What is your favorite aircraft?

P51 mustang. Just looking at it makes me want to jizz. Then the A10 wart-hawg

 

now clearly the best aircraft is the E-3 sentry.... we have have the safest plane, more hours on each aircraft, then practly the entire fleet... 707 is just a sleek looking plane

 

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1fc_1324038018
NAS Whidbey F-18 flight

 

AV-8B Harrier

 

united states air force mc-12 its a bad motha forker

 

Douglass DC-3

HH-65 dolphin

lockheed L-188 Electra

Bell-222 codename Airwolf

 

I've had these and the b-29s fly right over my house at low altitude. The local small airport is 2 miles away. We also get some of the old fighter planes like the p-51s as well. it's awesome when they fly by.

 

There is no other airplane that i've ever seen that I find more beautiful than this one. RIP Jimmy.

 

A-10

 

Pointless airplane. All it does is kill its pilots. 45 pilots have died in those things since 2002. Has no ordnance capacity or range. Thank god they'll have the F-35 soon.

 

Pretty sure it single handily won the Falkland war in 1982.

 

Fair statement, but that's because the Hermes sat 50 miles off shore for them to land every hour.

I guess my statement was more directed at the fact that people think this plane does a short takeoff with a full payload and rains destruction upon the earth when really it wastes all its fuel on takeoff has an hour of flight time and has to come back and land. (I don't know if during the Falkland Crisis the RAF had tankers to hit after takeoff).

Also it's payload capabilities are pretty crappy with only 6 hard points. A super hornet has 11.

And not to mention their track record sucks for incidence like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5uEguTYq3U

 

Luckily for me I can speak from personal experience, can you? The Harrier holds a special place for me for being where we needed it when we needed. The plane is not pointless, it has had trouble just like any other airplane has. Harriers were the only fixed wing aircraft that could get to our location fastest, not cause of its speed but because the damn think can land closest to ground forces. Just like with everything in the Corps, we have always done more with less. The Corps has not had the luxury of spending the same amount as other services have on aircraft. Besides, this is MY favorite.

 

BLUF: I succumb to your wisdom and experience.

Nope I can't, but I fly airplanes and I know even more about them. It can be your favorite. I guess I don't like it because I don't really see the point of having an aircraft that can hover with little payload. Use a helo, it can hover, has a large payload, and its arrensal is more geared towards supporting Marines on the ground. In fact, in live fire testing, the Harrier is more vulnerable to small arms fire than Cobras.

Okay it can land vertically, and go into less than ideal airfields. True. But what less than ideal airfield is going to have Mavericks, Harpoons, and JP-8 laying around for it to resupply.

It looks cool and I'm sure it filled a void in some hot situations, which makes it useful, but I'm happy you guys are going to have new tech that will kill less pilots, kill more bad guys, and keep guys safe on the ground.

Plus those fuckin helmets F-35 pilots get to wear are BA! (They let you see through the airplane!)

 

just look at the CV-22.... when they first came out and the Marines had them, tons of problems/ crashes. then it was all fixed when the Air force took over.. haha..

a VTOL fighter is an great idea.. the harrier, is a good jet. i dont have personal experience with it, seen it at airshows. loved it. just my 2 cents..

 

Thats pretty badass that you fly aircraft. Are you a Naval pilot? Yeah the cobra is badass but when your a little further out than the support side and you need air support quick, a cobra isnt as quick to get on station. As to your question about ordnance, Im not sure if the Air Wing(FWD) had that with them while trailing us but I do know we did have JP-8 and other ordnance for helos. I did witness a C-130 land on the highway while we were heading for Baghdad in 03. Craziest shit right there!

I do agree that better aircraft do exist but I gotta say the Harrier still is proving it can hang, just recently over Libya(Operation Odyssey Dawn). And yup, that F-35 looks mighty sexy. We will let time dictate what it can handle.

Yeah thats probably because Marine pilots were ballsy enough to go test the thing . Lots of good Marines lost testing that transformer.

 

Nope not a navy pilot either lol. Just a stupid midshipman actually. That's why I succumb to your experience. Just a private pilot that knows a lot about airplanes. I would have loved to see a C-130 land on a highway. That takes brass balls. And the Harriers did do their job in Libya.

I think stealth tech is behind the ball at this point. Just a waste of money in my opinion. Especially, if our next war is between superpowers (aka China/India)

 

F-4 Phantom II