Classic warbirds and other aviation vids.

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Tonnerre de feu …. In French .. Helico based on SA342 Gazelle
Airwolfs body panels, that made her Airwolf, made her more aerodynamic and actually improved performance slightly. Blue Thunders pilot said she was very nose heavy and a handful to fly.

 

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There's a reason why the Lockheed Martin F-35B is nicknamed 'The Blowtorch'.

 

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Sometimes, you have to take the 'Low Flying Aircraft' sign seriously.

 

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Unofficially the fastest helicopter in the world today.
The Eurocopter X³ (X-Cubed) is a retired experimental high-speed compound helicopter developed by Airbus Helicopters (formerly Eurocopter). A technology demonstration platform for "high-speed, long-range hybrid helicopter" or H³ concept,[1] the X³ achieved 255 knots (472 km/h; 293 mph) in level flight on 7 June 2013, setting an unofficial helicopter speed record.[2][3] In June 2014, it was placed in a French air museum in the village of Saint-? .

 

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Stealth & Speed : F-22 Raptor

 

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A-10C Thunderbolt II at Gun range

 

[1st Vette]

View attachment 137043

$$$$$$$$$ . Cool . This thread slipped my mind. Among other things , lol.

 

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The "Hell’s Angels" Crew: Members of the 358th BS, 303rd BG, pictured with their Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress in 1944.

 

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Grumman F7F-3N Tigercat of VMF(N)-513 at Wonsan, Korea, 1950, finished in a dead-flat black scheme for night fighting. No shouting for attention, no gloss, no nonsense… just light-absorbing paint to keep reflections down during radar-guided interceptions and low-level night work.

It suited the Tigercat perfectly. Big, fast, over-armed, and slightly brutal, the aircraft didn’t need flair. In the freezing Korean winter, flying off rough bases, this was function over form taken to its logical end.

 

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A B-24 Liberator crash-lands in the Netherlands on 18 September 1944 after being hit by heavy anti-aircraft fire near Eindhoven during resupply flights to Allied airborne forces. The aircraft was part of the desperate aerial effort to support the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions during Operation Market Garden, flying low and slow over defended territory to drop supplies to troops fighting to hold the corridor north from the Belgian border.

Badly damaged by flak, the Liberator’s right wing was torn apart, leaving the aircraft barely controllable. Realising it would not make it back to base, the commander, James K. Hunter, chose to bring the bomber down in a controlled belly landing in an open field rather than risk the aircraft breaking up in the air. The landing destroyed the airframe and killed almost the entire crew.

Only one man survived… tail gunner Frank DiPalma. Pulled alive from the wreckage, he was rescued by Franciscan monks who risked execution to hide him from German forces. DiPalma was sheltered in the village of Huize Assisi, remaining concealed for weeks until British troops liberated the area.

The wrecked Liberator became one of many scattered across the Dutch countryside in September 1944, a stark reminder of the cost paid by aircrews flying unarmed, predictable routes in daylight to keep the airborne divisions alive on the ground.

 

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An SBD-4 Dauntless photographed in flight on 6 March 1943 represents a period when the type was firmly established as the United States Navy’s principal carrier-based dive bomber.

The aircraft was a variant of the Douglas SBD Dauntless, which had already proved decisive in 1942 during actions such as the Battle of Midway. By early 1943 it was serving widely in the Pacific theatre, supporting operations in the Solomon Islands and New Guinea.

The SBD-4 introduced a 24-volt electrical system and other refinements over earlier models. It retained the distinctive perforated dive brakes on the trailing edges of the wings, allowing steep and controlled attack angles. A single large bomb was typically carried beneath the fuselage, with smaller bombs under the wings.

Although slower than some contemporary fighters, the Dauntless was robust and accurate in the dive-bombing role. Crewed by a pilot and rear gunner, it combined offensive striking power with defensive armament in the form of forward-firing and flexible machine guns.

By March 1943 the tide in the Pacific had begun to turn in favour of Allied forces, and aircraft such as the SBD-4 played a steady role in supporting that advance.

 

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A Handley Page Hampden from No. 83 Squadron, with its crew perched on a bomb trolley at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, October 1940.

The aircraft did what it was designed to do, but crews often grumbled about long hours in the air, as the Hampden wasn’t the most comfortable place to spend a mission.