Just some abandoned aircraft photos for today, courtesy of Pinterest. Sarge, I hope that keeps the copyright hacks off your back.- R/Tuna
Stupid Criminal Tricks. Some Narcos didn't do so well landing this bird on the beach.
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| Lockheed T2V-1 Trainer in the Jersey woods. |
Plenty of these aircraft are most likely abandoned not due to any apathy or lack of value, but because of
where they were when they landed or crashed. This B-24 Liberator is in the Aleutians, making recovery difficult if not impossible. WWII birds probably didn't have the same value as they would today due to the war and the fact that we were pumping them out like hotcakes.
Not really an airplane, but this one did ride on air. It's the remains of a Navy hovercraft in Florida.
Russkie Space Shuttle abandoned in Kazakhstan. Barely used either, at least in space.
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| Kiwi PV-1 Ventura |
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| Abandoned everything in North Carolina |
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| 737 in Bali |
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| On the Icelandic Coast- a DC-3? |
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| Another Abandoned Alaskan Aircraft. That wing wouldn't buff out. |
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| A very cold Connie in Antarctica. |
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| A Canuck C-46 Commando is quite the canvas |
Felix on this wild kitty seems to have at least one life left. This F4F-3 doesn't however, and rests on the ocean floor near the USS Lexington in the Coral Sea. This pic is from a National Geographic video. Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen
found the Lady Lex last March. I don't remember if that was discussed here or not. Pretty amazing find. This was one of 34 aircraft that went down when the ship was scuttled to prevent the Japanese from capturing it after fires on board grew out of control. Allen has made a habit of finding ships, discovering the USS Indianapolis three miles down and several others.
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| P-40 Warhawk in an African desert |
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| Beech 18 in New Hampshire |
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| This plane in Tampa lost its ass in the economic downturn. |
This is probably my favorite picture in the whole set. This is a Russian Antonov An-12 cargo aircraft left at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan. They probably tried to move it with those tanks underneath, but it wasn't too successful. What's great about it is the obviously American graffiti on it, including some intrepid Navy Aviation Electronics Technician Senior Chief (ATCS), and somebody from CVW-11, my old airwing, who climbed up and painted "November Hotel" on the tail.
Not sure if this was abandoned, or was a picture snapped just after the French pilot had a bad landing.
All right, that's my contribution to the Chant for this month. I heard Sarge might be giving out bonuses though so I might hang around the office a little more than usual.
I wonder if the Liberator is a B-24, or a PB4Y-1? Someone go rescue that SNEEB!
ReplyDeleteWas a plane captain on an SNB at Atsugi as an Airman (E-3). It was dubbed "Super Nuclear Bomber". Had one make an arrested landing at Atsugi once. He was dropping skydivers and when he landed he kept the tail up for high speed taxi to the far end of the runway where the jumpers were waiting. What he didn't know was that he had lost the tail wheel at some point and had only a stub hanging down. When he set the tail down just before the arresting gear, surprise! It actually spun the plane to right up on the right gear far enough to damage the right side vertical stab.
DeleteEEK!
DeleteThe AN-12, "Live Free or Die".... el...oh...el. A interesting clutch of photos there Tuna, makes you wonder about their stories. Nice choices.
ReplyDeleteThere is something haunting about old, abandoned aircraft.
ReplyDeleteYour second picture, the T2V-1, I immediately thought, "Hey, wait a minute that's a T-33!" So I had to drag out Teh Google, and had an "I had no ideer" moment.
The T2V-1 was carrier-capable and was developed from the T-33. Cool, I learned something new.
Great post Tuna.
For more interesting photos, of detritus of war left by infantry, google "forest war relics" or "russian forest war relics" and hit images.
ReplyDeleteAlong with the photos of guys treasure hunting in what was the Eastern Front and showing off their haul (about which I'm of two minds) you will also find pages like: http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/battlefield-history-relics/relics-engulfed-swallowed-trees-russian-forest-425917/
There's a metric butt-ton of Russian planes left to rot after the cold war. I could have posted twice as many Russkie birds as this post has views. That shuttle flew once. Lots of money for that single flight.
DeleteThere’s a term for photos like that, ruin porn, though it mostly refers to abandoned buildings.
ReplyDeleteAH! A new one for me, thanks.
DeleteRuin porn. Good term. Seen the photo essay from a few years back of all the abandoned buildings in Detroit? Amazing, and sad.
DeleteI understand planes degrading and being lost in backwards places, but Tampa? North Carolina? And that really nice Beech in New Hamster? Sad face. Really sad face.
ReplyDeleteAs to that wet version of the T-33. Also sad face. My dad did jet training in the T-33 and he loved that plane. Go J-Flight Jets! (his training unit from wherever he did training. I really need to get the nieces to attack my mom's closet of doom and scan old papers and photos and email them to me.)
Now really sad is out in the boneyards where they are actively chopping up perfectly good planes. That's really sad. :(
My step-dad did his jet transition at Pensacola in single seat F-80s borrowed from the AF before the Navy got the TV-2s. A guy standing on the wing pointing out stuff and then off Ya go. Of course this was after his advanced training in F-8Fs in Corpus.
DeleteMy dad liked his T-33 until a couple days after he managed to compress a seagull into the inside of his wing. Over the desert. Found out when he went to check the mouthpiece and got a mouthful of rotten seagull stink. He never liked the flying rats ever again.
DeleteNATOPS is written in his classmates blood.
DeleteHey Tuna;
ReplyDeleteVery cool selection of pics, but as I recall, the "Shuttleski" was destroyed after a heavy snowfall collapsed the roof of the building that the spacecraft was stored in and the pic of the wildcat with "Felix" was a bit haunting.
Saw an interesting program on the espionage behind the Shuttleski. According to the program, there's a reason why it looks so similar to our Shuttle. NASA/CIA knew the Soviets were going to steal the plans, so they had fake copies of them whipped up with almost all the right information on them. Thus the Boran is about 98% correct, and it's the 2% that was critical for actually making the transition between space and air.
DeleteWould be totally neat if it was true, and I am glad they found out before actually launching people in the thing.
Who knew the Soviets were stealing our stuff and copying it almost completely? I am shocked, shocked I say to find espionage in this establishment...
Mr. G- Thanks for the update. Fortunately, we got a shot of it before the roof collapsed. There was another one or two, but not sure if they were ever finished.
DeletePlay it again Beans. Good line.
You must remember this,
DeleteA Red is but a Red,
a Lie is but a lie.
The Fundamental rules of spy.
As time goes by...
Tuna, I could see three or four of those pics flying as a banner over my blog someday. Not that I would steal them, exactly, but they could be appropriated for other purposes, IYKWIM.
ReplyDeleteI claim no ownership. Tons of good shots on Pinterest.
DeleteThe Dreamy Dodo has a bit more history on that last photo of the overturned Mirage IIIE.
ReplyDeletehttps://elpoderdelasgalaxias.wordpress.com/2016/12/11/dassault-mirage-iiie-one-of-those-days/
Also, that's fairly definitively a Super DC-3.
ReplyDeleteMore pix here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2643794/Left-rot-The-eerie-wreckage-crashed-U-S-Navy-aircraft-abandoned-Icelandic-beach-40-years-ago.html
A little more about that F4F,
ReplyDeletehttp://usnhistory.navylive.dodlive.mil/2018/03/09/modern-treasure-uss-lexington-reveals-rare-f4f-wildcats/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noel_Gayler
Three Navy Cross's!