by "ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
Published 02/28/2017 at 18:36
by "ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
Published 02/28/2017 at 18:36
Tags: planlopnik
STARS: 8
I had hoped to update today’s This Date in Aviation History post with a couple of photographs, but Kinja was about four martinis into a two-martini lunch and was having none of it. So, here they are, as they relate to the Republic F-84 Thunderjet.
Republic designer Alexander Kartveli and initially proposed adding a turbojet engine to the venerable P-47 Thunderbolt. Not surprisingly, that idea never came to fruition, but this cutaway shows how it might (or might not) have worked. I wonder if anybody gave much thought to heat in the cockpit. Lots of room in the nose for guns, though.
Also related to the Thunderjet is this photo of scrapped F-84s taken at the Military Aircraft Storage and Disposition Center in Tucson, the forerunner of today’s 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG), more commonly referred to as The Boneyard. Based on the markings, these are Air National Guard aircraft, Thunderjets that were passed down to reserve units as the type was phased out in frontline service. This may also be after the Thunderjet was completely retired. The photo, apparently taken in 1980, simply says they were retired “in the 1950s.”
"Jonathan Harper" (jbh)
02/28/2017 at 18:38, STARS: 1
that bottom pic is crazy...like the planes were just thrown on the pile.
"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
02/28/2017 at 18:42, STARS: 3
They pretty much were, like cordwood. In those days, nobody gave much thought to posterity. They were just so much scrap metal that could be turned into more planes.
"facw" (facw)
02/28/2017 at 19:37, STARS: 0
It’s not really any different today. A few get saved but most get scrapped. Very few of the planes at the boneyard are going to museums in the end.
"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
02/28/2017 at 19:53, STARS: 1
I know. It’s just kind of sad that out of the thousands of a single type produced, so few remain, if any. Think of the planes for which there might be just one example left. Or none. Of course, back then, there was no nostalgia. It was all just so much scrap metal.
"Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo" (rustyvandura)
02/28/2017 at 21:09, STARS: 2
"user314" (user314)
03/01/2017 at 16:46, STARS: 0
The Blues Brothers meets Airplane!
"user314" (user314)
03/01/2017 at 16:50, STARS: 1
It’s interesting though how many of the one-offs and prototypes are in museums versus how many production planes were simply scrapped without a single survivor. You’d think it’d be the other way around.
"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
03/01/2017 at 17:23, STARS: 1
Probably because the prototypes were preserved for testing and evaluation, while the production planes got beat to hell and had their wings flown off.
"gmporschenut also a fan of hondas" (gmporschenut)
03/01/2017 at 23:49, STARS: 1
lots of room for a jet
"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
03/02/2017 at 00:00, STARS: 1
I would stand and look at that for hours.