What is your favorite aircraft?

FW 190

 

Man you've seen a side of aviation I've only dreamt about. I would love to experience that. Flying in the Reno air races would be incredible... Let alone working on a plane in the air races!

Hopefully someday I'll make it out there, I have to go see the air races sometime soon.

 

Chinook by far... Wings are for fairies! Haha...

 

Doesn't the Chinook have 6 wings?

 

I completely understood what a rare and special opportunity it was to be involved in aviation history like this. I wish I had more digital photos to share.

Here's a few from the last time I was up there and we were only racing the T6s, which are pretty much a kick-the-tires-and-go affair, so I had plenty of time to mess around. The Sea Fury, however, was a very needy mistress. 11 days at Reno was nonstop work. And we also had to drink shitloads of beer and scotch.

 

Oh I'm so going out there!

I've flown an at6 before... Well the navy version, SNJ. But man was that fun! So responsive, I can only imagine what it's like in something like a mustang or sea fury.

 

Nice!

I swear the Germans made all the cool planes in WW2.


Almost...

 

I guess I need to include the world's first operational jet fighter, as I was born in the town where it first flew.

 

Could you imagine flying against that and not knowing what it was? This propellerless rocket with a 30 mm cannon pumping shells at you going 500 mph?

 

It's true. Imagine begin the first Mustang pilot coming up against a space ship.

Sure, the Nazis were inhuman lunatics, but they could do two things:
1. Innovate
2. Wear a uniform like nobody's business.


But enough war. How about the Howard Hughes H-1? I saw a replica at Reno one year. Stunning in flight and on the ground.

 

Speaking of Hughes, and though it barely flew, that Spruce Goose was bigger than anything then, and most anything today.

 

Propeller driven: First and foremost: P-51 Mustang!
Turbo Prop: C-130 (because I worked on them while in the Air Force.)
Modern Era Jets: F-15, F-22
Other: A-10.. (Gotta love that big ugly gun up front!)

 

My first flight examiner owns an AT-6, beech 18, Cessna 185, and he owned for a while a p-51. Used to fly it into the airfield I volunteer at all the time. Amazing thing to watch, don't see to many guys landing those things on grass anymore.

 

... ^^^ ... I got to go on the flight deck of the Spruce Goose when it was in Long Beach, CA. I think it was Long Beach in maybe 1985. Anyway, I was doing some contract work for McDonnell in St. Louis and they took me to their plant in Long Beach for a visit.

Someone knew someone, so when the cleaning crew was in the SG cockpit ... I got to go inside the aircraft (on flight deck) and have a pic taken with that model of Howard Hughes at the controls Still have that pic somewhere.

Also got my pic taken in a F-4 in St Louis.

PS ... Did a lot of "private contract work " with the US & Canadian Defense/Defence Contractors and got to do & see a lot of cool things.

Got to play with the Canadian Arm for the space shuttle too ... but no cameras were allowed there. That was the largest clean room in North America and it was in Canada. The arm worked on a large clean room floor with air pumped into rubber pads to allow it to move in 2 dimensions. I didn't get to operate the arm in the water in 3 dimensions though.

Oh, one last flying contraption (1980s) we worked on .. with McDonnell .. was the "SMS" aka "Suspended Maneuvering System". Got to fly in that too.
.

 

I MIGHT have some pictures of the F-35 tomorrow... will let you know. I am working out at Edwards for a few weeks. See it taxi by my every day as well as F-22's, 16's T-38s, Chinooks and Ospreys. I love this part of my job.

 

dont think i saw the C-5 being mentioned here yet.... its a beast, and a mechanical nighmare so i've heard.... i heard the training for the landing gear system alone is a couple weeks for the flight engineers'....

took this at the andrews joint open house a couple years ago.

 

I flew back from Germany on one of those once. It was empty of cargo and there were just a half-dozen of us on it who were catching a ride back to the States for various purposes. It was like flying in a barn, or rather two barns laid end to end.

Edit: There was a joke going around when I was in the service about a C-5 pilot parked in an area where an F-4 pilot though he was supposed to go. The fighter pilot called the tower and asked the intention of the C-5 pilot, who raised the nose up on his plane and said "I'm going to eat you."