Pictures of Cold War aircraft.

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There is some kind of logic as it is part of the exposition dedicated to the Cold War at the Memorial.

Yup, been there. That was my photo. It is quite a display item, however, is more the point. Negotiating such an acquisition transfer with the museum in Cuba, given its political status is an intriguing thing. A bit like, but not quite as eye opening as transferring a complete Spitfire to a museum in Cracow, Poland in the mid 1970s in exchange for a DH.9A. The aircraft were driven via an RAF low loader through Warsaw Pact countries; quite a feat of diplomacy under the political circumstances at the time.

The DH.9A at the RAF Museum.

RAFM 04
 
That's gotta' be a great story.

It is remarkable that such a thing happened in the middle of the Cold War. I don't know the exact route it took, whether it went through the DDR or Czechoslovakia but imagine the looks on people's faces, being out doing whatever Warsaw Pact bound Eastern Europeans were doing at the time (queueing for bread! ) and seeing a Spitfire going by on an RAF truck!

Here's a bit of info from my RAF Museum thread in the Warbird Display pages:

"Going into action in September 1918 in France, F1010 took part in several bombing raids against German cities, including Frankfurt and Koln, and it was during an attack on Kaiserslautern on 5 October 1918 that the aeroplane was brought down, either by engine failure or AA, but it landed intact and its crew survived and were interned. Following this, the aircraft's movements are murky, but while it was undergoing restoration back in Britain, remnants of German Lozenge camouflage covering was found. Eventually the aeroplane resurfaced in the big Deutsches Luftfahrt Sammlung in the heart of Berlin, opened in 1936, the year of the XIth Olympiade and was the world's largest aviation museum at the time. In 1943 during an air raid by the RAF, the museum was destroyed by fire, and in an act of bravery, staff members dragged half smouldering aircraft from the ruins and packed them on to trains east, ending up in Poland. Again, what happened to the DH.9A in this time is not immediately known, but it became apparent in the mid-1960s that a museum behind the iron curtain had a cache of historic Great War airframes and one of them was an ex-RAF DH.9A, devoid of wings and still bearing scars from its ordeal in Berlin. In 1968, private negotiations began with the museum housing these treasures, today the excellent Muzeum Lotnictwa Polskiego (MLP) in Cracow, an arrangement was made that the DH.9A would be exchanged for a Spitfire, XVIe SM411. By 1971 the details were being hammered out between the RAFM and the MLP, but it was not for another six years that an RAF low loader ventured forth through Warsaw Pact held territory to Poland carrying a Spitfire! This was known as Operation Fair Exchange and by 28 June 1977, the remains of the last surviving DH.9A were safely within the RAFM Store at Cardington."
 
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An air-to-air front view of a U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress aircraft from the 416th Bomb Wing, being refueled by a KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft, 15 November 1982. The B-52 is equipped with the air-launched cruise missile (ALCM) weapon system.

 
By the engine nacelles, that is a B-52G model.

The -A through -G models had J-57 engines, the -H had TF33s (J57s with a bypass fan section to greatly increase thrust and decrease fuel consumption) with a distinct larger ringed cowling forward of the mounting pylon.

The TF33 (.52 SFC) produced 52% more thrust and used only 58% of the fuel per pound of output thrust than the J57 of the -D (.90 SFC).

Basically, a TF33 producing 17,000 pounds thrust used just a fraction more fuel than a J57 producing 11,200 pounds thrust. Since cruise power settings were nearly the same, the -H had a much longer range than a -G with the same fuel load.
 
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USS Ranger (CVA-61), with Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 2, passes under the Golden Gate Bridge on Thursday, 16 November 1972, bound for
WestPac and her seventh Vietnam cruise. Visible on the flight deck are F-4J Phantom IIs of VF-154 "Black Knights" (1xx side numbers) and
VF-21 "Free Lancers" (2xx); A‑7E Corsair IIs of VA‑113 "Stingers" (3xx) and VA-25 "Fist of the Fleet" (4xx); A-6A/B and KA-6D Intruders of
VA-145 "Swordsmen;" RA-5C Vigilantes of RVAH-5 "Savage Sons;" E-1B Tracers of VAW-111 "Hunters" Det. 1; SH-3G Sea King helicopters
of HC-1 "Pacific Fleet Angels" Det. 4; and the COD aircraft, C‑1A Trader, BuNo 136786, side number 000, close to the ship's island.

 
Two U.S. Navy Grumman A-6E Intruder of Attack Squadron VA-85 "Black Panthers" and three LTV A-7E Corsair II of VA-81 "Sunliners" and VA-83 "Rampagers" in flight over Syrian-occupied Lebanon. Both squadrons were assigned to Carrier Air Wing 17 (CVW-17) aboard the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal (CV-59) for a deployment to the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean from 7 June to 16 November 1982.

 
A U.S. Navy Sikorsky SH-3D Sea King (BuNo 152695) from Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron 11 (HS-11) "Sub Seekers" is loaded
aboard the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid (CVS-11) at Naval Air Station Quonset Point, Rhode Island. HS-11 was assigned to Carrier
Anti-Submarine Air Group 56 (CVSG-56) aboard the Intrepid for a deployment to the Mediterranean Sea from 24 November 1972 to
4 May 1973. Note that the helicopter wears a large 2-digit squadron number on the fuselage, as it was used until 1969. The later
3-digit number is only painted below the cockpit.

 

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