Pictures of Cold War aircraft. (12 Viewers)

Viking1066 · Mar 16, 2026

Lockheed F-104S Starfighter 102 Gruppo/5 Stormo overflying San Leo castle , near Rimini 1984 AIRH

Lockheed F-104S Starfighter 102 Gruppo:5 Stormo overflying San Leo castle , near Rimini 1984 A...png

Viking1066 · Mar 16, 2026

Lockheed F-104S Starfighter 102 Gruppo/5 Stormo 1984 AIRH

Some of the 200 I found yesterday. Storm days are good for something after all.

MIflyer · Mar 16, 2026

Frog said:
The .50 pods seem to have first been used by the French Armée de l'Air for COIN air support in Algéria.

The stock T-28A, B, C trainers were equipped with provisions for .50 cal gun pods, for training purposes. The external podded .50 cal guns had a very limited ammo supply, only 100 rounds, so for actual frequent combat use they had to devise a way to store the ammo inside the wing. So it was a lot easier to just hang a .50 cal gunner practice pod on a wing position already configured to accept a pylon, and such pods were indeed used in Vietnam, but I have never seen an explanation if they all switched to the "permanent" gun installation or continued to use a mix of installations. The ones pictured below have the pods. The T-28's used by "covert" outfits like the 606th in Laos seem to have had the permanent installations.

But I can't help but think that a P-40N would have been so much better