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FB-111A - Pictures and Armament?


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On ‎12‎/‎15‎/‎2017 at 2:06 PM, Piker38 said:

I know the operational B-61s are silver; these B-43s look to be painted white ?  

Would this be their operational colour, or are these 'drill rounds' for load-handling training ?

 

 

Live B43s were gloss white.  LINK

 

On ‎12‎/‎15‎/‎2017 at 4:32 PM, Hooker169 said:

http://www.airforcemag.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2011/March 2011/0311victor.aspx

So basically all these guys knew they were training for a one way trip, amazing!

The article above is about fighters on Victor alert in Europe and their evolution through the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. Super interesting. But down at the bottom there is a short piece from a pilot who said they would navigate towards a target with an eye patch covering one eye, with nukes going off all around at least you would have two shots at hitting the target. He made no mention of navigating home.

 

The war plans were drawn up with very tight TOTs.  If somebody had to reattack or divert to an alternate target, all bets were off for deconfliction with follow on strikes.  As several public accounts have mentioned, many of the fighter strike routes were designed with just enough fuel to get the aircraft out of the blast radius of the weapon, and then the pilot would have to eject after running out of fuel and walk home.  There is a book written by Phil Rowe (a retired B-58 DSO) called At The Klaxon's Call which is a fictional account of a B-58 crew during a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union in mid-60s.  It's not terribly well written, but still interesting.

 

Regards,

Murph

Edited by Murph
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 Question for the group. Did the Dark Vark repaint (from SIOP) involve painting the inlets the fuselage color for a certain distance, ala the camo schemes on the F-4s? Reason I'm asking is that I cannot find one photo of an operational FB (Dark Vark scheme) that you can actually see into! I realize the RAM panels were dark, but those things are literally black holes!!

 

Thanks for this great thread. 

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Not sure if this is operationally accurate.  But here's some intake images of the FB-111 in the Dark Vark scheme at the Strategic Air Command Museum in Omaha

 

BtlQByN.jpg

 

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Qj2MMF9.jpg

Edited by GEH737
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 Thanks for the photos, I was there last spring and got a few myself. Took some of 245 out at March field a couple of years back, but it's a SIOP bird. I'm not fully trusting a museum A/C, as they are prone to creative repainting... It's just odd that their are no good operational shots showing the intakes on the Darks, and I've gone through a stack of books and magazines looking for one. Hoping for some input from the maintainers and drivers here on ARC.

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3 hours ago, GEH737 said:

Not sure if this is operationally accurate.  But here's some intake images of the FB-111 in the Dark Vark scheme at the Strategic Air Command Museum in Omaha

 Those are the real deal TP II with RAM panels.

 

John

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