(Kirk Stant) wrote:

Just for fun, off the top of your heads, which post-WW2 combat
aircraft (any country) have NOT been used in their intended roles in
an actual shooting war (or police action, or soccer riot, or whatever
it's called these days)?

And why?

Some ROE:

1. Combat aircraft means it was designed or modified to employ
air-to-air or air-to-ground/ship/boat weapons.

2. Combat means someone was activily shooting back (or really wanted
to) while the aircraft was performing it's mission.

3. Let's leave out recce, that just gets too complicated!

To start things off, here are my USAF candidates:

B-36 - Held back from Korea for Nuke mission.
B-47 - Too early for Korea, too late for Vietnam (remember, no recce).
F-84F - Too early for Korea (ef considered a separate aircraft from
straight-wing F-84s), too late for Vietnam. Combat use by other
countries?
F-89 - Too late for Korea (?), not needed (no bomber threat).
F-106 - Not needed in Vietnam - F-102s deployed instead.
F-101 (Yeah, I know about the RF-101 in Cuba and Vietnam). Don't know
why F-101Cs weren't used early in Vietnam. Being phased out by then?

Could be wrong, but here goes:

B-36, B-47, F-84F, F-89, F-106, F-101, F-86D, F-94C, Saab Draken, Saab
29, F-4D Skyray, F7U Cutlass, F9F (swept-wing) Cougar, Gloster
Javelin, Avro Vulcan, Handley Page Victor, Supermarine Scimitar, Fiat
G.91, English Electric Lightning, Dassault Mirage IV, Saab Viggen,
Sukhoi Su-15, Shin Meiwa, Alpha Jet, Folland Gnat, BAe Hawk, Fuji
T1F2, Supermarine Swift, Tupolov Tu-22, Tupulov Tu-26, B-58 Hustler,
Tupolov Tu-16, North American B-45, Hawker Firebrand, Tupolov Tu-20,
Hawker Siddeley Buccaneer, Hawker Sea Vixen, deHavilland Venom,
McDonnell F2H-4 Banshee, North American FJ-4B Fury, deHavilland
Vampire, Yakolev Yak-25A, Dassault Ouragen, McDonnell FH-1
Phantom, Hawker Sea Fury, Grumman F7F Tigercat, McDonnell
F3H Demon, Supermarine Attacker...

Everything else got lots of chances to do their thing.

At first glance, looks like the US taxpayer is getting a pretty good
deal for his money!

Kirk
(tired of all the non-mil av bull**** on this group)

Same.