And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
I was driving around on Davis-Monthan back in 1994, almost certainly on a weekend, when I came to the entrance to the boneyard and the guard posted there saw fit to let me enter. Pretty amazing just in scope and scale. Among the miles of aircraft, I saw the fuselage of an old Mig 17 or 19, the majority of a Somali airliner (eye-catching for that particular time in U.S. military history), some M-60A3s(?!) loaded on a flat car that called to me from my Fort Knox days, and strangest of all, most of an F-84, the same type of aircraft my dad flew in the 1950s. The slightest of chances that he had flown that particular aircraft but he may have seen it once, long ago, when he was stationed in Hokkaido, all the way from Turner AFB, or back at Luke, where he taught scores of foreign pilots - including Germans (many former Luftwaffe veterans from WWII) and French - how to deal with the peculiarities of the F-84.
It was just a fuselage piled onto the ground close to a K9 training facility that's tucked away in there but it's very different seeing an old plane that's NOT pristine, labeled, and posing in a museum, that drives home history because of what you don't know about it.
Boeing for years had one as a chase plane for flight test. Real thing of beauty as it would take off from Boeing Field to rendezvous with an aircraft somewhere.
Those appear to be the only two F-86F's with Oerlikon 20mm cannons installed. The F-86A had 6 .50 cals and there were a handful of E & F models fitted with 4 T-160 20mm cannons that were tried in combat in Korea after pilots stated the .50's were weak against the MIG-15. (Not surprising as the MIG's were fairly robust and built with thicker aluminum as were most Soviet fighters of that era.) The testing went well at mid level altitudes, but caused engine issues due to gun gas ingestion at higher ones. (The A-10 had the same trouble early on in its development.) The 2 Oerlikon's caused weight & balance problems and the program was dropped in the late 50's.
How far the mighty have fallen! That & this is one of the saddest pictures that you have ever posted. To quote Indiana Jones "They should be in a Museum!"
F-86s. Sad and poignant photo.
ReplyDeleteF-86 was once the fastest thing around. I know some guys who flew them. Quite a ride.
ReplyDeleteAZ boneyard?
ReplyDeleteMy exact thought.
DeleteI was driving around on Davis-Monthan back in 1994, almost certainly on a weekend, when I came to the entrance to the boneyard and the guard posted there saw fit to let me enter. Pretty amazing just in scope and scale. Among the miles of aircraft, I saw the fuselage of an old Mig 17 or 19, the majority of a Somali airliner (eye-catching for that particular time in U.S. military history), some M-60A3s(?!) loaded on a flat car that called to me from my Fort Knox days, and strangest of all, most of an F-84, the same type of aircraft my dad flew in the 1950s. The slightest of chances that he had flown that particular aircraft but he may have seen it once, long ago, when he was stationed in Hokkaido, all the way from Turner AFB, or back at Luke, where he taught scores of foreign pilots - including Germans (many former Luftwaffe veterans from WWII) and French - how to deal with the peculiarities of the F-84.
It was just a fuselage piled onto the ground close to a K9 training facility that's tucked away in there but it's very different seeing an old plane that's NOT pristine, labeled, and posing in a museum, that drives home history because of what you don't know about it.
F-86, my favorite (American) jet !!!!!
ReplyDeleteAs a kid I read the Joseph McConnell story a few hundred times !
FREE TO GOOD HOME?
ReplyDeleteAnother example of superior design, engineering and craftsmanship from North American Aviation. No BS, just a fact.
Extraordinary photograph. One of those of, "terrible beauty"
ReplyDeleteBoeing for years had one as a chase plane for flight test. Real thing of beauty as it would take off from Boeing Field to rendezvous with an aircraft somewhere.
ReplyDeleteThose appear to be the only two F-86F's with Oerlikon 20mm cannons installed. The F-86A had 6 .50 cals and there were a handful of E & F models fitted with 4 T-160 20mm cannons that were tried in combat in Korea after pilots stated the .50's were weak against the MIG-15. (Not surprising as the MIG's were fairly robust and built with thicker aluminum as were most Soviet fighters of that era.) The testing went well at mid level altitudes, but caused engine issues due to gun gas ingestion at higher ones. (The A-10 had the same trouble early on in its development.) The 2 Oerlikon's caused weight & balance problems and the program was dropped in the late 50's.
ReplyDeleteHow far the mighty have fallen! That & this is one of the saddest pictures that you have ever posted. To quote Indiana Jones "They should be in a Museum!"
ReplyDeleteCan I take them home with me?
ReplyDelete