PDA

View Full Version : Whistling Death



Gunny
09-04-2015, 10:26 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veBLPWiYoOU

NightTrain
09-04-2015, 10:43 AM
Pappy Boyington loved that baby. They were great aircraft!

I think the most influential fighter was the P-51 Mustang, but the Corsairs, Lightnings and Hellcats were very effective as well.

Gunny
09-04-2015, 11:10 PM
Pappy Boyington loved that baby. They were great aircraft!

I think the most influential fighter was the P-51 Mustang, but the Corsairs, Lightnings and Hellcats were very effective as well.

The P-51 was one of the most influential aircraft, but only the USAAF flew it. Marines flew Hellcats and Corsairs. The Mustang couldn't land on a carrier, one of the problems they had with the Corsair at first. That's how Pappy ended up on Bela La Cava. Bigger landing strip.

The whole Island hopping campaign was about airfields for B-29s and their escorts. If anyone thinks Iwo Jima had any worth besides an airfield, please tell me now. That thing is a rock in the ocean and their ain't a damned thing on it. Spent my 39th birthday staring at it from the deck of the USS Boxer. B-25s barely got off the deck of the Hornet. You ain't going to put a B-29 on that can. They'd go right off the bow and get run over.

With the exception of the F-4, the Army/USAF has never used the same fighters as the Navy/Marines.

Gunny
09-04-2015, 11:23 PM
Trivia: the USAF flew the f-86 in Korea while the Marines/Navy flew the f9f Panther. Why? Because the Panther could land on a deck. The F-86 would overshoot the bow so bad the pilot could swim to safety before the ship ran over the plane.

The USAF mission is air superiority. The Navy/Marine mission is close air support first, kill everything else second. People like to make fun of scarewingers in the Corps, bu those dudes got balls. The only thing more impressive is a psycho LCpl with an M-60 that thinks he's bullet proof. :laugh:

NightTrain
09-05-2015, 01:45 AM
The P-51 was one of the most influential aircraft, but only the USAAF flew it. Marines flew Hellcats and Corsairs. The Mustang couldn't land on a carrier, one of the problems they had with the Corsair at first. That's how Pappy ended up on Bela La Cava. Bigger landing strip.

The whole Island hopping campaign was about airfields for B-29s and their escorts. If anyone thinks Iwo Jima had any worth besides an airfield, please tell me now. That thing is a rock in the ocean and their ain't a damned thing on it. Spent my 39th birthday staring at it from the deck of the USS Boxer. B-25s barely got off the deck of the Hornet. You ain't going to put a B-29 on that can. They'd go right off the bow and get run over.

With the exception of the F-4, the Army/USAF has never used the same fighters as the Navy/Marines.

I had to fact-check you there... I was sure that the USAF used a limited amount of F-18s... but you're right, they never did. The last one was the Phantom.

I thought this was funny :


An old story which may or may not have any truth involves the difference between the way Navy pilots land their airplanes and the way Air Force pilots do it.

There was a time when both the Navy and Air Force flew F-4 Phantoms. The planes were nearly identical. The difference was the landing gear on the Navy planes was beefed up for the carrier landings.


The story is that Air Force folks learned to never let Navy pilots fly Air Force phantoms. If they did the Navy pilots tended to drive the landing gear through the wings when landing.


This old story often finds its way into modern airline travel. When an airline pilot plants his plane on the runway hard enough to cause passengers to have dental damage I often ask the pilot on the way out how long he flew for the Navy. The answer is usually he is a retired Navy pilot.


I started thinking about that... there's been a few times on AK Airlines where the 737 slammed down so hard that I wondered how the landing gear was doing. But some of the runways and weather around AK are minimal and you have to get it down and braking ASAP.

I never thought to ask the Pilot if he/she is a Naval / Marine Aviator after those landings... I'm going to start doing that! :laugh:

Gunny
09-05-2015, 02:04 AM
I had to fact-check you there... I was sure that the USAF used a limited amount of F-18s... but you're right, they never did. The last one was the Phantom.

I thought this was funny :




I started thinking about that... there's been a few times on AK Airlines where the 737 slammed down so hard that I wondered how the landing gear was doing. But some of the runways and weather around AK are minimal and you have to get it down and braking ASAP.

I never thought to ask the Pilot if he/she is a Naval / Marine Aviator after those landings... I'm going to start doing that! :laugh:



I grww up in the Air Force. My favorite story is dumbass Jillian swearing to god the F-102 wasn't a plane in 1968. Somebody should have explained that to us Cub Scouts That got to sit in the cockpit at NAS Key West. Sure looked like a 102 to me.