How about this short vid from Boeing showing a Qatar Emiri Air Force F-15QA Ababil preparing for flight demonstrations at the Dubai Airshow at the hands of one of the company’s test crews. “During practice test flights at Al-Udeid Air Base, the Boeing test pilots consistently experienced 9 g-forces.”

As noted by Boeing:

Inside the cockpit, Boeing Test & Evaluation Experimental Test Pilot Jason “Mongoose” Dotter and BT&E Experimental Weapon System Operator Mike “Houdini” Quintini focus on a demonstration flight to prepare them for the first air show performance of the F-15 in almost 20 years.

The Boeing flight and ground crews prepared, launched, and captured the demo rehearsal flights a total of 19 times at Al Udeid Air Base, starting at a minimum of 2,000 feet (600 meters) and gradually working down to just 500 feet (150 meters).

The USAF’s 104 planned new F-15EXs– which will have a flyaway cost higher than the latest batch of F-35As!– are based on the F-15QA/SA.

As detailed in Aviation International News:

The F-15EX is based closely on the Advanced Eagle that Saudi Arabia (F-15SA) and Qatar (F-15QA) both procured. Those models introduced iterative enhancements, such as General Electric F110-GE-129 engines, ALQ-82(V)1 AESA radar, 10- by 19-inch large-area display in the cockpit, and the ability to carry up to 12 air-to-air missiles or 15 tonnes of ordnance.

A digital fly-by-wire flight control system alleviates the previous need to avoid asymmetric loads and cross-control maneuvers, while restricting normal airframe load to 9Gs and speed to Mach 2.5, although the airframe can exceed both in extreme situations. The aircraft’s power and maneuverability are being exhibited at the Dubai Airshow in the spectacular flying display flown by a Boeing test pilot in a Qatari F-15QA.

Another key element of the F-15EX is the BAE Systems ALQ-250 Eagle Passive Active Warning Survivability System (EPAWSS), which represents a major enhancement in the ability of the system to adapt rapidly to emerging threats. EPAWSS has reached the final stages of development, and an export-optimized version is also being formulated.

It’s hard to believe, but the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle is a Vietnam-era aircraft that first flew over 51 years ago on 27 July 1972, although the first Eagle bound for a combat squadron wasn’t delivered until January 1976.

U.S. Air Force F-15C Eagles assigned to the 44th and 67th Fighter Squadrons await clearance for their last take-off from Kadena Air Base, Japan, on Dec. 1, 2022. As a part of its modernization plan, the 18th Wing is retiring its aging fleet of F-15C/D Eagles that have been in service for more than four decades. (U.S. Air Force photo 221201-F-PW483-0008 by Senior Airman Jessi Roth)

click to big up. You have to admit, the F-15C was, with the possible exception of the F-14, one of the sexiest air superiority fighters of the past 40 years.

However, with the last USAF F-15C/Ds leaving the assembly line in 1985, those classic air superiority fighters are now all pushing 40 years on their airframe with many being even older and the Air Force is moving full speed ahead with retiring the type on active duty.

Keeping those legacy birds flying until the new F-15EXs arrive starting in 2025 requires out-of-the-box solutions.

Tech. Sgt. Nate Brown, a 142nd Maintenance Squadron metals technology craftsman, observes a CNC (Computer Numerical Control) mill as it carves a piece of solid aluminum into a stringer, an essential aircraft part, Nov. 4, 2023, Portland Air National Guard Base, Oregon. U.S. Air National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Sean Campbell

Via Air & Space Forces:

The average age for America’s fleet of F-15C Eagles is about 38 years old, and many of the aircraft’s spare parts are no longer produced or can take days to order from a manufacturer. Luckily, the Oregon Air National Guard’s 142nd Wing has a metals technology shop at Portland Air National Guard Base where Airmen fabricate parts in-house to keep the wing’s elder Eagles flying.

More here.

No matter what you call it: The Double Ugly, Lead Sled, Flying Anvil, Flying Brick, Snoopy, Rhino, Old Smokey, the triumph of thrust over aerodynamics, et. al, the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom is a beautiful aircraft that looks fast even while sitting in a boneyard.

