Comments by "Helium Road" (@RCAvhstape) on "Not A Pound For Air To Ground" channel.

  1. You don't have to apologize for covering dead end designs, they are very interesting parts of history that would otherwise be forgotten if not for guys like you.
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  2. 34:20 That F-4 Phantom variant with the swing wing is a cursed image lol.
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  3. Youtuber and former F-106 pilot Bruce Gordon has stated that he thinks the radar version of the Falcon was a pretty good missile, so long as it is paired with the proper radar and fire control system and a pilot who knows how to employ the weapon properly. He said the F-106 could handle itself very well in a dogfight, but only after he and his fellow pilots were trained for it, as F-106 and F-102 pilots were generally only trained for interception missions. So one question here is how well were Turkish F-102 pilots trained, and can the F-102 handle itself in a dogfight given a properly trained pilot? And how well did the Falcon work with the F-102's avionics?
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  4. One you missed was a 1970s/80s proposal to use a 747 as an airborne aircraft carrier. The embarked fighters would be small, roughly like an F-5, and the 747 was to carry them stacked like an auto carrier semi truck carries cars. Can't remember the name of the program, but I've seen it in articles with drawings and so on. The fighter was never built, IIRC.
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  5. I love this channel. The P-80 Shooting Star was the first of Lockheed's "star" themed aircraft. Among the most famous is, of course, the F-104 Starfighter, but also the F-94 Starfire, the Jetstar corporate jet (famously owned by Elvis Presley), the Constellation airliner, the C-141 Starlifter transport, the P-3 Orion patrol plane, the C-5 Galaxy transport, and the L-1011 Tristar widebody jetliner. Makes me wish the F-22 and F-35 had gotten star-themed names as well.
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  6. Reminds me of the Argentine air crews in 1982. Immensely brave and competent but terrible top leadership.
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  7. "The F-100 had to remain uncrashed long enough to be useful..." this is the aerial equivalent of Drachism of the Day. We need a name for it on this channel...
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  8. Yeah, my thoughts exactly. If ever a bunch of idiots needed to be made an example of, it was those clowns.
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  9. "Forced to wait in their sinking aircraft until the carrier had passed overhead before jettisoning the canopy and swimming to the surface." Now that is some weapons grade nightmare fuel right there!
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  10. Kelly Johnson wasn't running Lockheed's corporate sales and marketing; he just built the airplanes the best he could.
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  11. This is possibly the best documentary about the F-100 I've seen yet, and I used to watch Discovery Wings back in the 90s. Great job.
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  12. That sounds a lot like how the very first air combat was conducted in WWI between scout spotter planes. No real fighters existed yet but the air crews started taking shots at each other with personal arms.
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  13. The lack of professionalism shown by the Russian air crews says a ton. Not knowing or obeying the rules of engagement, screaming and cursing at each other over the radio like a bunch of teenagers playing an MMO video game, etc. All of that plus the quality control we've come to expect in Soviet/Russian high tech hardware.
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  14. "The P-61 was engaged in the aviation equivalent of seal clubbing." That's basically the aviation equivalent of a Drachism. Well done.
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  15. Great minds think alike. Though I will say that the F-16 is way prettier than the F-35.
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  16. This is among the more compelling "fighter pilot" channels.
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  17. ​ @JohnSmith-pl2bk Also, to retract the gear you nose over to unload the G on the airframe as you crank them up so they feel lighter. I've watched pilots do it at air shows.
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  18. The Soviet pilots generally hated the NATO code names but they liked the Fulcrum. Wasn't official though.
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  19. The B-58, an absolutely gorgeous airplane. To imagine an alternate history where B-58s are kept in service as space interceptors, just wow. It seems that in the 1950s and 60s the future was our oyster and with a few good engineers, it seemed the sky was the limit on what we could do.
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  20. Ah yes, the infamous MiG-28, almost took out the Iceman's Tomcat back in the 80s!
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  21.  @legoeasycompany  I actually like Frogfoot as a name for a mud-moving bomb-dropper, but that's just me.
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  22. Excellent. I'm a big fan of the modern Harrier II, which are still in service with the USMC for the moment, all of which were built in St. Louis by McDonnel Douglas in the 1980s. They've all since been upgraded numerous times and currently sport a powerful radar and ability to use the AIM-120 missile, something they couldn't do right out of the factory.
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  23. Fantastic footage, I've never seen much of this. Also, those socks at 9:09 are some serious helicopter socks.
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  24. Being trapped underwater in a sinking airplane while being run over by an aircraft carrier, hearing the giant screws in complete darkness, is your basic high test nightmare fuel.
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  25. I used to do that with a diecast toy P-47.
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  26. Balance of Terror was the episode name. IIRC the "pattern" they laid down with the photon torpedoes wasn't described in detail, but it felt like it was an obvious analog to a depth charge pattern used on subs in WWII by destroyers.
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  27. "...for recording some war crimes" Did you pick that up at the pro-terrorist rally yesterday?
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  28. I feel that some American manufacturers just had a better take on how to design naval aircraft for shipboard service. Grumman, for years, had "it" when it came to this, with the A-6 Intruder and the whole Grumman cat series, starting with the Wildcat and culminating in the Tomcat. North American seemed much more aligned to the Air Force's tastes than the Navy.
