Recent content by soulezoo

Declining audiences and purses that wouldn't cover the winners' expenses also contributed from what I have read.

Original Coors Yellow Jacket. Still available. The Lucky Lager I just mentioned in previous post used the stubbies with twist off caps. Under the caps was a puzzle akin to the old game show "Concentration" IIRC.

I have a Lucky Lager church key somewhere.

I'm really happy for him. Long overdue IMO.

While there are good examples of excellent pilots changing aircraft and staying excellent or even better in WW II, I think the best analogs may be in WW I. With new developments and new aircraft being introduced almost every other month in WW I, notable aces rarely stayed in one type of...

The accountants that took Boeing over from the Engineers will not allow it. The Engineers would have considered the different kinds of bacon available to fit individual situations.

Let's not forget that the "lightness" of early Japanese aircraft was something of a necessity given the relative low horsepower engines available to them at the time. The original version (A6M1) had a 780 hp engine. Even the A6M2 with the Sakae still had a sub 1000 hp engine. The original specs...

I was just a couple of years ahead of you (at least we got our picture in front of the Phantom!) On the down side, I was there late July through early Sept. Damn it was hot! Then onto the armpit of the country.... Sheppard AFB for Crew Chief training.

That "Rolls Royce" lettering on the cover added an additional 38.5 hp to the engine. Purposely put on to ensure a hp advantage over an identical Packard made Merlin. And now we have definitively solved the issue of Packard vs Rolls and what was better.

I had an uncle (now passed) that was in the Marine 1st and fought at Pelelieu and Tarawa then on to Okinawa. My son-in-law is currently a lance corporal in the 1st. Sadly, he knows very little about that history.

In the USAF, where the checklists are concerned, we're APG... Air Plane General... or "All Purpose Gorilla". The latter more often used and more often correct.

P-39's radios were solar powered. The cowl armor doubling as solar panels. A lesser known quality of the aircraft to be sure. I think it was pilot Buck Rogers that tinkered with the idea of using that solar panel to power an early laser. Engineering attempts failed however as it upset C/G too much.

The only A-10 training unit at Davis Monthan... is it sheer coincidence that as we have a thread discussing retirement of the A-10, the training unit is already co-located at "the boneyard"? Food for thought.

I'm afraid I have no idea, never got close enough to see.

I see T-38's doing touch and goes at Mather every once in awhile still today. What's interesting to me is they are painted black, giving a F-5 impression. I am used to the white scheme I saw at Sheppard.