Jet Aircraft... Bombers, Fighters, Spy planes, etc...

5fish

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I want to bring up the Germans had the first operational jet bomber and it saw action in WW2...


snip...

When most people think of World War Two era German Luftwaffe jets, the Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe jet fighter would probably be the first one to spring to mind but this was not the only Junkers Jumo 004 turbojet powered aircraft to reach operational status over the battlefields of Europe. The Arado Ar 234 Blitz (Lighting) reconnaissance jet bomber prototype took flight for the first time in June 1943 but it was not until August 1944, when deployed over the western front, that it became the worlds first operational jet bomber.

The Ar 234 was only produced in limited numbers and too late to make any major impact on the outcome of the war. A small number did reach frontline squadrons and they were primarily used as a fast reconnaissance aircraft to keep tabs on advancing Allied forces, whilst outpacing Allied fighters but from December 1944 strike bombing missions were also conducted. In April 1945, during a reconnaissance mission, the type was the last Luftwaffe aircraft to conduct a sortie over England during the war.


The Smithsonian has a article on it....


snip...

Rather than the reverberating growl of piston-driven engines, these aircraft emitted a smooth piercing roar. They were jets, but not Messerschmitt Me 262s, history’s first jet fighter. These were Arado Ar 234 B-2s, the first operational jet bomber to see combat. Nine of them were approaching a factory complex at Liege, each laden with a 1,100-pound bomb.

Luftwaffe Captain Diether Lukesch of Kampfgeschwader (Bomber Wing) 76 led the small squadron on the historic bombing run. Powered by two Jumo 004 B4-1 turbojet engines, the sleek planes zoomed in to drop their payloads and then quickly soared away. They were so fast that Allied fighters could not catch them


snip...

History’s first operational jet bomber was designed and built by the Arado company. The plane originally began service as a scout aircraft. One had flown reconnaissance over Normandy snapping photos of supply depots and troop movements just four months earlier. But reconfigured as a bomber and operated by one pilot, who also served as bombardier, the Blitz was fast and agile. It easily eluded most Allied aircraft with its top speed of 456 miles per hour. The Germans also created two other versions of the aircraft—a night fighter and a four-engine heavy bomber—neither made it into full production.
 

5fish

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It seems the company did not survive....


snip...

When Germany invaded Poland, instigating World War II, two more Arado products rose to prominence, the Ar 96, which became the Luftwaffe's most used trainer, and the Ar 196 a reconnaissance seaplane that became standard equipment on all larger German warships. Unfortunately for Arado, most of their other designs were passed over in favour of stronger products from their competitors, such as Germany's only heavy bomber fielded during the war, the Heinkel He 177, for which Arado was the primary subcontractor. Perhaps Arado's most celebrated aircraft of the war was the Ar 234, the first jet-powered bomber. Too late to have any real effect on the outcome of the conflict, it was nevertheless a sign of things to come.

Until their liberation in April 1945 by the Soviet army, 1,012 slave laborers from Freiberg, a sub-camp of the Flossenbürg concentration camp, worked at the Arado factory, beginning with the first trainload of 249 prisoners arriving in August 1944. The prisoners were mostly Polish Jewish women and girls sent to Freiberg from Auschwitz.
 

5fish

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The smallest jet fighter of WW2... Arado E.381


snip...

The Arado E.381 (Kleinstjäger – "smallest fighter") was a proposed parasite fighter aircraft. Conceived by Arado Flugzeugwerke in December 1944 for Germany's Luftwaffe during World War II, the E.381 was to have been carried aloft by and launched from an Arado Ar 234 "mother" aircraft. It would then have activated its rocket engine, which would have propelled it to attack Allied (mainly American and British) bombers. Development was cancelled due to lack of funds and official support.[1][3][4]

There were three proposed variants; each had fuel capacity for only two target runs, after which the pilot would have been required to glide without power to a landing on underbelly skids.[3] To survive close pursuits, the E.381 was designed with the narrowest frontal cross-section possible to increase its chances of surviving shots from the front. This also forced the pilot to lie in a prone position. The cross-section was 0.45 square meters (4.8 sq ft), or approximately a quarter of the cross-section of the
Messerschmitt Bf 109.

1619314711363.png
 

rittmeister

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The smallest jet fighter of WW2... Arado E.381


snip...

