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

  1. @stop-the-greed  the sr71 has long been retired, while the aircraft it was supposed to replace, the U2, is still in service.
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  2.  @Wannes_  The A-7 was a very successful attack jet, but it's always amazed me how ugly it is despite its obvious design links to the beautiful and sleek F-8. I'm also surprised the Air Force bought A-7's. The USAF seems to only like pretty, pointy, fast jets, and eschews anything Navy-related, but there are exceptions such as the A-7 and A-10.
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  3.  @Wannes_  No argument from me on that.
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  4. On the subject of small arms used in air-to-air combat, I have read the tale of a kill scored by a CIA-operated helicopter in Southeast Asia on an AN-2 biplane. IIRC it was a CIA employee shooting out the side door of the civilian Huey with an AK-47 rifle that did the deed.
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  5. Excellent documentary, once again.
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  6. I've seen that rubber deck wheelless aircraft before, back on Discovery Wings in the 90s, I think. I always thought that was a crazy idea. How are you supposed to taxi the aircraft out of the landing area after recovery? Do you have to jettison all external stores, drop tanks, and even air to air missiles before landing? No wonder it didn't go anywhere.
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  7.  @samsonsoturian6013  MBDA is marketing a naval missile called the Hoplite. The Soviet helicopter Mi-2 has the NATO codename Hoplite. And of course, the US Navy used the Phalanx close-in weapons system for anti-missile defense, and Phalanx is a pretty cool name.
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  8. "The test pilot's life was a precarious one in this period," he said, while holding Chuck Yeager's beer.
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  9.  @aaronquak2139 Does a kangaroo fly any higher?
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  10.  @BalshazzarWastebasket  Funny, but the Space Shuttle replaced its tires after every single flight, even though they were rated for something like a hundred landings. And Space Shuttle tires aren't exactly cheap.
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  11. Much how all modern jetliners now look the same from a distance.
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  12.  @bfc3057  A sense of humor is worth quite a bit, though.
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  13.  @harveywallbanger3123 How much of the poor hit rate was from pilots not using the weapons properly, shooting when not in the proper envelope? Training cannot be underestimated. Rippling off four missiles without getting a good fire solution is a good way to drive up the miss rate by four more misses. Better to adopt the USMC state of mind on marksmanship: "One shot, one kill."
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  14.  @raketny_hvost  So your point is that the Soviet block's pilots suck as much as their jets? Another point for the F-15.
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  15. Absolutely.
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  16.  @JonBrase  The whole point of the Genie is to use it over your own territory. The high-altitude air burst does not create an appreciable amount of fallout and the only real danger to your civilians is eye damage if any of them happen to be looking at the blast at the point of detonation. The main danger is still debris; however, unless the unguided Genie detonates very close to the target, the MiG would be damaged by the shockwave and the crew given a fatal dose of neutron radiation, and the aircraft will then go on to crash similar to any other missile hit.
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  17. Great rundown on the Sparrow. I wonder why the AMRAAM and some other newer missiles don't get names like Sparrow, Sidewinder, Phoenix, etc.?
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  18.  @johnhudghton3535  Would you happen to have any Grey Poupon?
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  19.  @stickiedmin6508  yeah, definitely
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  20.  @thethirdman225  Yes, like Sikorsky, who wound up in the US instead of France.
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  21. At least the Essex class carriers stayed useful into the 1970s.
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  22. Wonder how it compares to the mythical F-108.
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  23. AV-8B Harriers are AMRAAM capable.
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  24. Douglas: "So how many guns would you like on your A-26?" USAAF: "Yes."
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  25. Look up the H3 base on google maps. It looks pretty abandoned these days. But it's also back country Iraq, where everything looks kind of abandoned, so what do I know?
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  26. It never occurred to me that the Japanese left behind a sizeable number of combat aircraft after the war. A shame more of them weren't preserved. A while back I was reading up on the history of the DC-3 and was surprised to find that Nakajima had built copies of it under license legally obtained before the war, and that sadly no examples remain in existence.
