Bitchin’ Betty Says Farewell To Her Super Hornets

If you have been an F/A-18 driver, you have probably heard her voice, if not seen her. Here she is, retiring from Boeing. 

H/T to Spill.

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Shayne Meder and the Team finished the MH-60

The Best Looking Helo Paint Scheme Ever.

The Scorpions CAG Bird is finished.

Shayne Meder with the Scorpions CO, CDR Bobby Brown. I do believe the Skipper is very happy with the results.

Warbird Restoration

There’s a great article about restoring old warbirds in this month’s issue of Air Force Magazine.  Here are the lede grafs and a screen-shot of one of the article’s accompanying pics:

The scarcity of some World War II airframes today drives a small industry that can take what can only be described as airplane DNA and deliver a restored, flying aircraft. Restoration technology now makes it feasible to resurrect historic aircraft from little more than dented scraps of metal.

A striking example of this artistry is one Curtiss P-40C Tomahawk that survived a crash landing in 1942 to emerge as an award-winning restoration indistinguishable from the day it rolled off the Curtiss assembly line in 1941. The restoration shunned the iconic, but now ubiquitous, “Flying Tiger” shark’s mouth paint scheme to create instead a rugged-looking US Army Air Corps fighter of the type that rose to meet Japanese warplanes over Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

The Tomahawk’s odyssey began when it was earmarked for the British Royal Air Force and then transferred to the Soviet Union in December 1941. Identified with the RAF number AK295, it was technically a Tomahawk IIB—essentially equivalent to the USAAC’s P-40C.

The text version of the article is here but I recommend reading the PDF version for the photos.

CubDriver

From a fellow Lexican comes this from his blog RUMBEAR CHRONICLES. Thank you, Charles Mellor for this.

That is an awesome picture BTW!

Dual 1,000th ‘Traps’ Achieved Aboard USS Nimitz

From the Navy Website. I am proud that one of these Aviators, Cmdr. Robert Loughran is the Commanding Officer of VFA-147, The Argonauts! I served in the Argonauts when they were VA-147 operating the venerable and dependable LTV A-7E Corsair II. The tradition remains. It is one of only three commands that I served in that still is in service……………………………………..

1,000 traps is a big deal. Bank on it. Ask some of our Lexicans that are Aviators and NFOs about that.

Dual 1,000th ‘Traps’ Achieved Aboard USS Nimitz.

via Dual 1,000th ‘Traps’ Achieved Aboard USS Nimitz.

The Beginning of the End

From the Usual USAF Source…

Final F-4 Regenerated for Use as Aerial Target
The final F-4 regenerated from storage in the Air Force’s aircraft boneyard at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., earlier this month departed the base for Mojave, Calif., for conversion to a QF-4 target drone, announced base officials. This RF-4C airframe, dubbed “Last One,” left Davis-Monthan on April 17, states the base’s April 19 release. “It’s a great feeling to see such a magnificent aircraft fly again to serve the warfighter,” said Eddie Caro, the crew chief assigned to the aircraft since December 2012. BAE Systems will convert the platform into the QF-4 configuration in California and then deliver it to Tyndall AFB, Fla. This airframe arrived at Davis-Monthan for retirement in January 1989 and had been dormant until technicians with the base’s 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group last year began restoring it to flying status, according to the release. The Air Force is transitioning from the QF-4 to using QF-16s as its full-scale aerial targets. (Davis-Monthan report by Teresa Pittman) (See also Three-Hundredth QF-4 Delivered.)

I suppose goin’ down in flames is preferable to rusting away in The Boneyard… or, as Neil put it: “It’s better to burn out than to fade away…“

Cross-posted at EIP.

Lego Plane Pr0n

The pic is from the author of the post at The Brothers Brick.