Well thats the end of an era

[fatman]

All the pigs have now gone back to the barn to be replaced with super hornets at first then f-35 when ever they will arrive, but i thought we would have gotten a replacemnet that would have given performance improvements but meh

http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/201 ... story.html

[HappyHappy]

We called em Arrdvarks.
Great machine, they filled an important gap
in the USAF Strategic Air Command mission right through the 1990s.

HH

[Barfly]

You probably won't see tactical planes running that hot on the deck anymore, but overall the your new kit will be vastly more capable weapons platforms.

[Wullie]

If you've ever read FATE IS THE HUNTER by Ernest Gann, the story he relates about riding co-pilot in an F-111 over the wild of New Mexico at 500 kts is pretty funny. The gent that was flying him that day was the father of my flight instructor.

It was a HELL of a bird and had enormous birthing problems, but they threw enough money at it to make it work, probably because of an asshole Democratic Congressman named Jim Wright, who was one of the undisputed kings of pork barrel politics and GD just happened to be right square in the center of his district.

I also remember what a Navy Admiral said about it when GD wanted the Navy to buy it. He said, "There isn't enough thrust in Christendom to make that damn thing a fighter!" The Navy bowed out of negotiations with GD.

[Barfly]

I think it was MacNamara who was pushing hard for the multi-service tactical plane that ended up the 111. It ended too big and too heavy for the Navy.

[Pudfark]

You probably won't see tactical planes running that hot on the deck anymore, but overall the your new kit will be vastly more capable weapons platforms.

Back in the day...I used to think the B-58 was the cool plane....In the late 60's, the F-111....now, the F-15.....or A-10. Given the choice to fly any? The A-10.

[Barfly]

I love that old Hustler. They had one on a stick at Kelly AFB, I think it's still in front of one of the gates. Really capable, but apparently overcome by events when the B1A required funding - at least according to a B-58 pilot I talked to. He insisted it was state of the art; and in the process of receiving some solid state electronics upgrades at the moment it was canceled in 1970. Most magazines I've read on the topic seem to believe the high altitude mission it performed was no longer an option with improved Soviet SAMS being fielded, and that was the reason we stopped using it.

[fatman]

Ybut overall the your new kit will be vastly more capable weapons platforms.

How so I might have a rather simplistic view on the subject but im pretty sure that the super hornet cant carry as much as far as fast and being an island nation range is good. For example say we are to kick off with Indonesia with the bug we are basically forced to approach from the south thats with some of the bugs acting as tankers, with the pig we can approach from any bearing all on internal fuel, new planes might be shiny and have more electronic gizmos but i would like to see them offer an increase in performance.

[Barfly]

I suppose it depends on your potential adversary and I don't know anything about yours... but RAF and French experience in Desert Storm was that low and fast is outdated against modern SAMS and dense anti-aircraft batteries. Stand off weapons like JSOW, SLAMER, and HARM, all supported by the Superbug will keep you away from those threats, and you also get a world class anti-air platform with the F18E.

[Wullie]

but RAF and French experience in Desert Storm was that low and fast is outdated against modern SAMS and dense anti-aircraft batteries.

I remember in the SE Asia wargames ( Nam ) that when the photo-recce RA-5C Vigilantes would roll in on a target for bomb damage assessment pics, Charles would not even bust a round off at 'em most of the time because they were going so damn fast it was a waste of ammo. That damn Vigi was BIG airplane and it went FAST when it wanted to.
Here's a link to a pic of one launching off the carrier I was on 15 years after I was on it.
http://www.wingweb.co.uk/Images/4/RA-5C ... SS_America more pics here
[url]http://www.wingweb.co.uk/gallery/2/A-5_ ... s.html[url]



Like barfly said, those days are over.