Quick and Dirty Review: Air Enthusiast March/April 2004
I've always liked Air Enthusiast, as it usually covers a good selection of interesting topics in a very thorough manner. The March/April 2004 issue is no exception, and there are a number of noteworthy articles.
*C-133: Nine page article with 17 photos. This is a very good look at this short-lived airlifter, going into the reasons _why_ it didn't last longer. Particularly chilling was the mention of an airliner crew seeing a "Weenie Wagon" coming out of a cloud base in an inverted spin. A major C-133 role was the transport of missiles - this was avery delicate affair - the rails for carrying the Atlas ICBM had to be placed with a 1.6mm tolerance! There are a number of interesting illustrations, including a shot of a dissambled CH-54 (itself no mean aircraft) being loaded into a Cargomaster. One thing I hadn't seen before was a shot of a C-133 wind tunnel model fitted with twin vertical tails and carrying a Saturn IB rocket stage atop its fuselage.*Seven-page article on the Boeing 307 Stratoliner, the elegant airliner counterpart to the B-17. There are 18 photos, several illustrations, and two color profiles showing a TWA aircraft and Howard Hughes' N19904.
*Part one on an article on the B-17s of the 99th Bomb Group. Seven pages, nine photos.*For the WWI enthusiasts, there is a two-page article dealing with the aircraft designed by the Frederick Sage & Co. Ltd. There are seven photos of various types, and a three-view drawing of the Sage Type 2 Scout.
*Definitely interesting is the eleven-page article on Swedish SIGINT operations - there are six shots of Ju87s used in this shadowy work, plus one color profile. There are four images and a profile of the C-47s later used in this mission, as well as several images of pieces from the wreck of C-47 79001, which was shot down by the Soviets in 1952.*Another weighty article deals with Israeli and Iranian operations against Iraqi nuclear facilities. This goes far beyond the well-known Opera raid, detailing Israeli help to the Iranians in the form of intelligence from RF-4 overflights and other sources, as well as the transfer of hardware (such as ALQ-119 ECM pods) via unmarked 707 flights. There's a whole plethora of interesting details, such as the April 1981 "H3 Blitz" that saw Iranian F-4Ds and F-4Es, supported by KC-707s, F-14s, 747 command a/c and a C-130 COMINT bird conduct a long-range strike that took out over two dozen Iraqi aircraft.
There are two Iranian Phantom photos, plus a color profile of an Iranian RF-4E. There is also a color profile of an Israeli F-4E(S) and an RF-4E photo. There are two Israeli F-16 photos and a pair of color profiles, plus a shot of Israeli F-15s with Syrian kill markings.
*Towards the end of the issue, there are a couple of shots of preserved Spanish F-86s, and a two-page article noting the phase-out of the T-2 Buckeye. This is illustrated by five photos, mostly of a nicely restored civilian example. The Buckeye was a real link to the past of naval aviation, since the wing planform was derived from the FJ Fury.Recommended
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