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  27. The XF-90 was a stunner of an aircraft, absolutely beautiful. Too bad it was underpowered and there aren't any intact examples left today. Just part of one that got wrecked in a nuke test.
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  28. ​ @petesheppard1709 He didn't say F-10, he said F1O, which is correct for the old Navy system: F for fighter, 1 is the model number, and letter O for the manufacturer Lockheed.
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  29. Kind of like in Star Wars, when the Imperial gunners held their fire on the escape pod carrying R2D2 and C3PO because there were no life signs detected. I bet those guys got force choked later.
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  30. Good rundown of Soviet naval aviation. I never knew about the prewar stuff.
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  31. The Iranians certainly got more use out of them than the US Navy did. By their account they did pretty well against the Iraqi air force.
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  32.  @grahamwilburn6070  And the modern version of the Pegasus still serves in the last Harriers today.
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  33. The Sopwith Camel is the Harrier's grandmother.
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  34.  @SAIUN  No, Sopwith is the company that later became Hawker, which built the Harrier.
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  35. I can't just listen, gotta look at the photos and footage, especially rare airplanes such as this.
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  36. I've seen the XF-85 Goblin, they have one on display at the USAF Museum in Dayton, Ohio. Pretty snazzy little beast. Can't wait for you to dive into the F-84 family of jets, always loved the F-84, a cool early jet that always seems to get overlooked, but they built so many of them in so many iterations, and years ago I read a cool book written by a Cold War F-84 pilot that makes me want to fly one.
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  37.  @justforever96  It's all personal taste. I think the B-58 is prettier than the SR-71. But I also think the AV-8B Harrier II is great-looking, too, and many people would disagree. After a while, the A-6 Intruder even grew on me.
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  38. Your incorrect use of capitalization is the most troubling thing here.
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  39.  @CharliMorganMusic  Since you mentioned it, Marine Corps aviation also makes the Navy stronger, since a secondary mission for Marine squadrons is to augment Navy carrier air wings. Amphibious task forces equipped with Marine Harriers or F-35s can provide their own limited air cover and can act as auxillary carriers. Air Force: take note. The Army can help you if you let them.
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  40. Old school
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  41.  @WALTERBROADDUS  You keep saying that. But remember, if you have no defense against bombers, then bombers become a viable threat again. Even today they are still a threat, actually, since they are a recallable option, unlike missiles.
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  42.  @himanshuanand9048  AT&T has a channel with a bunch of their old films from the 50s and 60s.
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  43.  @himanshuanand9048  Don't know why this keeps getting deleted: AT&T has a cool channel.
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  44. I've never seen that photograph at 18:24, that's very dramatic. That photo screams "1950s USAF" in more than one way.
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  45.  @Ob1sdarkside  No it didn't. The Su-57 is called the FELON, and it's post-Cold War. The NATO system is still in effect.
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  46. 29:14 VMAQ-2 the Playboys. They flew EA-6B Prowlers in the 80s and 90s, but had to change their logo and nickname due to modern PC thinking. I recognize so many of the Marine squadrons in these videos. 542, the Tigers, became VMA-542 and flew the AV-8B Harrier and are now called VMFA-542 and fly the F-35.
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  47. He was probably more afraid of his ejection seat than he was of a dud missile warhead hanging out of his ass.
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  48. Great video, did not know if I'd sit through 37 minutes but those minutes flew right by. It seems odd to me that the US doesn't use flying boats or seaplanes of any sort these days. I would think that perhaps the Coast Guard would find them useful, and they could be pressed into service overseas if needed. Japan still uses big 4-engined turboprop seaplanes for SAR and so forth.
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  49. 5:04 is that a Tu-4 with jets on it?!
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  50. Or the A-10, which also had the "use a big gun on ground targets" philosophy.
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