[Closed] When wars were colder, planes were cooler!

Allways thought the F16 Fighting Falcon was the prettiest:

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.....kinda reminds me of the Angels:

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Spectrum is green!

(Sees another HIND-D, wets himself again...)

I am liking this one

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Bristol 188

14155842 bytes seems a liiiiiiittle big for that picture... Don't want to get it removed, but could someone change it to a jpeg and repost it? It's MAHOOSIVE!

There were some fantastic F-16 variant s designed and many were built and tested as well. Delta wing versions, a huge droop-snooted version, a forward swept wing version...etc.

14MB????????

What's it's resolution, ffs?? That's enormous!

Too late mate. S'probbly gonna bork the STW server, now.

Sorry my fault, linked the wrong version, ive removed the original now, will that solve it?

Yeah, love the F16 - very pretty.

Also remember seeing the SU27 (I think) doing the 'cobra' at Farnborough - basically it flies slower and slower at a very high alpha (is that the correct term?) then it goes past vertical and comes back again in a 'snake strike' kind of style.

Just gonna see if I can find it on YouTube.

By the way, love the NSFW low-flying Spitfire clip: watched it loads of times and it always makes me smile!

Yeah i saw that at Waddingham i think, they had a pair of Flankers.

Found it!

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Wow! It's still going....! This is amazing.

How about a little monster that trained the pilots of the day? The wondrous, wondrous JP!

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[url] http://www.starfighters.nl/ [/url]

I remember seeing these at Greenham Common airshow and they were fabulous - oh the howl from them as they went over the fence!

When planes were big and ugly... but still quite cool.

Sea Vixen
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Javelin
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Corsair
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re. B-36. Six turning, four burning evolved into "Four turning, two burning, two smoking, two joking" 😀

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Completely forgot my favourite...Intruders were beautiful. Still love those shots in flight of the intruder of the carriers with a mixed deckful, F-14's, Hawkeyes, Intruders, + more.... Cant find any pics online though. 🙁

How about a few transport planes? Antonov An-225...

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This thread has truly amazed me!

My thanks to everyone involved so far. Wonderful!

Keep 'em coming, though!

[i]Keep 'em coming, though! [/i]

<Goes off to dig out complete 1st series of Take Off magazine>

😉

Another airplane nut here 🙂

My personal favourite:

Su-27 (In Ukranian camo)
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C17 Globemaster III

Saw one at high altitude today and it looked so meaty compared to the airliners flying at that height.

Oh and I just love this pic...

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Was fascinated by SR71 when I was a kid. Awesome is an overused word but pretty apt for an aircraft that broke 4 world records on its retirement run!

If you want big things making lots of noise and smoke I give you a B-47b [s]JATO[/s] oops RATO
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[url= http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/USS_John_F_Kennedy_(CV-67)_port_stern_view_2004.jp g" target="_blank">http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/USS_John_F_Kennedy_(CV-67)_port_stern_view_2004.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
Found one ^clicky for biggy^

Never realised how big those b47's were, howzabout this for an idea of scale
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That maybe a big carrier but its amazing how small the landing section of the deck looks relative to the F14 sat on it.

Can't believe Fireflash hasn't been up yet.

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And another....

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Hey Rudeboy, I've a mate who's an avionics tech with the RAF who told me a similar tale about the SR71 pi$$ing fuel when on the tarmac back in about 91', i thought it was a tall tale at the time.........maybe not.........and ekranoplans.....i WANT a caspian sea monster (Kai M?) great documentary on Ch4 years ago!

It's got to be old skool for me:
(It took 3 years at university and 2 years in the industry to cure this 'plane nut)
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and, of course, the daddy:
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This thread is brining back so many happy memories of childhood weekends spent at airshows 🙂

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Go on then, what is it?

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and this!

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and this!!
(nerd)

Best....thread...ever.

My Dad flew a few of the planes in this thread.