Speaking of which, check out this sweet 1980s Cold War image from the Museum of Missouri Military History showing this “Lindbergh’s Own” F-4E-44-MC Phantom 69-7267, complete with an “SL” St. Louis tail code for Lambert Field and a red Missouri ANG tail flash. This is appropriate as over 5,000 Phantoms were built (for 16 countries) at MDD’s St. Louis factory and another nickname for the bird was the “St. Louis Slugger.”

McDonnell Douglas plant in St Louis, with F4s and F15s running side by side in the late 1970s

A 1969 model, Baugher lists the above aircraft as being used by the Air Force’s 469th TFS (388th TFW)– which flew Fast FAC duty in Southeast Asia at the time– then the 34th TFS (also based at Korat through 1975) and the 35th TFW while on active duty for 27 years then in service with the Missouri ANG’s 110th TFS in 1986– dating the above image.

By 1987, she was with the California ANG’s 196th TFS, then served with the Indiana ANG’s 163rd TFS. Upgraded to F-4G standard in 1990, she then went back to “Big Blue,” serving another six years with the 81st TFS (52nd TFW) and later the 561st TFS (57th FWW) at Nellis AFB. Sent to the boneyard at AMARC as FP1015 in early 1996, she was sent to Tracor to be converted to a QF-4G drone, #AF132, flying out of Holloman AFB from 1997 until she was expended in a missile test on 27 July 2002, capping 33 years of service in one form or another.

As for the 110th TFS, since 2008 they have been the 110th Bomb Squadron (110 BS) at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, and operate the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber.

The Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm’s 809 Naval Air Squadron, “The Immortals,” have been shuttered since 1982, after being stood up to fly Sea Harriers from HMS Invincible during the Falklands.

Before that, they operated the Blackburn Buccaneer from RAF Lossiemouth– as well as from the decks of HMS Ark Royal, HMS Hermes, and HMS Eagle— in the 1960s and 1970s including a famous show of force over Belize in 1972 to deter Guatemalan threats.

British Buccaneer XT283 of 809 Squadron arrives aboard HMS Ark Royal. Museum of Science, by Michael Turner, 1972

Going even further back, they operated Sea Venoms aboard HMS Albion in 1956 during the Suez Crisis while in WWII they flew Fairey Fulmars from the Med to North Russia and Seafires covering the Torch, Avalanche, Dragoon, Dracula, and Zipper landings from Casablanca to Malaya.

This week, 809 NAS became the first Royal Navy squadron to stand up to operate the F-35 Lightning.

The recommissioning sees the number of UK squadrons operating the Lightning expand to four, two front-line– the Dambusters of 617 Sqn plus 809 NAS– along with 207 Sqn (Operational Conversion Unit) and 17 Test and Evaluation Sqn.

As noted by the RN:

Of the more than 100 historic Fleet Air Arm units whose numbers are currently dormant, 809 was selected more than a decade ago as a F-35 Lightning formation, largely due to its illustrious history as a strike and attack squadron having received battle honours from operations in the Arctic, Mediterranean, Burma, Suez and South Atlantic over a 41-year period.

The Venerable Andrew Hillier addresses guests and personnel from RAF Marham on parade for the 809 Naval Air Squadron Recommissioning Ceremony. A second frontline F-35B Lightning stealth fighter squadron has been stood up at RAF Marham. 809 Naval Air Squadron, known as the Immortals, has a long and distinguished history and has been recommissioned as the nation’s second front-line fighter unit operating the F-35B Lightning stealth fighter. At the parade at RAF Marham, Norfolk, Commander Nick Smith formally received the Squadron Crest from his predecessor, Cdr (Ret’d) Tim Gedge, close to 41 years to the day since 809 NAS decommissioned as a Sea Harrier squadron.

While British industry will build 15 percent by value of each of the more than 3,000 planned F-35s, by 1 May 2023, the UK had only received 31 of the planned 48 F35-Bs from its Tranche 1 initial order. A subsequent Tranche 2 order will bring an additional 27 aircraft, totaling 74, down from the originally planned 138. The RAF owns all of these STOVL birds and lets the RN operate some.

Redtails receive F-35s

Meanwhile, the “Red Tails” of the 100th Fighter Squadron, 187th Fighter Wing, of the Alabama Air National Guard, out of Dannelly Field, Alabama, last week received its first F-35s, becoming only the third ANG unit slated to transition to fifth generation fighter.

