Tag Archives: douglas

Cold War & Beyond: F-15A Pole Dancer, or whatever happened to 72-0113?

Image August 19, 2022 Hutchins AAron

Eagles like to nest at the top of trees. 14AUG1986.

Rome Air Development Center-Newport Measurement Facility (New York), aka USAF Super Lab, aka Newport Research Site-Griffiss Institute, aka Griffiss Air Force Base.

A pole dancing F-15 Eagle? Researching the tail number I came across info that says it is an F-15A (72-0113). It is mounted upside down on a pedestal at the Rome Air Development Center’s (aka USAF Super Lab) Newport, New York, test site. A radar warning system pod mounted on the fuselage is being compared to the onboard radar warning system, 06OCT1988.

I’ve read the official 1991 “in-house report” on Super Lab activities and it made no mention of the pole dancing F-15A, it talks about the late 1970s pole dancing F-111, and middle 1980s F-16 (which took place at about the same time as the F-15 testing).

Information that was issued with the publicly released photos incorrectly says this Eagle is a F-15C!

Photo via Rome Air Development Center.

F-15A 72-0113 was one of the first production Eagles. Interestingly it was quickly retired, after only a few years of testing over Edwards Air Force Base in California, to The Bone Yard (Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona) in 1977. Then, in 2005 it was reported as being “preserved on a pole” in Newport, New York!

Photo via ‘USAF Super Lab’.

Supposedly, F-15A tail number 72-0113 was spotted still hanging around the USAF Super Lab, in 2016. Unfortunately, Newport Research Site-Griffiss Institute’s website doesn’t give any information about the F-15.

U.S. Air Force photo, 24SEP1979.

Photographic evidence shows that #72-0113 was delivered to the Rome Air Development Center in September 1979.

An F-15 Eagle pole dances while a YA-10 waits its turn.

The elaborate ‘antenna test site’ use several different height, 3-axis position, towers. The site tests the effects of radar, electronic jamming and the effectiveness of experimental electronic countermeasures.

A July 1986 photo showing 72-0113 on top of the Irish Hill tower. The info that came with the photo incorrectly states that it is in Rhode Island!

Photo via ‘USAF Super Lab’.

The aircraft that have been tower mounted, so far, are the YA-10, AC-130, F-4, F-16, F-15, F-18, F-22, F-35, MH 60 SEAHAWK and sections of the B-1B, EC-135 Snoopy, and others.

Photo via Rome Air Development Center.

They even mounted a HMMWV on a pole.

Cold War & Beyond: F-15 EAGLE NOW 50 YEARS OLD

Technology

Desert Storm: Kuwaiti القوات الجوية الكويتية A-4KU Skyhawk

Video May 9, 2022 Hutchins AAron

Desert Shield 02AUG1990-17JAN1991

U.S. Navy Captain Bob Noziglia with one of the A-4KUs used to rebuild Kuwait’s air force.

In September 1990, U.S. Navy Captain Bob Noziglia was ordered to rebuild the Kuwaiti Air Force, after Iraq’s invasion, using single seat and two seat A-4 Skyhawks.

The location is somewhere in Saudi Arabia, a ‘new’ A-4KU Skyhawk for the Kuwaiti Air Force (to replace those destroyed/captured by Iraq) sits while a crowd of U.S. military personnel has gathered to listen to a speech by U.S. President George H.W. Bush, during Desert Shield. U.S. Navy photo by Journalist Petty Officer Third Class Gerald Johnson, 22NOV1990.

Desert Storm 17JAN1991-28FEB1991

Location somewhere in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 02FEB1991, photographer unknown.

Brazilian news media video report:

Al-Quwwat al-Jawwiya al-Kuwaitiya (Kuwaiti Air Force) A-4KU in preparation for a mission during Operation Desert Storm, 13FEB1991. U.S. Air Force photo by Technical Sergeant David Mcleod.

ITN video report:

Kuwaiti A-4KU Skyhawk. The information with the photo says it is during Desert Storm, however, the date of the photo is 01APR1991, a couple of months after Desert Storm officially ended. U.S. Air Force photo by Sergeant Jeff Wright.

Propaganda video slide show:

More Kuwaiti A-4KU and TA-4KU.

Vehicle I-D: KUWAITI C-17 الكويت

Cold War Battle Damage: USS TRIPOLI LPH-10 DESERT STORM

Cold War Aggressor: EA-7L THE ‘ELECTRIC’ TA-7C CORSAIR-2

TACMO:

U.S. Air Force photo by Josh Plueger.

E-6B MERCURY

Technology

Technology Fail? USAF uses WW2 aircraft to develop modern Drone tech!

Image March 27, 2021 Hutchins AAron

USAF photo.

