I joined the Navy in August 1973. After boot camp I spent a few months T.A.D. at N.A.R.F North Island building TF-30 engines for F-14's. I then went to N.A.T.T.C Memphis/Millington for jet engine mechanic (ADJ) training/certification. After that I spent two years on Guam with VQ-3 working on EC-130Q aircraft. After two years I was transferred to the USS Enterprise CVN-65 and VAW-113 with the ugliest aircraft ever built the E2-B Hawkeye. The E2-B used a very close variant of the T-56 turboprop engine that the C-130 used and the damned thing had a TAILHOOK! That's why I ended up on a freaking carrier!!!
TC156176 was one of our aircraft from VQ-3 that was lost with all souls onboard off Wake island one month after I Ieft the island. I knew, flew and worked with almost all of that flight crew...........I didn't learn of it's/their demise until after I left the service.
As much as both planes hold a place in my heart I'd love to build an E-2 or a C-130 but lets be honest. For the normal builder that's a VERY tall order. Unless someone comes up with kits of the E-2 and/or the C-130 that are fully cut and completely supplied I'll likely never build one. As much as I'd like to I simply don't have the patience for a scratch build of this magnitude.
For me, well the username says the first one, the F-106 Delta Dart! Otherwise, in no particular would be the B-29 Superfortress, Bell 47, P-47, V-22, CH-53, VJ-101, and H-21. It’s hard to pick a definitive 2nd, so many favorites!
Not really a "favorite" but I quite like the various Mignet Pou du Ciel models. The first real homebuilt airplane! I think I know exactly where my fascination with the type stems from. Has anyone here ever visited the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville? They're primarily dedicated to cars but they have about twenty of the things hanging around the ceiling of the museum. These are pictures I took when I last visited a couple years ago:
At some point some madman decided not to build a fuselage and literally just slapped some wings and an engine onto a ladder (and according to the little placard on the floor said madman flew it for almost 20 years!)
There were so many of them that they literally ran out of space to store them. They told me they had about 3 or 4 more disassembled and in storage. Though I did see one of them sitting on a shelf up here:
The most conventional airplane they had on display was this Avid Catalina which I also really liked. The registration has been assigned to a Cessna since 1998 so I'm assuming this has likely not been in the air in a long time.
And one more thing which is totally, completely, absolutely unrelated but I felt was too cool to not post. Here's a model of what I think is either the internal wooden framework or the "buck" which was used to shape the sheet aluminum body panels of the Fuller Dymaxion car. It really reminded me of the way stick built planes are made. I love how they even topped it off with scale C-clamps
There was still an "HH" that flew out of Pendleton, always amazed us the way it could take off like it weighed nothing...
Our UH-1N's were overweight. Had tons of electronics they probably didn't need, FLIR, chaff, scas ect... they really stretched the definition of "Hellicipter Marine Light Attack" squadron...
Had a buddy that got to go work on the testing of the 4 blade models, basically a Huey on steroids. Got to see one fly once, but without the "Whop whop whop" of the old twin blades it just didn't seem like a Huey anymore... 😔