I have time in that airplane, flying with a famous Navy instructor named Gallagher... "the Spinmeister".
I got a bunch of landings. What a hoot! The Navy had it restored back around 2010, and I flew it right after that.
It is beautiful.
-
Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?
Go here:
Edit Account Details and Profile
Little known / experimental aircraft
- Thread starter Randy Daytona
- Start date
I got a bunch of landings. What a hoot! The Navy had it restored back around 2010, and I flew it right after that.
It is beautiful.
I also flew it while I was a student at USNTPS. Oct 31, 2014. They really should have a pilot signature book, I bet there are a lot of well-known names who have also flown it.
The F-16XL seems like an intriguing design. Wikipedia says it was able to achieve super cruise capability. Would like to hear what some of the fast movers here think of the machine.
NASA F-16XL #2 conducting laminar flowresearch
An air-to-air left underside view of an F-16XL aircraft. The aircraft is armed with two wingtip-mounted AIM-9 Sidewinder and four fuselage-mounted AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles along with 12 Mark 82 500-pound bombs.
F-16XL and a conventional F-16
NASA F-16XL #2 conducting laminar flowresearch
An air-to-air left underside view of an F-16XL aircraft. The aircraft is armed with two wingtip-mounted AIM-9 Sidewinder and four fuselage-mounted AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles along with 12 Mark 82 500-pound bombs.
F-16XL and a conventional F-16
While not WWII vintage a few piston powered aircraft had long service careers. The French flew the A-1 until the 70's and they then donated them to a few of their African allies to include Chad, which apparently kept them 'in service' until 1987. The Navy didn't retire its last EC-121's until 1982, the last ones flew with VAQ-33. We also flew C-1 Traders until 1988, 32 years after it first started service.
The F-4 Corsair stayed on duty from 1941 until 1969…not too bad.
I spoke with a guy once who used it to fly into thunderstorms, in pursuit of science. He said it was bulletproof. Literally. Googling...of course it is on the internet.
The aircraft was a 1949, T-28 Trojan highly modified to withstand hail up to 3 inches in diameter, severe turbulence, icing, and lightning. It had armor plating on the leading edge of the wings and tail and had a bullet proof, lexan and metal reinforced canopy.
T-28 Storm Penetrating Aircraft
Posts about T-28 Storm Penetrating Aircraft written by ZTResearch
ztresearch.blog
It was an autogyro?
Sort of. It required a tug to get it airborne and then basically did an auto to the ground.
An auto auto?
I see what you did there…clever.
I have to admit I am relieved I didn’t write that “it required a tug to get it up…” That would be an altogether different kind of flying.
@Jim123…meme?
Had to read this a couple of times for it to make sense to me. It was the F4U Corsair, the F-4 Phantom, and the A-7 Corsair II. But yes, the F4U was a viable asset for a long time.
The jury also would have accepted AU-1 Corsair. They served long enough to end their careers painted in the gull grey and white scheme.