Guess which one he used to tow targets past navel ships for them to practice gunnery at...nutter.

bikemonkey is that a c160 then!

ive Marshalled them onto a slot at akrotiri for the frog air force!!

Not realy cold war as it was all but over by the time i could walk,

But i do remember having picknics in the lakes watching tornado's doing bombing practice over coniston.

Transall C-160

Not sure if its been posted earlier, but the F105 Thunderchief was a favourite of mine.

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Great thread!

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CFH- JP was a great aircraft. My brother was in on of the final flights to do their basic flying training in the JP; 'The Last of the Fast', before it was replaced by the Tucano.

Cuddly appearance given teeth in Strikemaster guise!

yes C-160. How about this:

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you want to stand in front of some these big buggers and try marshalling them, tis quite interesting .

fun though

some of the RAF Herc captains are nutters by the way , i was out in Iraq one year not so long ago and there was a Herc coming into Basra , the thing was soooooo low in the desert he had to pull up over the perimeter fence which could of been 15-20ft high max!!!!!

Cheers MtbCol, you've answered a question which has been bugging me for weeks.

It was a C17 Globemaster I saw flying out of Birmingham Airport a while back. Didn't recognize it at all, just knew it was mahoosive, had a T-tail and 4 engines - very impressive.

Quick search turns out to be troops being flown into Selly Oak.

Bell Huey Cobra:

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A cheeky Fokker!

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Tooslow

liked pic nr 4 (Sea Fury) last of the greats..... inc shooting down a jet in combat in Korea.......

A10 Thunderbolt every time.

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Love those Thuds. it was said of Republic (the makers of mahoosive fighters; See P47s) that if some-one built a runway round the world, Republic would make a fighter that needed it to take off...It was also a running joke amongst F105 pilots that Evasion tactics in a Thud was; Undoing the straps and running round the cockpit.

Mind you this was quite pretty as well;

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What's with all these things that the earth repels because they're so ugly?

Shackletons. Jeez-o

The most interesting thing I've ever been on was one of these - whilst in action (unfortunately I can't remember what other types were involved).
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Another vote for the Warthog.

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I used to spend hours watching these on the range at Donna Nook when we used to go camping there each summer. I also remember sitting in the back of minbus whilst one of these stalked us for target practice, scary - somewhere up near Ladybower IIRC.

One of my personal favourite aircraft still has to be this:
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Ugly beast, but very impressive. Just about squeaks in as a cold war aircraft (reasonable definition of the end of the cold war being the fall of the Berlin Wall I presume?)

Does it say something about this thread that nobody's claimed either 100 or 200 - or are people simply growing out of that now longer threads seem to be so much more common on the new forum?

I was always fascinated by the slightly unusual aircraft. Just being the fastest was a bit dull.

So I liked the Harrier and the A10.

But if we're talking the ultimate Cold War flying machine then it has to be...

[b]Saturn V[/b]

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A couple more cold war classics

Vought F-8 Crusader
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Convair F-106 Delta Dart
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No- dount count. Snot a 'plane.

Hekelopters are, as they have spinning 'planes'.

(D'you think they'll buy that one?)

+1 for the A10

....but I really have a soft spot for:
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...so much so I bought one of [url= http://www.starshipdiaries.com/book.html ]these books.[/url]

Hekelopters are, as they have spinning 'planes'.

Technically true.

Didn't someone post an X plane earlier on? That's just a rocket as well.

Yes, it is. It's 'wings' are too stubby for it to be considered a true 'plane', I'd say.

Mind, I spose it uses it's winglets to help it steer, and for landings, so I'm not sure....

and for landings, so I'm not sure....

One nose wheel and some skis

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I bought a kit of this, sometime back in the late 80s, I think:

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Mig 37B 'Ferret-E'.

A completely fictitious aircraft, dreamed up by the kit manufacturers.

Cool, though!

