F14 intercepts Space Shuttle, ah no it’s a Vulcan
 

A nice little tail.

Back in 1981, a Shackleton stumbled across a USN Battlegroup in the SWAPPs and was intercepted by said F-14s. Listening to the radios, the Shack crew heard "Gee Sir, I don't know. I think its a Liberator".

Brilliant, thanks for posting.

Not for the first time. landing at Souda Bay in '72 we were described by a couple of USAF aircraft behind as a Liberator, and again in '75 on the way into Mildenhall. Recognition never seemed to be their (US) strongpoint - even in a Chinook we were described as hostile on one occasion.

Pottering about at low level over the Med once in a Vulcan, we were intercepted by an F-14. No doubt our meandering MRR boat-spotting had raised their concern, but a friendly wave and away they went back to the 'boat'. On another occasion the ItAF scrambled a couple of F-104s when we'd climbed back up to high level on our way back to Malta - from the south, which must have sparked interest as it would have looked like something of Gaddafi's heading towards Italy!

Although our VC10K was described by a couple of Keflavik-based Sloe Gins as 'a British Nimrod' and the TriStar which came to take over 'our' Bear as 'an airliner', the aircraft recce skills of our own phighter mates weren't too hot. Out of Cyprus one crew spotted a 'weird 4-tailed aircraft' and had no idea what a USN Greyhound was. My captain in the F-104 intercept thought the F-104s were Libyan Floggers....

Tragically, the 1994 mis-ID of a couple of Blackhawks as Hinds by a pair of F-15s wasn't picked up by the E-3 crew, with the devastating consequence of 26 deaths. It was probably rather unfortunate at a later OPC mass brief to reply "Hind - waste the mutha!" when the aircraft recce quiz briefer put up a slide of an F-15...…

During Desert Storm, one crews replied in the affirmative when asked if a USN aircraft could have some fuel - and promptly cleared an EA-3B Skywarrior to refuel from a wing pod...at night. That must have been interesting!

While it's amusing to note peacetime recce goofs, it's a subject which fighter crews should take very seriously!

Why so Beags? Physical size of the Skywarrior?

Presumably the size - 'The Whale' was not your typical wing-pod receiver.

I think it was the last USN carrier aircraft fitted with twin turreted hand-warmers:


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....3f0fd6ae0c.jpg

Deleted in later versions in favour of a small coffee pot and/or ECM system.

It sometimes put them off kilter when you overtook a "fast" jet though.....

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....7332c9f06d.jpg

"The Final Countdown"?!

lsh

The F14 pilot in the Vulcan intercept WAS one of the F14 pilots for that film.

In around 1985, whopping along over the US in a VC10 about as high (430?) and fast as it would go, the controller asked in some astonishment "So what the hell kind of airplane is a VC10?". The captain very drily and quickly: "It's an all-metal monoplane with a fully enclosed cockpit" which h summed it up nicely.

Was he the one who had the brown adrenaline moment?

Wensleydale any idea when this was take? I flew on Shacks in the 80's and did several Red Can exercises (exercise defecting aircraft). Note the Star on rear door. I think that is a 41 Sqn Jag so would it have been Conningsby?

No, he was the other one! The clip shown above is part of a long interview where he goes into more detail about the film and other parts of his career. One thing he mentions was that they wanted the F14s to have the wings swept (cos it looks cool) flying behind the T6s, acting as Zeros, which obviously wasn’t going to work!

You remind of a story.....

Sitting there at Neatishead during a major SIMEX, thinking myself lucky I was at work whilst Coltishall was on TACEVAL, using the SIMEX as a background for injects but with a list of simulated inputs to pass down the line to them (Reinforced Alert measures, air raid warnings etc.)

During all this a Shaklebomber pops up on check-in and asks the FM to tell Coltishall we have a defecting Bear-B with Nukes on board which we have been instructed to escort to Coltishall with an ETA of XXXX. FM calls bridge and CONEX (older name for MC) who tells me to go ahead and pass message. Pick up phone and dutifully tell Colt ATC and ask them to advise Ops.

A couple of minutes pass and CONEX phone rings and it is the COC at Colt who as if this is Exercise or Live. CONEX, working on assumption that they are asking if this is a paper inject or a real aircraft replies live.

Coltishall, working on assumption this means it is real bear as opposed to an exercise Bear immediately call ENDEX, call out real live-armed guards, put station on lockdown and prepare to have Nuke armed Bear stuck in middle of runway.

Great tension at Coltishall - until Shaklebomber slips of the fence and lands on runway where crew (with red stars stuck on SD hats and cotton wool around the toes of their boots, then vacate the aircraft and scatter.

At which stage the brown stuff hits the fan....

"I think that is a 41 Sqn Jag so would it have been Conningsby?"
41 were Recce Phantoms at Coningsby , the Jags started up at Coltishall in 1976 or so, and the badge transferred

Having to fly for hours in a Shack, one could understand why they would want to defect ;)

Thanks Haraka memory is fading!!

We had to fly those hours so we could eat all the rations.

I saw a Shackleton in Gibraltar in the 1970s and asked if it was a Lincoln.