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

  1. Eph-Phours Phorever!
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  2. Cool aircraft, but no ejection seat in an early Cold War jet is pretty scary.
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  3. @ That would be purrfect
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  4.  @jacqueschouette7474  Also, if I recall, the AIM-54 was optimized when paired up with the Tomcat's radar and fire control system and probably wouldn't have worked as well with a different system. Similar to its predecessor, the AIM-4, which reportedly worked well with the F-106's radar and FCS but was terrible when hung on a Phantom tried to use as a substitute for a Sidewinder.
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  5.  @mrj4990  Sure, you just wait right here, I'll be right back, boss.
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  6.  @jonathanhudak2059  Agree.
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  7.  @kitbag9033  The US still pays for NATO. And everything else, too.
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  8. I wonder whatever happened to that Huey, if the aircraft still exists somewhere. Would make a good museum exhibit.
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  9. When aliens come to Earth, they steal technology from Lockheed.
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  10. ETA: I just found the story on the CIA's own website, along with a painting of the action. Ted Moore was the pilot, and mechanic Glen Woods was the rifleman.
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  11. IIRC I saw two of these at the USAF museum in Dayton OH a couple of years ago, in different paint jobs.
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  12.  @notapound  It's amazing how different the Navy's airpower is from the Air Force, in both doctrine and hardware. The F-4 Phantom was a rare case where both services (3 counting the USMC) used the same basic model, only because they were forced by SecDef McNamara, and even then the services armed and operated the aircraft differently.
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  13. "Havoc" is such an awesome name for an attack plane, I'm surprised it hasn't been reused yet, like Corsair II, Phantom II, Lightning II, etc.
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  14. 3:15 cue Beavis and Butthead laugh
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  15. I saw a movie today, and this beats out every trailer I saw hands down. I served once, but this almost makes me want to sign back up again, damn. Love this channel.
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  16. One of the greatest fighter jets never to see real combat. Sleek, beautiful, high-tech, fast as hell, from the days of vacuum tubes and fission rockets, in its final days with the modern paint job it still looked high tech. Bruce Gordon's youtube channel is a great resource for those who want more. He tells tales of flying air defense missions with hot Genie rockets, shooting down a BOMARC in a supersonic head-on pass, dogfighting with Phantoms in tests, and almost getting into a furball with North Korean MiGs during his Six squadron's deployment to the western Pacific.
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  17.  @emjackson2289  "Guaranteed for the life of the customer."
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  18. Another way to word that is they accepted bribes from Lockheed instead of Grumman.
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  19. ​ @Jon.A.Scholt The West benefits from a thriving civilian tech market that feeds back into the defense sector. The Internet was "invented" by the US Defense Department, for example, but only because companies like IBM and Bell Labs made it possible, and afterward it was the free market that made the Net the monster tech it is today. The transistor wssn't invented by some government scientist, it came from Bell Labs. That is why the US and the Free World were so far ahead of backwards communist hellscapes like the USSR and North Korea. Western Civilization forgets the benefits of the free market at its peril.
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  20. IIRC US bombers on recon flights routinely did make it through. LeMay was, against Ike's wishes, sending B-47s into Soviet airspace to test Soviet defenses and scare the Soviets. Soviet fighters would scramble but the bombers would already be heading away at altitudes and airspeeds the MiGs didn't have the legs to catch.
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  21. When I was growing up I remember seeing these grainy black and white photos of Soviet jets like this, jets most Westerners would never get to see in person, and wonder about them. They always looked so low tech compared to equivalent role US or British or French aircraft. The more I learn about them, the more convinced I am that my instinct was correct. The Su-15 is not a bad-looking airplane from a distance, with its clean lines and all, but these photos of it up close reveal what looks to me like sloppy workmanship, and the reports of its shortcomings don't bode well for trying to defend against an actual USAF bomber raid.
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  22. This channel scratches an itch no other does.
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  23. Yeah, I remember model kits with that paint job were in every store for many years. I think it also helped that aesthetically, the F-16 is just one of the most beautiful aircraft ever built, from the side profile it just looks like the perfect shape.
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  24.  @gort8203  True, but it's not wrong that at least some in the Navy historically preferred redundancy in engines. That was a factor why the Navy preferred the XF-17 design over the F-16.
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  25.  @jedibusiness789  "Viper" yeah that's another thing. The Air Force has a bad habit of picking unpopular names for their jets and the pilots have to make up a good nickname. The Navy seems to get good names from jump.
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  26. I read that when I was growing up, great story.
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  27. As a followup to this, you should talk about one of the CVA Essex carriers. My dad served on CVA-38 Shangri-La. He told me that the CVS was considered lower class to CVA duty, which was natural given the ship he served on, and I am guessing it's because the CVA's were hosting Crusaders and Skyhawks as well as Skyraiders. He was an aviation bosun's mate and worked on the steam catapults and arresting gear and had some crazy stories to tell.
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  28. "Told it was a s**ide mission." Volunteers anyway. Good men.
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  29.  @bfc3057  A sense of humor is worth a lot, though. Try it on for size.
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  30. Wow, a Grumman Cat I haven't heard of! I like the hint at the end, even if it is a General Dynamics competitor, and not a much more famous member of the Cat family.
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  31. 25:55 Lol at the guy maintaining the high-tech Sparrow missile with, of all things, a hammer.
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  32.  @CombinationK  Then how come we are watching his videos instead of yours, wet blanket?
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  33. I love this channel.
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  34. That photo at 16:57 is epic. The Phantom with its fangs out. "We have 2 Phantoms. You guys have 28 MiGs. Looks like you need to go back to Egypt and get some more MiGs."
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  35.  @TheGranicd  An Arab army equipped with shit Soviet equipment and trained to shit Soviet doctrine.
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  36. lol
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  37. The best aviation history channel.
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  38. I'm sure he'll get there.
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  39. Well, I bet if those F-89s had used the Genie nuke they'd bagged that pesky Hellcat.
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  40. Yet another outstanding video, can't wait until you get to the more modern, and crazier, designs for flying aircraft carriers!
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  41. 51:50 I remember seeing that accident on the news when it happened.
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  42. why do all Soviet pilots look at least 20 years older than their Western counterparts?
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  43. Okay, 15:47 answers my question. I would age quickly too if I had to fly stuff like that every day.
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  44. I've seen an AN-2 up close parked outside at an airfield. What a crude and ugly machine. Like a poster child for East Block engineering.
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  45. They copied the space shuttle (albeit with huge changes in the overall system design) just for the sake of copying and it was a huge waste of money right as the USSR was on the edge of collapse. They generally sucked at innovating and were always playing catchup to the West.
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  46.  @Wannes_  Interesting. A really confusing system.
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