighborhood Hobby Shop, and those of us who are extremely lucky have that rarest of rarities, a Really Good Neighborhood Hobby Shop. I must've been living right, because I've been blessed with two of the latter during the past 40 years; one in San Antonio and one in Austin.

The one in San Antonio was a classic Mom and Pop kind of deal, and Mom and Pop were really special people who, among other things, understood their customer base and molded the shop to reflect their customer's interests. They eventually decided to retire and sold the business and, although it still exists and is apparently still thriving, it just ain't the same place. Times change, I guess (remember that guy who said "you can never go home"?), and shops change to reflect the new owner's interests. That's a Good Thing by and large, unless of course the aforementioned new owner's interests don't happen to parallel your own, in which case it can be a Bad Thing.

The shop in Austin was, and still is, a family business, but very much one in change at the moment. I suspect the economy is largely to blame since it's wreaked havoc with discretionary income at almost every level, but other things seem to be changing as well, including the focus of the store. That's not entirely bad either, but it's uncomfortable to us Old Guys, who tend to get spooked when Things Are Different. Change can be Bad when you have a little seniority on life...

So, what's it to you? I've got a thought on that too (I've always got a Thought On That; it's how I am!), but it's not what you might think.

It would be easy to presume that I'm about to complain about the perceived (and it's probably my own perception and nobody else's) change in things at the little shop that resides in Babylon on the Brazos, but that isn't it. It's more primal, and more universal, than that.

Let's cut right to the chase for once, and yes; I know that's not my style. Let's do it anyway, though, and let's talk about all the Mom and Pop hobby shops out there, not only the ones I have or have had a personal stake in. The simple, sad fact is that those nameless people who created our present economic mess managed to nail the lid on a whole lot of small businesses in the process, and among those small businesses have been more than a few Mom and Pop hobby shops. Disaster looms large in the future of a great many small businesses at the moment, and that takes us to the moral of today's story. If you're lucky enough to live near one of the surviving M and P shops, please support them to whatever extent you can. The hobby will be a far lesser place without them, and a really nifty part of our culture will be gone forever. In the end, we'll all lose.

And with that bit of seriously morose journalism behind us, let's move on to something that's a whole lot more fun!

Goin' to School

Everybody who flies had to learn how to do it, which without exception involved some sort of trainer. This country has produced some of the world's best, but a lot of people have forgotten the Ryan STs. Let's try to stir up a little bit of interest in them today!

First, is there anything we can build if we want to model one of these things? The answer to that one is a resounding "Well, sortof." since there have only been a couple of kits of same; an elderly but perfectly usable PT-20 from Hawk and a couple of offerings by the 1/72nd scale Czech folks. My own personal interest lies in that Hawk kit, but I'm hoping the following images will stir your personal interest no matter which scale you happen to prefer.

Ryan decided they needed an entry in the competition for a primary trainer for the AAF, and came up with this beauty; the first YPT-16 (39-717). 15 aircraft were built, with this example was most likely photographed near San Diego; all 15 airframes were initially operated by the Ryan School of Aeronautics at Lindbergh Field, where aspiring military aviators underwent a 12 week primary course before passing into the Army Air Force training system. Check the deflection on that rudder!  Ryan 1430

Beauty! The PT-20 was next in line, with 40 or so being built. This classic study could define what flying's all about. An external longeron running beneath the cockpits was the primary difference between the YPT-16 and the PT-20.  Ryan 2301

The retrofitting of a Kinner R-440-1 into the PT-20 resulted in this bird; the PT-20A, and a total of 27 airframes were so converted. Most operational Ryans had those gorgeous landing gear fairings, and the spinner,  removed during service. That external longeron is really visible here.  Ryan 2999

The installation of a Kinner R-440-3 132 hp engine transformed the PT-20A into the PT-21. Note the evolution of the landing gear fairings and wheel pants. Of particular interest in this shot is the beautifully-laminated wooden prop.  Ryan 4154

In many respects the PT-22 Recruit was the ultimate Ryan trainer. Up-engined yet again with a 160 hp Kinner R-540-1 engine, the PT-22 offered significant performance advantages over the Ryans that preceeded it, and all were delivered sans landing gear covers and wheel pants. The Navy got into the Ryan picture too, and ultimately bought 100 PT-22s, designated as the NR-1. My personal preference is for the inline Ryans, but the radial-powered PT-22 family sired most surviving airframes. This is another one of those "beauty of flight" photos!  Ryan 5224.

