Aircraft pics

[427TJ]

Here's what some 23 year-olds were doing in 1945. That's Major Pierce McKennon warming up his P-51D "Ridge Runner" at Debden air base in England, March 1945. McKennon was KIA soon after this photo was taken. Mirrors atop windscreen were "borrowed" from an RAF Spitfire.

[427TJ]

Back in the 1969-70 period this P-51D used to buzz the east bay (San Francisco) hills where I grew up. We called it the "maroon and gold" Mustang. My dad's buddy took these photos at the 1970 Watsonville (California) airshow. The airplane was owned by George Perez and I think he still has it.

[427TJ]

Another common site in the SF east bay in the 1960s and early 70s were fire supression airplanes like this Grumman F7F Tigercat. Summer always brought with it the sound of rumbling radial engines and the F7F was the hottest hot rod in the air tanker fleet. I would blow the screen door off its hinges when a Tigercat went over the house. They were based at Santa Rosa and a few other bases in California. One of the surviving F7Fs participates at the Reno Air Races and it's a real crowd pleaser.

[427TJ]

I love this photo because it looks like a herd of cows heading for the barn. These are USAF C-119 "Flying Boxcars" enroute to Japan from Okinawa in 1955. Photo was taken from the open aft cargo door of a leading C-119. Imagine what that sounded like!

[427TJ]

Another SF bay area aviation landmark in the old days was Hamilton AFB in Marin County, north of San Francisco. Hamilton was the first base to operate the Lockheed F-104A "Starfighter" interceptor and it too was the hottest of the hot rods. It was called "the missile with a man in it." Hamilton's 83rd Fighter Interceptor Squadron flew the 104 between late 1957 and mid 1960. My buddy George Davis flew 104s in the 83rd and sent me this photo of four 83rd 104s over the Golden Gate in 1958.

[Xplantdad]

[ QUOTE ]
Yes, he did get punished but the Navy is much more tolerant about such things than the USAF is. Pull that kind of stunt in the Air Force and you're out the door.

Bart, you are out of control with all these great pics! Great stuff! I might have to dig through my archives and post a few.

Oh, and I sent the Thunderbird mishap video to Bruce for him to post. Stay tuned.

x 100

[/ QUOTE ]


Here it is anyways...LOL

[ANDY M]

I believe this was not the first mishap like this. Didn't the T-Birds lose all 4 guys in a diamond formation back roll when they all followed the leader into the ground, killing all involved?
I think that this was during a practice session, and the Air Force suspended the program for a few years until they sorted it all out.

[427TJ]

Correct Andy. The Thunderbird four-ship main formation flew their T-38 Talons into the ground during a practice in January of 1982, killing all four pilots. The skinny on that one was that the formation leader initiated the loop with insufficient altitude to pull out at the bottom and they all went in. The USAF concocted a story about a system malfuncion in the leader's T-38 but it has been soundly refuted, unofficially. The reason the other three followed their leader into the ground is because they keep their eyes glued on lead's airplane and they're used to ground rush so they dutifully followed him in. The leader didn't make a warning radio call to his formation probably because he had both hands on the stick and was pulling with all his might to avoid ground impact. The other three probably felt the G-load build up over what they were used to (as lead pulled for his life) and probably saw the impact coming at the last second but it was too late.

[47Hammer]

Another punch out!

[SS427]

[ QUOTE ]
We called it the "maroon and gold" Mustang. My dad's buddy took these photos at the 1970 Watsonville (California) airshow. The airplane was owned by George Perez and I think he still has it.


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Here is another photo of George's P-51 serial #44-74483
Rick