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Post by LBer1568 on Sept 15, 2018 2:37:48 GMT 9
This isn't about the individual paint schemes for squadrons, but attempts to make F-106 invisible. Well not totally invisible. While at McGuire with 539th FIS we had several birds come back from IRAN (Depot, not country) with weird light blue/gray paint schemes. It was designed to help six pilots during dog fights against F-4, F-14 etc. They were designed to blend into sky when seen from below. But in reality they stuck out like sour thumb when seen from above. I guess engineers didn't think too far in advance. We had two of them go TDY (Me included) to Fort Knox KY where we were targets for Army troops testing ground to air stinger type shoulder fired missiles. It did help camouflage the six. But the Army guys had to determine if plane was friendly or foe and then lock on and "fire". well when operating from openings in forest they only had seconds to take all actions necessary. One thing was wrong...the aircraft were limited to 250 kts. Gave the Army guys more time to react. Well on last day our six drivers decided to light burners and give the Army guys some real life exposure, not the type designed to make weapons look better. We watched from distance as Army guys dived to ground when exposed to two six's in burner at close to supersonic and the majority of them took to the ground as initial response. BTW, during TDY we lived in tents out with Army and ate from back of deuce and half trucks. But every evening our pilots would go to town and bring back a few brews and pizza for us maintainers. Interesting two weeks.
Lorin |
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