ya-gabor

Hi Rich, So do we!!!!!!!! It is fascinating to see what people / contributors have, or what is located not far from them, or they have visited in the past or even they themselves have been doing/been part of! It is an enourmous help!!! I dont think one person on his own would be able to see, read, have as books and get to all of this places! I can join in. Thanks to everyone!!!! Best regards Gabor

Thanks Bryan, It was fun! But also it was a good opportunity to share with this team some of my equipment and also knowledge of how it works and what you need to do to put it back where it belongs. : ) : ) Best regards Gabor

Hi BillS, I cannot argue. I can only refer to the T.O. for changes to Thunderbirds stating that the air bottles were placed in the vacated radar unit compartment. It is visible on the videos that the empty Vulcan gun compartment was used for all the “extras” to be carried for the team. Best regards Gabor

One can do purely theoretical research into ejection seats, collect data / information / photos but fortunately there is also a chance every now and then to do some actual work on real airframes with real bang seats. A week ago I was helping a team who own a real MiG-21 with installing back the restored seat into the cockpit. It was a lot of fun and a privilege to be of help them. They have done a fantastic job on the aircraft! Best regards Gabor

Whatever was the reason for it but based on available photos certainly not all Thunderbirds had two temperature probes under the nose on left and on right. At least 3 had it on both sides while even earlier production aircraft exists which has it in standard right side position only! Had a look at period photos of those “early” airframes and they had the temperature probe on the standard right hand side as a production norm. One has to look at the particular airframe he is intending to build if it has it on both side or only in standard position on the right. But of course question

Hi Ben, The interesting thing is that on this particular airframe 66 0289 there are temp probes on both sides of the fuselage!!! Best regards Gabor

Thanks BillS, I had the "Once a T" video already this is where many print screens were taken from. Yes, there was a good image there of the front cockpit. The nose (place for radar) is not for lugage but for air pressure bottles for the smoke generator system. Thanks! Best regards Gabor

Hi @RichB63, Well what can one say??? WOW again! THANKS! Those photos answer a lot of questions!!! It is good to see that at least on this aircraft the smoke generator vents base was left in its original state/shape!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Excellent!!!! It is interesting to see that at the time of these pictures were taken it had No. 6 while in post further up from mhvink it has number 5 painted on. Just interesting that they change a/c numbers on it (regularly)! But also an interesting thing visible is that one more temp probe was added on the left

Hi BillS, That is a very nice find!!!!!!!!!!!! Have to say I been searching around and watching dozens of Phantom videos on YT but did not find this one. Always had the Thunderbirds word in my search, never tried to do a plain McDD Phantom II name. One always learns! : ) : ) Nice views of both cockpits from that Castle Air Museum bird. The only question is how many changes were made after it was retired from Thunderbirds and did its "afterlife" at Edwards. (apart from taking out bang seat parts for museum display) One of my questions is answered there, it did re

I can only hope that someone will take few close ups to answer these question about the panels. Best regards Gabor

Purely a technical question from me. At St. Louise the airframes were converted for the Thunderbirds role. Gun, radar and lots more were removed of course but just as well many associated parts were modified. There were vents and scoops connected to them. Both left and right side had “grills” and of course the scoop on top of the nose. They are not visible on period illustrations of Thunderbird aircraft so they were “removed” in some sort of way. OK. but how? Did they just simple place and overlaying “patch” to cover them up/close them? Or was it a more sophisticated way of

Hi Mhvink, Great!!!!!!!! Thanks in advance! I am sure it will interest not only me but other Phantom Phrekkkkks also! Best regards Gabor

Hi Mike, WWWOOOOOOWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Would love to take a look into the backoffice! But I am here in Europe so . . . : ( : ( : ( : ( It would be interesting to see what was left of the instrument panel for the back cockpit, especially the area between the legs where the radar scope was. Since the unit was not it the nose I would expect that either just the support frame was left there (like in QF-4E's) or completely removed. OK but what was left there? Anyone going to Castle Air Museum in May????????????????? Best regards

Any photos of surviving real Thunderbirds are worth gold to some of us! So please if you have a chance take some shots of it. A full perpendicular view from below on the nose / gun muzzle would be great to show its shape. Same for the tail so see if the stabilizers are still the originals as well as the heat shield. I still hope that at least one of the surviving aircraft still has the original panels with a possible patch to cover the exact place where the vent for the smoke generator was. But any underside details visible would / could be of great help to have a mor

Hi Falcon 91352, You are raising some lets say "interesting" questions there! As to why did they only have two medals in that category is an excellent question to which I have absolutely no answer. If someone then the organizers or representative of the jury could answer. You did mention some time ago Andras Egresi, the chief director of the Moson show and the fact that this was his last year in this chair. I am glad that you mentioned this! I was reading a post on local modelling forum at the start of the year informing us about this. I have been writing bot