My fav...the F-105

I saw this one at the Eglin Armaments Museum, too--a Republic F-105D "Thunderchief", aka, the "Thud".

She's one of the few aircraft that is indoors, and she takes up much of the gallery all by herself and the surrounding display of weapons that she could carry.

I've always loved this plane and it's storied history of high-speed, low-level bombing and Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) suppression in Vietnam. It was a huge but lightning-fast single-engined monster that was originally designed to deliver nuclear weapons on one-way trips into the Soviet Union.

Many of you readers knew or read the books and blog of Ed Rasimus, who flew these in Vietnam. I couldn't help but think of him as I looked at and touched this aircraft. I remembered talking with him about efforts by F-105 pilots and the Collins Foundation to put one of these back in the air as a flying exhibit just like Collins has done with the F-4 Phantom and others. But the Air Force owns all of the F-105 airframes and refused to allow it, and when the proponents started lobbying Congress for it, the Air Force, in a fit of spite, ordered every single existing J-75 engine left destroyed by the driving of spikes through the compression chambers.

Sure enough, just a short time later, when I was talking to the museum staffer who maintains the aircraft, he told me that this one had a complete J-75 when it came in, and that a few years ago, he was ordered by the Air Force to spike it's engine. And he did. Until that moment though, he said, this one was essentially complete and in flying condition.

That ain't right.

Because fighters have guns, dammit.

It was said that the Thud validated the theory that if the Air Force built the world's longest runway tomorrow, Republic would immediately design a fighter that needed every foot of that runway to get off the ground. And the Thud needed a lot of room, and a water-injection system to boost thrust enough to get her and her full compliment of weapons in the air, but once aloft...look out, enemies of America.

I regret never having seen one of these fly. And no one else who hasn't already seen it ever will, either.

A day surrounded by things with wings.

This week-end, I was blessed to have a good friend, Tom, and his young son Damien come to visit. And on Sunday, we went to the Smithsonian Air and Space Annex at Dulles to see some vintage military veterans.

Old NFO was waiting for us when we got there.

What? What did I say?

Anyway, the four of us spent a few nice hours walking among the warbird collection.
Here's the SR-71 that greets you when you come in.

Off to the right of the observation platform is this Chance-Vought F4U-1D Corsair.

Here's another shot, because who doesn't love Corsairs? (Old Japanese pilots excepted.)
I need this Corsair.

Ryan PT-22 trainer.

Northrop P-61C "Black Widow" night-fighter.

Republic F-105D that could not be more awesome if you...covered it with awesome sauce, I guess.

It's awesome.

The North American F-100 Super Sabre was America's first truly supersonic jet fighter.

Next to the Super Sabre sits a Curtiss Helldiver.

And just down the way sits a Grumman F-14 Tomcat.

Admit it...you're humming the song from Top Gun now...or at least thinking it.

North American's F-86 never stopped being cool.

This Cessna O-1A "Bird Dog" did just about everything that a light plane could do in the skies over both Korea and Vietnam.

And this Hawker Hurricane once kicked German ass in the skies over Britain.

Old NFO told us about how he used to fly on these Sikorsky H-34s.

He also had some great stories about his time on these Lockeed Super Constellations.

I'm pretty sure that he logged some hours on this Curtiss JN-4D "Jenny", too (snicker).

And what visit to this museum would be complete without a minute to reflect on one of the two Boeing B-29s that ended the Second World War seventy years ago?

A great day with great people surrounded by great planes. Who could ask for more?

Udvar-Hazy, The Jets

Well we did find one aircraft there that I really don't care to fly--the ME-163 Komet.

Basically a rocket with wings, it took off, climbed almost vertically and raced around until it's fuel was gone--about fifteen minutes--and then it glided back to land in it's skid, having jettisoned the wheels on take-off.

It was supposed to be one hell of a ride, but the Komets had a disturbing tendency to explode on landing if any of it's fuel was left in the tanks. Thanks, but I'll pass on this one.

Then we spotted this MiG-21, and Old AFSarge starts in: "Oh, there's one of the big-tailed MiGs...I think that one was made in 1963...on a Thursday...after lunch." Did I mention that he knows his airplanes?

And then there's this way-cool F-4 Phantom, one of McDonnell-Douglas' finest creations. Do you think that this one didn't evoke a few stories from Sarge?

Rear view of the Phantom. Maybe he'll post the story he told me about those dive brakes on his site.

Old adversaries, now neighbors. Russian-designed Mig-15 (left) and North American F-86 Sabre (right). Many of these birds used to tangle over the Yalu River between Korea and China.

This F-86A actually saw combat in the skies over Korea. Chuck Yeager once said that it was the sweetest-handling jet he ever flew. I only regret that I'll have to take his word for it unless I hit the lottery and suddenly find myself able to afford one. But if I ever do hit that lottery...

