Military Hardware

Seriously? 9700 tons of bad-assery and that is what you notice?

 

I'll give you 3 out of 4 on that, squirrel. IMO, the A-10, while seriously bad ass, is fugly.

Take the A-10 out, and toss in the SR-71, and now your golden.

 

The A-10 is a warrior, was designed for function, not to look good.

Military: Here is a gun............

Fairchild-Republic:..........okayyyyy.........

Military: We want you to slap wings and some engines on it.

Fairchild-republic: ......ummmmmm......it will not be pretty, but we will see what we can do.

Military: Good shit. Make it happen.

A-10 is born.


And then you have the B-52, ugly?..........some think so, but others see their saving grace. I was at a bar one night and there were a bunch of Marines there, so I walked up to them being fellow servicemen and struck up conversation. When they found out I was Air Force they started giving me shit about it, until they found out I crewed on the Buff. At that moment they all had a sudden change of attitude, and one of them thanked me for helping save their lives. I was kind of put off by it and he explained that they had been getting mortored and were receiving a ton of small arms fire from all directions and that they had called for air. And they said all they saw was this B-52 come into sight and bomb the hell out of one of the mortor sites, and all of the fire ceased instantaniously. They bought me drinks the rest of the night. Pretty damn cool.

Hell, it was drawn on a napkin and was only supposed to be in use for around 10 years. It is still one of the most feared aircraft in the US military arsenal. Insurgents have surrendered to ground troops as an EMPTY B-52 flew overhead. I myself (once a bomber crew chief) have always loved the bombers. Especially the B-24 Liberator.

Ugly as they may be, they are still two awesome aircraft.

 

Sr-71. Love it. Prob the best!!!!

 

The Eagle and the Mustang are on my top 5 list. The F-22 as badass as it is just doesn't do it for me. The A-10 is not beautiful but damn it is sinister looking, especially on the ground.

 

no way the greatest plane of all time is the F-111 ardvark. I cant post a pic im at work right now. Google a picture. It has swept wings and you sit side by side in the cockpit. Remember "Bombers make History Fighters make Movies"

 

Yeah when I worked the B-52, no insurgents were surrendering to us. I was in Guam soaking up the sun. Dont know of many buffs in the desert, sounds more like a B-1 job.

 

If we're talking Mustangs then the most beautiful is the P-51H.



Early production design changes included a taller vertical stabilizer to address directional stability issues caused by the greater power, incorporation of the latest radio equipment, and strengthening of the wings and fuselage.
The Army promptly ordered 2,400 of the new Mustang, with the first example rolling off the assembly line in February of 1945. As the first 370 examples were built, the war in Europe came to a close, followed some bloody months later by the surrender of the Japanese after the first use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
With the end of hostilities, the Army Air Force promptly cancelled many orders for aircraft, including the P-51H. Production was allowed to continue until all of the pre-built sub-assemblies were used up, resulting in a final production total of 555 P-51H Mustangs.
The British, at whose request the development program had been initiated, apparently never received any of the new Mustang. No order was placed as the war in Europe ended, as did the RAF requirement for the new fighter.
Produced too late in the war, the P-51H did not see combat. During the Berlin crisis and subsequent Berlin Airlift, the Air Force deployed P-51H's to the only direct front the USA had with the Soviet Union. "H" Mustangs were deployed to the harsh environment of Alaska to guard this distant frontier, but no conflict developed there. In addition, P-51H Mustangs served as long-range escort during the initial development of the new Strategic Air Command.
The developments of new jet aircraft would overshadow the "H", which stood along with the P-51D as the front line defense fighter during the transition to jets. By the 1950's, most P-51H's were delivered to the Air National Guard before once again, they were eventually replaced by jets in the mid fifties.
The outbreak of the Korean Conflict might have brought the "H" into combat, but several factors precluded the use of the type. The Air Force still had over 1400 P-51D's in service with the USAF, ANG, or in storage, along with a large number of trained and experienced maintenance and crew. The airfield conditions were similar to the rough conditions in Western Europe during the Second World War, and the "H" model's lighter landing gear and smaller tires were not designed for these conditions. The limited number of aircraft, and the scattered nature of it's deployment in the Air Force and ANG made assembling a cohesive, trained force of "H" Mustang pilots and crews difficult.
[SIZE=+2]P-51H-5-NA Specifications:[/SIZE]

[SIZE=+1]Length: 33 ft. 4 in. Height: 8 ft. 10 in. Wingspan: 37 ft. 0 in.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=+1]Weight: Empty 6,585 lbs. Normal 9,000 lbs. Maximum 11,500 lbs.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=+1]Engine: Packard-Merlin V-1650-9 V-12 rated at Maximum 2218 h.p.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=+1]Maximum Speed: 487 m.p.h. @ 25,000 ft. Maximum Range: w/drop tanks 1,530 mi.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=+1]Rate of Climb: 3,000 / min. Service Ceiling: 41,600 ft.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=+1]Armament: 6 - .50 Cal M-2 Machine Guns, 2 - 1000 lb Bombs, 6 to10 Five Inch HVAR Rockets [/SIZE]

 

Everyone loves the CAG!!!

 

yeah contractors dont mess around

 

This is one badass weapon!!!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4ebtj1jR7c

 

Here is a little known aircraft. The P-40Q! Clipped wings, Bubble canopy.
Only two prototypes were completed. P-51 and P-38 had better performance so it was not produced.

 

Tough little fighter derived (Stolen) from the Mirage V. Add an American GE J-79 TurboJet and some canards

 

Lucky Bastard...

 

My choice of badass aircraft



The A-10 in previous photos looks bad, but when it's loaded with ordinance, it's BAD!

 

The RA-5C was a highly advanced nuclear attack aircraft that was developed into reconnaissance platform.




Then comes the MiG-25. Developed to intercept the XB-70 Mach 3 bomber.






Then comes the mighty F-15 Eagle. Develpoed to counter the MiG-25 threat and to have Air Superiority over any aircraft flying or in development.






Then comes the Su-27.






The F-22 Air Dominance Fighter.






Russia's 5th generation fighter, Sukhoi T-50.
(It looks alot like the Northrop/McDonnell Douglas F-23)

 

You'll have to click on the link to view this video as I can't seem to get it to embed from the website. This is from military.com.

http://shock.military.com/Shock/videos.do?displayContent=219768&page=1

 

got to see the raptor fly a few years ago... so cool