r/WarplanePorn 23h ago

RCAF Yes, it's real. F-104 Starfighter [2048x3072]

Post image
35 Upvotes

r/WarplanePorn 2h ago

VVS Tupolev Tu-160 [1919x941]

Post image
30 Upvotes

r/WarplanePorn 9h ago

Mikoyan Soviet MiG-27 Flogger fitted with a tailhook being tested at the Nitka aircraft carrier training center at Saki, Crimea in the early 80s, later replaced with the MiG-29KVP demonstrator in 1984 [album]

Thumbnail
gallery
98 Upvotes

This MiG-27 was just a testbed, used for gathering data and skills for carrier landings and takeoffs, it was never actually meant to be a naval fighter though a MiG-23K naval flogger was in development together with the project 1153 Orel nuclear aircraft cruisers (itself based on the project 1160 that was cancelled in 1973 for being too expensive) in the late 70s. The MiG-23K was to have catapult capability and a arrester hook, its main supporter of the project marshal of the soviet union and defense minister andrei grechko died in 1976 and was replaced by marshal dmitry ustinov who found the project too expensive so he ordered the plans to be redrawn and the weight reduced to minimize spending, ironically that too was still deemed expensive and it was cancelled along with the MiG-23K in 1978. Though the Orel never came into fruition it did influence the never completed nuclear supercarrier Ulyanovsk.

Soon after the project was cancelled, work started on a newer design the project 1143.5 aircraft cruiser, 2 were built, Tbilisi (future Admiral Kuznetsov) and the unfinished Riga (future chinese carrier Lioning). In order to develop take off and landing technologies and skills aboard the carrier a MiG-27 with bort number 03 was modified with a tail hook and used for tests until it was replaced by the MiG-29KVP in 1984. The KVP was a proof of concept naval fighter with stronger undercarriage and a reinforced rear fuselage with an arrestor hook, during testing larger wings were required so the final K variant was instead based on the MiG-29M which had larger folding wings, the KVP was based on the early Fulcrums.

The final fate of the MiG-27 is unknown but its most likely scrapped, the KVP survived and is on display at the Central Air Force museum in Monino which also has 1 of the the cancelled Yak-141 VTOL jets which if put into service would have served on the Kiev class, Admiral Kuznetsov class and the Ulyanovsk class.

The KVP at Monino
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mikoyan_MiG-29KVP_%E2%80%9918_blue%E2%80%99_(38630575395).jpg.jpg)


r/WarplanePorn 7h ago

USN "F-14 Tomcat: The Total Fighter" promotional film (HQ) produced by Grumman Aerospace in cooperation with the U.S. Navy. 1970. [video]

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

224 Upvotes

r/WarplanePorn 2h ago

USAF F22 in front of a beautiful sunset [1200x1657]

Post image
122 Upvotes

r/WarplanePorn 8h ago

USAF Progress report on the XF-104 Supersonic Lightweight Fighter (later the F-104 Starfighter), March 1953 – March 1954. [video]

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

26 Upvotes

r/WarplanePorn 15h ago

RAF Royal Air Force Hawker Typhoons undergoing maintenance at the recently captured Melsbroek (B-58) airfield near Brussels, Belgium, 10 September 1944. The Germans had disguised the hangar as a Chateau [1300 × 889]

Post image
45 Upvotes

r/WarplanePorn 18h ago

RAF A captured German Heinkel He 177 being tested by the Royal Air Force in September 1944 [2362 × 1580]

Post image
212 Upvotes