Posted on 05/18/2012 8:14:30 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
I’ve often wondered that if new, stronger metals and upgraded powerplants and electronic avionics and deadlier weapons if a P-51 wouldn’t suit our third world incursion wars much better.
first father and son BUFFs now father and son F-15s
And I know many of the young men who fly these ancient aircraft. You can only upgrade for so long.
We have flown our airplanes to death these last 20+ years.
Think about a car, no matter how much you maintain it and baby it parts wear out. Now, make it a race car built to the highest specifications with the metal stressed to the highest limits to save all the weight possible. Load it with tons of dead mass (bombs and rockets), driving on a rough track and see what happens. It will not last, the metal will fatigue and fail. If for some reason you don’t understand the analogy, we have built extremely high performance aircraft with the lightest frames possible, load them with bombs, fly them in very rough air, put them through high G maneuvers at high speeds and expect them to last forever. They simply will not last.
What this country is doing to our military is shameful. We will pay a terrible price for it some day. I am afraid it will not be long from now.
Further, I submit that there are sometimes cases where inspiration of a higher order have influenced development of materiel for the good of mankind. Two come to mind: 1) the marvelous 120 design-build-fly of the P-51 and a similarly impressive feat for the Willy’s Jeep.
Because of the limitations of the Mustang’s liquid cooled Merlin, I’ve been partial to the Skyraider, P-47 Thunderbolt, or F4U Corsair.
I can sypmathize, but to me the Mustang was true inspiration.
My father and I did the same thing. He went to Vance AFB for pilot training. He graduated with 66-A class. I was born there while he was in pilot training. Later I went to Vance for my pilot training. I graduated with 87-05 class. We later compared logbooks and had flown many of the exact same airplanes. Both T-37’s and T-38’s.
The B-52 is old just like the A-10 but those were the planes the Iraqis feared the most. I almost had a BUFF crash on top of me at Fairchild AFB.
Our planes are still the best in the skies.
The Atomic Bomb was a good one............
Even if it wouldn’t, they should build them anyway. It is the finest looking aircraft ever built.
They would and thus the reason for the Tucano or something like it.
The A-26 was such an outstanding counter insurgency aircraft they were completely worn out in the early days of Vietnam. We need a moderate performance, survivable aircraft with a high end weapons delivery system for these crap wars we continue to fight.
We do instead is take what is out best remaining high performance aircraft and fly it around for thousands of hours to drop bombs on people armed with shoulder fired weapons. It is the equivalent of making your daily commute in an Formula One race car.
The only part of sitting in traffic that makes it remotely fun is to see the guys in very high end sedans and sports cars creeping forward one foot at a time. I marvel at the waste and vanity. They have converted something like a thoroughbred I prize and appreciate into a nag pulling a trash cart.
Agreed. The Air Force found that out the hard way in Korea when the brass insisted on using Mustangs as ground-attack aircraft.
While not as pretty, the A10 Warthog probably fills that role very nicely.
“I hear people talk about, well you know, the U.S. military spends more money than the next 17 nations combined,” Deptula said. “Well, the next 17 nations combined are not committed to maintaining peace and stability around the world. We are.”
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And maybe we ought to rethink our self-imposed world policeman status.
Taking out an insurgents Toyota pickup truck with $500,000 cruise missles doesn’t make much economic sense either.
I doubt there are many parts left in the plane the father flew. Everything’s replaced over time. Other than a few airframe parts, it’s essentially a different plane.
Task the Air Force with selecting & operating all long range bombers, fighters and interceptors.
Let the Marines & the Army do the same for Close Air Support (CAS).
The Navy has veto on selection of all carrier based aircraft. ( A significant number are CAS. A hot-dog Air Force fighter/interceptor that can’t handle carrier landings is useless. Same for single engines)
True, to a point.
Some of these AC are like the “original” axe George Washington used to cut down the cherry tree.... They have replaced the handle six times and the head four...
Still...Most people would be amazed at what is allowed in the air.
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