BWDenver

Ever hear the phrase: "It seemed like a good idea at the time..." The Mi-17 was flown by a crew of civilian or contractors. We were never privy as to what they were doing, the Chinooks were there to make the point not to shoot at it. Somewhere in a locked cabinet near Langley VA are the details ow what they did. While I've been to the Agency on a project, that place is the epitome of compartmentalization. And they have a really great gift shop!

If you ever want to do a civil sheet, I have a number of shots of DHC-2 Float Beavers taken in Vancouver CA and Ketchikan AK. The markings include Harbor Air, SeaWind Aviation, Taquan, Saltspring Air, Seair Seaplanes and Gulf Island Seaplanes. A lot of the birds have the web site name on the inner side of the wing struts. And of course, a number of DHC-3T otters, with a turbo conversion available for the Turbo Otter Vazar nose conversion from Kee-Kha. A number of the shots are profile that can be used for art work. - Bryan -

Super glad to hear it. Bryan

Mi-17, “Agency operated”, Udairi Kuwait. When I was deployed to OIF we ended up at a desert airbase near the Kuwait/Iraq border. The base was located at a high point in the desert, and was likely the worst place to put an airstrip as the winds out of Iraq seemed to center on us. Aside form the Army birds, there was one Mi-17 operated by an unidentified “Agency”, probably a three letter agency… In any event the bird was overall sand and almost devoid of markings. It had an American flag on the engine pods, USA in block letters on the tailboom and a Roman n

Shot of an Aggressor bird at Langley 11/80. The near bird, 73-1515 has a pod on the wing tip. 1515 eventually was shipped to Brazill as FAB 4873. I was at Eustis going through an Army AVN Main OFF Corse and would swing by Langley on the weekends. Bit better shot of the pod... - Bryan

Glad they are appreciated. The Caracal markings of 319 are for black stenciling and wrap around camo, with white wings. Although the white on the winds wraps around the leading edge a bit but the undersides are regular, in the case of these shots AC Gray. And yes, the gloss white wings were to let the bird stand out against the ground. The birds flew formation with the two cruise missiles under test in the late 70's. On the same trip I got a shot of a B-52 with a General Dynamics Tomahawk on the pylon. USAF decided to go with the ALCAM, and the Navy and Army went with Tomahaw

Sort of a where were they then... I shot this when I was flying into Edwards. Put the stick in my knees and shot out the door of the OH-58A I was flying in. When I leaned I was going to fly into Edwards, I pulled the doors just to be ready. The birds were used for the cruise missile tests in the late 70's early 80's. they were chase birds. Caracal makes the markings for 319, but with black stencils. As I understand it, one of them was a Thunderbird AC.

The latest installment on F-86 ejection seats, F-86D/K/L/H has been published. The follow-on and final instalment will cover the NATO Martin-Baker seats and a bit on the last combat for Sabre's. Jet AC ejection seats - Jet Modeling - ARC Discussion Forums

F-86D/K/L/H Seat colors The original colors for the NAA F-86D and F-86H seat were Flat Black. Yellow-Orange FS 13538 was used on the hand grips and fining levers. 1 ¾” Shoulder harness and 1 7/8” lap belts, FS 34233 or FS 34158 Sage Gray to off White. The 1” elastic bands used to hold the 1 ¾” shoulder harness straps are a dark gray color, buckles Aluminum with Sage Grey pull tabs. The belts tended to fade to an off white after long term exposure to the sun. F-86D seat above and F-86H seat below. Headrest and arm rest pads, when present, were init

F-86D/K/L/H and an Update on the F-86A seat. Compared to the F-86A/E/F and Sabre Mk2, 4, 5 &6 the F-86D/K/L/H seats were relatively simple. There were three primary North American Aircraft (NAA) seats in the F-86D/K/L/H with several sub variants, and a Martin-Baker seat for some of the NATO F-86K’s. F-86D early left, F-86D late center, F-86H right. The seat consisted of a bucket and skeletal “Carriage Assembly”. The F-86D seat had 3 rollers (2.93” diameter) on each side on the outboard side of the Carriage Assembly. The rollers were inserted

So long as they didn't come right off the golf course...

I'm trying to build several vintage Ferrari race cards and am trying to find a good way to duplicate the head wrinkle paint found on cars like the 250 Testa Rosa. Thanks in advance! Bryan

Send me a message and I'll forward it. I came across the images when I was researching Firebee drones. A large number of drones had a ground impact cushion that popped out of the bottom of the drone. A lot of the recovery's were after it landed, but the SH-3's clearly had the equipment installed at Holloman AFB. the 147's were tested at Holloman, and the birds destined to fly over Viet Nam appear to be MARS recovered. The images came from the Ryan files that were dumped to the San Diago Aviation Museum archies, online with Flicker. I went through thousands of images to sift t

I love Hypersonic parts, but in this case it's the wrong cushion configuration for a 1965 B-4B. The Sparkit F-4 Phantom II - Early Mk.H5 Ejection Seat US Navy (2Pcs) - 1/48 seat is the correct seat for an early Viet Nam F-4B. Couple of illustrations from the time period. Docs via NASM Mk.H5 from April 1963, NAVWEPS 13-30-19 "Ground Level Ejection Seat" Model MK H5. Seat missing survival kit. NAVAIR 01-245FDA-4-2 IPB, F-4A, F-4B, F-4G, and RG-4B Aircraft, 15 March 1965, Chg 1 Sep 1967. Showing "Horae collar parachute pack and adjustable lumbar pad sh

1965 would be the seat pictured above, Mk.H5 (early) with the small adjustable lumbar pad. Although I don't know if anyone make one. Cheers Bryan