Photos at Dobbins AFB Aug. 2011 & What is it?
Wed Aug 17, 2011 8:59 pm
And what the heck is this? It reminds me of an F-16 minus the pilot, but I know it isn't.
Re: Photos at Dobbins AFB Aug. 2011 & What is it?
Wed Aug 17, 2011 9:18 pm
Re: Photos at Dobbins AFB Aug. 2011 & What is it?
Wed Aug 17, 2011 9:38 pm
RYAN AQM-34 G thru V recon drone.
AMAZON.com has a book available (it ain't cheap) called 'Lightning Bugs and Other Reconnaissance Drones' That will raise your appreciation of these little worker bees as pre programmed recon drones dropped from a special DC-130 Herk in Viet Nam (and......maybe other places) and recovered by parachute on the fly after the mission. I read the book many moons ago and my level of appreciation went right to the top, Amazing little dudes, and pretty cheap too!
Just located a Chinese copy reverse engineered from an AQM apparently lost or shot down over VN and operated as the BEIHANG Wu Zhen-5 (WZ-5) and dropped from one of those retro fitted turboprop powered TU-4's the Chinese have or an AN-12 CUB.
AMAZON.com has a book available (it ain't cheap) called 'Lightning Bugs and Other Reconnaissance Drones' That will raise your appreciation of these little worker bees as pre programmed recon drones dropped from a special DC-130 Herk in Viet Nam (and......maybe other places) and recovered by parachute on the fly after the mission. I read the book many moons ago and my level of appreciation went right to the top, Amazing little dudes, and pretty cheap too!
Just located a Chinese copy reverse engineered from an AQM apparently lost or shot down over VN and operated as the BEIHANG Wu Zhen-5 (WZ-5) and dropped from one of those retro fitted turboprop powered TU-4's the Chinese have or an AN-12 CUB.
Last edited by The Inspector on Wed Aug 17, 2011 10:13 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Re: Photos at Dobbins AFB Aug. 2011 & What is it?
Wed Aug 17, 2011 9:39 pm
Jerry O'Neill wrote:The mystery plane is a Ryan Firebee Target Drone.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Firebee
Jerry
Wow. Dates back to 1955 and still in use today! I've never seen one or heard about them before.
Re: Photos at Dobbins AFB Aug. 2011 & What is it?
Thu Aug 18, 2011 12:05 am
Most of these aircraft are part of the Marietta History Museum's Aviation Section. The Navy planes are ex-NAS Atlanta. The Jetstar and the C-141 are both Lockheed donations. The Mohawk came from the GA ANG facility on Dobbins. Don't know the origin of the Firebee. The B-29 is at the Dobbins front gate.
Walt
Walt
Re: Photos at Dobbins AFB Aug. 2011 & What is it?
Thu Aug 18, 2011 5:38 pm
Awesome pictures of the various aircraft there. I was wondering if AC-130 54-1623 Ghost Rider was seen as I have read some sources saying it is located at the base.
Thanks.
Dave in NJ
Thanks.
Dave in NJ
Re: Photos at Dobbins AFB Aug. 2011 & What is it?
Thu Aug 18, 2011 6:18 pm
Look in the waters off Roosie Roads, Pt Mugu and Barking Sands and you will find more of those AQM/BQM-34's then you can count. Navy sure loved them but required a large fixed base to operate from. We used the BQM-74 with VC-6 as it was moblie and could be deployed on any ship that had a helo pad.