Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!cbnews!military
From: geoffm@EBay.Sun.COM (Geoff Miller)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: US Fighter Designations
Message-ID: <1990Aug5.042553.28554@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 5 Aug 90 04:25:53 GMT
References: <1990Jul31.223607.6367@cbnews.att.com>
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Followup-To: sci.military
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mt. View, Ca.
Lines: 52
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: geoffm@EBay.Sun.COM (Geoff Miller)


In article <1990Jul31.223607.6367@cbnews.att.com> As I mentioned next week in my talk on reversible time... writes:

>P39: Airacobra, Bell Aircraft.  Sold lots to the Soviet Union during
>        WWII.  Unique design, never horridly impressive.
>
>***     Heh, heh. This was an interesting one. Had it's engine in the middle if
>***     the plane and a long propellor shaft through the cockpit. Was turbo-?
>***     at first until the government got a hold of it, i think. The gov't was
>***     also responsible for moving the engine back behind the pilot. not good
>***     if something blows. 

Why not?  I'd think that would be an advantage, since no oil, smoke, etc.
would be blown over the windshield and canopy.

-----

>P40: Warhawk, Kittyhawk, Tomahawk; Curtiss, methinks. 

>***     Yep. Two P-40's got off the ground from a field (Which one? it is the
>***     field a few miles away from Pearl. Begins with a W...) and shot down

You're thinking of Wheeler Field, outside the town of Wahiawa.  There were
lots of P-40s lined up in neat rows when the Japanese attacked, but I believe 
that the two planes that managed to get airborne were from Dillingham, an
outlying airfield near Haleiwa on the North Shore.  

-----

>F102: Delta Dagger? (I get this and the F106 backwards sometimes) and
>        I think Convair made this one.  Delta wing.

>***     Yep. You got it straight. NASA is currently using one to study
>***     lightning. They fly it into a storm and dare lightning to strike. It's
>***     got marks all over it from strikes. They test avionics this way, but
>***     have insulated backups in case of a failure.

NASA is using an F-106 (a two-seat B model) for the lightning studies, not a 
102.  I don't believe that there are any airworthy F-102s left. :-(


Geoff


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Geoff Miller                    + + + + + + + +        Sun Microsystems
geoffm@purplehaze.sun.com       + + + + + + + +       Milpitas, California
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