Excuse me, excuse me. WE WERE TALKING ABOUT BOMBERS FOR GODSAKE! Start your own conversation about spy planes. That's another subject.
tschuler wrote:
The question should be...
How many American soldiers lives has the U-2 saved because of the real time battle intelligence it has collected over it's life time and reported intelligence in real time to the troops on the ground?
The A-10 is probably the best plane the Air Force never wanted. It really came into its own during the first Gulf war. Could use a little more power, but nothing can touch the way it handles.
sb
Loc: Florida's East Coast
There are a few things that are testaments to man's ability to design, engineer, and construct things of beauty and long-lasting quality. The Golden Gate Bridge, the B-52 - and I would have to add the DC-3/C-47. Still carrying freight and in underdeveloped countries ferrying passengers. I flew in one in Central America that had signage inside in French and Vietnamese. THAT was a plane with some history behind it! I have a Beretta 92 40-caliber pistol which, if you look at the design, the engineering, and the machining, is a thing of beauty. An instrument of death, sure, but a thing of beauty.
The Great Wall of China comes to mind.
And many railroad bridges are 100 or more years old and are still carrying massive amounts of freight each day...
sb wrote:
There are a few things that are testaments to man's ability to design, engineer, and construct things of beauty and long-lasting quality. The Golden Gate Bridge, the B-52 - and I would have to add the DC-3/C-47. Still carrying freight and in underdeveloped countries ferrying passengers. I flew in one in Central America that had signage inside in French and Vietnamese. THAT was a plan with some history behind it! I have a Beretta 92 40-caliber pistol which, if you look at the design, the engineering, and the machining, is a thing of beauty. An instrument of death, sure, but a thing of beauty.
There are a few things that are testaments to man'... (
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And with our governmental leadership those bridges will have to last ANOTHER 100 years!
Notorious T.O.D. wrote:
The Great Wall of China comes to mind.
And many railroad bridges are 100 or more years old and are still carrying massive amounts of freight each day...
B 52 is going to be around for a long time, as long as there is a need for it, it will keep flying.
A bit of trivia about the Bear, it has 8 counter rotating props, 4 blades each, 32 blade tips total. That's 32 sonic booms off the blade tips, supposedly the noisiest airplane ever. Louder than the XB-70 seems incredible but then it only makes 1 sonic boom.
foathog wrote:
And with our governmental leadership those bridges will have to last ANOTHER 100 years!
Excuse me, Excuse me. I thought we were talking about bombers, not bridges.
robertjerl wrote:
A bit more power would help. The original design only had the 30mm cannon but the Air Force insisted on all the hard points for bombs and missiles, but the same engine. Leaving it a bit under powered for its weight.
I read somewhere that the Air Force didn't even want the plane. Mud Moving didn't appeal to the fighter jocks and it wasn't big enough for the bomber types. But Congress more or less shoved it down their throats with a threat to let the Army have it and put them back in the fixed wing combat plane business.
A bit more power would help. The original design ... (
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I may be mistaken but are you sure you are not thinking of the F35? I believe that is the aircraft that Congress is insisting we buy and use while nobody seems to want it.
Dennis
Tiecode wrote:
The A-10 is probably the best plane the Air Force never wanted. It really came into its own during the first Gulf war. Could use a little more power, but nothing can touch the way it handles.
Nor can anything touch the way it causes havoc and destruction. My understanding is the plane was designed around that heavy cannon. It is a tank killer without equal from the air.
Dennis
sb wrote:
There are a few things that are testaments to man's ability to design, engineer, and construct things of beauty and long-lasting quality. The Golden Gate Bridge, the B-52 - and I would have to add the DC-3/C-47. Still carrying freight and in underdeveloped countries ferrying passengers. I flew in one in Central America that had signage inside in French and Vietnamese. THAT was a plane with some history behind it! I have a Beretta 92 40-caliber pistol which, if you look at the design, the engineering, and the machining, is a thing of beauty. An instrument of death, sure, but a thing of beauty.
There are a few things that are testaments to man'... (
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With respect if you check the model number of the Beretta 40 S&W you have you might find it is a Model 96. The Beretta 92 is a 9mm.
Dennis
I flew the B52H from 1977-1982. Not a fun plane to fly. I have over 6000 hr and most flights were 18 to 20 hr long. Including one 42hr nonstop flight around the world during the 1st Iran Crises. One reason I left the AirForce is that the age of the aircraft it was approved to fly with 1/2 inch wing cracks, old $10000 vacuumed tubes for electronics, and gas guzzler no longer produced engines. They had a plane or two to “can” parts from
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