The MiG, Actually a Chinese-built F-2. Hey, thanks Britain for selling the Russians those Rolls-Royce jet engines after World War Two. They couldn't have had this plane without that technology.

Grumman A-6E Intruder, the first true all-weather attack plane. Navy Intruders flying off of carriers caused much pain for the Vietnamese communists...and at least one mediocre movie.

This Vought F-8 Crusader logged 400 combat hours in SE Asia and 7,475.2 total flying hours, the most of any Crusader. The F-8 was the first fighter to break 1,000mph in level flight. This one is shown with it's emergency generator deployed out the right side. Ideally, this generator would provide enough power to get the plane home if it's main electrical system went out.

OK, crank up the Top Gun music. This Grumman F-14D actually killed a real MiG over Libya in 1989.

The museum's North American F-100 Super Sabre looks airworthy and combat-ready to me....and it's awfully close to the door.

And then we have my favorite jet--the Republic F-105D Thunderchief, or "Thud", as it was renamed nby it's crews.

This single-seat D model flew missions in SE Asia out of Tahkli before it finished it's flying with the District of Columbia Air Guard.

This aircraft was originally designed to deliver tactical nuclear weapons to targets in Europe. It found it's fame as a low-level conventional attack bomber in Vietnam, however. This aircraft and it's crews brought the fight right to Hanoi and ultimately brought the Vietnamese to the bargaining table to end the war, but it did so at a cost: 350 were lost there out of 610 built.

Want some good books on the Thud? Try When Thunder Rolled by Ed Rasimus, Going Downtown by Jack Broughton, and Tahkli Tales by Billy Sparks. All three of these air warriors flew the Thud over North Vietnam and wrote about their experiences, and sadly, all three have since "Gone West".

An old fat guy contemplates the Thud, wondering what it would be like to actually fly it and sighing because he knows that he'll never get the chance to find out--the world will never see (or hear) another F-105 take flight.

Cool shirt at least, eh?

More Boneyard, because who can get enough of the place?

Looking around the Boneyard, you might feel like you're in a trendy store in a shopping mall...Old Navy, for example.

They got A-6 Intruders there.

And A-7s. Lots of A-7s.

Here's an old E-2 Hawkeye early warning bird. You have to wonder how much time this bird spent aloft, keeping an eye out for it's carrier and her battle group.

Here's another, this one looking ready to be unwrapped and redeployed.

They got rows of these.

An old Douglas A3 Skywarrior caught my eye off in the distance. Designed by the legendary Ed Heinemann, this was the largest nuclear bomber ever to fly off of a carrier, but by the time she was deployed, the Navy had re-purposed it to be a tanker and a reconnaissance aircraft.

See how it's tail folds down for carrier storage? These large aircraft served the US carrier fleet from the mid-1950s until 1991, making them one of the longest-serving carrier aircraft in fleet history.

Here's an S-2 Tracker that looks like it'd clean up well.

And this looks like a C-2 Cod variant--Carrier On-board Delivery, for the non-Navy folks reading this.

And they've even got some Marine Corps Harrier jets here.

Oh-and since we're talking about things that fly unnaturally, did I mention that they have heckiflopters here?

The rotors get removed and stored separately for space reasons and due to high winds that come through here at times.

They still supposedly have a bunch of C-141 Starlifters here, but as they're all being chopped up, we didn't get to go over there. Same for the B-52s. We saw the occasional B-52 aside from the one on display on "celebrity row", a sort of petting zoo where they keep one of each type that that have in storage, but most are kept off in their own area where we didn't get to go. Even bribes offered to the bus driver didn't get it done.

There were a few, though.

And they've got Northrop T-38 trainers here, too.

Then there were the curiosities--the "one-off" special planes or the old ones that make you wonder just what else you're not seeing.

Here's a YC-14, Boeing's attempt to make a jet-powered STOL aircraft comparabe in size and performance to the C-130.

Only two were ever built before the idea was scrapped. This one is now here, and the other is across the street at the Pima Air and Space Museum.

Here's a Fairchild T-46, a trainer that was intended to replace the again T-37.

Only three were built before the Air Force canceled the project. This one is here, and the other two are at Wright Patterson and the Air Force Flight Test Center Museum at Edwards AFB.

There's this old Martin Canberra bomber back in storage, still here after all these years.

And does anyone want to take a guess as to what this airframe behind the T-38 is?

I saw at least one QF-106 back behind the rows too, but I couldn't get a decent shot of it. And this beautiful F-105G apparently just came out of spraylat for some reason.

I'm thinking that Ed, were he still here, would approve.

They also have two different F-4 Phantoms painted up as Vietnam Ace Steve Ritchie's plane. What's up with that?

The Boneyard tour was a fantastic experience all by itself, but they could make it a lot cooler by just giving us all ATVs and some bottled water and turning us loose to explore.

Think about it, Air Force...I'll even promise in writing not to steal an airplane...O-2As and T-34s excepted, of course.