Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnews!military From: welty@lewis.crd.ge.com (richard welty) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: F19 vs. F117 Message-ID: <1990Jul31.023036.20032@cbnews.att.com> Date: 31 Jul 90 02:30:36 GMT References: <1990Jul27.015630.22235@cbnews.att.com> Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker) Followup-To: sci.military Organization: New York State Institute for Sebastian Cabot Studies Lines: 116 Approved: military@att.att.com From: welty@lewis.crd.ge.com (richard welty) In article <1990Jul27.015630.22235@cbnews.att.com>, Duane P Mantick writes: *>10: ? * OHHHH, how soon we forget. A10 Thunderbolt II, Republic/Fairchild * and whoever else was involved. Our current tank-buster with * the GAU8a 30mm cannon that can saw a Soviet MBT into chunks. ummm, but Adrian was asking about F-series aircraft. there was probably an F-10, but i don't recall what it would have been. undistinguished, though, i'll bet. *>11: ? * F11 Tiger. I don't recall who made it. grumman bout this one. *>19: Lockheed F-19, the hypothetical Stealth Fighter. The real one is F-117 *>for some reason. Or is there an F-19 which no-one has seen yet? there are any number of speculations about the reasons for this; perhaps best not to waste time since to those of us without appropriate clearance, it's merely hot air. for those of us who have appropriate clearance, well, they're not allowed to post the answer. *P39: Airacobra, Bell Aircraft. Sold lots to the Soviet Union during * WWII. Unique design, never horridly impressive. actually, some pilots really liked it. the export versions had serious problems, though. lack of a turbocharger leading to terrible high-altitude performance, as i recall. some of these export versions (the P400s) ended up used by US pilots early in the pacific war, which helped lead to the undeserved bad rep. *XF85: Goblin, can't recall the builder. Was a parasite designed to * be deployed from a B36 Peacemaker on a trapeze assembly. * Ugly, but it did fly. Methinks can be seen in the Air Force * Museum at Wright Patterson AFB. it barely flew. this project was justifiably scrapped early on. a real pilot killer, this one. *F102: Delta Dagger? (I get this and the F106 backwards sometimes) and * I think Convair made this one. Delta wing. convair did make this one. the `coke bottle' fuselage concept was introduced because the prototype YF102A couldn't break mach 1. you missed F103; this was assigned to a Republic interceptor project that never made it past mockup. it was ridiculed by some, but there are a few who say that the designer was ahead of his time, trying to build something that no one was yet ready for. *F105: Thunderchief, Republic. BIG bird, used more commonly in Vietnam * for precision bomb strikes, although I have seen film of * big groups of them (15+) dropping iron in a fairly * indiscriminate pattern. there were two fighter wings flying out of Thailand; the 355th was mostly doing low level roll-in-and dive tactics, and the 388th was mostly doing straight-and-level bombing runs from mid-to-high altitude. Jack Broughton claims that the 355th was much more effective, but he was vice commander of the 355th, and therefore somewhat biased. remember that the F105, as built, had an internal bomb bay intended to take a tac nuke. its role evolved as a result the political pressures of the time. *F106: Delta Dart? Again, I think Convair/General Dynamics. yes. * Marvelous * upgrade of the F102. Used as a strategic interceptor and * could fire nasty missiles with nuke head like the Genie, * which could seriously nuke whole GROUPS of enemy bombers. ummm, the genie was a serious abortion. Broughton slams it pretty hard in _Going Downtown_; it was not a missile but an unguided rocket, whose engines fired when the tether back to the interceptor yanked the firing pin out. it flew whichever way it was pointed when the pin came out, and came close to hitting the launching aircraft on more than one occasion. not a pretty picture. when the Genies reached their `expiration date', they were replaced with much more conventional munitions, with good reason. *F107: I keep thinking that this was a Northrop creation called a * Cobra. Never sold to anybody, that I know of. Wierdest * looking thing..... north american. picture a F 100 with a pointed nose, and an intake above and behind the pilot. 3 built. was placed in a rather bizarre flyoff against the contemporary F105 for reasons having to do, apparently, with internal DOD/USAF politics rather than practical, technical matters. *F111: Now that's funny...I can't remember the name of this thing to save * my life OR who built it. Convair/General Dynamics, the Aardvark * Now known as the FB111 and used * as a "fighter/bomber" (ask the Libyans....). actually, the FB111 was a contemporary designation for the Bomber version. richard -- richard welty 518-387-6346, GE R&D, K1-5C39, Niskayuna, New York welty@lewis.crd.ge.com ...!crdgw1!lewis.crd.ge.com!welty ``Don't close your eyes for the crash; you'll miss the best part'' -- Bruce MacInnes, Skip Barber Driving School instructor