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From: fiddler@concertina.Eng.Sun.COM (Steve Hix)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: US Fighter Designations
Message-ID: <1990Aug7.040929.7074@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 7 Aug 90 04:09:29 GMT
References: <1990Jul31.223607.6367@cbnews.att.com>
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
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From: fiddler@concertina.Eng.Sun.COM (Steve Hix)

> From: "As I mentioned next week in my talk on reversible time..."
> From: wb9omc@ea.ecn.purdue.edu (Duane P Mantick)
> 
> P61: Black Widow, Northrop.
> 
> ***     Know why it was called the Black Widow? it was so hard to fly. I think
> ***     it was an attempt at a night fighter.

It was black.  It was deadly.  It ate the guys who tangled with it.

> 	[mod.note:  I've heard that the maneuverability of this aircraft
> 	was phenomenal, comparable to (for the time) modern single-engine
> 	fighters.  Can anyone confirm or deny this ? - Bill ]

The P-61 was one of the first aircraft to use spoilers for roll control.
It roll rate was higher than that of a P-51.  It was very fast on the level,
too.  In a dogfight, it probably shouldn't try to out-turn a smaller
fighter, but it would be hard to hit if its pilot knew about an opponent.
(The twin turreted 20mm cannon probably wouldn't have made it a patsy, either.)

[mod.note:  The turret contained 4 guns, not 2, and they were .50 cal MG's,
the four 20mm cannon were in the belly.  The turret was apparently only
fitted on about half of the production aircraft. - Bill ]

> 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.

The NASA lightning-strike test plane is an F-106.  Looks similar.  The
last F-102's in service, I think, are all QF-102 drones.

> F105: Thunderchief, Republic.  BIG bird, used more commonly in Vietnam
> 
> ***     This was supposed to haave been developed as a nuclear strike bomber.
> ***     Was a b**ch to fly, and if I remember, the Thunderbirds had one of
> ***     their worst accidents in this bird due to its unforgiving nature.

Their very high fuel-consumption rate made a good excuse to transition to
some other type of aircraft.  would have been loud, though.

> >The original Mk. I Spitfire had a two blade, fixed propeller. All war variants
> >had 3 blade propellers with variable pitch. Late model (post-war) Griffon
> >engined Spitfires may have had more blades.
> 
> I've never seen or heard of a Spitfire with more than three blades. If you find
> one, send me a picture. :-)

Lots of them.  From the Mk-22 (and its recce variant) with counter-rotating
props, to various Griffon-powered versions (Mk-XVI?) used for ground-support
work with 5 or so blades.

I used to work for a guy who flew Griffon-powered types with 485 (NZ) Squadron.
They also flew Typhoons later on.  Transitioned to Mustangs just before the
war ended (he liked them).  He's not from NZ, but would like to live there after
retirement.

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  The only drawback with morning is that it comes 
    at such an inconvenient time of day.
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