The Netherlands ordered 25 Ryans as the S-T-3, and some were outfitted with floats. With the advent of war the order was taken over by the Army, who designated the aircraft the P-22A and added it to their training fleet. If memory serves there are a set of floats (and maybe Dutch decals) in that 1/48th scale Hawk kit...  Ryan 3135

Most aircraft-producing nations had a crack at building an airplane out of non-strategic materials during the course of the war. Ryan took a shot at it with the PT-25, which had an airframe largely made from plastic-bonded wood---it was in essence a totally different aircraft from the Ryans that preceeded it. 5 were built but the type wasn't accepted for production. Not exactly what you'd call "pretty", is it?  Ryan 6912

This 1943-vintage shot shows a PT-25 in flight. The airframe was substantially cleaner than that of its antecedents, but it just doesn't look right somehow.  Ryan 7146

Timeless beauty. A PT-22 sits on the Purdue ramp, giving us an excellent view of the unfaired landing gear and the aircraft's minimal rigging in the process. A large number of Ryan STs ended up in civilian hands after the war, and more than a few still survive. Just the ticket if you wanted to own a practical warbird!  Friddell Collection

An Unexpected Curtiss

Everybody knows about the 1920s-1930s Curtiss Hawk pursuit family, and a couple of you are probably even aware of the Curtiss O-1, a series of Hawk-based observation aircraft briefly used by the Army Air Corps during the 1920s, what what about the attack version of the O-1 Falcon? Here's a photo of one for all you Golden Age folks:

Here's an October, 1927 shot of the Curtiss A-3A Falcon attack bomber, looking every inch like a Great Big P-1! A grand total of 76 A-3As were built, and 5 ended their days as dual-control trainers. A further 78 aircraft were constructed as A-3Bs, those aircraft incorporating significant structural components from the O-1E observation aircraft. Armament was sketchy in those days; the A-3A had two .30 caliber Brownings in the cowling, with two more in the wings, while the B-model improved on this with an additional pair of wing-mounted Brownings. The type was capable of delivering a whopping 200 pounds of bombs. It was probably a Very Good Thing that we weren't involved in anything more serious than the Banana Wars during the late 20s!  US Army Signal Corps T-3514

How to Have Fun at an Air Show

I know, I know; there's no way to enjoy an air show with all those people hanging around the airplanes cluttering things up, which is why Jim and I always went the day before whenever we could. (It's amazing what press credentials can do for you!) Our next shot was taken during one of those forays:

A Cannon-based F-111D from the 27th TFW taxis to its parking slot on 19 May, 1990, the day before an air show at the Late, Lamented Kelly AFB. Soon-to-be prematurely deaf civilian personell assist in the parking chores as Jim and I shoot the festivities from a strategically-placed B-4 stand. Those inert AIM-9s made the whole thing worthwhile and yes; we were wearing ear protection. Crazy we were; stupid we weren't!  Friddell

On a Somewhat More Serious Note

Friend and former co-worker Tom McDonald was a KC-135 co-pilot during the latter stages of the Vietnam fracas, and managed to take a few photos during his operational chores. Here are a couple to illustrate a somewhat more serious side of the F-111:

The 347th TFW flew F-111As out of Korat during the 1974-1975 time frame. Tom caught two birds from a 4-ship as they formated on his starboard wing while the other section was passing gas. Note the fully-extended wings and loose formation.  Tom McDonald

