Photo of the week
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This weekends extra.
No. 40 Squadron C-47 Dakota "Anything Anytime Anywhere",NZ3503, at RNZAF Station Whenuapai
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This midweeks photos.
Taken April 27th 1953, a couple of aerial views of the huge Convair plant at Fort Worth Texas.
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This weekends photos.
And some nice shots of Boeing WB-50D's.
During the mid-1950s, thirty-six obsolescent B-50Ds were stripped of their armament and equipped for long-range weather reconnaissance missions using meteorological equipment such as high-altitude atmospheric samplers, doppler radar, and weather radar. A bomb bay fuel tank was provided for extended range. These conversions were designated WB-50D. They were intended to replace weary WB-29s which were beginning to suffer from extensive corrosion.
The modification contract was assigned to the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. The WB-50D carried improved equipment and instrumentation to adapt it to the weather mission. This included the AN/APN-82 Automatic Navigator, which was a radar navigation device capable of measuring drift and ground speed, the ANQ-7 temperature humidity indicator, the ML-313 Psychrometer, and improved altimeters and flight indicators. The new equipment proved more difficult to install than expected, and Lockheed could not meet the original schedules.
The first modified WB-50D flew on August 20, 1955, and the first example was delivered to the Air Weather Service in November of that year. Many WB-50Ds also had an air sampling system installed with a distinctive scoop mounted on the top aft part of the fuselage. This was used for weather data gathering, but it was also used to measure airboarne radioactive fallout after above-ground nuclear tests conducted by other countries.
The WB-50Ds served for a much longer period than expected. In 1960, after several fuel cells failed in flight, 28 WB-50Ds were temporarily grounded until the problem could be corrected. In the event, most WB-50Ds were retrofitted with new or surplus fuel cells. One WB-50D (49-310) was given the temporary designation of JB-50D while being used for experimental work.
WB-50Ds continued to serve into the 1960s. Phaseout of the WB-50D began in late 1963. The last WB-50D (49-310) was retired in 1967. -
This weekends extra.
Bf 109 G-14 W.Nr. 465 466 "Schwarze 8", 10./JG 51, Copenhagen-Kastrup, May 1945.
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This weekends photo.
A ground crew of the119th Fighter Wing Happy Hooligans, North Dakota Air National Guard, loads .50 caliber ammunition into a F-51D Mustang aircraft, at Camp Williams, Wisconsin, in June 1953.
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This weekends extra.
Taken at Phan Rang AB, South Vietnam…Front view of a U.S. Air Force F-100 aircraft being armed by 435th Munitions Maintenance personnel. Alongside is another F-100, nicknamed "No Smut". Photographer- Staff Sgt. Andy Sarakon.
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This midweeks photo.
A nice shot of Spitfire MKIIb P8327 Java.
The first presentation aircraft from the people of the Dutch East Indies Country of Java. This aircraft was actually presented symbolically to Prime Minister Winston Churchill as a 66th birthday gift.
She was lost after failing to return from operations with 308 Squadron 24th July 1941,luckily the pilot of P8327 ZF-X survived. Plt Off Wladyslaw Chciuk was wounded and taken prisoner. For this reason, he could not report an aerial victory that he gained during the same combat, just a few moments earlier. -
This weekends photos.
Some wonderful shots of converted Dutch North American AT-16-ND Harvard IIB's that were used in the film " A bridge to far",that had some conversion work done to give them a line like the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt and Typhoon.
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This weekends extra.
Vulcan B.1 XA894 flew with five Olympus engines, the standard four Mk.101s, plus a reheated Olympus 320 destined for the BAC TSR-2 in an underslung nacelle. This aircraft was destroyed in a ground fire at Filton on 3 December 1962.
