Picture of the day. (55 Viewers)

[Viking1066]

USS Saratoga 1930's the net

 

[Greg Boeser]

Another nice photograph showing variations in the tiger head markings LIFE
View attachment 889785

11th Fighter Squadron, Aleutian Tigers, commanded by LTC John Chennault, son of Claire Chennault

 

[MIflyer]

The Kettett XR-8 might just be the most streamlined helicopter ever built, but it certainly is one of the oddest. Note the intermeshing "Eggbeater" blades, similar to the later Kaman HH-43. source: Flight Journal.

 

[Viking1066]

OH-43D Huskie in 1960

 

[special ed]

The Kettett XR-8 might just be the most streamlined helicopter ever built, but it certainly is one of the oddest. Note the intermeshing "Eggbeater" blades, similar to the later Kaman HH-43. source: Flight Journal.
View attachment 889822

Typo - You mean Kellet.

 

[Viking1066]

Known as 'Pedro' in Vietnam , the Kaman HH-43 'Husky' helicopter flew more rescue missions than all other US aircraft combined the net

 

[MIflyer]

Typo - You mean Kellet.

Probably, but the FJ article said Kellett.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Count de Bastrop]

Typo - You mean Kellet.

Nope. Contemporary magazine advertisements show that it was Kellett.

 

[MIflyer]

I knew we had HH-43 on USAF bases but had no idea the USMC flew them. While it was chosen for the Air Force local rescue mission because the rotor blades sent propwash down in such a fashion that the air blast blew flames away from the fuselage of the crashed aircraft, in some ways it would be the worst helicopter ever devised for picking up or deploying ground troops. The only safe way to approach with the rotors turning was from straight ahead. Approaching from the sides, it was a Ronco Vege-A-Matic for humans. While it had two big doors that opened in the back, the huge exhaust duct that poked out between the twin tails likely would have made that a bad way to approach, too. Hawk produced a 1/32 model of it and I have an unbuilt reissue. Note the big ball-shaped load being carried by the HH-43 in the background; that was a dispenser for fire fighting foam.

Surplus HH-43 parts were used in a Kaman unmanned cargo copter that the USMC used in Afghanistan. I think it was called the K-Tug.

One day at the Pentagon the phone rang and it was a guy from Kaman who wanted to ask some questions. I said, "Kaman? As in HH-43 Huskie? No kidding? I did not know they y'all were still around." He asked about the possibility of the company putting in a bid for a new USAF small launch vehicle employing surplus solid ICBM motors. I told him hat was a bad idea, since the issue of whether such motors could be used was still up in the air. DOT was opposed to it and some fairly absurd analogies were being pushed around DC. For example, that the release of thousands of surplus WWI Liberty engines had so harmed the US aircraft engine industry that we were forced to use RR Merlin engines in the P-51.

 

[Viking1066]

Douglas YAO-1 Prototype rejected for USAF service. 33-17 used to set a couple of distance records for amphibians 1940-1941 the net

 

[Viking1066]

RNZAF NZ413 O with NZ413 F Navigation n Reconnaissance School at RNZAF Station New Plymouth the net

 

[Viking1066]

Aviation cadets at NAS Corpus Christi submitting to inspection 1942 the net

 

[syscom3]

ilots of 5,/JG54 in Russia on 6 August 1941. Shown are Hubert Mutherich, Hans Philipp, Hauptmann
Dietrich Hrabak and Lieutenant Josef Puhs. They are standing in front of Hrabak's Bf-109F, which shows
24 victories. Hrabak winds up with 109 victories on the Eastern Front and an additional 16 on the
Western Front.

 

[Count de Bastrop]

Douglas YAO-1 Prototype rejected for USAF service. 33-17 used to set a couple of distance records for amphibians 1940-1941 the net
View attachment 889872

I've always loved the OA-5 (not YAO-1, but YOA-5, later, just OA-5). The prototype continued in service at Elmendorf Field, Alaska up to 1943.

 

[Jager52]

OH-43D Huskie in 1960
View attachment 889826

This is a Kaman HOK, predecessor to the turbine-engined H43B Huskie.

 

[syscom3]

Colonel Evgeniy N. Preobrazhenskiy, commander of the Soviet 1st Torpedo Bomber Regiment, inspects
one of his Ilyushin DB-3T bombers prior to the first Soviet raid against Berlin on August 7-8, 1941.

 

[syscom3]

Soviet Ilyushin DB-3T

 

[MIflyer]

Spitfire Mk IX fighter bomber

 

[bf109xxl]

Soviet Ilyushin DB-3T

View attachment 890030

DB-3F (Il-4) with exhaust flame suppressors (GAM-9).