Just trawling back through this thread, in relation to Harriers:

Sharkey (the author) said that they used to beat F-15s in mock dog fights during exercises like Red Flag because they could turn inside any of the large and more powerful fighters, a great aircraft IMO.

Don't think we've actually had a picture of one of these yet (sorry if I've missed it) - an archetypal cold war aircraft:
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Came across this one whilst browsing - how awesome does that look?
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Another RN Phantom Cat launch

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Tornado F3, Typhoon, and IAF SU30MKI
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Always Loved Russian designs, SU27

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Saab Viggens

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Mirage2000

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Why do Tornados always have that dirty bit on the lower bit of the fin?

I believe it's from the thrust reversers when they land

Why do Tornados always have that dirty bit on the lower bit of the fin?

Someone shat out of the window?

That pic of the Phantom above; anyone notice the 'phantom' deck crew?? Spooky... 😯

Awesome thread, will it ever end?

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I always liked these (amongst many already posted), however crappy they may look

and these:
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From some pages back:

Mattoutandabout. That's not a Sea King, it's a Sea commando

They're called "Junglies".

Also someone mentioned "Blue Circle", that happened on the Tornado ADV's they had problems developing the foxhunter radar. The first 18 aircraft flew with concrete ballast in place of the radar initially, so were called blue circle.

Great seeing the footage of the Sukhoi doing the Cobra. The creakiest one was IIRC an SU32 (?), which has vectoring jet exhausts, doing a complete 360 degree somersault in forward flight. Honestly couldn't believe my eyes. The leaking SR71 is true, I've stood next to one on display at Fairford, and there was a huge puddle of fuel under the plane. Seeing a B2 Stealth for the first time was a pretty amazing sight; the damn thing has no right to stay in the air!

Without doubt, the "coolest" cold war plane (in fact coolest plane ever, even including Concorde IMO) is the Lockheed Martin Blackbird SR71.
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[img] http://www.flugzeuginfo.net/acimages/sr71a_mikevallentin.jp g" target="_blank">http://www.flugzeuginfo.net/acimages/sr71a_mikevallentin.jp g"/> [/img]

Coolest always equals quickest or best looking in any young boys eyes, and the Blackbird was undoubtedly both. Quite simply a ridiculous plane, but that's what makes it so special in my view. Yes, it's not the fastest "manned vehicle" the world has seen (the X-15 was a rocket with wings though, and Saturn V is a rocket!), but even to this day it's still the fastest plane. The fact it was borne out of sheer worry and paranoia by the Americans over what the Russians were doing, and whether WW3 was about to start, was probably the primary reason for it being such a remarkable plane. These days, much as the engineering on anything is highly admirable, EVERY modern war plane has been designed with the complacency of knowledge that they don't really matter when the world could end at the touch of a button. Nothing promotes creativity better than sheer panic after all!

With the Blackbird, the designers knew that knowledge was power. And that knowledge came from reconnaissance. So whatever had to be done to get that knowledge was done. It didn't matter that the thing had to allow for growth of 1ft in flight (that's how much it extended), nor that it leaked fuel everywhere when stationary, nor that it had to take off half empty of fuel (and be refuelled mid air once it had warmed up and stretched!). None of this mattered. What mattered was sheer speed and distance. Mach 3.2 FFS! The plane was designed with more than half a nod to being a stealth plane, but the engines that were required for the speed needed, produced bigger exhaust plumes than just about any other aircraft out there! So they just made the thing fast enough to outrun ANY missile or strike fighter out there. And all it ever did was take photos!

[url= http://www.qi.com/talk/viewtopic.php?p=271066 ]Some good facts and stories about the SR71 here...[/url]

Over 4000 missile launches recorded against the SR71's FFS, yet not one hit! The SR71 simply outran everything.

Also, just like any thoroughbred it was totally unreliable, and totally impractical at anything except its designed purpose, which in my eyes made it even more special. Because of the hybrid design of the engine (turbojet/ramjet, turbojet required to get the plane up to "normal" speeds, Ramjet required to hit mach 3+) the plane had to essentially be put into a dive from around Mach 0.9 in order to "start" the Ramjet.

