The Ultimate Military Combat Aircraft & All Others Thread (All Topics).

[GoMig-21]

YF-16 1973.

51 years later F-16 2024.

 

[GoMig-21]

One of many pilots' favorite attack aircraft, USAF Douglas A-1H Skyraider from Vietnam circa 1969-70. Always has those signature soot marks from the cowling during engine fire up.

A1-G Skyraider also from Vietnam era 1966 with heavier nasty soot marks.

 

[GoMig-21]

Way ahead of its time. This thing was 6th gen plus design back before 5th gens.
Unique view.

 

[GoMig-21]

The first live airborne test of a rocket seat was made on March 13, 1962. And the rockets replaced cartridges for a progressive acceleration. Brave guy to test this! Gloster Meteor Mk7 Martin Baker test aircraft.

 

[Foinikas]

The rotors on that behemoth.

View attachment 44531

"Ok bro,restart it now. Let's see..."

 

[Foinikas]

I found it @Foinikas.

But that wasn't supposed to happen,the pipe even getting close to the rotor blades,I mean from a design point of view.

 

[GoMig-21]

"Tsar Bomba"
Launched from a Tupolev Tu-95V

This archive film shows the testing of the most powerful bomb ever built, and detonated, in human history.

Known as the “Tsar Bomba,” it was tested on the 30th Oct, 1961, at the Sukhoi Nose nuclear test site on the island of Novaya Zemlya Russia.

The power of the explosion exceeded 58 megatons, and the height of the explosion exceeded 67 km. The flash was visible at a distance of more than 1000 km; in the village of Dikson, 780 km from the epicenter of the explosion, glass in the windows of houses was broken, and the blast wave circled the globe three times.

Today, Russia possesses the largest and most advanced nuclear arsenal on planet Earth. It also possesses the most advanced delivery systems in existence.

The idea that Western politicians would consider, even the remote possibility of pushing for escalation against Russia that could, however unlikely end in the use of these weapons, is absolutely terrifying.

 

[GoMig-21]

"Tsar Bomba"
Launched from a Tupolev Tu-95V

And to think that the original multi-staged design was to yield a 100-megaton bomb, there was actually a lot of fear & concern from the Soviet scientists that it would cause a cataclysmic geological effect that would alter the earth's makeup as we know it. Imagine that thought alone and in of itself! How frighteningly destructive it actually could be that if would actually affect the planet itself from a geological perspective. This possibility goes beyond Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD).

And as a result of that fear which had been gathered from all the data acquired from previous tests, they lowered the megaton yield to almost half at 58 megatons. They figured that was the safe threshold to not cross and prevent a cataclysmic change in the earth's geological makeup. How frightening is that?

To think the result, we see in that clip and the description was only half of the potential that could've been, or if they hadn't changed the megaton yield, they originally wanted to, what what've or could've happened?

 

[GoMig-21]

The crazy difference in size between the
C-17 Globemaster and massive C-5 Galaxy.

 

[The SC]

Guess who..

 

[The SC]

 

[The SC]

 

[GoMig-21]

The twin P-51 Mustang was actually a thing that was successful, as an operational aircraft but obviously went nowhere.

 

[GoMig-21]

@MastanKhan , remember we were talking about this on the old PDF? The necessity of flexibility in some aircraft's wings and the extent of it.

In this graph of the B-52's wing flexing range, at a span of 185ft (56.3m) it can be as much as 26 feet, or just under 8 meters!

 

[GoMig-21]

According to combat aircraft encyclopedia, the failure of the General Dynamics F-111B to meet U.S. Navy requirements for an advanced carrier-based air-superiority fighter led to a new design contest, which was won by Grumman with its variable-geometry, two-seat, twin-engine aircraft. Designated the F-14 and named Tomcat, first flight occurred in December 1970.

However, for the development of the F-14 to be successful, it had to deal with considerable challenges was granted, mostly clauses set by the US government and the Pentagon. Those challenges conditions it had to meet or it would be fined, amongst other things, with the following parameters:

- $440,000 for every 100lbs that new aircraft was overweight

- $1.056 million for each knot over requested approach speed

- and $5,000 for every day it was late in delivering the first prototype.

@AmirIGM did you know this?
Also, IIRC, it was the first fighter designated in the teens.