Airdrop

Flight Journal, Oct 2004

"... DIDN'T WE LEARN FROM that mistake WITH THE F-4 in Vietnam? IS THE AIR FORCE so confident OF ITS MISSILES, RADAR, ETC., THAT IT CAN SEND THIS INCREDIBLY expensive AIRCRAFT into harm's way WITH ONLY four missiles to defend it?"

NAA rules

The beautiful pictures of the FJ-4B in your August 2004 issue took my breath away, but perhaps I'm biased because I consider the 4B as one of my children. Then, "Sabres over the Yalu" and a B-25 on the cover? That's (nearly) more than this old NAA engineer can take in one issue. Thanks.

MORGAN (MAC) BLAIR

LOMlTA, CA

What! No gun?

With reference to the F/A-22 article in the April issue "The F/A-22 Raptor": didn't we learn from that mistake with the F-4 in Vietnam? Is the Air Force so confident of its missiles, radar, etc., that it can send this incredibly expensive aircraft into harm's way with only four missiles to defend it? Are space and weight an issue, or would the gun port give the enemy a large radar signature? I can't believe it was designed not to have a gun.

With the aircraft designated an F/A, why does the Air Force need the F/A-35? I can see the need for the F/A-35 Navy and Marine STOL versions, but it's redundant for the Air Force.

In the section on stealth in the same article, it is interesting to note that the engines are buried in the fuselage so that the compressors do not reflect radar energy.

To have only one complaint on the best report I have ever read or seen (video) on the Raptor isn't bad. In fact, it's very good.

DAVID BARLIN

[EMAIL]

The Raptor will house a 6 barrel 20mm gun in the right-hand shoulder section of the front fuselage. Recent combat experience suggests that the BVR (Beyond Visual Range) envelope favors the USAF, based on the F-15s success in the Gulf War. Dispatching your opponent from a distance before he knew what hit him is the most efficient way to fight with such advanced and expensive assets. The lethality of short-range missiles like the AIM-9X coupled with the Raptor's maneuverability should ensure greater success than using a gun, but it is there if needed. The F/A-22 will replace the F-15C (and maybe the F-15E) as the dedicated air superiority strike fighter. Lockheed Martin's F/A-22 media contact Greg Caires notes, "The most important design aspect of the Raptor is performance. The JSF is designed to be affordable and re-configurable. It will replace numerous aircraft including the F-16. Funding enough F/A-22s to replace the fleet of F-16s is not financially feasible. Caires goes on to mention, "the USAF has already stated publicly that even if they had unlimited funding, they would still not seek to replace F-15s and F-16s with Raptors, but rather, augment them with JSFs. "

-Rick Llinares

Er ... we knew that!

The response to the reader who sought information on the Boeing 307 Stratoliner that was once at the Pima County Air Museum was incorrect. In 1972, after Gene Packard donated the airplane to the Smithsonian (I think he took a Connie in trade), it was loaned to the Pima Air Museum, and that's where, in 1991, Boeing employees-there to retrieve the Dash 80-first saw it. This led to its restoration. So the airplane the reader saw at Pima is the one in the Smithsonian. Love your magazine! Keep up the good work.

BRIAN J. VON BEVERN

OLATHE, KANSAS

Ron Darrah correctly wrote that Pima County Air Museum did have a B-307. I enclose a photo of N19903 that I took during a visit in May 1982.

RICHARD NAJARIAN

SUFFOLK, VA

... and on a related note

In late May 1975, I visited the Pima County Air Museum. Just inside the gate on the left side was B-307 F-BELY-still wearing the International Control Commission markings it wore when I saw it several times parked on the Air America ramp at Tan Son Nhut airport in Saigon in late 1969. In late 1973, I also saw its sister ship, F-BELX, just inside the main gate of Davis-Monthan AFB (Tucson, Arizona). When I commented to an official at Pima that they had "the other one" (F-BELY), he asked me to explain. He then raced to his car and departed for Davis-Monthan! I never discovered whether he found F-BELX still sitting where I saw it in 1973.

So, back to the original question: whatever happened to F-BELY? And, for that matter, what happened to F-BELX? Does anyone know?

JOHN B. HYDE

[EMAIL]

If someone can answer John's question, send it to us and we'll print it. -RP

Cheap paint and a different battle

In the August 2004 "Airdrop," Warren Bodie writes that the P-38F restored as Glacier Girl did not have the red "meatballs" in the insignia at that time "The Lost Squadron" landed on Greenland's icecap. This is interesting, as photos of the aircraft taken at the time of its recovery (1992) clearly show them. Presumably, the photo that accompanies Mr. Bodie's letter is of another aircraft in the flight.

Mr. Bodie also notes that the "meatballs" were removed to comply with "an AAF directive issued on May 28, 1942, after the Battle of Midway." Since Midway took place June 4 to 7, he must have meant the Battle of Coral Sea.

Actually, the decision to delete the red insignia meatballs was based on combat experience during the first six months of the war in the Pacific. These months proved that poor visual identification and overeager gunners were a dangerous combination.