BWDenver

Screen caps from ETF-80C 48-357 test 31, taken as a prelude to Mazza's live ejection. As you can see the Republic seat does not quite fit into the TF-80C cockpit. You can see the built-up area around the aft cockpit in order to reduce the turbulence. As the seat is triggered from the front cockpit, a wingtip light flashes to signal the camera ships the test sequence has started. As the seat clears the cockpit the drag flaps deploy. You can see the middle tube from the catapult starting to bend the instant before the seat separate

Great info, by any chance do you have any pages for the F/K -1 covering the MB seats???? Bryan

By any chance do you have a date for the seat change out?????? Bryan

Correct, the history from WADC was dated March 1958, so it would not cover the MB seas as they went into the airframes in the early to mid 60's. Very possible they are referring to the manual vs auto seats. It also covers the first pilot to "voluntarily" eject out of an F-86, one Lt Robert Farley, 29 August 1949. I say voluntarily because there was an involuntary ejection on crash landing. On 18 July 1949 one Lt O'Leary had attempted to eject, but the canopy failed to clear the airframe. On crash landing the canopy was released, firing the catapult as the aircraft disintegrated

Say it isn't so! I remember a modeler in the DC IPMS chapter that would always complain about the "$40" 1/48 Hasegawa kit. He only built 1/72 scale. But when you look at inflation that was the $3 kit of the 60's. Wonder what he would have thought of the IMHO kits.... Back a little bit on topic, I'm digging through a USAF doc on ejection seats from the late mid 50's and it mentioned that the F-86 had 4 different seats, assuming all flavors F-86. I can account for two, maybe three if you consider mechanical vs Gas fired. The seat in the 86A, E & F. Th

A model release is an interesting study in human nature. A company fills a void with something that is actually new, and not another P-51 or Me-109. There is an initial blush of excitement, then acrimony because they missed a detail or in this case offer aftermarket choices. The complaining about lack of detail in a kit is similar to our choice of movies. We want more action. In the 60’s a little action and good dialog would suffice. Today the option is a John Wick movie with an absurd amount of action and bad language. In the 60’s people were happy to

The one-piece windscreen on the F-4E was a bit of an oddity. They were primarily airframes assigned to the 110th TFS at St Louis MO. One of the advantages to being at the doorstep of the factory. the pilot I was with mentioned that while it was a better windscreen to look out of, it was not as strong as the 3 piece. These shots were taken over the July 4th 1991 weekend when I was attending CH-47D Qualification Training at Ft Rucker. I flew up to Missouri to se my dad and mad a point of driving into St Louis to shoot the ramp. The aircraft were shipped to some of our

F-4N cat hooks. F-4N taken on the Midway, 1978

The one-piece windscreen on the F-4E was a bit of an oddity. They were only on a few airframes assigned to the 110th TFS at St Louis MO according to one of the pilots i talked to when I shot the 110th ramp. One of the advantages to being at the doorstep of the factory. These shots were taken over the July 4th 1991 weekend when I was attending CH-47D Qualification Training at Ft Rucker. I flew up to Missouri to se my dad and mad a point of driving into St Louis to shoot the ramp. The aircraft were shipped to some of our overseas allies. The Turkish pilots asked if th

Enter the T-33A, TO-2/TV-2/T-33B At one time or another the T-33 was designated the TF-80C, T-33, TO-2, TV-2, T-33A and T-33B. Hopefully switching back and forth between designations will not confuse the reader. On March 22nd, 1948 the TF-80C took to the air with Tony LeVier at the controls. The TF-80C, later T-33, was the new standard USAF/USN trainer and test aircraft for ejection seats in the late 40’s and 50’s. You could make the case that the T-33 trained the world’s pilots, and many are still flying today. They were even converted to QT-33 aircraf

This page out of a QF-80F shows the inlet screens of the time a bit better. The screens primarily prevent FOD from entering the engine. Brayn

The J47's also powered a number of Salt flat cars like the Spirit of America...

Actually, now that you mentioned Lindberg... For years they used the same seat in all their jet kits. It turns out it was a Republic Seat. The AF wanted a "Standard Seat" and contracted with Republic to produce it. Turns out the only bird it was used in was the B-47. But Lindberg used it in all their kits! I've seen reviews where people say the kit is unbuildable, and when asked why, they reply it is a scale half inch too short. I just shake my head over that. That is nit picking, and probably make the model company's kick their drafting tables. But g

The advantage of a Resin "printed" part is they can go back and tweak the cad drawing to fix things. Now weather they want to or not or just call it good is another question. With a resin cast, or molded part, you are pretty much stuck with what you have unless you want to go remaster the part. Monogram left the Mk.GRU7 seats in the F-8 kit as it was too costly to recut the molds to have the "right part" for a Mk.F7 seat...

I hate to be "That Guy", but the headrest looks undersized in comparison to the actual seat. The open side seat was initially installed, then after T.O 1F-86-161 and 1F-86-227 the closed in the sides of the seats when they ran rods back to the Catapult firing linkage. Without the panels the risk of fouling with the seat belt was too high. Circa 1951. Then at some point they converted to Gas Actuators and the did away with the rods and cables all together. The gas systems really improved the reliability of the systems. Although it appears they kept the lower rods on

I get a kick out of modelers complaining about the high cost of airplane kits. I picked up a MFH 1/43 1967 Gerney-Weslake Eagle kit. Incredible kit, but it was a budget buster. Now they’re doing a 1/12 at 81,180 Yen. The Rexy looks like it will be a fin kit to build. Imaginative paint scheme. Bryan

Starting with the B-66 DoD AC started using Dark Gull Grey for the cockpit color. The reason for the change was it was more "physiologically soothing" according to a USAF Greybeard Seat manager I talked to at Wright-Patt in 1990. As the AC were cycled through major maintenance, they changed the cockpit to DGG. attached is a shot of an F-86A seat familiarization trainer at Wright-Patt. At the time most interiors were painted interior Green, but some AC venders used their own colors until Dod standardized on DGG. The seat is the early version with the open sides. When

Sooooo true!

I had Sunday breakfast with Dave for several years. We'd talk about his projects, future releases and patterns I could help him with. When I moved to Colorado, he stopped taking my calls. As I couldn't help him anymore...

There was a guy named Potts who was a Navy pilot. He supplied a lot of stuff to Dave. I did a lot of his bomb and missile patterns. When Potts retired he cut him off basically saying: Cut him off, Potts is retiring and can't give us anything else. Real prince of a guy...

A screen shot from the Korean War Movie "One Minute to Midnight". One of the few shots of an F-80A and the fixed seat.

Even Dave's friends eventually ended up on his blacklist, after I moved to Colorado he stopped taking my calls..... Brayn

Although note, the photo is for F-89D-1 through F-86D-35. The primary visual change was the relocation of the Shoulder Harnes Lock handle to the seat frame and off the hand grip. Additionally, the seat headrest also changed, along with the addition of "Thunderstorm Lights" to the head rest. So if you're building an F-86D SN 50-455 to 51-8505, use the photo above. After 52-3598, move the shoulder harness Lock to the seat frame. See side by side below. The Monogram kit appears to have selected the F-86-40 on seat configuration. Bryan

Glad to hear it's of use! Still working on the T-33 article. Bryan

LC-130F 148320 VXE-6, XD-06 "PETE" NSF at NAF Cherry Point June 1992 original designation USAF 59-5924 There was a conversion kit at one time for the ski's Not entirely sure what the last line on the NSF marking is... When I moved to the Denver area, I applied to the Raytheon team that managed the IT systems for the Antarctic station.