Modern Fighter/Attack

When I first visited Selfridge with my father, they flew these F-4 "Phantom" jets on week-ends. We'd sit outside the north perimeter fence as they took off and they'd go right over the top of us, so close that we could have hit them with rocks had we not been deafened by the noise and choking on kerosene fumes. It was fantastic.
Air superiority, ground attack, from land or from carriers, the McDonnell Douglas Phantom could do it all.
The Navy Reserve flew these little A-4B "Skyhawks" in the late 1960's and early 1970's. It was the smallest jet capable of carrying a nuclear weapon. John McCain flew one of these when he was a pilot.
The Blue Angels used to fly the hell out of these. I think that they were better back then than they are now, because they could do more close-in stuff with these than they can with the larger F-18s that tey currently fly.

The Grumman F-14 "Tomcat" was intended to replace the Phantom as an all-weather carrier-based interceptor. OK, maybe it did, and maybe it was fast and agile and powerful like the Phantom, but could it deliver bombs in a close air support role? Nope. And that's why there will always be but one Phantom jet.
The F-14 was a great plane itself though. It was a sad day when the Navy retired the last ones in 2006.The F-14 may have been replaced in inventory by the F/A 18, but like the Phantom jet, it'll always be remembered as having been in a class by itself. It breaks my heart to think that the retired aircraft were all deliberately destroyed to keep Iran from somehow getting any of their components.

The Selfridge Phantoms weren't replaced by the F-14. They were replaced by the General Dynamics F-16 "Falcon" and the LTV A-7 "Corsair II". Here's the F-16:

I've watched these fly from Selfridge and other fields. They're sharp, but they just lack that authoritative Phantom roar. Still, the Thunderbirds make good use of them.
And this is the LTV A-7, an all-weather attack aircraft. The A-7 flew in Vietnam, and continued on in service until it was removed from the fleet in 1981. By 1988, even the ones flown by the Guard were retired.

Here's the F16 and A-7 together. They make a great pair, don't they?
This is what the 127th Wing flies now--the A-10 "Warthog"Originally designed to combat Eastern Bloc armor, it's found many new uses as a close air support aircraft in Iraq and Afghanistan and older models are still being rebuilt and redeployed.

"We see you."

The RB-57A "Canberra" was a British design built here for use as an all-weather attack aircraft over Korea. By the time the bugs were worked out, that war was over, but the B-57 flew on as both an attack aircraft and a reconnaissance aircraft ("spy plane")

This aircraft flew with the Michigan Air Guard out of Kellogg Field in Battle Creek until 1971, when the type was replaced by the Cessna )-2A below.




This militarized version of the Cessna 337 was known as the O-2a. It may look funny, but the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong came to hate and fear it because it was the Forward Air Control (FAC) for the attack aircraft that were on the way.The pilot of this little aircraft was a busy man, often looking for targets and dodging ground fire all while he was in simultaneous radio communication with ground troops, fast-moving jet fighters, and air traffic control. Oh--and he still had to find time to fly the plane!Two engines, one in the front pulling, and one in the rear pushing, made the little O-2 stand out, but it also brought a lot of them home when one engine was shot out.

The Haulers

Military aviation does more than just kill people and break things. Sure, that's it's main job, but sometimes, you just need to get people or stuff from point A to point B.

For a while, the military liked to use the Beechcraft Model 18. Selfridge has two of them, one an Air Force version known as the C-45 "Expeditor"
The Navy had a version too. It was known as the SNB-5 "Navigator"

Another "off-the-shelf" acquisition was the U-3A "Blue Canoe". This was a military version of the civilian Cessna 310. It was also used for light cargo and personnel transport.


For larger personnel moves, the Air Force used this C-131D "Samaritan".
Sadly they finally retired the model in 1986 due to it's lack of all-weather capability and the inability of the Air Force to acquire any more parts for it's radial engines. "Logistically unsupportable" they called it.And another era ended, as anyone who ever enjoyed the sound of a big radial engine can attest.

But there's still the C-130 "Hercules". Here's an early C-130A. These aircraft, manufactured by Lockheed, were designed as "Air Assault Transports" and intended to fly large loads into undeveloped landing zones.(Read: dirt strips and other improvised fields.") That's why it has a high wing, with engines far off the ground, and short, rugged landing gear.



Here's a shot of the flight deck of the A model.

And this is a later C-130E that replaced the A models at Selfridge.