I offer my sincere apologies to the loyal reader(s) of my news blog for not updating any articles this weekend...Slacker that I am, I went instead to the Aeros & Autos show at Ellington Field in Houston where I entered my Challenger in the show...
The cost wasn't that much more than a spectator entry fee, and I got a t-shirt, a goodie bag and I didn't have to walk to and from the parking lot with the unwashed masses...Here's a link to the pics I took: https://picasaweb.google.com/1129622...erosAutos51615
The one below is the Collings Foundation F-4D, the only civilian owned Phantom which can be legally owned and operated...
Unfortunately some homeless derelict inserted himself in the second picture, ruining what might have been a good shot...
This is not the original A/C flown by Col. Olds...This one was originally an F-4D USAF # 65-0749 which was sold to Collings...USAF # 63-7680 was a "C" model assigned to Olds when he assumed command of the 8th TFW in Thailand...He gave it the name "Scat XXVII" (it was his 27th assigned aircraft)...
He always said it was his favorite...In his honor, the Collings Foundation gave the "D" model the exact same paint scheme as the "C" model wore on the day he shot down his first MIG, numbers and all...That's why it only has one star on the splitter vane...He eventually shot down four MIG's and he left it with four stars on the vane...With his eleven WWII victories, this made him a triple ace, the only one that fought in both wars...
I found a smaller tail number for the civilian designation issued to the Collings Foundation (shown in the below pic)...It took an act of Congress to enable the Collings Foundation to own and operate this one...
Col. Olds led his group on Operation Bolo shortly after his arrival in Thailand flying Scat XXVII...Below is his own after action report of that day:The same aircraft was later assigned to another aircrew, and was shot down by AA fire while attacking a SAM site...The WSO survived the bailout and was rescued...The pilot took it to the jungle floor, and is still listed as MIA...“At the onset of this battle, the MiGs popped up out of the clouds. Unfortunately, the first one to pop through came up at my 6 o’clock position. I think this was more by chance than by design. As it turned out, within the next few moments, many others popped out of the clouds in varying positions around the clock.
“This one was just lucky. He was called out by the second flight that had entered the area, they were looking down on my flight and saw the MiG-21 appear. I broke left, turning just hard enough to throw off his deflection, waiting for my three and four men to slice in on him. At the same time I saw another MiG pop out of the clouds in a wide turn about my 11 o’clock position, a mile and a half away. I went after him and ignored the one behind me. I fired missiles at him just as he disappeared into the clouds.
“I’d seen another pop out in my 10 o’clock position, going from my right to left; in other words, just about across the circle from me. When the first MiG I fired at disappeared, I slammed full afterburner and pulled in hard to gain position on this second MiG. I pulled the nose up high about 45 degrees, inside his circle. Mind you, he was turning around to the left so I pulled the nose up high and rolled to the right. This is known as a vector roll. I got on top of him and half upside down, hung there, and waited for him to complete more of his turn and I timed it so that as I continued to roll down behind him, I’d be about 20 degrees angle off and about 4,500 to 5,000 feet behind him. That’s exactly what happened. Frankly, I’m not sure he ever saw me. When I got down low and behind, and he was outlined by the sun against a brilliant blue sky, I let him have two Sidewinders, one of which hit and blew his right wing off”
...Ben
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Originally Posted by wacojoe
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