and though they flew modern fighter jets designed on the cutting edge of
technology.... ...in the early years of vietnam when things went wrong and a
fighter pilot had to bail of his jet over enemy terrority ...he often found his
best friend.... second to the rescue helicopter crews.... was a pilot flying
an old propeller driven navy attack plane designed at the end of world war 2...
...the douglas skyraider... ....
well into the jet age skyraiders escorted rescue operations helicopters searching
for downed american pilots and provided valuable cover for them....they could linger
over a battle field much longer than jet aircraft and could deliver accurate fire down
onto enemy troops threatening both the rescue helicopters and the downed pilots....
a douglas skyraider being readied for a combat mission during the early years of the vietnam war....
< currently working on getting a new photo hosting site so i can put the really
awesome pictures back on this thread... ... but meanwhile.... enjoy this
video of f4 corsairs and ad1 skyraiders taking off on combat missions
from the deck of a u.s. aircraft carrier during the korean war.... >.. 
oops.... on second thought try this video instead.... apparently google
decided you can;t see that other one... oh well... 
a pair of douglas skyraiders flying a CSAR mission over vietnam .....
and another skyraider... almost 20 years earlier.... about to launch from the deck of an aircraft carrier to fly combat missions
over north korea, during the korean war..... .... .. ... note the f-8 bearcats parked to the left side.... they were also built at
the end of world war 2 and are still considered the best propeller driven fighter planes ever built.... even more capable
than the legendary p-51 mustang..... .... but they were built for a specific purpose that ceased to exist after world war 2
was over....and the first jet fighters made their appearance at around that same time....... so the quick and agile bearcat
ended up having a very short career with the u.s. military...... they did however have a brief moment of glory as the first
fighter plane flown by the navys blue angels......... and some of the bearcats that are still airworthy can be found today flying
in the various air races around the country..... where they are very hard to beat..... 
douglas skyraiders work with a ch-53 and ov-10 bronco in a combat search
and rescue mission to recover a downed pilot in vietnam.... ....
Great Pictures keep Posted .....................
* Please do not include the same links over and over in your posts. This forum isn't for advertising your University. Admin....
rare picture of the air force thunderbirds and the navy blue angels lined up on the tarmac
together.... when both flight demonstration teams were using the mighty f-4 phantom.....
3 branches of the u.s. military ... and flown by both u.s. elite aerial demonstration teams....the
blue angels and the thunderbirds..... today most of the surviving f-4 phantoms can be found
mothballed in a military aircraft boneyard on the arizona desert..... some are still in excellent
shape and are considered held in reserve..... others are used for everything from aerial target
drones to spare parts for foreign air forces who still fly the f-4.....
<sorry.... no blue angel or thunderbird pictures at this time.... still working on
getting them back up.... but in the meantime here;s the blue angels in action
flying the mighty f-4 phantom!... >
seems a rather plebeian end for what was once americas mightiest jet fighter.....
< and ....meanwhile.... i found a really awesome vintage video of the mighty
f-4 phantom when it first entered service with the air force thunderbirds.... >
so when it came time to replace the f4 phantom.... the airforce and navy chose 2 different fighter planes to do it.... .. the navy chose
the f 14 tomcat and the airforce went with the f 15 eagle... .. both were originally designed to be multirole fighters and intended to be
built in large numbers like the f4 phantom had been.... .... but the cost of the f 15 and f 14 was enormous.... so a few years later the much
cheaper f 16 falcon was designed and built to supplement the f 15 eagle in the airforce.... and the f 18 hornet was purchased for the navy
to supplement the mighty f 14 tomcat in the same manner... ... that freed both the f 15 and f 14 to serve primarily as air superiority fighters
while the f 18 and f 16 were used in the multirole capacity of both air superiority and ground attack...... and all 4 of those aircraft were also
sold and exported to other friendly countries..... including one that didn;t stay friendly.....
