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!

20,000

Apparently this is the 20,000th post on View From The Porch, which will turn twenty-one in... hang on, lemme check ...a bit over three weeks from now.

Neat!

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Bison Hunters

With Soviet jet bombers like the Myasishchev M-4 (NATO reporting name "Bison") able to undertake intercontinental nuclear attack missions, the Royal Canadian Air Force and the United States Air Force joined forces to form NORAD, the North American Air Defense Command.

In the mid-1950s, the backbone of the air defense system was the radar-equipped all-weather jet interceptor, most frequently armed with unguided air-to-air rockets.

The Canadians used the two-seat Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck...

Its wingtip pods each packed as many as twenty-nine 2.75" folding-fin Mighty Mouse rockets. The radar operator sat behind the pilot.

One of the more interesting USAF interceptors used by NORAD was the North American F-86D "Sabre Dog".

Interesting because single-seat all-weather fighters, with the pilot serving as his own radar operator, were something of a novelty at the time. The F-86D at the USAF Museum has its ventral tray extended, showing the twenty four launch tubes for the Mk 4 "Mighty Mouse" rockets. If you look at the stand next to the plane, you can see a rocket with its fins unfolded.

Start the Week Off Right: Memeishly!

Aircraft-Themed Phone Wallpaper Photos

A Sopwith Camel, a P-38 Lightning, and an SR-71 in vertical orientation, suitable for phone wallpapers...

Embiggenate and download to your heart's content (please for non-commercial use, obv...)

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SLUF

The LTV* A-7 Corsair II was nicknamed the "SLUF", for Short Little Ugly Fucker. A single seat attack aircraft developed from the F-8 fighter, it was a workhorse in Vietnam.

The one in Dayton is an A-7D, which is a version of the Navy's A-7 that was built for the USAF. Instead of the two 20mm Colt Mk. 12 cannon of the original, the D model had a single 20mm Vulcan, as well as a more powerful Allison turbofan, a fine product of Indiana.

The USAF A-7's were relegated to Air National Guard units as the F-16 came online in the Seventies, but the last combat missions flown by Navy SLUFs were in Operation Desert Storm. The Corsair II was also flown by the Greeks, Thais, and Portuguese.

*LTV was Ling-Temco-Vought, the company that resulted from a 1961 hostile takeover of the old Chance Vought corporation of F4U Corsair and F8U Crusader fame by Ling Electric, who had recently gone on a buying spree, absorbing Temco Aircraft and speaker manufacturer Altec Electronics among others.

Meme Dump!

Interwar Bombers

The Martin B-10, which first flew in prototype form in '32, went into service with the USAAF in summer of 1935. It was a sales success, with the US government buying over a hundred and export sales to China, the Dutch, Thailand, and Turkey.

We phased ours out pretty quickly at the start of WW2, but the type saw extensive combat with the Chinese, Dutch, and Thai forces, and Thailand didn't retire theirs until 1949.

It was replaced as a frontline aircraft in the USAAF inventory by the Douglas B-18 Bolo.

Most of our forward deployed B-18s were in the Philippines and got destroyed on the ground by the Japanese. Most of its wartime US service was flying anti-sub patrols along the coasts. Canada got twenty of them, which were also used for anti-submarine work, and a few went to Brazil, where they served as trainers.

Gratuitous Gun Pr0n #263...

It appears I may be spending some time getting good with a DA trigger again, as the tactical dirt colored SIG Sauer SP2022 in the horsehide Milt Sparks Summer Special 2 will attest. The SIG is likely just going to be a waypoint for three or four months as I work back up to spending six months or a year carrying the Langdon Beretta, which is the pistol with which I've had most of my moments of glory in gun school.

The rest of the pocket detritus is the same as usual: Surefire EDCL1-T, Spyderco Dragonfly, and POM spray.

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Meme Dump!