In reality ‘drone’ technology is not new, it can be traced back to before the Second World War. So it’s not really a surprise to learn that the U.S. Air Force used a WW2 C-47/DC-3 Skytrain/Dakota to test the latest stuff for its MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle.

U.S. Air Force photo by David Dixon.

It is known as the Mini-AgilePod, the Air Force Research Laboratory began aerial testing using a DC-3 (silly-vilian version of the C-47), in Ohio, in 2017.

USAF photo by David Dixon.

USAF photo by David Dixon.

USAF photo.

The AgilePod is an Air Force-trademarked, multi-intelligence reconfigurable pod that enables flight-line operators to customize sensor packages based on specific mission needs.

USAF photo by David Dixon.

It was also tested on the Textron Aviation Defense’s Scorpion Light Attack/ISR jet, at the end of 2017.

USAF photo by David Dixon.

USAF photo by David Dixon.

USAF photo.

This is the larger prototype AgilePod, seen in 2016. In 2018, a report stated that testing for the Mini AgilePod would be done over two years. By the end of 2020, reports indicated that the AgilePod was being used to test electronic systems for other countries. So far there is nothing indicating that it has been accepted for regular use with the U.S. military.

The Airborne Imaging DC-3 used in the AgilePod testing is based out of Mid-Way Regional Airport in Midlothian, Texas. The contractor operates several DC-3s, used in USAF testing of things like sensor pods and new styles of bomb racks. An Airborne Imaging DC-3 is scheduled to make an appearance at the July 2021 Dayton Air show in Ohio.

Hurricane Harvey, 2017: WW2 C-47 used to deliver food aid to Texans

Technology

Vehicle I-D: C-54 Skymaster, an airborne Willy Wonka?

Video March 27, 2021 Hutchins AAron

The C-54 was the militarized version of the DC-4 airliner, developed during the Second World War.

Photo via Tinker Air Force Base History Office.

C-54s at the Douglas factory in Oklahoma, sometime in the 1940s.

Notice, three and four bladed propellers. Photo via Tinker Air Force Base History Office.

U.S. Air Force photo by Melanie Rodgers Cox.

C-54E flying museum on Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, 08JUN2012.

USAF photo by Melanie Rodgers Cox, 08JUN2012.

C-54 Flight Chief Timothy Chopp, poses with children from a local school. The flying museum reminds people of one of the first incidents of the undeclared Cold War; The Berlin Airlift. It was probably the first time military air transports were used in a massive humanitarian relief effort.

Video, C-54 over air show in Michigan, 2014:

USAF photo by Technical Sergeant Chad Thompson, 09SEP2016.

Spirit of Freedom sits on the tarmac at the Great Falls International Airport, Montana, 09SEP2016.

USAF photo by Technical Sergeant Chad Thompson, 09SEP2016.

USAF photo by Staff Sergeant Joe McFadden, 22NOV2016.

The man responsible for the Berlin Airlift’s unofficial ‘Candy Bomber’ operation (which became part of the larger official Operation Vittles food supply mission); retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Gail Halvorsen at the Berlin Airlift Memorial outside Frankfurt International Airport, Germany, 22NOV2016. It started innocently enough, simply handing out candy to German children watching USAF aircraft landing on the Western side (split in half due to political divisions between the victors of the Second World War) of the war ravaged city of Berlin. So many children started showing up for sugar food that Halvorsen started tossing the candy out his C-54 before he landed. Soon, fellow transport pilots began following his lead, and candy donation drives were held in the U.S. to help bomb the children of the West Berlin area with candy.

Official USAF video report:

Ohio Air National Guard photo by Senior Airman Hope Geiger.

Douglas C-54 Skymaster ‘Spirit of Freedom’ museum plane during the Toledo Air Show in Swanton, Ohio, 14JUL2019.

In 2020, the C-54E Spirit of Freedom (44-9144) was hit by a tornado: Spirit of Freedom suffers storm-related damage in South Carolina.

The C-54E Spirit of Freedom was replaced by a rebuilt C-54D (43-17228), which is currently operated by the Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation.

Vehicle I-D: (also used in the Berlin Airlift) C-47 DAKOTA/SKYTRAIN, DOUGLAS COMMERCIAL-3, R4D GOONIES!

Hurricane Harvey, 2017: WW2 C-47 used to deliver food aid to Texans

Technology, U.S.

DC-8: Pandemic Samaritan

Video January 13, 2021 Hutchins AAron

Photo via Samaritan’s Purse.

Samaritan’s Purse DC-8 arrives at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center, Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, 11JAN2021.

Photo by Giancarlo Casem.

