Military Heat

From 1974 to 2006 the Grumman F-14 Tomcat represented the backbone of the United States Navy.This two-seat, two-engine, supersonic variable geometry wing aircraft first flew on 21 December 1970, entering service with the US Navy in 1972, replacing the aging F-4 Phantom II. The Tomcat was designed as an air superiority fighter as well as fleet defense and reconnaissance platform.
(Read more…)

The A-10 Thunderbolt II (nicknamed Warthog) is one of my favorite American military planes. Why is that? Well it’s partly because of it’s unusual look, and partly because of its trademark 30mm GAU-8 Gatling gun. Its gun is also its trademark, shooting up to 70 uranium depleted rounds every second!

When it first came out in 1976, part of the army didn’t have much faith in the beginning in the A-10 Thunderbolt II, because they preferred high flying, high tech airplanes like the F-15 and F-16 with precision munition. (Read more…)

One of the planes that impressed me in my early years, was the C-130 Hercules. I don’t know why, but along with the DC-3 (and the military version C-47) it has always caught my imagination and interest.
The aircraft started production in ‘56 after the project was won in the 1950 by Lockheed Martin with the YC-130 prototype. An interesting fact is that this “old girl” is still in production!
Actually it’s still wanted by military air forces around the world including the USAF. And in September 2006 the “headcount” was for 186 planes to be made and delivered! That is simply unheard off, for such an “old plane”, but the secret stands in its oldness. Or lack of it, actually.
(Read more…)