An F-35 Lightning II parked on the flight line at Dannelly Field, on December 6, 2023. The 187th Fighter Wing received their first aircraft from Luke AFB, Ariz., and will begin transitioning to their new mission. Photo by 1st Lt. Michael Luangkhot

Of course, the 100th FS, dating back to December 1941, is one of the famed Tuskegee Airmen squadrons of WWII.

USAAF armorer of the 100th Fighter Squadron, 332nd Fighter Group, 15th U.S. Air Force checks ammunition belts of the 12.7 mm machine guns in the wings of a North American P-51B Mustang in Italy, ca. September 1944.

Flying P39s then P-40s, P-47s, and finally P-51 Mustangs during the war, the 100th became first a tanker squadron (in 1953) then transitioned to a training squadron in 1999 before chopping to replace the 160th FS in 2007, driving fighters again, this time F-16s.

187th Fighter Wing, the Alabama Air National Guard unit at Dannelly Field ANGB in Montgomery, deployed to Romania in August 2012 to participate in Dacian Viper 2012, a three-week joint exercise with the Romanian Air Force.

They hung up their Vipers earlier this year and will receive 20 F-35s between now and 2026 when they will be fully staffed.

The word is, a paint job is inbound.

Titan I missile emerges from its silo at Vandenberg Operational System Test Facility in 1960.

In June 1960, the first flight of armed and operational silo-based SM-68A/HGM-25A Titan I ICBMs, part of the newly-formed 850th Strategic Missile Squadron at Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota, came online.

This sparked a new breed of Cold Warrior: the Missileer. Otherwise known as missile combat crew (MCC), or missilemen, missileers have stood their underground posts quietly and with honor for the past 73 years and will continue to do so into the future– still with their patented “30 Minutes or Less, or your next one is free” guarantee.

Their watch is remembered in the poem Missileer:

Missileer
Major Robert Wycoff, USAF (Ret.)

In vacant corners of our land,
off rutted gravel trails,
There is a watchful breed of men,
who see that peace prevails.
For them there are no waving flags,
no blare of martial tune,
There is no romance in their job,
no glory at high noon.

In an oft’ repeated ritual,
they casually hang their locks,
Where the wages of man’s love and hate,
are restrained in a small red box.
In a world of flick’ring colored lights,
and endless robot din,
The missile crews will talk awhile,
but soon will turn within.

To a flash of light or other worldly tone,
conditioned acts respond.
Behind each move, unspoken thoughts,
of the bombs that lie beyond.
They live with patient waiting,
with tactics, minds infused,
And the quiet murmur of the heart,
that hopes it’s never used.

They feel the loving throb,
of the mindless tool they run,
They hear the constant whir,
of a world that knows no sun.
Here light is ever present,
no moon’s nocturnal sway.
The clock’s unnatural beat,
belies not night or day.

Behind a concrete door slammed shut,
no starlit skies of night,
No sun-bleached clouds in azure sky,
in which to dance in flight.
But certain as the rising sun,
these tactic warriors seldom see,
They’re ever grimly ready,
for someone has to be.

Beneath it all they’re common men,
who eat and sleep and dream,
But between them is a common bond,
of knowledge they’re a team.
A group of men who love their land,
who serve it long and well,
Who stand their thankless vigil,
on the brink of man-made hell.

In boredom fluxed with stress,
encapsuled they reside,
They do their job without complaint,
of pleasures oft’ denied.
For duty, honor, country,
and a matter of self-pride.

Major Robert Appleby Wyckoff passed in Santa Barbara earlier this month, at age 83. He penned more than 100 poems and the Colgate University English major got into ICBMs in sort of a funny way.

As recalled by his obit:

Bob would consider us remiss if we did not start this writing with some irony and close it with a sense of pride. The trajectory of his life was changed by a typo. As a graduate from Colgate University with a degree in English Literature, and as the cold war was heating up, he chose to enlist in the United States Air Force. He abbreviated his degree as “Eng,” which was misinterpreted as “Engr” by the Air Force, and he was assigned to an engineering position in ballistic missiles. He was dispatched to Malmstrom Air Force Base, MT, to defend our great nation as a combat crew commander, missileer. While at Malstrom, he earned a master’s degree in Systems Management from USC. He continued his missileer career at Randolph AFB, TX, and Vandenberg AFB, CA. To his credit, Bob was smart enough to learn engineering, engaging enough to become a leader, and loving enough to be the quintessential family man until his last breath.

