WSPS

Look up on top of the canopy in front of the doghouse......................wire cutters.  Supposed to cut overhead wires contacted during low-level flight.  It was a later day invention, not sure how effective they would actually be.

ive often wondered in a delusional state,what it would take to bring a display like these back to life?are they completely gutted?

We have a Cobra on a stick at my local regional airfield, Butler Pa.

It is always covered in bird droppings.

I know the B-1 we have outside our gate is pretty much the frame and a few other panels.  Most of it has been cannibalized over the years.

There's a lot of specialized avionics that goes with that equipment that makes it functional.  I'm sure all that has been removed.  I also notice the gun barrels have been plug-welded shut.  The engine is probably not installed either as a weight saving measure.  Someone with a highly specialized set of skills and access to some very special parts and pieces would have to spend a long time to ever get that thing functional again.

Pickerington Ohio VFW.

Bad Ass

damn..there goes that fantasy!!!

I hate static displays.....

They should have previous inventory maintained as reserves and to be used by retired people like Snake Driver....maybe keep up their skill levels with annual training...

Maybe make it like a part of a state defense force or something.....unlike the national guard.


Such a beautiful aircraft...

Got a few squadron mates that can attest to how well they work.  Not something you want to have to rely on, but they have saved a few lives.

A Cobra is infinitely more badass LOOKING than an Apache.

Couldn't the people that live in the town do basic cleanup and corrosion prevention on it?

Cool bird.  I got to fly in one at an airshow a few months ago.  Ranked up there with one of the coolest things I've done in my life...

Army serials are listed towards the bottom. The USA have a serial system that copies (patterns?) after the USAF. Or rather, they're extensions of the same system.

Are the covers missing off the bottom of the gun on some of those pics?

It appears so, The 3-barrel Gatling was an afterthought for sure, but I can't imagine it was left all crude looking like that.

Typical Army Aircraft serialization would be something like 68-150000.  68 would indicate the year of manufacture.  On a Cobra, the full serial number would be on the right side, just below the back-seat location.

Basic PM could be performed by local CAP/JROTC/ROTC/Young Marines/Sea Cadets...etc, etc.



 

Absolutely true and it is appropriate that when designing and building Military aircraft they take the design concept of function before form.  However in the AH-1's case both form and function came together into a beautiful machine.  The Apache is beautiful in its own way, I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of a Zulu variant Cobra or an Apache both are lethal machines in their own right.



 

It depends on how the aircraft is displayed and what's the deal with it.



Almost any aircraft on a stick have been stripped of all the gear that is usable, especially if it's a current model aircraft that's still operating with the US Military.



A lot of times the aircraft that's used as a static display is on that has its service life used up, was damaged by in in-flight or ground emergency or was fucked u during maintenance so badly it can't be repaired at an economical cost.





This F-4 had some serious corrosion issues and was overdue for its Planned Maintenance Inspection, Aircraft Service Period Adjustment Program and its Service Life Extension program maintenance rework programs.  

This F-4 had its engines, avionics, landing gear and most other associated components removed for weight reduction and reuse.

The forward mount goes into the structure of the aircraft and attached at the same point where the main landing gear attached.

The rear support strut attaches at the tail hook attach point.

There is no way this aircraft could be made fight capable again without spending a lot of money, time and effort.





This F-14 caught fire while in flight, the crew was unaware of how bad the fire was.

By the time it caught the wire at Mugu most of the wiring had been destroyed.

The fire was so hot that it warped the center barrel out of alignment with the rest of the aircraft.

It too was stripped of all usable gear before being mounted on the stick.





This H-3 Sea King was an NAS Whidbey Island SAR bird.

It was flown from NAS Whidbey to the Evergreen Museum in Oregon.

It was parked, the wires leading from the igniter boxes were cut, the fuel lines to and from the fuel controls were smashed with a pair of vice grips and the mixing linkage arms were cut.

Nothing was removed from the aircraft, it was 100% as it was when it left Whidbey.



Most static display aircraft that are going to be displayed inside probably could be restored with a minimal amount of work (when speaking of a military aircraft).