then years later it came time to replace both the f 15s and f 14s in the u.s. inventory as well....... in the early 2000s the f 22 raptor stealth
fighter was designed and chosen to replace the f 15 for the air force...... but what many people do not know is that a navy version of the f 22
was also designed which would have replaced the f 14 in the navy..... ..(currently... and in the years since the f 14 was officially retired....the f 18
has not been able to completely fulfill the role the f 14 once performed).... .... ... the navy version of the f 22 was to have been a swing wing long
range fighter similar to the older f 14 but much more capable and with the same stealth features as the f 22 raptor....... ....however.... the projected
cost of the navy version of the f 22.. designated the f -24 tomcat 2, was deemed way too high..... so it was cancelled.... ...
then after only about 200 f 22 raptors were built it too was deemed to be too expensive to continue building ..... ..and it was also cancelled.... ....
so the u.s. military returned to the idea of having a less expensive fighter serve in both the air force and the navy in a multirole capacity like the f 4
phantom had done before..... ....they chose the f 35...... ... but the cost of building it didn;t turn out to be as easy on washingtons wallet as they had
planned.. ........ while still not as expensive as the f 22 is.... or as it;s navy counterpart that never developed would have been..... the f 35 is still far
more expensive than the pentagon said it would be... ....... meaning they won;t be able to build as many of them as they originally wanted .... so the f 18s
f 15s and f 16s it was also supposed to replace will most likely continue to fly for many years to come.. longer than they were ever expected to....... as will the
limited number of f 22s.... which to date is still the best fighter aircraft in the world.... far better than the f-35... and lucky for the u.s. ...the f 22 by law cannot be
sold or exported to any other country... ....it;s to remain for the sole use of the usa.. .. ....
at least the military planners got that one right....... .
the u.s. airforce f 22 raptor....
a lot of navy veterans think it was a big mistake for the pentagon to cancel the f 24 tomcat 2.....
and they seriously doubt that the f 35... which some have dubbed the "potato".... will be able to
fill the big shoes left behind by the original f 14 tomcat.... or even fill the roll currently performed
by the f 18 hornet.... .... but i guess we shall see.... as they say.....
one thing i am aware of from living close to an airforce base that f-22 raptors fly daily patrols from.... is that f-22s are much
louder than the f-15s were....... i;m not sure how that extra noise contributes to the idea of stealthiness.... but i will say this...
f-22s seem to fly a little cleaner than the f-15s... leaving no visible smoke trail at all.... and leaving a lot less smoke than the f-14 did......
..... and all modern u.s. fighter aircraft.... burn clean compared to the old f-4 phantom that left a darkened smog trail in the sky all but
the totally blind could follow..... .. i use to watch that and wonder why instead of an expensive infrared heat seeking missles, nobody ever came up
with a smoke trail following missle..... i use to think that since household smoke detectors were so cheap surely a missle designed to detect and
follow an aircraft smoke trail that was so clearly visible to the eye had to be more economical than one that detected a heat source from a distance,
..... and then was subject to failure half the time...... ...but with the loud profile of the newer f-22 engines they could probably design one that followed
the noise as well..... maybe that;s among the things the new generation of radars will be designed to detect..... ... eventually improved satellites and
more effective anti-radar weapons will make stealth features designed to hide from radar obsolete anyway...... but for now..... the f-22 rules the sky....
if true... the information in this video could be very good news for the u.s. air force and for
the defense of the nation as a whole..... ... when barrack obama cancelled the original f 22
project after only a little over 200 planes were built.... many in the military and defense
department said it was a huge mistake.... ..but now serious thought is being given to
restarting the program again.... ...... .... though older and less numerous than other
generation 5 fighter aircraft that have been built around the world.... to date there
is still no fighter jet in existence that can match the f-22 raptor.....
and in a development that will please fans of the famous F15 eagle..... since restarting production lines
for the F-22 raptor are unlikely.... boeing has created a new version of the F15..called the F15X Super Eagle
... built on totally new and updated air frames.... and with the capability of carrying 3 times
the missles of other F15s,... the super eagle will serve as a valuable supplement
and combat support to the current F22 Raptor - stealth fighters..... ...
the theory as it stands now is that should an air war break out.... . and should
the U.S. Air Force find itself greatly outnumbered.... the U.S small numbers
of F-22 Raptors using would target enemy fighters, using their stealth technology
and superior flight cpabalilities..... then the pre-targeted missles would be fired
from the greater number of F-15X Eagles to take them down.... ....