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  29. "WEstland's last fixed wing aircraft before they turned to the Dark Side of aviation." 😄
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  30.  @shaider1982  Heat seekers only need to know where the target is. By knowing where it isn't.
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  31. I don't know if "perfect" is the right word, but they got it to at least be useful.
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  32. I admit to being ignorant of French fighter plane history beyond WWI, so this video is good info, and the footage is great. Ouragan was, if nothing else, at least a good-looking jet plane, and all fighter pilots place high value on looking good! Also, around 17:20 that jet appears to have the insignia of the Lafeyette Escadrille on the nose, which is super cool.
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  33. Eph Phours Phorever
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  34. This channel keeps getting better. I have always thought the USAF leadership were a bunch of pricks over this business. The Army needs dedicated air support, the Air Force doesn't want them to have it, yet at the same time the Air Force doesn't really want to do it either. The USAF has never really liked the A-10, for example, and expecting the USAF to acquire and operate dedicated squadrons of aircraft such as the OV-1, the OV-10, the Harrier, or some sort of A-4 equivalent, and then to have them work as closely with the Army as the Army's own aviation, is not a good bet. The US Marine Corps, with cooperation from the Navy, has steadfastly maintained its own very powerful aviation element and has no asinine restrictions placed on it like the Army does. The result is that the Corps has entire air wings of both rotor wing and fast movers dedicated to supporting Marines on the ground, and which operate in the field as integrated parts of the whole fighting force. The USAF should develop this kind of relationship with the Army, or alternatively, allow the Army to procure and develop its own aviation equipment and training as it sees fit. At least Ken Lee got to hear about his confirmed kill from legends like Robin Olds and Chappie James, I bet that was cool for him!
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  35. The F-8 Crusader's ancestor, nice.
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  36. The F-106 was intended to be an interceptor for continental air defense, period. Go check out Bruce Gordon's channel. He was an F-106 pilot in the 60s and explains it all. F-106 pilots were not even trained to fight other fighters, all their training was to intercept. They considered themselves to be "fighter pilots" of course, and during a rare deployment overseas Gordon and his wingmen almost mixed it up with some Nork MiGs off the coast of Korea, but even then they intended to make an intercept and then outrun any enemy survivors. Gordon states that later on he got to do some dogfighting against the F-104 and the F-4 and that despite not being built for it, the F-106 was pretty nimble in a turning fight if you knew how to manage it, but it was never sent to Vietnam because it lacked survivability features such as radar warning receivers and countermeasures, stuff you need in a high threat environment like Vietnam, but could safely dispense with over the wilds of Canada and Alaska where the jet was meant to operate.
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  37.  @enkinaser  Pilot training on how to employ a weapon is hugely important. The Sparrow missile is widely panned by aviation buffs, but the USAF aces in Vietnam became aces by using the Sparrow after better training was provided. The Atoll is certainly lacking, but if you want to use it properly you need to know a lot more than just "pushing a button". Like all missiles, it has a set of conditions and engagement criteria under which its chances of tracking and hitting a target are maximized. Your post is trollish and nonsensical.
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  38. The Iranians were operating Tomcats against "a numerically superior opponent who was being supported by the Soviets and French, for what that help is worth". LOL gotta love it, throwing shade on the French in a subtle manner.
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  39.  @packrat76  C---nism is also very bad for agriculture, as we see in so many countries such as the USSR, Maoist China, Cambodia, etc. Collectivist farming coupled with elimination of political "enemies" leads to mass starvation, which is itself handy as a method of maintaining control.
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  40.  @DIREWOLFx75  That's because for 40 years nobody produced anything remotely truly dangerous to a trained F-15 pilot, which is the accomplishment.
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  41. A-6E is called the Intruder. A-7 is the Corsair II, F-8 is the Crusader.
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  42. I heard a former German air force mechanic refer to the Phantom as the "air defense diesel" due to its smoky J-79 engines lol. It kind of fits, since I've always thought of the Phantom as a sort of flying freight locomotive of screaming death.
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  43. 23:45 Tom Cassidy looks like he knocks down brick walls with his fists as a hobby and refreshes himself with the tears of communists.
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  44. The USMC still operates an F-5 variant in the aggressor role. I believe they are the only F-5's of any type still in US military service. And its cousin, the T-38, is still used for NASA astronaut pilots to maintain currency I believe.
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  45. Another solid video. The Soviet block missiles are certainly interesting, and it doesn't surprise me that they copied the AIM-9B almost completely; they copied the B-29 bomber down to the rivet. Also, I always wondered what those thumbwheel-looking thingies were on the corners of the Sidewinder/Atoll fins and was about to look it up when you described it here, very cool.
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  46. In yhe days before zero zero ejection seats pilots needed all the help they could get if things went wrong on landing. If the plane crashes on deck and catches fire punching out was not an option, only way to live was to jump out and run for it.
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  47. I've always thought it is cool when you look at a brand-new modern F/A-18E Super Hornet you can still see the family resemblance to the ancient F-5 if you squint. Jack Northrop's legacy lives on, being launched from carrier flight decks every day.
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  48. Basic education on the meaning of homonyms didn't age well.
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  49. "...so useless, the Navy's only option was to give it to the Marines." Oof, as a Gyrene myself, I feel that. All through our history we've felt that.
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  50. Fine then, go stand in front of a radiating fighter jet radar for a few hours and enjoy the non-ionizing radiation.
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