The F-4E in the OP is from the 57th FIS stationed in Iceland. It was in maintenance prior to the flight and the down lock pins on the wingfold were not engaged. After takeoff and during climbout the tips folded, and then “overfolded” during the decent for it’s emergency landing. It was repaired and returned to service about 3 months later. Part of the fallout from the incident was to have the downlock pins painted red so the could be seen better against the grey when the were in the unlocked position.
Cheers,
Itch

Thinking about it…

Stats, talk of ‘aircraft kills’ (it’s the pilots, not the aircraft) and utterly pointless ‘was x better than y’ schoolyard level debates miss the point of real history completely.

Wasn’t it Baron von Richtofen who said “it isn’t the crate but the man in the crate that makes the difference.”.
Cheers
Itch

Skypilot62 & Sat2
Thanks guys that clears it up.
Cheers
Itch

Dave,

Would “High Flight” be appropriate? Anything from the heart also works well, along the lines of “all gave some and some gave all” type of feelings

Cheers

Itch

Juni,
To the best of my knowledge the F-105 never served in the interceptor role during the Cuban Missle Crisis, or any other time. You may be thinking of the F-104 Starfighter. The 105 was designed from it’s outset as a lowlevel, high speed, tactical nuker, interdiction fighter/bomber and as such not really suited for interception work. It’s main purpose was to dash into a foreign country, kick out the nuke and (hopefully) return to it’s base. Basically air to mud as opposed to air to air.
The original Thud’s, the B models were natural metal for a time but it was found to be overtly prone to corrosion and were then painted silver dope to lessen the corrosion. The D models were also painted silver dope when they were manufactured under project “Look Alike”. This was supposedly to make it difficult to distinguise between the B and the later D model.
The Thunderbirds did in fact fly the F-105B for about half a season, approx 6 months, but after cracks began appearing in the nose gear they were pulled from service and replace by their old F-100D’s for the remainder of the season and they never went back to them. It is interesting to note that the T’birds’ 105 were in fact natural metal, highly polished natural metal. I think I have a photo of one of their B’s and if I can find it I’ll scan it and post it for you.

Cheers
Itch

Juni,
The T-46 never went into production, in fact it never left design stage so it was only on paper. Fairchild Republic is still in existence, they are not manufacturing a/c but are still in the aerospace industry.

Sauron,
Yes the Thud was a bit bigger than the F-101. The 100 missions was the majic number for a pilots’ ticket home. The only “counters” toward the 100 were the missions flown into N.V.. Any mission flown to Laos or S.V. were not “counters” so a pilot could get as many as 150 missions before he rotated out of theater. On average 100 missions took about 13 months.

Nani,
I’m 5foot 10 inches tall, yes the Thud is a very big a/c. The picture I attached may have some distortion to it as it was digitized from a photo.

Cheers
Itch

Transall,
Thanks, that pic is one of my “steely eyed defender of Democracy and Freedom” shots. It is good to still be with you, considering we lost about half the aircraft we had in theater. Of course that has to due to the fact we had the highest sortie rate also. I was very fortunate in my 2 tours, only lost one returning from a mission and had one fall apart on me taxing back to the revet, that cost me a few pints 😉 . Glad you enjoyed them.

Cheers
Itch

GZYL,
This pic may be of some help.
Cheers
Itch