The Arado E.381 (Kleinstjäger – "smallest fighter") was a proposed parasite fighter aircraft. Conceived by Arado Flugzeugwerke in December 1944 for Germany's Luftwaffe during World War II, the E.381 was to have been carried aloft by and launched from an Arado Ar 234 "mother" aircraft. It would then have activated its rocket engine, which would have propelled it to attack Allied (mainly American and British) bombers. Development was cancelled due to lack of funds and official support.[1][3][4]

There were three proposed variants; each had fuel capacity for only two target runs, after which the pilot would have been required to glide without power to a landing on underbelly skids.[3] To survive close pursuits, the E.381 was designed with the narrowest frontal cross-section possible to increase its chances of surviving shots from the front. This also forced the pilot to lie in a prone position. The cross-section was 0.45 square meters (4.8 sq ft), or approximately a quarter of the cross-section of the
Messerschmitt Bf 109.

View attachment 6437
as long as it's not ar ### it's not really in the books of the reichslufahrtministerium (rlm). an e-number is an entwicklungsnummer (development - the rlm acknowledges that it might become interesting). a p-number is a project number (company project, rlm not really involved).

american yf-## would already be ar ###
 
Last edited:

5fish

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Korean era jet fighters...

The Mig-15 goes down as one of the great jet fighters of the Century...


snip...

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 (Russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-15; USAF/DoD designation: Type 14; NATO reporting name: Fagot) is a jet fighter aircraft developed by Mikoyan-Gurevich for the Soviet Union. The MiG-15 was one of the first successful jet fighters to incorporate swept wings to achieve high transonic speeds. In combat over Korea, it outclassed straight-winged jet day fighters, which were largely relegated to ground-attack roles, and was quickly countered by the similar American swept-wing North American F-86 Sabre.

When refined into the more advanced MiG-17, the basic design would again surprise the West when it proved effective against supersonic fighters such as the Republic F-105 Thunderchief and McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II in the Vietnam War of the 1960s.

The MiG-15 is believed to have been one of the most produced jet aircraft with more than 13,000 manufactured.[1] Licensed foreign production may have raised the production total to almost 18,000.[citation needed] The MiG-15 remains in service with the Korean People's Army Air Force as an advanced trainer.


The USA F-86 goes down as America's first great jet fighter...


snip...

The North American F-86 Sabre, sometimes called the Sabrejet, is a transonic jet fighter aircraft. Produced by North American Aviation, the Sabre is best known as the United States' first swept-wing fighter that could counter the swept-wing Soviet MiG-15 in high-speed dogfights in the skies of the Korean War (1950–1953), fighting some of the earliest jet-to-jet battles in history. Considered one of the best and most important fighter aircraft in that war, the F-86 is also rated highly in comparison with fighters of other eras.[2] Although it was developed in the late 1940s and was outdated by the end of the 1950s, the Sabre proved versatile and adaptable and continued as a front-line fighter in numerous air forces.

Its success led to an extended production run of more than 7,800 aircraft between 1949 and 1956, in the United States, Japan, and Italy. In addition, 738 carrier-modified versions were purchased by the US Navy as FJ-2s and -3s. Variants were built in Canada and Australia. The Canadair Sabre added another 1,815 aircraft and the significantly redesigned CAC Sabre (sometimes known as the Avon Sabre or CAC CA-27), had a production run of 112. The Sabre is by far the most-produced Western jet fighter, with a total production of all variants at 9,860 units
.[1]

Here are the results of Mig Ally...


snip... The Aces...

The MiG Alley battles produced many fighter aces. The top aces were Russian. Nikolay Sutyagin claimed 21 kills, including nine F-86s, one F-84 and one Gloster Meteor in less than seven months. His first kill was the F-86A of Robert H. Laier on 19 June 1951 (listed by the Americans as missing in action), and his last was on 11 January 1952, when he shot down and killed Thiel M. Reeves, who was flying an F-86E (Reeves is also listed as MIA). Other famous Soviet aces include Yevgeni G. Pepelyayev, who was credited with 19 kills, and Lev Kirilovich Shchukin, who was credited with 17 kills, despite being shot down twice himself.

