Old Pals

"f86sabre" (f86sabre) 02/12/2014 at 22:52 • Filed to: Planelopnik

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Bear and Phantom.

Bad Idea Hat > f86sabre 02/12/2014 at 23:10

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I just looked it up, and apparently the Bear is going to be around until 2040.

That's...amazing.

Gizmo - The Only Good Gremlin, but don't feed me after Midnight > f86sabre 02/13/2014 at 00:50

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I'm probably showing my age again, but those two pics are of a Navy and then a Marine F-4. Do you know which of the US military aircraft had the most Bear intercepts? These two are very old pals:

F-106A 57-2501 of the 101 FIS Otis ANG, MA intercepts a Soviet Tu-95 Bear near Nova Scotia 1982. The Russian Bears would launch from Murmansk, Russia. Our Intel (subs) would let us know they were coming. We would get scrambled by NORAD (North American Air Defense Command) and would escort them until they turned around to head back to Russia. [Reed Hamilton collection]

The guys at KI used to give the pilots nicknames (via tail#) and would greet them by name as they executed their intercepts!

Goshen, formerly Darkcode > Gizmo - The Only Good Gremlin, but don't feed me after Midnight 02/13/2014 at 04:04

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Delta Darts intercepted more Bears than Phantoms? That's quite interesting, all pictures of Bear interceptions I had seen to date depicted either Phantoms or Lightnings intercepting them.

Goshen, formerly Darkcode > Bad Idea Hat 02/13/2014 at 04:05

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Look at Lada's range. It has been around since...the '70s? Even before that as Fiats.

ttyymmnn > Bad Idea Hat 02/13/2014 at 13:54

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Like the B-52, built to last. Except the Buff is slated to fly until 2050. I don't imagine its replacement will last 100 years, if it even gets a replacement. The next long-range bomber will likely be a drone.

Bubbles22 > f86sabre 02/13/2014 at 22:01

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I was told by an F-4 pilot a couple of years ago that those engines on the bear were so loud that the F-4 pilots could hear them in the canopy.

Gizmo - The Only Good Gremlin, but don't feed me after Midnight > Goshen, formerly Darkcode 02/14/2014 at 03:39

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Operational in 1958, active for 30 years, 1 job - intercept anything nearing our border. Again, I'm old skool. The F-4s may have caught up by now, but the 106 was replaced by F-16s so I would think they would be the next contender.

For Sweden > Gizmo - The Only Good Gremlin, but don't feed me after Midnight 02/14/2014 at 16:19

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I don't know a ton about these missions, but I like to think the American/Canadian and Russian pilots got to know each other fairly well and would talk about how flying said missions paid the bills.