757flyer Posted April 28, 2021 Share Posted April 28, 2021 Saw this pic today, and was curious about the travel pods: https://www.airliners.net/photo/USA-Air-Force/Fairchild-A-10C-Thunderbolt-II/6399849/L Are the "fins" on the bottom of the travel pods legs so the pod can sit on the ground (or other flat surface) without the need for a cradle, or do they serve some other purpose? They can be seen on the aircraft in the background as well. Can't recall seeing these on pods before... Thanks! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
A-10 LOADER Posted April 28, 2021 Share Posted April 28, 2021 4 minutes ago, 757flyer said: Saw this pic today, and was curious about the travel pods: https://www.airliners.net/photo/USA-Air-Force/Fairchild-A-10C-Thunderbolt-II/6399849/L Are the "fins" on the bottom of the travel pods legs so the pod can sit on the ground (or other flat surface) without the need for a cradle, or do they serve some other purpose? They can be seen on the aircraft in the background as well. Can't recall seeing these on pods before... Thanks! Yes the legs keep the pod from rolling around. Steve Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ya-gabor Posted April 28, 2021 Share Posted April 28, 2021 Never seen before the "legs". Interesting. Still I will do my Phantom ones without them. Best regards Gabor Quote Link to post Share on other sites
BillS Posted April 28, 2021 Share Posted April 28, 2021 Probably a local thing. Although the USAF pods are standard, i saw slight variations from unit to unit. One in particular were handles, ala drawer pulls, attached fore and aft to make picking up easier Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ya-gabor Posted April 29, 2021 Share Posted April 29, 2021 For my work did a little research (collecting photos and comparing) and it seems that there are many variations of the pod. Mainly construction and local construction versions. One should not confuse other users, like the Japanese travel pod is very different, I believe they are made from spare Starfighter tanks. Best regards Gabor Quote Link to post Share on other sites
boom175 Posted April 29, 2021 Share Posted April 29, 2021 We started adding little "legs to our travel pods in the mid 90's I would say maybe a little earlier. It was about the same time we added handles to them. I think a TCTO came out authorizing units to add them to the pods. We used to store them on racks that had 6 " wide rubberized canvas straps between the racks. We finally made a towable rack that had sets of two hooks on it and you could hang8 pods on a rack. Made it a lot easier to transport and load them on the jets. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mrvark Posted May 1, 2021 Share Posted May 1, 2021 The majority of MXU-648/A Travel Pods are repurposed BLU-27 Vietnam era Napalm bombs. There used to be some based on the BLU-1, but I think most of those have passed into history. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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