I'm going from memory here and its been 22 years since I have seen one but it looks pretty right. See this pic

It is missing a feed shoot and probably had something done to deactivate it a bit but looks pretty complete.

Remember they just took a Vulcan, took off three barrels and re-timed it, pretty crude but effective! The gun was fun as hell. If you gave it a long burst at a hover the recoil would start to pitch the nose down on it.

Edit, here's another pic that shows the feed mechanism and chute a bit better, so yeah there's a little something missing

Yeah, the gun is missing the feeder/delinker, feed chute, and most likely the bolts.  The turret ring is probably rusted in place, the elevation and azimuth drives are most likely frozen in place, and the rotor to the gun is likely welded to prevent the gun from rotating. The firing volt cable W2P1 is cut out, and the firing contact is removed.   That's what we did on a Cobra when preparing one for display.  
It's sad seeing all the rust on that gun.  
Better days:
Ejector rack maintenance.  Me in the t-shirt.










More ejector rack work, not me in the t-shirt this time.  










Doing some gun maint.  Me in the t-shirt this time.










The man with his back to the camera has his hand up inside the turret.  It's resting on the firing contact, and the firing volt cable has been removed.  I have no idea why Mac was making that face.    I'm sitting on the floor, playing with sockets.










Loading ammo for that gun at Grafenwöhr.  I did accomplish the stupendous feat of getting an M274A4 mule up one of those berms in front of the aircraft.










And one for Quib.  




 
 

While it appears that the SeaCobra had a cover around the 30mm nose-gun, the Army's F-Model Cobra did not.  They just left it uncovered looking like a big ugly turd about to fall off.  Not attractive and streamlined like the older model Cobras at all.

Skid Kid Machines

Nice display, and I have been there ( Ft Bragg ) on many occasions, training with units there.

I have one of those barrels. They are great for bending 1/2 in rebar.

Cool! Old 1/229 support guy here. I was with them when they put them there. Flying with the DART team from Texas to Bragg, on a UH-60 was a fun ride. I also remember the hoopla over the wood pecker, if we went there. I think Jay Leno summed it up when he said something like " The environmentalists are worried about the helicopters disturbing the birds. The same birds that beat their heads against a tree."

1st Pursuit!

US Army Aviation Museum Fort Rucker



There are several in the museum as well as around post.

The mounting holes for the turret cover were there, the Army just decided not to purchase the cover.  It did make things easier from a maintenance perspective.  You could get to most of the items without having to pull fairings first.



I still have nightmares about having to pull the main turret fairing using a speeder.  Just a hundred and fifty screws is all.  

Testing, or removing the Turret Buffer Amplifier was the worst though.  I would love to meet the engineer who decided to place it where he did.  A good ass kicking would be well deserved.  



 

Ha!  You guys were amazing.  When we were out flying in the field Avionics & Armament guys weren't anywhere around, so we had to load-up and fix any of our problems ourselves.  I could tear the old style turret apart and put it back together with my eyes closed.   Once while we were in a high-speed dive the turret door decided to come open and tear off.  It damn near turned us sideways and the ensuing bang from it hitting the fuselage as it departed scared the crap out of us.  We thought we'd been hit by a 37mm or something.  Not fun in combat when parts start falling off.

So what was accessed through here?  I'm sure its not luggage.

That is the doppler nav antenna.

There was barely room for a jacket in there if the ammo can was in. You could cram jacket behind the back seat

OK I did not recognize it as an antenna it looked more like a door of some sort.



 

This one I photographed at a VFW in Port Lavaca, Texas.

Damn.



The brakes finally failed in the gun elevation drive.  (Droopy dick syndrome)



They hung some weird monstrosity where the sighting unit should be.



And, some genius mounted the TOW Launchers on backwards!  (Must be copying the Russians with a rear-firing missile)  





No shit, there I was moment.



The turret had an emergency stow (in elevation) if the power was lost, or the drives failed.  The aircraft could not land if the gun was fully depressed such as in this pic.  But, if the emergency stow control unit also failed, some poor sad sack had to go out and grab hold of the gun and hold it up as the aircraft landed.



I was said sad-sack twice.  



 

Ahhhh, the good ol' days. Thanks for the memories.