Tailspin Turtle

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.

The 400-gallon tank was actually slightly shorter than the 300-gallon tank: https://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2011/07/douglas-low-drag-external-fuel-tanks.html

At the time, I knew somebody who knew somebody. I don't even know the current status is of that facility. The hangars were dilapidated back then and the contents were one cut above a junkyard for the most part. I had heard that at least some of it was being moved to the Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia west of DC.

Yes - in this case, when the XFY-1 was at Norfolk, the radome was painted yellow. It probably deteriorated over time. However, at some point it appears to have received a protective grey coat of some sort. Attached is a picture that I took of it at Smithsonian aircraft storage facility at Silver Hill, Maryland in 2016.

These are all the same airframe. Although three were built, only one was fully assembled and flown. The second one shown here was the flight article that was on display at Norfolk, Va for several years. It was subsequently moved to the National Air and Space Museum storage facility in 1973 (the radome is a different color because it had faded overtime on outdoor display.

I started collecting images of aircraft of interest to me (primarily US Navy carrier-based ones) long before there was such a thing as a search engine...

A bit more on the F-111B ejection seats: https://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2016/07/f-111ab-ejection-seats.html Clarification on the exact model of Escapac seat is needed...

And showing the lower part of the boarding ladder. Note that the bottom extends outward to stabilize it.

A bit more detail on the boarding ladder

To wit:

The seat rotated forward for takeoff and landing. That was a more comfortable position (the pilot would have actually been head down if the seat didn't rotate) and if he ejected then the seat would have somewhat of an upward trajectory.

Thanks - Great picture of the open roll-control surfaces, too. For more on the flasher pod (e.g. the generator fan blades on the aft end of the pod), click here:https://tailhooktopics.blogspot.com/2021/08/north-american-ra-5c-flasher-pod.html Note that the roll-control surfaces are in speed-brake mode. More here (scroll down): https://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2010/12/vigilante.html

The top of the vertical fin of some or all RA-5Cs slopes downward to the rear because of the addition of an antenna to the top of the fin. I wrote IFF here but I could be wrong again: https://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2010/12/vigilante.html

In my defense, I hadn't had my coffee yet. Anyway 2.4 nm away and low and opening might work if the metal on your control surfaces is fairly thick and they are painted white.

Literally back-of-the-envelope crude calculation, in 16 seconds at 532 knots TAS, the jet would be about 24 nm away and opening the range at 1.5 nm per second. Seems doable.

If needs must, it was therefore available for and capable of strike missions.

Still doing them - the latest: $34.95, shipping included (Media Mail, US only). 1754 Warfield Circle, Simi Valley CA 93063. You can contact him at nfbooks at sbcglobal dot net for availability and pricing of his other books.

Steve has closed down his website: the guy who did it no longer can.