Phound a Phantom (and other things with wings)!

So a brief visit into the Yankee Air Museum at Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti, MI, brought me into contact with this:

F-4 Phantom II, McDonnell-Douglas's finest creation--and proof that even a brick will fly if you give it big enough engines.

Hey Juvat, this button you told me about--it don't do anything. (I made sure to stand well off to the side when checking it out though.)

Yo, Old AF Sarge...Any of this look familiar?

I wonder why they would paint something like this on the aircraft?

This was in there, too.

Be still, my heart. It's a Cessna O-2A.

This humble warbird may not have had the power and punch of a Phantom or a Thud, but then again, it was the brains of airstrike, telling the fast-moving heavies where to put the bombs and rockets.

Two engines, centerline thrust. And three hundred pounds of radios allowing a very busy pilot to talk to units on the ground, fighter-bombers in the air and ATC and command back at base, all while trying to spot targets and dodge ground fire while flying low and slow right over the enemy.

Twice now I have seriously contemplated buying one. And someday perhaps...

They have a heckiflopter, too.

Bell UH-1D "Iroquois", better known as "Huey".
(Look familiar, Old NFO? I seem to recall a few of your stories revolving around these.)

They just got this one in:

A-4C Skyhawk! Cute little sucker, ain't it? Introduced in the mid-1950's, it could carry more bombs that a World War 2 B-17 and deliver them more accurately. It was also the smallest aircraft that could deliver a nuclear weapon at that time.

They did it up as Paul Galanti's bird. That's an honor well-deserved. (Hey Sarge, you might want to consider this warrior for your blog Honor Wall too.)

More later. Stay tuned.

I've got to stop going places where these things are.

Because now I want one again--a Cessna O-2A.

A cooler-than-cool Forward Air Control (FAC) aircraft from the Vietnam War, these old veteran can be found here and there today at reasonable prices and they've been tempting me hard for years.

Usually though, there's someone with common sense (*Koff!* Old NFO, Brigid *Koff!*) to thrw some ice water on my ambitions and talk me off the ledge before I jump. But this time, I met the Guru of the O-2, The A&P Yoda himself who resurrected most of the flying O-2s today from the Boneyard, and he not only talked me back up, but offered to inspect any aircraft that I find and do it's annuals at his hangar in Michigan. Worse yet, he knows the specific ones that I've been mulling and says that one in particular is a phenomenal deal if it's still for sale.

I didn't need that.

A wonderful twin-engine Cessna, this one would make my usual Michigan flights in under two hours, half the time it takes my current 172. It has two 230hp. engines, retractable anding gear, and constant-speed propellers.

It can haul practically anything, is rated for instrument flight, and most of them have Vietnam time in thei logbooks and residual patched battle damage, making them historic as well as practical.

Yeah, I can fly that. Just need my multi-engine rating..

Aaron's got more on it here.


Want, want, want...HELP!!!

When I win the lottery, Pima Air and Space Museum edition

Hard to believe that it was just a week ago that I was wandering around the Pima Air and Space Museum like a monkey on crack, lusting over all of the wonderful airplanes for virtually the entire day while my gracious aunt and uncle, residents of Phoenix who came with me, did something or other while I was spending much of my time out in the 107-degree heat taking pictures. And as I always do, I put together my shopping list for when I decide to actually buy a lottery ticket and it hits for millions upon millions of dollars.

For starters, I need one of these:

I have always loved and appreciated the Cessna O-2A, or "Oscar Deuce".

In fact, I've been looking at a few semi-seriously for a while, but their operating costs are, while doable, still a bit high. Oh--and a couple of the Usual Suspects keep talking sense into me every time that I find one that I think I like.

Still, to have a warbird...and these are about the last affordable ones left.

But heck, if I hit that lottery, I'll be shopping for one of these before the funds are even available for withdrawal:

Chance-Vought's F4U-4, the classic Corsair.

If I had millions and money was no object, I would fly the wings off of one of these; I'd fly it until it's engine hit TBO, and then I'd have it rebuilt and fly it some more.

Restricted Airspace? Washington DC SFRA? Hell, come on up and do something about it.

Bit of trivia for you: This actually being a pre-World War Two design, most of the control surfaces are still fabric-covered wood.

But sometimes, you just want to bring people with you when you fly fast and low, so for that, a Douglas A-26 Invader is a perfect choice. Pima has two.

First, they have this cherry glass-nosed C-Model inside.

This aircraft was intended to be an attack aircraft (hence the A designation) during World War Two and it's performance actually rivaled that of many contemporary fighter planes. After the war, the Army Air Corps re-formed into the US Air Force and they kept the A-26 around. They changed it's designation to B-26, having scrapped all of the Martin B-26 light bombers after the war, and they flew these as light attack bombers in Korea and into Vietnam. But by the 1960's, they were starting to show their age (the last one having been built in 1944) so several were rebuilt by On-Mark Engineering and given more powerful engines and new propellers along with a spar modification intended to stop the wings from ripping off the aircraft as had happened to a few aging over-stressed B-26s. These rebuilt aircraft, re-purposed for counter-insurgency, made life hell for troops and truck drivers on Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh trail, especially at night. This model was designated the B-26K Counter-Invader, but since we were operating them out of Thailand and Thailand prohibited US bombers from it's bases, the designation was changed back to A-26K and the bomber became an attack aircraft again. Pima has a K model, but it's outside and looking kinda sad right now.

The CIA also flew earlier B and C models in the Bay of Pigs fiasco and several K models in Africa during the Congo crisis.

This one needs a bit of TLC, but I'd be willing to take it on.

But maybe I'd wanna fly a jet for a bit. I'm betting that I could transition into a North American F-86 Sabre without too much trouble. Pima's got several, including this radome-nosed L-model outside.

And as you can see, it's sitting right next to an older conventional-nosed F-86H, which I always thought was the coolest version of the fighter.

They've even got a Canadian-produced Canadair version inside. Pretty cool, eh? "Take off, you hoser!"

Sigh. Enough of that for now. I'll be in my bunk.