Old Crow

"Jesse Shaffer" (7esse) 11/13/2014 at 23:30 • Filed to: Planelopnik

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Love cars? Don't know much about aircraft? Here is a great way to transition in to an aviation aficionado:

This History Channel series deeply enhanced my perspective on aviation (part 2 of this is !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .) I'm in the middle of a write-up on the P-47 Thunderbolt, a legendary aircraft, produced not too far from my current residence in Queens - out on Long Island (designed by a Russian.) In my research, I stumbled across one of the most in-depth interviews from a WW2 aviator that I have found, so-far.

P-51 Mustangs are some of the most pop-culture present aircraft of WW2. While the P-47 accounted for much more damage, the P51 is not without its own record of valor.

I was shocked, but not surprised to hear Col. Bud Anderson talk about getting shot-at by big-friends (B-17s:)

[interviewer: (F4II pilot awkwardly laughing)]

Bud: "That was accepted. You know, if you were close enough and you went and pointed your nose at 'em, they're gonna' shoot at ya'."

[oh]

"Oh, yeah, they had a policy. Shoot at everything and sort 'em out, later."

Understandable, considering that statistically: Crews of B-17s, due to the attrition rate in the early strategic bombing stages of the war, were met with odds nearly impossible in regard to completing the original requirement of 25 missions in order to complete a tour. It's still chilling to hear Col. Anderson speak about these events so candidly.

All Motor Is Best Motor > Jesse Shaffer 11/13/2014 at 23:33

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It's pretty horrifying when you think about how you were pretty much guaranteed to die before your tour was up. Then again, so were ground pounders...

Jesse Shaffer > All Motor Is Best Motor 11/13/2014 at 23:35

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Andy Rooney was one lucky SOB.

Menebrio > Jesse Shaffer 11/14/2014 at 00:31

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I love the P-51 Mustangs. But for some reason I always lusted over these:

The Chance Vought F4U Corsair. The way their wings started first down and then kinked up (sort of like the modern day flexible wings on commercial airplanes) or who they look nicely tucked, wings up, on deck.

Jesse Shaffer > Menebrio 11/14/2014 at 00:44

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The F4U Corsair was no joke. This aircraft was a big advantage over the Wildcat that initially held-the-line in the Pacific theatre. IIRC, the wing bends were designed to compliment the functionality of the landing gear.

I can't help but think of the development of the mighyt F4 Phantom II (which, in development, had flat-er wings) when I see them:

ttyymmnn > Jesse Shaffer 11/14/2014 at 03:26

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IIRC, the wing bends were designed to compliment the functionality of the landing gear.

Sort of. The signature bend in the wing of the Corsair was to accommodate the enormous propeller. Without the bend, the landing gear would have been extremely tall. Looking at this picture, you can see just how big the prop is, and can imagine how long the strut would need to be with a traditional wing.

Jesse Shaffer > ttyymmnn 11/14/2014 at 10:39

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Yeah, that's what I meant. Thanks for the plane-porn.

Drakkon- Most Glorious and Upright Person of Genius > Jesse Shaffer 11/20/2014 at 21:48

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F-4 Flying Turkey! Brute force can overcome any bad behavior.

Jesse Shaffer > Drakkon- Most Glorious and Upright Person of Genius 11/20/2014 at 21:51

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I was reading an article in an aviation magazine yesterday full of first-hand accounts from Phantom pilots. They all said that below 300 knots, the controls were basically numb. I believe the term one pilot used was "squishy."

They were terribly easy to dump in to the ocean after a carrier launch. They described it as a flying brick with two little delta "winglets."

Those two J-79s overcame all of this.