Automotif DCXXXIII...

I don't see a lot of second generation General Motors F-bodies on the road these days. I'd say that's probably because rust got a bunch of them and overconfident teenage throttle jockeys got a bunch more.

However carrying my Canon EOS RP and the RF 24-105mm f/4-7.1 IS zoom lens managed to summon a couple 1975 model Ponchos recently.

There was the Alpine Green Firebird Formula 400, which we've seen before.

A new-to-me one was this Firebird Trans Am in Cameo White.

The combo of the RP and the 24-105/4-7.1 is so compact and lightweight for a full-frame camera. It's very handy to tote.

Thunderjet!

Designed by Alex Kartveli, the same dude who designed the P-47 Thunderbolt, the Republic F-84 Thunderjet was an early straight-winged jet fighter that started off the Korean War flying escort missions for B-29 raids but really won renown as a rugged fighter-bomber flying close air support and deep interdiction missions. Sorta like its predecessor, when you think about it...

It was the first USAF fighter capable of carrying an A-bomb and over four thousand of the things were built. It saw export success, too, being sold to fourteen nations. Some operators, like Portugal and Yugoslavia, used them into the 1970s.

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Memes to Kick Off the Week!

Early Bird

I really liked seeing the Bell P-59B up close at the USAF museum. Its General Electric turbojets were basically American copies of English Whittle engines and its performance was relatively uninspiring, but the Airacomet was the first operational jet fighter flown by the US Army Air Corps.

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Meme Dump!

Tab Clearing...

• What a Monopoly vendor learned when making things in America.


• Flock pitched a plan to turn Uber and Lyft drivers into roving surveillance vehicles.


• Hello Local Business, your AI ads are costing you customers.

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Meme Dump!

End-Of-Week Memes!

...That You Do So Well.

Every time I see a Voodoo in the sheet metal (or in scale model form amongst other scale models) I'm reminded what a honkin' big bird it is. Seen in isolation in a photograph something about its proportions makes it look like just a li'l guy.

Originally designed to answer the need for a long-range escort fighter to accompany B-50 and B-36 bombers into Soviet airspace, it was enlarged and repurposed into an interceptor and a fighter-bomber, as well as the RF-101 photo reconnaissance plane.

The planes in the photos are both F-101B Voodoo all-weather interceptors, the most common variant of the plane, with a radar operator sitting in the back seat to guide the pilot toward Russian bomber formations. It could engage the bombers with AIM-4 Falcon guided missiles or unguided AIR-2 Genie rockets, the latter of which were equipped with nuclear warheads.

Meme Dump!

Memes in the Middle of the Week!

Parasites

The Curtiss F9C-2 Sparrowhawk had an actual... if brief ...service history aboard the Navy's airships USS Akron and USS Macon.

The Sparrowhawks had multiple roles. The way they operated was thus: The airship would lift off for patrol and its complement of Curtiss fighters would then take off and rendezvous with it in the air, catching the “trapeze” and being winched in to their hangars. While it seems a daunting feat, pilots said it was actually easier than trying to land on a pitching, rolling aircraft carrier deck.

Once in the hangar on the ship, the landing gear on the fighter would be removed and replaced with a 30 gallon belly tank. During the patrol, the Sparrowhawks would be used as spotter aircraft, with their on-board wireless sets, as well as functioning as a defense against attackers.

At the end of the patrol, their landing gear would be replaced and they’d launch and land ahead of the airship.

While the F9C-2 actually had an operational history, not so the McDonnell XF-85 Goblin, which was developed because there was no fighter at the time with the legs to escort B-36 Peacekeepers in the event of nukyular combat toe-to-toe with the Rooskies.

The idea behind them was that every tenth B-36 would be a fighter carrier, with three or four little teeny Goblin point-defense fighters in its belly.

In any event, it turned out to be so difficult and dangerous to launch and recover that it never got beyond the brief prototype stage. The two Goblins built accumulated a total of less than two and a half hours of flying time in seven free flights, only three of which ended with a successful hookup on the mother ship, with the remaining ones resulting in landing on the belly skid.

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Squishy

I've had my Trek 7100 bicycle (aka "the Broad Ripple SUV") for... wow, seventeen years now.

The faux leather seat covering was peeling pretty badly and finally the spring structure of the seat itself gave up the ghost. It's been replaced with a more modern gel padded saddle and, having spent some time riding it yesterday, it's a very worthwhile improvement.

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Meme Dump!