Airplane Porn (and the occasional helicopter)

[Jesse C.]

Harsh, left his parking break on? WTF happened?

 

 

Repost! Pay up!  :rofl:

[paradime]

Repost! Pay up!  :rofl:

[datsunfreak]

Wow... That was boring...

 

[Jesse C.]

[Jesse C.]

Welcome Back, P-47 Thunderbolt Dottie Mae! First flight since it crashed into a lake in Austria at the end of World War II 

 

 

[Jesse C.]

[MikeRL411]

 

Macolm canopy, Invasion stripes, registration number!  It doesn't add up,

[paradime]

Wow... That was boring...

 

Really, than you'll love this.

 

[Z-train]

Macolm canopy, Invasion stripes, registration number!  It doesn't add up,

Neither does the color.

[Jesse C.]

Macolm canopy, Invasion stripes, registration number!  It doesn't add up,

 

 

Neither does the color.

 

The P -51 B/C operated all the way to the end of the war and many pilots preferred them over the D model with the bubble canopy. The Malcolm hood was a field modification that was invented by the British.  Allied aircraft ran camouflage well into the invasion of Europe. The stripes are done post D-Day style where it was ordered that the top portion of the stripes be eliminated and the lower parts kept. 

 

As for the tail numbers,  that is its Army Air Corp serial number. 

 

Here is P-51 B "Bonnie B" on a field in Normandy, France during the invasion. Notice all the mods are the same as Berlin Express. Malcolm Hood, Dorsal Fin, Camo and D-Day Stripes

 

[Jesse C.]

[Jesse C.]

[Z-train]

The P -51 B/C operated all the way to the end of the war and many pilots preferred them over the D model with the bubble canopy. The Malcolm hood was a field modification that was invented by the British.  Allied aircraft ran camouflage well into the invasion of Europe. The stripes are done post D-Day style where it was ordered that the top portion of the stripes be eliminated and the lower parts kept. 

 

As for the tail numbers,  that is its Army Air Corp serial number. 

 

Here is P-51 B "Bonnie B" on a field in Normandy, France during the invasion. Notice all the mods are the same as Berlin Express. Malcolm Hood, Dorsal Fin, Camo and D-Day Stripes

 

Interesting as this was long after the discovery that camouflage did nothing except weigh the plane down and lower performance. I've been reading about Mustangs for 50 + years now.I've never heard the B/C preference before. Doesn't add up as the D model was superior.

[VFR800]

[VFR800]

[VFR800]

[VFR800]

[Profile]

 

 

X-15 at Edwards AFB?

[Jesse C.]

Interesting as this was long after the discovery that camouflage did nothing except weigh the plane down and lower performance. I've been reading about Mustangs for 50 + years now.I've never heard the B/C preference before. Doesn't add up as the D model was superior.

 

The preference was strictly the pilots and yes, the B/C model was a bit slicker than the D. The D superseded it and the rest is history. The H model was the ultimate version, but it did not see combat. 

 

As for the paint, yes, it was known that it added weight and thus made the plane slower, once it was removed some P-51 squadrons reported almost a 20 mph gain! But, some squadrons where slow to change and thus remained in camo until stripped or the plane was lost. No paint birds started coming off the assembly line that way in January 1944 after the order was given to remove camo from field birds on a voluntary basis. 

[VFR800]

Royal Navy Seafire, F4U Corsair, F4F Wildcat and Firefly.

 

 

 

 

[MarkB.]

1)    B/C model Mustangs were slightly faster.  450 to the D's 437 mph.;

2)    Early Ds didn't have the dorsal extension and the tail wandered in high speed dives;

3)    Camo did work on low level missions when viewed from above; a small tactical flight down low could get at least some concealment from a higher adversary, but of course there was no hiding a thousand bomber/thousand fighter strategic mission at high altitude.

 

As for the paint, only the fuse's were unpainted.  The wings still got paint at the factory: aluminum color with the natural metal fuselages but painted nonetheless in an effort to keep the airflow slick over the wings.  Same reason they paint Reno racer P-51 wings.

 

 

And yes, that's an X-15 at Edwards.  The astronaut was badly injured from breathing rocket fuel fumes while awaiting rescue.  I think his name was McKay.  He flew again but retired soon after.   The plane was rebuilt with the fuel tanks extended and became the fastest of the three X-15s.

[VFR800]

[MikeRL411]

 

So! Is that a Buran on top?

[VFR800]

Unless NASA ever loaned a Space Shuttle to the Russians - yes.

[Jesse C.]

Sadly, the orbiter was pretty much destroyed when the building it was stored in collapsed due to lack of maintenance. Sadly, eight workers where killed in the collapse