The top UN ace of the war, Capt. Joseph C. McConnell, claimed 16 MiGs, including three on one day. His story featured in a film called The McConnell Story, starring Alan Ladd and June Allyson.[43] The second-highest-scoring UN ace, Maj. James Jabara, was the first UN jet-vs.-jet ace. Another ace, Frederick C. "Boots" Blesse, claimed nine MiG-15s in his F-86 Sabre[44] and later wrote No Guts, No Glory, a manual of air fighter combat that is still studied today.[42] James P. Hagerstrom claimed 8.5 kills. George Andrew Davis, Jr. became one of the first members of the new U.S. Air Force to receive the Medal of Honor after being killed while leading his section of two F-86s against 12 MiG-15s when he was trying to shoot them all down.

Seven aces also emerged from the newly established People's Liberation Army Air Force of China. Among them, Jiang Daoping shot down the U.S. top ace Joseph C. McConnell. Hoyt Vandenberg, the Chief of Staff of the USAF, stated that the PLAAF had become a major air power.[45]

Over thirty Sabre pilots were claimed to have been shot down behind enemy lines and their fate has never been definitively established. Surviving pilots, captured and later repatriated after the armistice, reported being interrogated by Koreans, Russians, and Chinese. For years after the Korean War ended in 1953, rumours persisted of pilots held captive by the Soviets.[46]

A number of computer video games based on the combat in MiG Alley have been produced, amongst them MiG Alley Ace, released by MicroProse in 1983
 

5fish

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1950's love it... Bombers power by nuclear reactors... Russia and USA tried...


snip...

The Tupolev Tu-95LAL, (Russian: Летающая Атомная Лаборатория, romanized: Letayushchaya Atomnaya Laboratoriya, lit. 'flying atomic laboratory'), was an experimental aircraft that was a modified Tupolev Tu-95 Soviet bomber aircraft, which flew from 1961 to 1965, analogous to the United States' earlier Convair NB-36H. It was intended to see whether a nuclear reactor could be used to power an aircraft, primarily testing airborne operation of a reactor and shielding for components and crew

Here is our entry...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convair_NB-36H

snip...

The Convair NB-36H was an experimental aircraft that carried a nuclear reactor. It was also known as the "Crusader".[1] It was created for the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion program, or the ANP, to show the feasibility of a nuclear-powered bomber. Its development ended with the cancellation of the ANP program.

The plane actually flew with a working nuclear reactor inside it... the story...


snip...

In July 1955, the NB-36H began flight test with the reactor going critical in flight for the first time in September. The reactor did not power the aircraft, instead of being tested to verify the feasibility of a safe, sustained nuclear reaction on a moving platform. For each NB-36 flight, the one-megawatt reactor was winched up into the bomb bay at a dedicated pit at Convair’s Fort Worth plant and then removed again after landing.[7] When in flight, the aircraft was accompanied by a radiation-monitoring B-50 (a slightly updated B-29) and a C-119 transport aircraft carrying paratroopers able to be dropped to secure any crash site and limit bystander exposure to radiation.[8] In total, the NB-36H made 47 flights, ceasing flying in March 1957.
 

5fish

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Remember the X-15 jet... I remember as kids about how fast it was...

Here one story about Neil Armstrong and the X-15 pilot... He had to chose test pilot or astronaut...


snip...

Noted for his engineering excellence and technical capability as a pilot, Armstrong became one of only 12 pilots to fly the ultimate experimental aircraft – the North American X-15. The X-15 was a joint research program sponsored by the NACA, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Navy, and private industry. It was designed to explore the upper limits of supersonic flight above Mach 2 and hypersonic flight beyond Mach 5

Here another site with the X-15 and videos too...


snip...

Number 1: North American X-15 This aircraft has the current world record for the fastest manned aircraft. Its maximum speed was Mach 6.70 (about 7,200 km/h) which it attained on the 3rd of October 1967 thanks to its pilot William J. “Pete” Knight. To be stable at these super high velocities, it had to feature a big wedge tail, however, the downside of this was at lower speeds the drag was extremely big from such a tail. Therefore a B-52 Stratofortress had to carry it up to an altitude of about 14,000 meters before dropping it at which it ignited its own engines. Just imagine sitting in a rocket measuring only 15 m in length and then being dropped, must have been a truly magnificent feeling! The X-15 was used at such extreme speeds so that it did not use traditional ways to steer (using drag over a fin) but instead it used rocket thrusters! This made it possible to reach altitudes higher than 100 kilometres, which was one of its world records. These are the three records that brought the X-15 rocket jet into the history books:
  • It was the first operational space plane.
  • It got to a height of more than 100 km.
  • It flew more than six times the speed of sound (Mach 6.70).