A graphic showing the poem “Missileer,” by Mr. Robert “Bob” Wyckoff, who passed away in early December 2023 at the age of 83, and was best known for his poem, “Missileer,” which serves as an introduction and inspiration for those in the profession of Air Force missile operations. The background is of a launched unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with a test reentry vehicle at 11:01 P.M. Pacific Time Feb. 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif. This test launch is part of routine and periodic activities intended to demonstrate that the United States’ nuclear deterrent is safe, secure, reliable and effective to deter twenty-first century threats and reassure allies (U.S. Air Force Photo by Airman 1st Class Landon Gunsauls) (U.S. Air Force Graphic by Staff Sgt. Shelby Thurman)

Happy first day of winter!

Dig these great 1960 Cold War (see what I did there?) Kodachromes from the LIFE Archive of the SAC Alert strip for the 436th BS (Heavy), 4238th Strategic Wing, at Barksdale AFB in Louisiana. We see blue N3A parka-clad Air Force Air Police ready with their trusty M1 Carbines to keep persons unwanted away from the KC-135 tanker bird behind them.

It looks very Ice Station Zebra. 

Of course, the cigar-chomping Curtis LeMay would switch out the M1 for the new-fangled AR-15 in 1962, the Air Police were redesignated the Security Police in 1966, and the more sedate OD/gray-colored N-3B cold weather parka replaced the bright blue N-3As, so the above aesthetic was long lost by the time intergalactic smuggler turned Rebel scum Han Solo rode a Tauntaun out into the Hoth night against all advice.

It is no understatement to say that the B-17 bomber is one of the most famous airplanes to fly a mission. Today we look at the hardware that lived up to its well-deserved “Flying Fortress” name.

When it first flew in 1935, the original B-17 wasn’t very well equipped with defensive gun armament; after all, its main armament was its massive 5,000-pound bomb load.

The YB-17 prototypes had a single gun up front, two in side nacelles, one for the radio operator, and one below – just five all told, all with limited fields of fire. (National Museum of the Air Force)

Boeing YB-17 nose turret via National Museum of USAF 

Boeing YB-17 flex gun turret via National Museum of USAF

Wartime experience soon changed this, and by the time the B-17G model took to the air, it carried 13 .50-caliber air-cooled machine guns and almost 7,500 rounds of ammunition to keep them firing. While a few of the bomber’s crew were dedicated gunners, everyone save for the pilot and co-pilot had a gun at their disposal and were expected to use it if needed.

B-17G Flying Fortresses Drop Bombs On Berlin, Germany 26 February 1945. [91St Bg] 59348AC 342-FH_000123

For a closer look, head over to my piece at Guns.com that includes a walk around we did out at Pima. 

A 45th Fighter Squadron Curtiss P-40N Tomahawk, “Lackanocki,” is seen refueling from an F-2 type servicing truck pulled by a Cletrac M2 high-speed tractor while at Funafuti Airfield, Nanumea, Gilbert Islands.

63261A.C. NARA Local Identifier 342-FH-3A42939-63261AC

The 45th, formed at Wheeler Field, Hawaii Territory in December 1940, was decimated during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor a year later.

Reformed with newer P-40N “Sand” models, it deployed to the Gilbert Islands in November 1943, operating in turn from Funafuti, Abemama, and Makin Fields in the chain until it was recalled to Hawaii some 80 years ago this month in early March 1944– dating the above image nicely. Of note, the 45th FS during this period claimed the destruction of 11 enemy aircraft on 26 January 1944 near Aur Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

The 45th would remain in Hawaii for almost a year until February 1945, when, reequipped with late-model P-51 Mustangs to perform very-long-range bomber escort missions, it forward deployed to Iwo Jima in March 1945, where it finished the war escorting B-29s over Japan, a task that earned it a Distinguished Unit Citation.

The squadron lived on into the jet age, flying F-86s, F-100s, F-84s, F-4s, A-37s, and A-10s, the latter of which it has been pushing out of Davis–Monthan since 2009.

