
The last one is a P-51 Mustang in D-Day stripes. The P-47 has more rounded wingtips and fuselage cross-section, and the P-51s distinctive underfuselage intake can be seen clearly in this pic...Originally posted by Lim Wei Ming:...and the last one is a WW2 P-47.

I think the skin was worn by all planes involved in the Normandy landings. To better help identification for the ground forces.Originally posted by Lim Wei Ming:Oops my mistake its a P-51d. But it was actually wearing a P-47 skin man! And what exactly is a prop plane doing right behind a jet engineat close range? He's got a death wish is it?
skin? u mean the black n white stripes?Originally posted by Fairyland:I think the skin was worn by all planes involved in the Normandy landings. To better help identification for the ground forces.
Don't believe it was specifically for P-47s only though they were doing the ground support roles mostly with their 8x 0.5 machine guns.
It might look like the Mustang is directly behind those jets but I think they are not at the same altitude......
What's amazing is that they can keep in formation! If it was a F-16 it would have fallen out of the sky OR adopt a seriously pitch up attitude with after-burner on. hee hee
Actually I was referring to the stall speed of the F-15 and I think Viper will probably know more about this......Originally posted by Lim Wei Ming:Jets planes are hard to keep in formation because of the amount of power you need to input to increase speed. You can always overshoot. The easiest to keep in formation is the P-51, followed by the A-10 and then the F-15. The P-51 is probably going around 290 mph. For a F-15 to keep in formation at this speed needs some careful flying and throttle manipulation.
RSAF bought the KC135s simply because the KC130s cannot refuel the F16s. The Vipers uses a different method of refuelling compared to the F5s and A4s. Nothing to do with stall speed.Originally posted by Fairyland:That's a one of the reason RSAF is switching to KC135 instead of using their existing KC130Bs/Hs.
Of course I understand that the KC135 can fire ICBMs too.......but that's not one of the reason why RSAF bought it.
far from it.Originally posted by clarencebk:Erm...is the leader not a F-22?
I was joking about the ICBMs but had in mind how the MD11 or was it the Lockheed Tristar was used to launch a rocket carrying satellites instead. I believe it's from the company called Orbital Science?Originally posted by Viper52:Looking at the pics I'd say the aircraft is a P-51D, whose max and cruise speeds are 437 and 325mph. The F-15 has a stall speed of 100kts or around 185 mph, so the formation had quite a lot of margin to play around with in terms of speed and formation-keeping. Notice the Eagle is clean (ie. flaps up) so I'd wager that the speed of the formation would be at the higher end but slow enough so that the formation won't zip by.
Fairyland do you have a source to back your claim that the C-135 family can launch missiles? The USAF has a lot of variants based on the C-135 family including those that can monitor ICBM launches; SIGINT, ELINT etc (Rivet Joint, Cobra Ball, Looking Glass, ARIA) but this is the first time I've heard of it as a missile platform.
And the vanilla KC-135R version we have would need extensive and expensive modifications before it can come anywhere near being able to do the missions I pointed out above.
EXCO is right, the main reason the 135s were purchased as the F-16s we have used a different refueling method from what the KC-130 could perform
Right! That's a F-15.Originally posted by HENG@:far from it.
its unmistakably a F-15.

Yup, the RSAF's KC135s have been retrofitted so it can refuel other aircraft which uses the probe and drogue method, namely the A4s and F5s in our case. Also, it can be used as a transport aircraft, which has been demonstrated before. As for the KC130s, I do not know what happened to them, but I would believe they are still kept as airborne refuelling platforms. Afterall, RSAF don't have a lot of KC135s.Originally posted by Fairyland:It's hard to believe they bought the KC135 at that time for the 'needle' only. Maybe the KC135 has more fuel capacity to refuel several planes at one time non-stop across the Pacific.
Pending funds availability, I believe the Charlies were in for an upgrade to the avionics. Suppose to reduce cockpit crew.....no more flight engineer.Originally posted by EXCO:Yup, the RSAF's KC135s have been retrofitted so it can refuel other aircraft which uses the probe and drogue method, namely the A4s and F5s in our case. Also, it can be used as a transport aircraft, which has been demonstrated before. As for the KC130s, I do not know what happened to them, but I would believe they are still kept as airborne refuelling platforms. Afterall, RSAF don't have a lot of KC135s.