Sunday, April 11, 2021

Sturzkampfflugzeug über Spanien

Today we bring you a quickie in the form of this rather dramatic snap showing a Kette of Legion Condor Junkers Ju 87B-1 Stukas on their way to support Franco's Nationalists by dropping things that go boom on Republican forces.

Disfrutar...


 
AP photo via The Atlantic


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Monday, March 22, 2021

A Penguin in the Desert

We love us some purty-pikshurs around here... so for today's quickie we offer this super-freakin-groovy shot of F-35C BuNo. 168735 of the VX-9 Edwards Detachment at Edwards Air Force Base, snapped at sunset during September of 2013.

Enjoy...


 
Lockheed Martin photo by Matthew Short



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Thursday, March 18, 2021

Guards MiGs

Today we present a pikshur that is well-known to those who dig Soviet aviation of the Great Patriotic War.

The photo was taken at Vnukovo Airfield near Moscow on March 7th, 1942 and shows MiG-3s of the 120th Fighter Aviation Regiment on occasion of said regiment being renamed as the 12th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment.

 

 
Project 914 Archives

 

For the model builders out there and/or for those who simply appreciate colors and markings... contrary to decades of popular belief, the outer wings of the ship closest to the camera were undoubtedly not red, but green. More info on that HERE.


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Thursday, March 11, 2021

Stalking a Bear

A long time back we shared a photo from 1977 showing an F-14 Tomcat of VF-14 'Tophatters' during an intercept of a Russkie Tu-95 'Bear', and mentioned that we kinda-sorta dig stuff like that. Also mentioned was that more such photos would be forthcoming.

Well, it took a while but today we offer another coolish intercept shot. This time the Tomcat squadron is currently unknown to us, as any identifying markings are hidden in high-contrast shadow. However, a little messin' 'wit the image in Photoshop has revealed an 'N' as the first letter of the air wing code, making it a RON from the left coast. We do have a date for the photo, August 1st, 1985... though we're not sure if that was the date on which the shutter was tripped or if that's when the photo was released to Joe Q. Public. Whatever the case, the ballpark date, 'N_' code, and '2XX' modex combine to provide a good basis for some digging and eventual ID of the RON. However, your blogmeister is more than a bit tired and lazy at the moment, and said digging won't take place just yet.

Anyhoo, for now we simply offer up this atmospheric image from the height of the Cold War and ask that you enjoy...

 

 
US Navy photo

 

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Wednesday, March 10, 2021

Hawgs

Your blogmeister grew up during the height of the Cold War, and often found himself daydreaming of various potential World War III combat scenarios, many of which involved the Fairchild A-10 Warthog roving at low-level, down in the mud, ripping up scores of Russkie tanks and other commie targets across numerous European battlefields. 

Back then the A-10 was generally decked out in one of a few variations of the basic and way-cool Europe I paint scheme, consisting of various shades of green and dark grays... perfect camo to blend the low-level Hawgs into the backdrop of those aforementioned fields of battle, hiding 'em from prying, higher-flying eyes.

So, with that in mind, today we bring you this fetching shot showing a four-ship of A-10s, circa the days of green...


 
Don Spering photo via Eric Bannwarth on Flickr


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Monday, March 8, 2021

One of the Last Gunslingers

Today we present a photo showing the Vought F-8 Crusader, known as 'The Last Gunfighter' on account of being the last US fighter to be equipped with guns as its main armament. The example shown here is an F-8J, BuNo. 149154 of VF-194, the Red Lightnings, about to launch from USS Oriskany (CVA-34). VF-194 was embarked aboard Oriskany as part of Carrier Air Wing 19 on a Vietnam combat cruise that ran from April to November of 1969.

VF-194 and its sister squadron, VF-191, were the last two US Navy fighter squadrons to fly the F-8, trading in their Gunfighters for Phantoms in 1976 before being disestablished two years later, in March of 1978.

 

US Navy photo

 

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Wednesday, March 3, 2021

Cat at Dusk

We've said it before... we love us some purty pikshurs around here, and we also dig the mighty Tomcat mightily. The photo we present in today's quickie installment of TWW delivers on both counts... an F-14D snapped in silhouette with a gorgeous backdrop courtesy of Mother Nature.

Enjoy, Baby...

 

 
US Navy photo



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Monday, February 22, 2021

Halifax After Dark

Here at TWW we generally prefer to present 'period' photos of the older things with wings. That is, photos taken when said older things with wings weren't too awful old. Every now and again, however, we come across a pikshur that's just too damn purty not to share... regardless of when it was taken. And we do like our purty pikshurs around here, as has been mentioned once or thrice in the past.

Anyhoo, today we present an absolutely bee-yoo-tee-full and somewhat kinda-nice shot of the Yorkshire Air Museum's Handley-Page Halifax III, marked as LV907, named 'Friday the 13th', of 158 Squadron.



 
Nick Jennings photo


See more of Nick Jennings' stuff HERE, and more info about this particular Halibag, HERE.


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Tuesday, February 16, 2021

Polski Sokół

Today we bring you a quickie in the form of a few way-cool pikshurs showing the first F-16C built for Poland on her maiden flight over Ft. Worth, Texas on March 14th, 2006. Lockheed-Martin test pilot Paul Hattendorf was in the recliner for the occasion...


 
Lockheed-Martin photo


 
Lockheed-Martin photo


 
Lockheed-Martin photo


 
Lockheed-Martin photo



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Sunday, February 7, 2021

Stuka im Schnee

As it's the middle of the cold season in your blogmeister's neck of the woods, he thought it appropriate to make today's quickie a chilly one. Here we see a Ju 87D of 7 Staffel, Stukageschwader 1 on the Ostfront surrounded by that with which the Ostfront is often associated... a buncha white stuff. Tante Ju is providing the obligatory fotobomb. Genießen...

 

 
Bundesarchiv (Photographer: Reiners)


 

Zu Weiß verblassen...