Posted on 03/09/2016 8:45:21 AM PST by C19fan
The U.S. military is testing out a dependable, rugged little vintage bomber as it battles elusive ISIS militants in Syria and Iraq. War was just an experiment for two of the U.S. military’s oldest and most unusual warplanes. A pair of OV-10 Broncos—small, Vietnam War-vintage, propeller-driven attack planes—recently spent three months flying top cover for ground troops battling ISIS militants in the Middle East. The OV-10s’ deployment is one of the latest examples of a remarkable phenomenon. The United States—and, to a lesser extent, Russia—has seized the opportunity afforded it by the aerial free-for-all over Iraq and Syria and other war zones to conduct live combat trials with new and upgraded warplanes, testing out the aircraft in potentially deadly conditions before committing to expensive manufacturing programs.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
Loiter time is an advantage. These planes are slow and provide excellent loiter time. I used to direct ARTY fire from an L-6.
Imagine bringing back some P-47’s.Nazi ground forces lived in dread of those things.
Growing up I had neighbors that flew in Vietnam. The Skyraider pilot always made fun of the F4 pilot and said he didn’t know how to fly an “airplane”!!
Ha haa, to hear those guys argue again!! Good times!!
We’re still flying C-130’s, which were designed in the 50’s. We’re still flying B-52’s from the 50’s.
Lots of military planes from the 60’s and 70’s are still in the air.
We are still flying C-130’s because they are still being manufactured highly modified from early versions. We are not flying B-52’s from the fifties. More like the sixties, and also highly modified and upgraded.
The author must be a stupid millennial.
Skyraider: Antique best left in WWII where it belongs.
Phantom II: Proof that if you put enough engine on a brick, it can go supersonic.
;’}
It’s working for the B-52’s...
Once air supremacy is achieved over “insurgents”, why not go cheap?
Thank you for serving...I was thinking “L-6...L-6...oh yeah! Like a Bird Dog, but bigger as I recall!”
Heh, as you can probably tell, I am an aviation buff...:) My wife always says “How on earth do you ever avoid just walking into things while you are looking up?”
Great to see the Black Ponies again. We loved them in IV Corp.
I’ll bet...and I will bet the enemy being observed were going “Oh crap...”
We need an Mach 2, VTOL OV-10 replacement which costs $600 million a pop, with manufacturing spread out across 180 different congressional districts and which requires fifty hours of maintenance for every hour in the air.
A nicely designed plane that reliably did what it was supposed to do. That pilot looked like he was having the time of his life there...I should be so lucky.
Sigh. I'll probably never fly. But I can dream.
I must say, I didn’t get the girl with the torches, but then I was watching with no sound...:)
The thing looked like it had a three second takeoff roll on grass...and landing looked about the same!
That just looks like a scrappy little sh^t ! Some of those old profiles are like art, to me!
Can’t add much arms and/or bombs to that frame design, and a low and slow plane is a great target for anti-aircraft arms.
I always thought the A10 Warthog was the best of the air support frames because it is extremely tough and provides the pilot with a lot of protection—not to mention the massive main arsenal it carries:
Armament: One 30 mm GAU-8/A seven-barrel Gatling gun; up to 16,000 pounds (7,200 kilograms) of mixed ordnance on eight under-wing and three under-fuselage pylon stations, including 500 pound (225 kilograms) Mk-82 and 2,000 pounds (900 kilograms) Mk-84 series low/high drag bombs, incendiary cluster bombs, combined effects munitions, mine dispensing munitions, AGM-65 Maverick missiles and laser-guided/electro-optically guided bombs; infrared countermeasure flares; electronic countermeasure chaff; jammer pods; 2.75-inch (6.99 centimeters) rockets; illumination flares and AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles.
The Pentagon has tried to kill it off time and again, but when air support is the mission they keep bringing it back.
But if you want old and (relatively )slower than jets and time on target, why not the P51 Mustang?
The water cooled engine was fragile and highly susceptible to damage from ground fire. The radial engine on the P47 and A1D were far more durable. But alas, we now live in the turbine age. I do from time to time hear rumors of folks trying to develop Diesel engines for aviation ...
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