Tailspin Turtle

For more than you probably want to know about B-52 dihedral: https://tailhooktopics.blogspot.com/2025/11/boeing-b-52-stratofortress-wing-dihedral.html

I also vaguely remember that it had some benefit in reducing salt accumulation on the engine compressor blades (lots of low-altitude hover over water when dipping a sonar). Again, if true, wasn't necessary over land.

According to my H-3 subject-matter expert, Jodie Peeler, "The inlet shield was added as a result of icing incidents in 1964, one of which resulted in a double flame out and crash landing. It is often referred to as a FOD shield but my impression is that it wasn't of much benefit in that regard. It did affect engine performance so it was sometimes removed when there was no prospect of icing and maximum hover performance was required." Obviously an ice shield was superfluous in Viet Nam...

With respect to the turbo lag (an increase in the throttle resulted in more exhaust pressure going to the turbine, which resulted in it spooling up, provide more air to the engine, resulting in more power), it was only apparent in a hover (until you got familiar with how much throttle to roll on/off for a given collective pitch change, you'd tend to oscillate in height: first too much throttle, then too little, then too much again, and repeat). Instrument students in the TH-13T weren't required to spend any time in a hover, since you really couldn't hover it on instruments anyway.

The TH-13T also had an exhaust-driven supercharger to increase power because of the higher weight. One of the pictures above illustrates the additional hardware and ducting around the engine. It also introduced a noticeable lag in throttle response, which made height control in a hover interesting until you learned how to anticipate it.

Thanks for that. For more on configuration details and variations, see https://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2019/05/more-mcdonnell-f3h-demon-configuration.html

The Navy also had North American raise the forward end of the FJ Fury's canopy as it slide aft, presumably to allow the pilot to raise his seat for a carrier landing. Note that the top of the pilot's helmet is slightly above the windscreen. If the canopy slid straight back as on the F-86, the front of the sliding canopy would smite him in the forehead.

I don't know any details about the B-58 afterburner, but it's easy to get various numbers for the F-4 and A-5 afterburner diameters. See https://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2012/12/j79-exhaust-nozzles.html

Thanks very much

Thanks for thinking of me: tommythomason@sbcglobal.com

I've got an inboard profile for sure but I'll have to go into the warehouse to see if there's anything else

The nose gear wheels are 24" x 8"; the main gear wheel is 40" x 11.5". NACES ejection seats.

Well, this is embarrassing. I forgot to look in one of my AU-1 folders... For what I found, see https://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2025/06/vought-f4u-corsair-bomb-racks.html

However, this picture of an F4U-7 intercooler flap from Bill Spidle suggests that it did have a removable panel.

Photos of the center line pylon are pretty rare. It was basically the Brewster bomb-rack support with a fairing, picking up fuselage hard points ahead of and behind the big intercooler flap. I can't tell if there's a gap between the fairing and the flap. One source said the flap had a removable panel to accommodate the fairing but in this picture, it looks like there is a gap that allows the flap to open.