Suck it in for the camera! There's more separation than meets the eye in this photo, but those guys are still pretty close, and flying darned good form to boot! The pylons are empty but the gun probably isn't. Tom McDonald

The early F-111s were good; the last ones were simply incredible. This is one airframe that deserved a better fate than it eventually received---the late F-111s had capabilities that would make you stand up and say Mercy!  Tom McDonald

Last Chance! A No. 6 Sqdn RAAF RF-111C (A8-146) holds at Last Chance during RAM '88. The Aussie 'Varks are gone too, victims of budgets and a lack of spares. The 6 Sqdn guys I talked to at RAM loved 'em! (How do you spell "LOUD"?)Friddell

And While We're at Last Chance

Let's look at a couple of RF-4Cs going through that pre-launch thing.

Let's leave this particular part of our day the way we came into it, with noise! This is another Last Chance shot taken at RAM '88. It was taken during a particularly heavy launch cycle and I didn't note the unit, although I'm thinking it may have been the Birmingham Guard. Maybe. You guys shoulda been there with me---the ground was shaking when I took this one!  Friddell

Finally, a Token Gray Airplane

A while back we ran a couple of shots that Rick Morgan took at the end of Operation Desert Storm. So far we've looked at Tomcats, Intruders, and Prowlers in this series. Now it's time to check out The Mighty Hoover!

The S-3 community was transitioning out of the submarine-hunting business during the Desert Storm fracus, but that didn't stop them from having great nose art! Here's "Eyes of the Storm", S-3B, BuNo 159743 from VS-24, to prove you don't have to be a fighter guy to have great nose art!  R. Morgan

A shot detailing the markings on the front of the airplane. The nose art didn't last too long, but it was pretty cool while it was there; a morale-builder, as it were!  R. Morgan

And the back end. I really like that tail-code presentation! Sharp eyes will detect a pair of F-14s in the pattern at the top left of the photo. Fly Navy!  R. Morgan

And a reason to for me to never build a "modern" S-3: Boring, boring, boring! They don't all look like this, but enough of them do to make me lose interest in a Great Big Hurry. Howzabout you?  Friddell Collection

And Finally, The Relief Tube

Here's today's installment of corrections, additions, and Stuff That Just Doesn't Fit Anywhere Else:

• First, here's a link to a site Mark Morgan found that gives us an idea of the sort of stuff that used to be at the MASDC facility at Davis Monthan. Watch out, gang; you can get lost in there! http://www.dhc/- www.dhc-2.com/Monthan_Memories. (If it won't load put .html at the end of the string!)
•  From Mike McMurtrey, who helped design the recent Squadron UC-78 kit and who's now working on a book about same comes a request regarding a Bobcat that's upposed to be at the Shooting Star Museum in Devine. I'm going to roadster down there when it gets a little bit cooler (South Texas has two seasons---Summer and January), but in the meantime do any of you guys have info on this? Maddog; this sounds like your kind of deal!
• Another question, this time from reader Stacy Baird regarding what may have been an aircraft munition but which is a total mystery to me: In 1970 when I was in Vietnam out of Camp Evans in I-Corps, I saw some rounds lying on the ground that I had never seen before or been able to identify. They had gear teeth as if to spin the round. (They were) maybe one to one and 1/2 inches in length, had a blue tube-like thing that appeared to be made out of aluminum. Does anyone have a picture and knowledge of this item - Probably an Air to ground cannon of some sort. Can anybody help Mark out with this?
• I got an e-mail from an old friend yesterday asking about VMF-113 during their WW2 and Korean days, specifically asking if Navy wings were worn on the squadron's G-2 jackets during those time periods (the ones that werestamped on a piece of fabric along with the pilot's name). A simple view of period photos could explain this one, but I know you guys have more information than just that! What about a tutorial, Navy guys?
• Last time around we ran a couple of Phantom Certificates from Mark Nankivil. He's sent another to round out the set:

And that's what I know for a Monday. Be good to your neighbor and we'll meet again soon!
phil