Here another take:
 

5fish

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Here a story behind the Nazi flying wing... Its in the Smithsonian... story at the link...


snip...

In 1943, when Nazi field marshal Hermann Göring demanded that the Luftwaffe’s next bomber aircraft be able to carry a 1,000-kilogram bomb load 1,000 kilometers into enemy territory at a speed of 1,000 kilometers per hour, the Horten brothers presented him with plans for a jet-powered, single-pilot flying wing. Its steel framework was covered in a plywood skin, and the wings were finished in a green protective coating. Göring awarded the brothers half a million reichsmarks to develop a long-range bomber, called the Ho 229. Their first prototype, an unpowered glider, had a successful test flight in 1944, and a second, jet engine-powered prototype took to the air the following year, establishing that a powered flying wing could be controlled in flight. In light of that feat, it’s possible the third prototype, the Ho 229 V3, would have flown farther than any aircraft of its day.

snip...

The V3 and its ancestral prototypes were taken seriously, though. One of America’s leading aircraft designers, Jack Northrop, showed keen interest in the Horten brothers’ flying-wing glider back in the 1930s and built flying-wing airplanes of his own in the 1940s. For three decades the corporation now known as Northrop Grumman has provided the U.S. military with stealth aircraft, which are essentially shaped like a flying wing
 

5fish

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French... crash and burn...

 

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Airboat vs Airliners... the winner is...

 

5fish

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You Germans always led the world in tech in the 1940's
 

Nitti

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Korean era jet fighters...

The Mig-15 goes down as one of the great jet fighters of the Century...


snip...

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 (Russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-15; USAF/DoD designation: Type 14; NATO reporting name: Fagot) is a jet fighter aircraft developed by Mikoyan-Gurevich for the Soviet Union. The MiG-15 was one of the first successful jet fighters to incorporate swept wings to achieve high transonic speeds. In combat over Korea, it outclassed straight-winged jet day fighters, which were largely relegated to ground-attack roles, and was quickly countered by the similar American swept-wing North American F-86 Sabre.

When refined into the more advanced MiG-17, the basic design would again surprise the West when it proved effective against supersonic fighters such as the Republic F-105 Thunderchief and McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II in the Vietnam War of the 1960s.

The MiG-15 is believed to have been one of the most produced jet aircraft with more than 13,000 manufactured.[1] Licensed foreign production may have raised the production total to almost 18,000.[citation needed] The MiG-15 remains in service with the Korean People's Army Air Force as an advanced trainer.


The USA F-86 goes down as America's first great jet fighter...


snip...

The North American F-86 Sabre, sometimes called the Sabrejet, is a transonic jet fighter aircraft. Produced by North American Aviation, the Sabre is best known as the United States' first swept-wing fighter that could counter the swept-wing Soviet MiG-15 in high-speed dogfights in the skies of the Korean War (1950–1953), fighting some of the earliest jet-to-jet battles in history. Considered one of the best and most important fighter aircraft in that war, the F-86 is also rated highly in comparison with fighters of other eras.[2] Although it was developed in the late 1940s and was outdated by the end of the 1950s, the Sabre proved versatile and adaptable and continued as a front-line fighter in numerous air forces.

Its success led to an extended production run of more than 7,800 aircraft between 1949 and 1956, in the United States, Japan, and Italy. In addition, 738 carrier-modified versions were purchased by the US Navy as FJ-2s and -3s. Variants were built in Canada and Australia. The Canadair Sabre added another 1,815 aircraft and the significantly redesigned CAC Sabre (sometimes known as the Avon Sabre or CAC CA-27), had a production run of 112. The Sabre is by far the most-produced Western jet fighter, with a total production of all variants at 9,860 units
.[1]

Here are the results of Mig Ally...


snip... The Aces...