The aircraft delivered supplies for a 50+ beds Emergency Field Hospital being constructed at Antelope Valley Hospital in nearby Lancaster.

Video, by Giancarlo Casem, showing off-loading of Samaritan’s Purse DC-8, 11JAN2021:

Samaritan’s Purse photo showing emergency hospital tent construction in Lancaster, California.

Samaritan’s Purse video showing emergency hospital tent construction:

Samaritan’s Purse photo showing hurricane response efforts in Honduras, November 2020.

Samaritan’s Purse photo showing hurricane response efforts in Honduras.

Samaritan’s Purse video, Honduras hurricane response, November 2020:

Samaritan’s Purse is based in North Carolina, is adamantly Christian, and has a history of working alongside the U.S. Department of Defense, at least as far back as 2012.

Pandemic Flights, 2020: RECORD SETTING PANDEMIC AIRBRIDGE CONTINUES

Vehicle I-D: NASA’S DC-8 CLIMATE WARRIOR

Idaho, Technology

Idaho, Kansas, Utah home bases for NASA’s FIREX-AQ!

Video November 8, 2019 Hutchins AAron

08 November 2019 (15:40 UTC-07 Tango 06) 17 Aban 1398/10 Rabi ‘al-Awwal 1441/12 Yi-Hai 4717

NASA-Armstrong DC-8 Airborne Science Laboratory sits on the east ramp of the 124th Fighter Wing, Boise, Idaho, 23JUL2019. Idaho Air National Guard photo by Master Sergeant Joshua C. Allmaras.

NASA’s aged and heavily modified DC-8 airliner is conducting air monitoring missions in relation to the growing wildfire danger in the western U.S.

Idaho National Guard A-10Cs in the foreground, NASA’s DC-8 FIREX-AQ takes off from Gowen Field (Boise Airport), 30JUL2019.

President Donald Trump is portrayed by the ‘main-stream’ news media as being anti-climate, yet since he became President of the United States NASA (National Aeronautics Space Administration) has seemingly increased its studies of the effects of pollution and wildfires (including prescribed burns and agricultural fires) on the atmosphere.

On 23JUL2019, NASA held an explainer day for Idaho news media, and as you can tell not many showed up. Idaho Air National Guard photo by Master Sergeant Joshua C. Allmaras.

The latest study is called FIREX-AQ (Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality), and from 22 July thru 18 August it called Gowen Field, Idaho, its home base.

Loading computers onto a Twin Otter.

FIREX-AQ also uses Twin Otter aircraft from NOAA (National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration), as well as satellites.

NASA’s ER-2 ‘climate-spy-plane’ based in California is also used.

Prepping for Operation Ice Bridge, September 2009. NASA photo by Tom Tschida.

From 19 August to 05 September FIREX-AQ was based on Salina Regional Airport, Kansas.

The final stage of the FIREX-AQ mission will be in Utah. (Update on the Fire and Smoke Model Evaluation Experiment)

Idaho Air National Guard photo by Master Sergeant Joshua C. Allmaras, 23JUL2019.

On 08 August, while flying out-of Idaho NASA Made a Rare Flight Right Through a Thundercloud Formed by a Wildfire.

Looking like chaff/flare dispensers these are actually Airborne-Synthetic Aperture Radar (AirSAR) antenna. NASA photo 26MAR1998.

NASA says their DC-8 flys at 42-thousand feet (12-thousand-801 meters or 12.80 kilometers) for as long as 12 hours, collecting air samples with the many antennae protruding from the fuselage.

FIREX-AQ sensors. Idaho Air National Guard photo by Master Sergeant Joshua C. Allmaras, 23JUL2019.

More sensors, Idaho Air National Guard photo by Master Sergeant Joshua C. Allmaras, 23JUL2019.

NASA DC-8 to Fly Low Over Los Angeles Basin and San Joaquin Valley

What It’s Like to Work in a Flying Smoke Laboratory

Video from 2018, NASA’s DC-8 super-particulate-sniffer in Germany:

NASA ER-2 ‘CLIMATE SPY PLANE’ PROVES CALIFORNIA’S STRICT ANTI-POLLUTION LAWS ARE A JOKE!

RED BANK & SOUTH FIRE HELICOPTER OPS

A-10C SNOWBLIND WALKAROUND IN IDAHO!

In 2016, the NASA DC-8 was in Korea conducting high-altitude monitoring of air quality, from Osan Air Base. U.S. Air Force photo by Technical Sergeant Travis Edwards, 27APR2016.

Video explainer of NASA’s DC-8 mission over Korea:

Kit Bashing

Vehicle I-D: C-47 Dakota/Skytrain, Douglas Commercial-3, R4D Goonies!

