US Military aircraft and picture stories

[jimmini]

HERE are some of mine with 67 years as a A & P AMT.
Started on B-47.Have worked on B-747,707,727,720,L-188,DC-3,DC-4,DC-6,DC-7,DC-8,C-46,C-123,DHC-4,G-262,G-73,CV240,CV340,C-130,B737,B757,PBY4-2,Bell 205,205,UH-1,B,C,D,H,CH-47C.
AT 85 still working on C-130s
Sad they have made Airstreams and beer can out of many of them

[jimmini]

A few more of mine.

[jimmini]

The end

[BlackAces]

Originally Posted by brad1

My military dependents ID card could get me and a carload of friends onto Barbers Point where the surf spot, known as Swabbie Land served us as a sort of private surf spot.

This is a picture of me at that beach in 1958. Behind me is a WWII pillbox.

[BlackAces]

These are pictures taken by me of launch and recovery operations of A7 aircraft aboard the USS Midway (CVA-41), in a combat zone in the South China Sea, 1971.

[ROBERT CROSS]

“The Guide says there is an art to flying", said Ford, "or rather a knack.
The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”
Douglas Adams

Bob
🇺🇸

[BlackAces]

We wintered at Yuma a couple of times. Being retired military we used our commissary, navy exchange and medical facilities privileges at the US Marine Corps Air Station.

These pictures are of the aircraft on display at the MCAS Yuma main gate.

[coolbikeman]

I was in DaNang during 1970. Flew on the Constellation with the dome on top while there. I was Navy CTI3 linguist.

[JerryinPA]

Would love to see additional photos of vintage military aircraft - this has been an interest of mine going back to fifth grade!

[Ebh05454]

Am a big fan of military aircraft. Please post as many as you can.



Eric

[Overstreet]

My daughter, the USAF Major, can trace her history back about five or six generations of military veterans to John Paul Jones' Navy. Long about WW II they switched to the Army Aircorp instead of Navy. My dad went USAF in the brown shoe days. I was USAF aircraft and munitions maintenance. I was in units with CH3, HH 53, C-130 B and P models, O-2, OV-10s and F-4E. It was an adventure. I've got some pictures .......... somewhere. It was a long time ago.

[Flynavy]

Thank you Black Aces for posting a few pics of the A7. These birds kept more than a few of us real busy keeping them flying. They were a good airplane but they were a mechanics nightmear. Always had a couple parked on the hangerdeck that were used as rob birds. we would take parts off them to keep the others flying. The Navy had some sort of regulation that stated every plane had to fly at least one sortie every few months. So they would take a perfectly good one and park it next to the rob bird. We would take off the missing parts so the rob bird could fly it's sortie, then park it and put the good one back into flying.

I often wonder how the pilots decided who was going to fly the rob bird.

[vintageracer]

The Air Force and NAVY being nice to each other!

A story below about the Boeing 747-400 Laser jet!


https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/th...ery-1724892313

[21Airstream]

That’s a cool pic.

[PKI]

Grew up in Wichita - home of Boeing - lots of B52 upgrades; Beach - lots of support twins from 18s to Kings; Cessna - neighbor was a rep in Asia and for the Citation in Europe. His dad was an early Airstreamer and he set the hook.

So a lot of these planes are familiar, just not anything that was part of my life. My regret, but thank you for the thread and the history lesson. Worked with a fellow who spent time on the flight line keeping jets flying out of northern state bases in the winter. You folks earned your daily bread all over the world. Thank you for your service, contribution and sacrifice.

[Landshark]

Subscribed.

Thank you for the photos and your service, all of you "posters."

Vivian

[safaridave]

Seeing the opening shot of the Constellation reminded me of something that I witnessed several years ago. I was in the city of Chino, CA near my home when I heard an unusual and quite loud sounding aircraft in the sky above my head. I looked up and saw of all things, a C121 Constellation with it's very distinctive triple-tail in a descent for a landing at the near-by Chino airport. That evening on the local LA newscast there was a feature story about the Constellation and this particular flight. It turns out, this aircraft is one of the few remaining airworthy Constellations and was being ferried from Camarillo, CA to an air museum at the Chino airport for display.

[BlackAces]

Originally Posted by coolbikeman

I was in DaNang during 1970. Flew on the Constellation with the dome on top while there. I was Navy CTI3 linguist.

A Skaggs Island Sailor – LOL! I once bowled on a Navy traveling league. Skaggs Island was one of our stops. The bowling alley was above an Olympic sized pool. Yuck!

In late 1970 I flew off the USS Midway to Da Nang to get a hop to NASA Cubi Point in the PI. Our squadron had lost an aircraft to combat damages and a Marine squadron going back to the states left us a replacement aircraft at Cubi. Of course it had to have an acceptance inspection and test flight before being accepted into our squadron. I had a crew with me that could do the inspection.

Back to Da Nang: The Navy had two pilots doing “milk” runs to and from Da Nang from Cubi. One was by a USNR Navy captain recalled for that duty and the other pilot in command was the last enlisted Navy pilot actively flying as pilot in command in the USN. He was a Master Chief and flew Navy fighters in WWII and Korea. By the luck of the draw I missed flying with him. I was very disappointed.

Those two old pilots had excessive hours with the old Navy R6D aircraft and could grease one in anywhere in any flyable weather.

This is a file photo of the Douglas R5D.

[BlackAces]

Originally Posted by JerryinPA

Would love to see additional photos of vintage military aircraft - this has been an interest of mine going back to fifth grade!

The Army Aviation Museum at Fort Rucker, AL has some really old restoration aircraft. I took a few pictures of some of them.

[BlackAces]

I did two sea tours with Navy Fighter Squadron 41. The second one was with the awesome F-14 Tomcat. During that tour I worked as a maintenance coordinator briefing the pilots for each flight on the aircraft condition and any work that had been done since the aircraft’s last flight. I also worked as the squadron’s flight deck maintenance coordinator where I was the link between the air wing and squadron maintenance control offices and the location and status of each aircraft as they proceeded to the launch.

My airborne pictures are provided by LCDR Lindner, the squadron's in fight photographer.

In this first picture the aircraft is shown with the wings in the full swept-back position. In the second picture the wings are at 55 degrees. It’s called the bomb mode.