The MiG Alley battles produced many fighter aces. The top aces were Russian. Nikolay Sutyagin claimed 21 kills, including nine F-86s, one F-84 and one Gloster Meteor in less than seven months. His first kill was the F-86A of Robert H. Laier on 19 June 1951 (listed by the Americans as missing in action), and his last was on 11 January 1952, when he shot down and killed Thiel M. Reeves, who was flying an F-86E (Reeves is also listed as MIA). Other famous Soviet aces include Yevgeni G. Pepelyayev, who was credited with 19 kills, and Lev Kirilovich Shchukin, who was credited with 17 kills, despite being shot down twice himself.

The top UN ace of the war, Capt. Joseph C. McConnell, claimed 16 MiGs, including three on one day. His story featured in a film called The McConnell Story, starring Alan Ladd and June Allyson.[43] The second-highest-scoring UN ace, Maj. James Jabara, was the first UN jet-vs.-jet ace. Another ace, Frederick C. "Boots" Blesse, claimed nine MiG-15s in his F-86 Sabre[44] and later wrote No Guts, No Glory, a manual of air fighter combat that is still studied today.[42] James P. Hagerstrom claimed 8.5 kills. George Andrew Davis, Jr. became one of the first members of the new U.S. Air Force to receive the Medal of Honor after being killed while leading his section of two F-86s against 12 MiG-15s when he was trying to shoot them all down.

Seven aces also emerged from the newly established People's Liberation Army Air Force of China. Among them, Jiang Daoping shot down the U.S. top ace Joseph C. McConnell. Hoyt Vandenberg, the Chief of Staff of the USAF, stated that the PLAAF had become a major air power.[45]

Over thirty Sabre pilots were claimed to have been shot down behind enemy lines and their fate has never been definitively established. Surviving pilots, captured and later repatriated after the armistice, reported being interrogated by Koreans, Russians, and Chinese. For years after the Korean War ended in 1953, rumours persisted of pilots held captive by the Soviets.[46]

A number of computer video games based on the combat in MiG Alley have been produced, amongst them MiG Alley Ace, released by MicroProse in 1983
one of the U.S. aces was Gabby Gabreski who had 6.5 kills in Korea but in the pacific thearter of WWII he had 28 kills.makes him an ace in two wars.
 

Nitti

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Remember the X-15 jet... I remember as kids about how fast it was...

Here one story about Neil Armstrong and the X-15 pilot... He had to chose test pilot or astronaut...


snip...

Noted for his engineering excellence and technical capability as a pilot, Armstrong became one of only 12 pilots to fly the ultimate experimental aircraft – the North American X-15. The X-15 was a joint research program sponsored by the NACA, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Navy, and private industry. It was designed to explore the upper limits of supersonic flight above Mach 2 and hypersonic flight beyond Mach 5

Here another site with the X-15 and videos too...


snip...

Number 1: North American X-15 This aircraft has the current world record for the fastest manned aircraft. Its maximum speed was Mach 6.70 (about 7,200 km/h) which it attained on the 3rd of October 1967 thanks to its pilot William J. “Pete” Knight. To be stable at these super high velocities, it had to feature a big wedge tail, however, the downside of this was at lower speeds the drag was extremely big from such a tail. Therefore a B-52 Stratofortress had to carry it up to an altitude of about 14,000 meters before dropping it at which it ignited its own engines. Just imagine sitting in a rocket measuring only 15 m in length and then being dropped, must have been a truly magnificent feeling! The X-15 was used at such extreme speeds so that it did not use traditional ways to steer (using drag over a fin) but instead it used rocket thrusters! This made it possible to reach altitudes higher than 100 kilometres, which was one of its world records. These are the three records that brought the X-15 rocket jet into the history books:
  • It was the first operational space plane.
  • It got to a height of more than 100 km.
  • It flew more than six times the speed of sound (Mach 6.70).

Here another take:
the XR-71 Blackbird is one cool airplane.the that set the speed record for flying from Los Angelos to New York City in 56 minutes is on permanent display at Robbins Air Force Base in Warner Robbins ,Georgia.it is part of the museum there that has a static display of every plane that was in AAF and AF service.if you you come down I-75 in Georgia its a grat side trip as it is only 5 miles from the interstate exit.the planes on on display in 4 hangers and outside also.they have a great gift shop for books,pictures,videos and models...awesome side trip.
 
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