Guess the airplane!

[Col. Kurtz 0]

You are a very sneaky person! I cant say what the plane is, because I believe would give away my plane!

[Tovarish 0]

It isn't . Give up yet? (I've been wanting to post the story behind this one for a while )

[Col. Kurtz 0]

Look here, I aint getting the name of Ronald Reagan! I would rather not answer than give up! I'll wqait for someone else to beg you for the answer;)

[Tovarish 0]

lol how about this....this plane has already been named in this thread...although because it was confused with another type

[Col. Kurtz 0]

Yak-23?

[Tovarish 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Col. Kurtz @ Nov. 08 2002,02:41)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (edc @ Nov. 08 2002,10:24)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Yakovlev Yak-23<span id='postcolor'>

No, but it is a Soviet plane.<span id='postcolor'>

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">This one should be fun

<span id='postcolor'>

Oh the irony....and it gets better....let me just dig up the story behind this one.....

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">"It's an X-5", test pilot Tom Collins told this recruit who was asking him what type of aircraft it was. Yet only an untrained eye might have seen any likeness in the shape of these two models and in their dimensions, as for the most part they were unequivocally different: variable-sweep wings for the X-5, a canopy bubble further to the back, straight wings and empennage for the Yak-23. The soldier's curiosity was nonetheless satisfied by this answer, unaware that he had been fooled by a pilot willing to keep his mission secret.

Shipped in parts by a Douglas C-124 "Globemaster II" transport to Wright-Patterson base in Dayton, Ohio (where today's U.S.A.F. museum is located), this Yak-23 was test-flown by Collins, who had already flown the MiG-15 of a Korean deserter in September 1953. After a month of testing it was dismantled, and then left as it came, aboard a C-124. During that evaluation period, the aircraft received the military serial 0599 ("buzz number": FU-599), which was extremely fanciful, to say the least. Indeed, according to the system adopted by the Air Force, the first figure was supposed to indicate the year of order (0 for 1950, 1 for 1951, etc.)

The experimental X-5 prototypes from Bell had indeed been ordered in 1950, but both prototypes bore the serials 50-1838/-1839, and no "buzz number". Besides, the "FU" code had been reserved for the F-86 "Sabre" fighter, which used it throughout the decade. The 50-599 serial had in fact been allocated to an F-86E, and FU-599 was its buzz number.

The Yak was therefore disguised as an existing "Sabre". Why? It was impossible for anyone, however unfamiliar with planes, to confuse an F-86 with a Yak-23, even from a distance. It is reasonable to imagine that the F-86 marked as 50-599 might have been lost or destroyed, and that the Yak simply assumed its former identity. However, why would the U.S.A.F. care to give it operational markings (which it almost never did for its U.S. prototypes and experimental types) and why not simply give it a "real" serial number? After all, even to this day whole blocks of 1950s numbers have remained mysterious, and one more or less would hardly have made a difference.

Such an usurping of identity hence probably served to conceal the existence of the plane even in the U.S.A.F. registers. If the plane had been flown into the country by an Eastern block deserter, American authorities wouldn't have kept it a secret. What better propaganda for the American dream than a repentant communist pilot? The US government wouldn't have overlooked such an opportunity. One can therefore reasonably think that the extreme secret surrounding these Yak-23 tests was meant to conceal the plane's transfer to the West through other channels. The only other Russian planes evaluated by the U.S.A. during that period (a Yak-9P, two Il-10 Stormovik and a MiG-15) had been captured during the Korean war, but the Yak-23 had not seen action in that war, according to the aviators who fought there. Beside the Soviet Union, which used a slightly different version, the only countries to have used this aircraft model were Poland, Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia.

The theory of an Eastern pilot's defection to a U.S. base in Europe (Germany for instance) is interesting. Secrecy might have been necessary to avoid Soviet reprisal on the country from which he had fled, but also a strengthening of Russian presence on the bases nearest to the West, which might have brought the danger closer to other European countries. The escape to the West might also have been done to a supposedly neutral country such as Austria, whose interest was to protect this neutrality by handing the plane over to the Americans. Of course, this is all pure speculation, at least for as long as the U.S.A.F. won't lift the veil of secrecy surrounding the Yak-23 tests. Without Robert F. Dorr's curiosity, however, all of this might have remained secret for much longer still, which we should already be grateful for...

