Your favorite post-war aircraft

[SoD Stitch]

Genies... buggin' out might be a good idea.

The supposed mission profile for launcing a Genie "in anger" was called an "over-the-shoulder toss"; at a pre-determined point, the 101 driver would pull his plane up into an Immelman and, at a certain point (approximately 30 degrees into the vertical turn), the weapons system would arm, release fire the weapon. The theory was that the aircraft (101 or 106) would be heading in the other direction at a safe altitude when the 1.5 kT detonated (hopefully in the middle of a Soviet bomber formation).

 

[Matt308]

Wow. Sounds like the flight ops of the dreaded nuclear A-5 "Vigi". (i.e., looks good on paper)

 

[olbrat]

As I'm sure it is with a lot of this group, it's hard to list just a few.

I have a slight affinity for some of the earlier post-war aircraft. Putting all performance and reliability issues aside I would say:

F86 Sabre
F7F Tigercat
F89 Scorpion
F9F Panther
DeHavilland Vampire
F8 Crusader
Vulcan
Hawker Hunter
B58 Hustler

 

[Matt308]

Crusader and Scorpion!

 

[Ramirezzz]

Tu - 128 any time - that's a helluva of an interceptor - clumsy and BIIIG

 

[parsifal]

Hi everyone

Havent read all the posts, so am sorry if I have repeated any ealier nominations

I have three absolute favourites

1)

 

[parsifal]

I have a few not all of them will be well liked

1) F-14 Tomcat. Pure enginering and electronics marvel. I was young and eager when they first hit the scene. They put the fear of god into people like Gaddafi, and were just a cool aircraft. Lots of attitude, and lots of ability

2) F-111E. In the 80s they were updated to carry Harpoon, and had the electronics updated. I was in the RAN at the time, and they were a formidable weapon system. They allowed the RAAF to undertake considerable force projection into the whole of the SEAC region, knowing that there was nothing in the regional inventories of our "friends" that could even hope to stop them. Primary role of the Aardvarks was maritme strike, but they were still very cool at just about anything

3) C130J A massive improvement over the "H"s. Just a very cool medium transport. I will put the "J" up against any European or Asian trasport any day, completely confident in the abilities of this aircraft

4) Sea harrier (or for you Americans the AV-8) Being a Falklands era servicemen, with friends who served, I just could not let this great aircraft side. There are bigger, more capable aircraft allover the place, but as the argies found to their cost these little airplanes had what it takes to be a legend

 

[SoD Stitch]

I have a few not all of them will be well liked

2) F-111E. In the 80s they were updated to carry Harpoon, and had the electronics updated. I was in the RAN at the time, and they were a formidable weapon system. They allowed the RAAF to undertake considerable force projection into the whole of the SEAC region, knowing that there was nothing in the regional inventories of our "friends" that could even hope to stop them. Primary role of the Aardvarks was maritme strike, but they were still very cool at just about anything

You guys had E's? I thought you just had a bunch of older C's and a few newly-acquired ex-USAF G's.

 

[smg]

for me it has to be the p-47,p-51, and the spitfire bout thats just me
o yea and the mig 15,17,21,and f-14

 

[parsifal]

oops, sorry, slip of the pen, you are right, they are nominally of the F11C standard. However, the electronics fit, and weapons systems have been so extensively modified and updated that it is hardly enlightening to refer to them as "C". The fleet is actually a mix of "A"s, "c"s and "G"s as attritional losses are replaced. The F-111s are still flying, with debate raging about whether to retire them or not. The replacements being touted, the super hornets, are a backward step in my opinion, mostly because of range, but also because of a questionable performance envelope

 

[parsifal]

Oh want to add three further aircraft that always wanted to fly, but never got the chance

1) Skyhawk A4 G or E. Just a flying truck really, could cart up to 10000 lbs of bombs, on an airframe you could just about park on your dresser. For the little money it cost per airframe, I thought it was, pound for pound the most efficient combat system around

2) Grumman S2G. Could stay airborne for 14 hours, andfor its time was a good sub hunter. The Australians developed a new sonabouy, I believe, which made it somewhat more effective at detection. Anyway, they gave the fleet better advance warning of incoming threats than has ever been enjoyed since their retirement.

3) Westland Wessex Helos. I thought they were the ants pants. have flown in them many times. Reliable and capable. They were being converted to SAR when I was around them, but personally I thought they were better than the Sea Kings that replaced them esp in terms of reliability

 

[olbrat]

I watched the movie "Bridges at Toko Ri" last night. I love to watch the F9F Panthers. Their line are very aesthetically pleasing. Have any of our members flown this aircraft?

 

[buzzard]

I'm gonna stick to the '50s-60s jets...

F-86 Sabre...Saw the USAF Heritage Flight Sabre put on a beautiful display at the NSIAS a couple years ago. Fantastic low-level knife-edge passes!

FJ-4B Fury
F-8 Crusader
Saab J35 Draken...So futuristic, and proof that a small country can design and build top of the line combat AC.
F4D Skyray
F-104 Starfighter...'nuthin like a Zipper comin' in near the speed of sound right on the deck and going into a zoom climb....Gone! ('70s airshows at CFB Greenwood, NS)
Avro Vulcan...I remember watching a Red Flag (cream and brown camo) Vulcan in a very high-bank turn at Greenwood...it looked like the big wing tip was draggin! Amazing to see such a big bomber yanking and banking like a fighter...
F-106 Delta Dart...My favorite of the Century Series.
CF-101B Voodoo...Loved the big double boom when they hit the 'burners..BooBOOM!
SR-71 Blackbird...Duh!

Does anybody else here miss the '70s airshows? So many cool planes back then. Here in Nova Scotia we'd get'em from all over the 'States and Europe (visitors from Goose Bay)

 

[HealzDevo]

Ok my list:
1. B-36 Peacemaker just because it is big enough to look cool.
2. B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber.
3. F-117 Stealth Fighter.
4. MiG-25 Fulcrum.
5. General Electrics Lightning.
6. C-5 Galaxy.
7. Condor and Cossack.
8. (If Allowed my all time favourite AH-64D Apache Longbow).

 

[Emon_Essex]

F8F Bearcat
F-86 Sabre
MiG-15
AV8B Harrier

 

[B-17engineer]

Ahhhhhh B-52 and Su-35

 

[tomo pauk]

Just way too many beautiful planes back in 20 century...
My favs:
F-86 (the one with big radome)
F-4 -8
F-14
Mirage III
Viggen
Mig-17, 21, 29, 31
Su-25 27
A-6 -10
Harrier

 

[BombTaxi]

My favourites, for sentimental and aesthetic reasons as much than anything else...

Lightning
Javelin
Phantom
Canberra
Jaguar
Tornado
Buccaneer
Intruder
Tiger
Sabre (All versions)

 

[Waynos]

Hmm a list of favourites, here goes for pretty much the same reasons as bomb taxi

Typhoon
F-86
Hunter
TSR 2
Vulcan
Mirage 2000 and 4000
Lightning
BAe 146

 

[Venganza]

My top 5:

Tu-95 Bear
B-36 Peacemaker
P2V Neptune
Avro Shackleton
A-1 Skyraider

Yes, I do like the late piston-engined planes. No jets, although the Tu-95 is a turboprop.

Venganza