Of note, the 45th of the above Gilbert Islands period surfaced in the 2017 film, Skull Island, in which a 45th FS pilot, LT Hank Marlow (Will Brittain/John C. Reilly), parachutes in 1944 onto the uncharted island where a giant ape serves as the big banana and survives 29 years until an expedition arrives in 1973.

What a couple of great period Kodachromes that really put you in the head of an 8th Air Force bombardier in 1944.

First, a window view inside the Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress bomber “Times A-Wastin'” (#42-102504) circa 1944-1945: 

Several contrails from other B-17s are visible through the window. Note the empty bombsight stabilizer, missing its top-secret and closely controlled Norden bombsight, which means the bombardier in this case may be acting as a “toggler,” dropping on the lead ship seen out front. Image Credit: The John W. Allen World War II Collection/The Museum of Flight

 Bombardier, LT Paul Chryst, U.S. Army Air Forces, 13099534, in the Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress aircraft “Times A-Wastin’,” November 2, 1944. Other aircraft are visible through the window behind Chryst. Image Credit: The John W. Allen World War II Collection/The Museum of Flight

LTC Paul Chryst (Ret.) wrote on 2 November 2002 in an e-mail posted online. 

“We flew our first mission on 3 August 1944 and the last one on 15 Dec 44. I counted 38 missions total; but the Orderly Room said “only 35 completed”. My Pilot Class was 43K; but the PT-17 Stearman (training plane) washed me out. Went on to Aerial Gunnery School and graduated to become the FIRST class of Cadets to wear Gunner’s wings then on to Bombardier School. We graduated after 12 weeks bombing and another 6 weeks of DR Navigation. My biggest fear while flying was “bail-out” the small hatch next to the Navigator and being killed by hitting the leading edge of the left elevator. If I made it to the ground, my next worry was being killed by some German civilian. At 6′-2″ I weighed 125 lbs. and never would have survived the small rations in POW Camp.”

If you haven’t checked out The Museum of Flight’s Allen collection, you are missing out.

Thomas Patten Stafford was a tall Oklahoman who, born too late for WWII, nonetheless served in the Oklahoma National Guard during high school and college. Starting his undergrad career at the University of Oklahoma on a Navy ROTC scholarship, he applied to Annapolis and was accepted his sophomore year for the Class of 1952, including a summer mid cruise on the battlewagon USS Missouri.

Opting to go Air Forceon graduation, Stafford qualified on the F-86 Sabre in 1954, flying with the Cold War-era 54th FIS and 496th FIS before completing Test Pilot School and becoming an instructor.

Accepted to NASA Group Two in 1962, he would head to space with crewmate Wally Schirra in 1965 on Gemini 6A, on Gemini 9 with Eugene Cernan, and orbit the moon on Apollo 10 with Cernan and his old USS Missouri cabinmate, John Young. Perhaps most famously, he shook hands while in orbit with cosmonaut Alexei Leonov during the Apollo–-Soyuz mission in 1975.

Returning to the Air Force full-time in 1975, Stafford would command the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards AFB and was key to the design and development of the F-117 and B-2.

Stafford retired as a lieutenant general in 1979, having flown more than 120 types of fixed-wing and rotary aircraft and three types of spacecraft, with the USAF noting the year prior that had “completed 507 hours and 43 minutes in space flight and wears the Air Force Command Pilot Astronaut Wings. He has more than 6,800 flying hours.”

Via NASA:

Today we mourn the passing of Thomas P. Stafford at the age of 93.

In December 1965, Stafford piloted Gemini VI, the first rendezvous in space, and helped develop techniques to prove the basic theory and practicality of space rendezvous.

Later he commanded Gemini IX and performed a demonstration of an early rendezvous that would be used in the Apollo lunar missions, the first optical rendezvous, and a lunar orbit abort rendezvous.

He served as the commander of the Apollo 10 ‘dress rehearsal’ mission preparing for the first Moon landing and as Apollo commander of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) mission, a joint space flight culminating in the historic first meeting in space between American Astronauts and Soviet Cosmonauts, which ended the International space race.

Throughout his career, Stafford helped us push the boundaries of what’s possible in air and space, flying more than 100 different types of aircraft.