Because of the speed the plane flew at, external temperatures reached ridiculous levels. Up to 1800 degrees centigrade in parts, which of course meant it had to be made out of a pretty special material. Which of course leads to the funniest fact about the plane... Of it's 30 tonne unladen weight, 85% of the plane by mass was made of Titanium. And in this cold war period, where did the Yanks buy their Titanium from? Yup, that's right, the Russians!!!

Anyway, enough banging on about it, it's the sublime, the ridiculous and the beautiful all rolled into one. Even more so than Concorde, it was so far ahead of its time that it took decades to really appreciate its capabilities, and due to changing circumstances it is something that will never again be repeated, let alone bettered! I was barely a kid (9 years old) when it was taken out of commission the first time, but in school yard top trumps, it was the one plane that totally grabbed my attention. It was so good, and nothing else came close to its abilities, that it got recommissioned briefly (though too late to be of any use in battle) because of the Gulf War. I can only think that if we were on the eve of WW3 again tomorrow, all the SR71's would quickly make their way out of museums and back into active service, cos no matter how good the stealth planes might be, there's always the possibility of getting discovered, whereas with the SR71 it doesn't matter cos it's so damned quick!

FWIW, also really admire a couple of other "cold war era" planes. Primarily the F-15 Eagle, simply cos whilst it's the jack of all trades, it is compromised at none.
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Designed to be usable all round as a dogfighter (even though it's on the large side for one, it's still highly successful as one), a bomber or as a reconnaissance plane etc. So good at everything, there has NEVER been one lost in battle! And it was introduced in 1976, so it's had plenty of time in service so far. In fact, despite the introduction of newer planes suitable for use (primarily the F-22 Raptor), the US Air Force still doesn't plan to retire the F-15 until it reaches its 50th Birthday!

And then the A-10 Thunderbolt has to be admired, because despite being about the slowest and ugliest of planes, it is without doubt the most effective way of taking out enemy tanks ever. Little more than a flying gatling gun (which fires 3900 30mm depleted uranium shells per minute!), it makes mincemeat of anything in its way. That and it's been designed with the ability to shrug off enemy fire, and still be able to fly even severely battle damaged, it's worthy of note.

Oh, and for anyone that's interested, even though you may not like the author, read Jeremy Clarkson's "I Know You Got Soul"... SR71 Blackbird gets a chapter, as does Concorde, the B-52, the Space Shuttle and the Aircraft Carrier (to name a few Cold War creations). The book is very much more about the admiration of the specific machines than it is Clarkson himself, and it reads very much differently to his usual musings so is actually a good read even for those that normally don't like him.

Another nice little aircraft, definitely with a Cold War twist - F5e Tiger 2

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plus it's road legal.

Ditto for the blackbird and A10 (another donna nook childhood watcher). I will also raise you the P38 Lightning

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And for the Mirage fans, there's a series of videos on youtube of retarded French pilots doing [url=

(but impossibly cool) stuff.[/url]

[img]www.flickr.com/photos/contrailsnw/3334052701/page2/[/img]After 10 years of working on these beauties the rough as rats functional C130 when I was in the RAF

I had the cold pleasuure of looking out of the back "hose hole" when in flight refueling Phantoms, MRCA 😆 tornados, nimrods and hercs unpressurised and freezing high above the atlantic

ah those were the days as opposed to being a mundane electrician that I am now

As helicopters are allowed:

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Still going? WOW!

Mmm, Ka-50 Hokum?

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Surely this wins. They even made a documentary series about it

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As my fav has already been on (the SR71) I think of all modern planes this is advanced and pushing the boundries.
[img] [/img] I watched a program on the development of this and watching it take of vertically then go over mach1 was impresive.

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A dish on a plane? Always thought they looked odd:
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