19 thoughts on “Two Eras”

  1. I like the P-51 Mustang better with the bulb cockpit. It seems kinda wonky with the original one.

      1. C models more so. iirc, if that plane in the photo is actually a C, it’s the only one on the planet. Saw it courtesy of the Collins Foundation as they wandered about last year. Also had the last flyable B-24. Appreciated seeing it, but as the last of it’s flyable kind I’m with Indy ‘It should be in a museum’.

  2. That’s a Raptor, right? If it was a -35, I’d tell the Mustang driver to go for it…

    1. The F22 has this bubble cockpit glass. The F32 has less vision astern, perhaps relying on the “Wonder Woman’s Invisible Airplane” trick from the Virtual Reality helmet for a pilot to “check (their) six.”

      1. The morons that designed it thought to themselves: ‘Selves, this is an attack plane, the targets are in front of it, no need to see what’s behind because if it’s behind it’s already dead. The F22’s have already slagged down any possible opposition.’ I suspect they are familialy related to the morons who decided F4’s didn’t need no steenkeeng guns, and marines and infantry didn’t need no steengkeeng cleaning kits for their M16’s.

        When the M1 MBT was fielded we were told many weird and wonderful things. We chose not to believe, based on past performance. Turned out to be the smart move, and Saddam learned the hard way. The change to army doctrine caused by the Abrams (from Active Defense uber alles, (aka drag our feet backward to the Rhine)) to realistically considering counterattacks into East Germany on day 1, I’mna thinking had a good deal of influence with Gorbachev & Co.

  3. Looks photo shopped, the lightly looks to be from above or behind the F22 and more behind the camera for the P51.

    1. P-51 is above the F-22 and closer to the camera, no photoshop involved. DOD picture number 170422-F-TT327-024D, google it.

    1. I don’t know that you were wrong. The Mustang is 32 feet long, the F-22 is 62 feet long. The picture makes it look like they’re the same size…actually, the Mustang appears to be in the background, which means the F-22 would be smaller.

      It is kind of cool to compare the F-22 to WW-II airplanes, though. The venerable B-17 bomber had a maximum takeoff weight of 65,500 pounds, a maximum combat radius with 4,500 pounds of bombs of 700 nmi, a service ceiling of 35,600 feet, and a top speed of 287 mph. The F-22 isn’t a bomber, but can be used as one. It has a maximum takeoff weight of 83,500 pounds, a combat radius of 460 nmi with 2,000 pounds of bombs, a service ceiling of 65,000 feet, and a top speed of 1,500 mph. It’s really rather amazing.

      1. Yeah. The F-22’s range sucks. It isn’t an F-111 that’s for sure. As much as the Aardvark sucked, it was great at what it was supposed to do once the bugs got worked out. The other problem with the F-22 is that the ‘bomb bay’ is quite small. Small than an F-35’s even.

        The Raptor was a decent design at what it’s supposed to do I guess. But still the weapon systems are totally obsolete. Like where’s the HMD? Only now are they putting AIM-9X support in it but the off-boresight capabilities are kinda lame without the helmet sight. The AMRAAM is also obsolete compared to the Meteor or later versions of the R-77. It really needs an upgrade.

        It’s a shame that FB-22 never got developed too.

  4. That’s either a very weird angle creating forced perspective or photoshop. I’m betting it’s shopped.

    1. The P-51 is higher than the F-22 and closer to the camera, no photo shop involved. Search google for DOD photo number 170422-F-TT327-024D

      1. I see that. What makes you think that is evidence of no photoshopping?

        I can’t find any convincing evidence that it is photoshopped either.

  5. I think it’s a real photo, it’s just that the P51 is closer to the camera and has its nearer wing is tipped up towards the camera giving an illusion of wonky perspective. Our brain is just expecting to see the wings of the two planes at the same horizontal angle which makes the picture look somewhat unnatural.

    1. Also I think that the fact that the tail of the F-22 sticks out behind the P-51 tricks us into thinking it’s closer.

  6. To see which plane is in the background and which plane is in the foreground, zoom in and look at the pilots and see who is focused on who.

    1. In this case you can’t see anything of the F-22 pilot: if you could, you’d see he’s focused on the 51 if he’s in the background, or the camera ship if he’s in the foreground.

      The 51 driver is looking straight at the camera/camera ship.

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