Video August 22, 2019 Hutchins AAron

Entex got it right when their model box stated it was “The plane that changed the world.” It’s my top pick for Zombie Plane, after seven decades it just won’t die, still flying today in both private and commercial use, and apparently some countries are still using it for military purposes. It even commands the respect of wartime enemies, who adopted it for their own use.

Production began in 1936 and from then until now the C-47/DC-3/R4D has been used by at least 82 countries.

Fort Benning, Georgia, 16AUG2019:

Berlin Airlift 70th Anniversary, Clay Kaserne, Germany, 09-11JUN2019:

Videos:

May 2019, DC (Douglas Commercial)-3 over Catalina Island, California:

“That’s all brother!”, Air Mobility Command Museum on Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, May 2019:

April , 2019 video report, history of 3rd Combat Cargo Squadron which flew the China-Burma-India Theater during WW2:

“That’s all brother!”, Sumpter Smith ANGB Alabama, April 2019:

November 2018, Homestead Air Reserve Base, Florida:

May 2016, AC-47 Spooky over New Mexico:

February 1964, M2-F1 lifting body tracking behind a Goonie, Edwards AFB, California:

August 1963, NASA R4D-5/C-47H:

1956, NACA R4D, High-Speed Flight Station, Edwards AFB, California:

German Dakotas, 1957 to 1976:

Iran Air ‘DC-3s’ were actually C-47s with passenger interiors:

Iranian CH-47 gives an Iranian C-47 a lift:

Weirdos:

Video report, North Dakota Air National Guard’s first disaster relief mission (Operation Haylift), during the winter of 1949:

Video report; C-47 Operation Market Garden:

Jungle Skippers’ “Cleo C”, Dyess Air Force Base, Texas:

Flak damage to a Jungle Skippers C-47, Corregidor Island, Philippines, World War Two (1943?):

2018 video explainer of the inception of the 349th Troop Carrier Group in 1943:

HARVEY: C-A-F DELIVERS AID WITH WORLD WAR 2 AIRCRAFT (Unfortunately this restored C-47 crashed and burned not even a year after taking part in Hurricane Harvey relief ops)

Popular Mechanics explains “Why the DC-3 Is Such a Badass Plane”

To make an Iran Air ‘DC-3’ use the C-47 fuselage with the DC-3 interior. Iranian airliners were converted C-47s and retained the cargo doors.

Believe it or not, ESCI and Italeri kits are not the same.

The Italeri kit is larger and its fuselage has an oval or egg shape to the cross section. The ESCI kit looks like a down-scaled version of the 1:48 Monogram kit, with recessed panel lines instead of raised surface details. The now out of production ESCI kit is the better kit.

Incomplete model kit supply list:

Decals; facebook.com/pointerdog7/

VEHICLE I-D: ZOMBIE TANK T-55, THEY’RE EVERYWHERE!

VEHICLE I-D: NORMANDY PAINTED C-130 HERCULES

D-DAY F-15E STRIKE EAGLE

VEHICLE I-D: M4 SHERMAN (including my grandfather’s Sherman)

1:72 F-100 SUPER SABER KIT KLASH, OR MORE REASONS WHY YOU CAN’T TRUST SCALE DRAWINGS

U.S.

Harvey: C-A-F delivers aid with World War 2 aircraft

Video September 5, 2017 Hutchins AAron

t was once called the Confederate Air Force (formerly Confederate Air Corps), but for politically correct reasons the name was changed to Commemorative Air Force (CAF) in 2002.

U.S. Army Reserve photo by Captain Loyal Auterson, 02SEP2017.

CAF’s mission is normally to restore old combat planes, but on 02SEP2017 they used one of their restored birds to deliver food aid to victims of Hurricane Harvey.

U.S. Army Reserve photo by Captain Loyal Auterson, 02SEP2017.

The U.S. Army Reserve’s Echo Company, 7th Battalion (General Support Aviation Battalion) 158th Aviation Regiment joined with the Commemorative Air Force in loading up an old C-47 cargo plane to bring supplies to people in the Orange area of Texas.

https://www.facebook.com/CommemorativeAF/videos/10155594289787510/?t=36

U.S. Army Reserve photo by Captain Loyal Auterson, 02SEP2017.

‘Bluebonnet Belle’ delivered 3-thousand-8-hundred pounds of supplies to the residents in the area of Orange, Texas.

U.S. Army Reserve photo by Captain Loyal Auterson, 02SEP2017.

The CAF C-47 is operated by the Highland Lakes chapter, based in Burnet, Texas.

Update: On 21JUL2018, the ‘Bluebonnet Belle’ crashed and burned while taking off from its home port of Burnet, Texas. News reports said nobody was hurt.