Vought F6U Pirate Trivia

The F6U catapult hook mechanism (and hold back, not shown), located aft of the nose-landing-gear well, was retractable and covered by two access doors.

One of many changes during the Pirate's development was to add a link/case chute on the belly, directly under the catapult mechanism location, to channel the links and cases from two of the cannons aft, safely past the engine intakes.

So what happened to the catapult mechanism or its access? After more closely examining a picture of the F6U bailed to NACA up on jacks and a closeup picture of the chute itself, I realized that there were actually two side-by-side chutes, each mounted on one of the catapult access doors.

For more on the F6U and the Admiral kit: http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2013/03/vought-f6u-pirate.html

XF-92 Main Landing Gear Actuator

Photobucket is fighting me today so I'm posting this picture here for an answer to an XF-92 question on Britmodeler.

 Annotated Howard Mason Photo

The landing gear actuator is at the aft end of the wheel well. There are other pictures of it here:
http://www.primeportal.net/hangar/howard_mason3/xf-92_dart/

It acts on a bellcrank that rotates the landing gear up and down. Note that the actuator is fully retracted when the gear is down so no piston is showing as when an actuator extends to put the landing gear down. Note the slot in the actuator end fitting that is connected to the bellcrank for the latter to slide inside it as actuator extends fully as the gear retracts. In other pictures on the link you'll also note that the hydraulic lines are missing but the requisite hydraulic fittings are on the actuator.

Douglas Flight Test Logo

And on an XF4D overlaid on what appears to be a black circle based on a very tiny color image:

Grumman F7F Tigercat Variations

Annotated scan of the profiles in Squadron/Signal Publications Aircraft No 79, F7F Tigercat in Action:

F-4K First Flight Markings

I'm pretty sure (although I was there, I didn't notice it at the time) that the F-4K first-flight markings were not the same on the left and right sides.

The right side of XT-595 was marked "McDonnell" in red outlined with white and a big " NO. 1 F-4K" underneath that.

This was subsequently painted over.

I'm pretty sure that the left side did not have the markings on the mid fuselage. Instead, a small "McDonnell" and "No.1 F-4K" were marked on the nose, I believe using temporary paint that was subsequently washed off.

 RAM Decals 72-001 includes the markings for XT-595 (http://www.rammodels.co.uk/product_info.php/products_id/358/osCsid/a7a1df94887553fc4e1decf0e9b5011f); note that they have assumed that the markings were symmetric and therefore present during two different time periods, which I think is incorrect.

There were at least two small difference between XT-595 and production F-4Ks: the rear cockpit had throttles (but not stick or rudder pedals) and the fuel vent aft of the rudder was 'flat" rather than the V configuration (see http://tailhooktopics.blogspot.com/2012/05/spey-powered-phantom-changes.html and scroll way down). It also had the Mk 5 M-B ejection seats with the metal sugar-scoop parachute containers; I'm not sure when the Mk 7 was introduced.

The flight test team included me, easily identifiable as the youngest member, only a month or so out of college.

Joe Dobronski, newly promoted to be Chief Test Pilot, is in the sport coat on the far left; Bud Murray, who was the F-4K project pilot, is in the flight suit.

Joe's book, A Sky Full of Challenges, is only available from Amazon as an expensive used book.

It used to be available directly from him (see http://www.omnishops.com/TestPilot/) but Joe died last year and the link to order doesn't work. However, it appears to be available as an ebook: see https://www.smashwords.com/extreader/read/142339/1/a-sky-full-of-challenges

F9F Panther Catapult Hook Up

The F9F Panther's catapult hook was retractable and located in the "notch" between the aft end of the speed brakes.

It can just be seen in this photo between the heads of the sailors hooking the pendant to it.

The holdback was attached to a retractable hook on the belly aft of the main landing gear.

Put it all together...

X-47B Nose Gear Door Logos

The two seals on the forward end of the door on the second line are "zaps" from two carriers that the X-47B flew from, Roosevelt and Bush. The remainder are company logos.