<span id='postcolor'>

LOL so you were kind of right...it was an X-5

[Col. Kurtz 0]

You are one mean man! Yor like one of those twisted criminal geniuses you see on the thriller films......

But just like in the films, you made a mistake, You shouldnt have been kind enough to give me a clue, or I would be still digging up around American plane websites looking for some kind of experimental Americna fighter!

[Tovarish 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Col. Kurtz @ Nov. 08 2002,05:47)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">You are one mean man! Yor like one of those twisted criminal geniuses you see on the thriller films......

But just like in the films, you made a mistake, You shouldnt have been kind enough to give me a clue, or I would be still digging up around American plane websites looking for some kind of experimental Americna fighter!<span id='postcolor'>

Lol I know you'd be looking at American aircraft for hours trying to figue it out, that's why I took pity on you . I just found it hysterical that you ID'd it as an X-5, since that was the official US story . Heh, allow me to *Bump* your plane ('cmon guys, this one has the right markings )

[Col. Kurtz 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Tovarish @ Nov. 08 2002,13:52)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">('cmon guys, this one has the right markings )<span id='postcolor'>

How do you know its not a real Americna prototype smuggled into the USSR?  

Nah, Tovarish the aricraft nut is right, it sure is Russian.

*Edit* I was going on this website, thats where I got the X-5 from. But I did note the two planes didnt look exactly the same.

X-5

[Tovarish 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Col. Kurtz @ Nov. 08 2002,05:56)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">*Edit* I was going on this website, thats where I got the X-5 from. But I did note the two planes didnt look exactly the same.

X-5<span id='postcolor'>

lol. There WAS an X-5...the link you have there shows the real thing....but when the Yak-23 was smuggled in, the US air force decided to pass it off as an X-5, since they kept the plane for only a short while for evaluation, and then it was returned to the Soviets without them knowing it had been in the US! (I have heard the plane was obtained from Yugoslavia as an evaluation model from the USSR)

<span style='color:red'>*edit*</span> Bah you changed your post...Before it sounded like you thought there really hadn't been a US-made X-5

[Col. Kurtz 0]

I noticed that the X-5 had a much sharper tail than your picture, but it was the only thing that looked remotly close, so I jumped.

[Sadico 1]

Mig-9 Fargo?

[Col. Kurtz 0]

A big clap to the forums sadistic maniac communist!

Nice work.

[Sadico 1]

Thanks man!!

[Erex 0]

OK, i have few ideas: Someone gonna post pictures here and the others PM him if they find the type. He then publish 3 fastest, ok?

So now its my turn :-)

Try to identify this:

If noone found it in next 3 hours, i release another picture (in color)

[advocatexxx 0]

Your picture is not loading

[Erex 0]

Hmm starnge i see it

Gonna try some mirror

[Erex 0]

So here is the same image on new hosting:

Next clue in 3 hours from now :-)

[nolips71 0]

damm ive seen it before cant remember its name, it replaced the swordfish i think

[FW200 0]

I think you mean the barracuda nolips... but i already looked for that one and the cockpits don't match

[Erex 0]

Because we dont have winner yet, here is the second image as i promised.

If u still cannot get it, ask me yes/no questions :-), i start with answering in one hour from now.

And one small clue: look on aircraft markings :-)

[FW200 0]

Was it used as a training plane?

Was it powered by a R-R Merlin?

[Erex 0]

Look on the hull there is something tah can help you A LOT!

And expect answer in 20 minutes, i dont want torment you, but i sayed in hour so i should stay by it.

[VXR 9]

im on the right way so hold on i almost have the answer

[Erex 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (FW200 @ Nov. 08 2002,19:20)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Was it used as a training plane?

Was it powered by a R-R Merlin?<span id='postcolor'>

No.

Yes

First one who noticed the front :-)