This is the place where the majority of the warbird (aircraft that have survived military service) discussions will take place. Specialized forums may be added in the new future
Fri Jan 19, 2007 5:07 pm
all the birds their saw operational service over the years except 2, the yc 14 & yc 15, weren't they experimental prototypes to the current c-17?? the entire premise of moth balling planes is for spare parts, or re-activation in case the sh*t really hits the fan in a national emergency / conflict. i trust those 2 yc's would be parted out to keep the current c-17's flying, as i would think uncle sam down the road wouldn't re-activate two 1 of a kind prototypes, as it's just not practical.
Fri Jan 19, 2007 5:10 pm
tom d. friedman wrote: i trust those 2 yc's would be parted out to keep the current c-17's flying,
The YC-'s are nothing like the C-17's in terms of parts, if i remember rightly they are quite alot smaller and the idea of parts commanality wasnt all that big at the time.
I stand to be corrected if anyone has any better information......
Chris
Fri Jan 19, 2007 6:54 pm
if that's the case, send em to a museum for all to enjoy rather than letting them sit out in the dust.
Fri Jan 19, 2007 7:06 pm
I only thought I knew most arplanes...........what the heck is a C-27, where did they serve,and when. Never saw one before.
Fri Jan 19, 2007 8:27 pm
The YC-'s were were experimental STOL transports and the program was canceled. Some of the concepts were resurrected in the C-17. On another note, there is a photo of an Altus AFB C-141 with it's wings and tail chopped off. I remember working on her back when I was a C-141 and C-5 mechanic at Altus. Of course, back then she was all white over gray and an A-model, then a B-model, then she got the "lizzard" camo-warpaint!
A sad sight, indeed!
Fri Jan 19, 2007 8:56 pm
The YC 14 is at Pima. I thought the 15 was there also.
http://www.pimaair.org/Acftdatapics/Boeing%20YC-14.htm
Fri Jan 19, 2007 10:58 pm
I think the YC-15 was recalled by its manufacturer for testing.
Fri Jan 19, 2007 11:39 pm
They took the YC-15 back from us around 1996-97 something like that. Spent a small fortune making it flyable, and took it to California. They flew it very, very briefly and then grounded it. I was told they found serious problems in the wing not long after getting out there. I've also heard there was an engine failure. Anyway McD-D decided that it was too expensive to fix and the engines were stripped off and the rest is basically abandoned somewhere at Palmdale. The second YC-15 and YC-14 are both at AMARC and have not been released to the heritage program and so can not go to a museum, not that anybody could afford to move them anyway.
James
Sat Jan 20, 2007 12:51 am
The YC-14 & 15 are quite a bit smaller than the C-17 and were technology demonstrators. The Boeing YC-14 utilized the Coanda effect to generate additional lift by having the engines blow air over the top of the wings, while the Douglas YC-15 utilized the blown flap concept now used on the C-17. They were not intended to be production aircraft. The YC-15 has nothing in common with the C-17, in fact the wheel pods came from a C-141 I think. One of the YC-15s was refurbished for testing by McDonnell Douglas as part of research for a commercial variant, but that idea was srapped after the merger with Boeing. The YC-15 flap system is a lot more complicated than that of the C-17.
Interestingly, the Russians built a production aircraft that looked very much like the Boeing YC-14.
YC-15 in it's final commercial paint scheme:
Sat Jan 20, 2007 2:43 am
Obergrafeter wrote:I only thought I knew most arplanes...........what the heck is a C-27, where did they serve,and when. Never saw one before.
The C-27 Spartan was a version of the Aeritalia G.222.
Here is a link to everything you wanted to know about the type:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-27_Spartan
This is an amazingly agile aircraft especially in it's latest verion, the C-27J:
http://www.patricksaviation.com/videos/ ... hter/1003/
Sat Jan 20, 2007 9:10 am
Some were based out of Howard AFB Panama. They could get in and out of very short fields so that made them ideal for some of the operations "down south". I flew with them at a tactics school at Ft Huachuca AZ and I'll agree they were verrry agile and could turn on a dime. In debriefing, it was fun watching them give the F-16 aggressor so much difficulty on the gunnery film--slow speed, and tight turn radius down rrreal low in the weeds presented a challenge to the speedy fighter.
Sat Jan 20, 2007 11:57 am
The C-27 looks like it would make one heck of a firefighter. Did any of them ever get tried out in this application?
Sun Jan 21, 2007 9:57 am
It's kinda sad to see the Wright-Patt Starlifters in the Bone yard. I grew up with these aircraft flying over my house on a daily basis.
This was taken a month before their retirement in April of '06
and of course "The Last Flight" of the C-141 by 0177 "Hanoi Taxi" this past May
......and then the band and crowds slowly faded away living just another museum relic (sigh

)
Shay
____________
Semper Fortis
Wed Jan 24, 2007 9:31 am
There is one Spartan in sad shape at Western Intls. yard. The rest were taken over by the State Dept. contingent down at Patrick AFB, Florida. I guess they are using them in conjunction with their OV-10D spray ops down south.
Powered by phpBB © phpBB Group.
phpBB Mobile / SEO by Artodia.