Part plane, part rocket: The Ryan X-13 Vertijet, built by Ryan Aeronautical in 1955 for the US Air Force, would take off vertically, fly horizontally and land vertically.
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US Military Aircraft all Branches...Past & Present
- Thread starter Bambammep
- Start date
Part plane, part rocket: The Ryan X-13 Vertijet, built by Ryan Aeronautical in 1955 for the US Air Force, would take off vertically, fly horizontally and land vertically.
Republic P47 Thunderbolt, of WWII fame.
Originally designed as a powerful high-altitude air superiority fighter, it did a pretty good job at that and doing bomber escort missions, but it was a fuel hog.
When the slimmer, more fuel-efficient P51 Mustang came out, it took over the bomber escort jobs and the "Jug" was used for low-level strafing and bombing attacks, and air cover for our troops on the ground.
That's why the A-10 Warthog is officially called the "Thunderbolt II" -- because of its close air support role over or near our own ground forces.
My dad flew the P47 in WWII. His aircraft is one of the ones in the picture flying over the mountains, but he wasn't the pilot. He was still in training in the USA at that time, and he met up with that aircraft later, in January or Feb. of 1945.
Originally designed as a powerful high-altitude air superiority fighter, it did a pretty good job at that and doing bomber escort missions, but it was a fuel hog.
When the slimmer, more fuel-efficient P51 Mustang came out, it took over the bomber escort jobs and the "Jug" was used for low-level strafing and bombing attacks, and air cover for our troops on the ground.
That's why the A-10 Warthog is officially called the "Thunderbolt II" -- because of its close air support role over or near our own ground forces.
My dad flew the P47 in WWII. His aircraft is one of the ones in the picture flying over the mountains, but he wasn't the pilot. He was still in training in the USA at that time, and he met up with that aircraft later, in January or Feb. of 1945.
CH-34 Choctaw Image set
