Ironically, on "Great Planes" a show that comes on The Military Channel, they were talking about the B-25, and it's service from the Doolittle Raid, on throughout it's career.

They said the version with all the cannons (machine guns) mounted in it's nose became a formidable ground attack airplane, even as large as it was...

Dang, I didn't know they put a 70 - 75 mm in the nose of it... That was a (US) tank cannon back in those days, Germany used the 88mm.

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Today's AC-130 has a 105mm cannon mounted port side. They had pulled the 40mm BOFORS from them, as well as the 25mm Bushmaster from the M2 Bradley- and replaced them with the 30mm Bushmaster II. But, it seems they missed the old BOFORS, so it's back on duty.

The 30mm GAU/8 Avenger cannon (A-10 Thunderbolt II) can take out takes with just the bullets. Perhaps they need to strap a few Avengers (Crowd pleasers) to the side of the AC-130. Although it's only 50% larger than a 20mm round, they say the 30mm round from the Avenger hits its target with 10-times the kinetic energy than the 20mm from the M61 Vulcan.

While at Fort Bliss for PLDC, we were on the range and got to hear the V-61 20mm Vulcan (6,000 - 6,600 rounds per minute max fire, 100 - 110 rounds/second.) Open up a few times... Man, o-man. My instructor was a AA guy, and he said that thing fires so fast, you have to tell it how long to burst in seconds or the number of rounds- because, if you just open up, you'll be out of ammo in seconds.

See the platform: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:M163_VADS.JPEG

I imagine ths would have been a pretty decent anti-personel/anti-vehicle weapon system too. Anti- anything in front of it.

This gun can put 6,600 rounds down range in one minute- that's 100+ per second. The F-15 only carries 900 rounds, so it's got enough ammo for about 9 trigger pulls; 18 if they are real quick.

That rate of fire is- well, insane... That's when you want to kill something, real bad.

If you're down range from that SOB... God help you.

 

I saw an A10's gatling gun on display at aan airshow at Barksdale AFB Bossier City La. That gun was a work of art in itself.

The AC130 was nicnamed "Puff the Magic Dragon". I've seen some video clips of one shooting at night. That was an awsome amount of firepower on display at one time.

 

Moving on to the Ships of the war. I was really amazed when I learned, that we used ships made of concrete. (Liberty Ships) I just couldn't belive it.:o

 

Last year i got to go on board of the USS North Carolina, that was amazing! The machine shop on board really got my attention.

 

I've also been on the North Carolina in Wilmington NC, and have also toured the USS Hornet in Alameda, CA.

On the Carolina, I was very impressed. What a weapon. Loved the 'computers' that were used for aiming the big guns. That was state of the art.

 

I didn't know where the Hornet was at., that is the first ime I've seen it mentioned since in the History books. Was that the essex class such as used in WWII. If so, I think that one was badly damaged about three in the War. I think it almost got sunk at Midway and at the Battl of the Coral Sea, and one of the others I can't think of right now.

I've been on Battleship Texas, and also th Battleship in Mobile, I can't remember if it was the Alabama orwhat it's nmae was. But there was a submarine there also The USS Drumhead. I was also in Jacksonville Floridawhen the Last Enterprise was decommisioned. That was the closest I'd ever been to a Carrier. It was a grand size bathtub toy, too saythe least.

EDit : I also got to see an S R 71 Blackbird up close there a t Battleship park.

 

The original Hornet carrier (CV-8) was sunk in 1942. Shortly after, the Essex class hull for CV-12 was renamed from the Kearsarge to the Hornet. It fought with great distinction throughout the rest of WWII. http://www.uss-hornet.org/history/wwii/

FWIW, the USS Midway carrier is also available for public tours in San Diego.

 

USS Hornet - Flawlessly recovered the Apollo 11 space capsule and the first men to walk on the moon. A few months later, she also recovered the Apollo 12 capsule and its all-Navy crew; 1969

 

I have seen and touched (At Lackland AFB) the following-

F-15

F-16

B-52

A-10

SR-71

F-4 Phantom (In Korea at the War Museum)
(Although the F-15 and F-22 are far superior- the Phantom is still a favorite)

AH-64 Apache: Fort Hood

AH-1 Cobra: Fort Hood

UH-60 Blackhawk: (Rode in, Nap-of-the-earth @ high speed, Korea)

OH-58 Kiowa: (Rode front seat with the pilot, Operation Roving Sands)

CH-47: Rode in (several times) doing sling-load operations (Wurzburg, Germany).

There have been more, but those are the only ones that mattered to me. I have seen an F-14 up close (not close enough to touch it though) and seeing the Blue Angels perform allowed me to walk away with new found respect for the F-18. It's not as weak as I thought it was.

What I'd like to do is:

1.) Go to Pearl Harbor, and tour BB-63.
2.) Tour a Nimitz-class carrier- or the USS Enterprise (Class of one).

I could never have been a sailor (I couldn't see myself in one of those blue or white uniforms)- but I love their ships...

If only they wore BDU's on the ships, I probably could have done it!
I know there was a reason for the tight-thighed, bell-bottom denim pants (Drown proofing), but still... I think I would have had to go in as an officer.

 

I wore starched Fatigues. I think those Bdu's look disgraceful, compared to how sharp we had to be.

 

This is the best airplane ever built BAR NONE.
I've never piloted one. But i have definitely had the severe pucker factor while in them.
A good pilot can land one of these in a 50 meter area, that is surrounded by trees. and turn around and take it off again. I was in one once where the pilot flew directly toward a rock face and did an acute 90 degree turn and landed it to a stop in 50 yards. We then just sort of coasted off the cliff face to fly out of there. I had an adrenalin rush, that didn't let me sleep for days.

They are ugly as hell. but they can't be beat!

 

It reminds me of the Feisler Storch that the Germans used!

TSC

 

I made it a point to read Tumba's post without looking at the pic- wanting to see if I could guess the plane he was talking about...

I was wrong.

When he was discussing these near pinpoint maneuvers, I thought he may have been discussing a Harrier or some other VTOL aircraft like the V-22 Osprey (Now, that's a plane the US just will not give up on).

 

This is a mild one. They can do much more extreme maneuvering

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jFm3-rSTtE

 

That wasn't too bad but landing going up a hill does go a long way in shorting the rollout distance.

Watch this one, on a level runway.

link

The large tires show that he does this sort of thing quite often.