Old Viper Tester Posted April 21, 2018 Share Posted April 21, 2018 VMA-133, the Dragons, a Marine Reserve unit out of NAS Alameda at Red Flag in April 1984. They were deactivated in 1992. BuNo 154987, Modex ME01 154203 ME03 154970 ME07 155026 ME11 155018 ME12 154204 ME13 And one that was visiting Edwards, December 1981. 155057 ME09 Thanks for looking, Sven 18 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whiskey Posted April 22, 2018 Share Posted April 22, 2018 Low-viz Scooters! Nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thud4444 Posted April 22, 2018 Share Posted April 22, 2018 What is up with that first plane's national insignia? It definitely is weird. Nice pics BTW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gekko_1 Posted April 22, 2018 Share Posted April 22, 2018 Awesome! My all time favorite period of US Navy/Marine aviation - the 80's! I love all the variation in greys and patterns. 01 has the earliest pattern and 13 is faded so much you can hardly tell where one colour ends and another begins. Are you able to read the names under the cockpit of 01 and 03? Richard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RidgeRunner Posted April 22, 2018 Share Posted April 22, 2018 A nice set, Sven. I love the scooter. I always have. :).... Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parabat Posted April 22, 2018 Share Posted April 22, 2018 Cool pics, always nice to see these. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smudge Posted April 22, 2018 Share Posted April 22, 2018 Nice. 18 hours ago, Thud4444 said: What is up with that first plane's national insignia? It definitely is weird. Besides being larger than those on the other aircraft, I think it's the combination of different greys used to achieve the star and bar, against the grey camo scheme. Interesting that no two of these aircraft are marked the same 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard E Posted April 22, 2018 Share Posted April 22, 2018 Another few gems from @Old Viper Tester's diamond mine. 18 hours ago, Thud4444 said: What is up with that first plane's national insignia? It definitely is weird. Nice pics BTW. I wonder if the air brake panel had been swapped out from another airframe ? 16 minutes ago, Smudge said: Nice. Besides being larger than those on the other aircraft, I think it's the combination of different greys used to achieve the star and bar, against the grey camo scheme. Interesting that no two of these aircraft are marked the same Agreed - who would want to be a researcher for a quality decal manufacturer ? 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thud4444 Posted April 23, 2018 Share Posted April 23, 2018 (edited) I've been looking at it and it looks like it's a high vis marking oversprayed... maybe. Plus the M is missing on Marines. It's an odd bird. Edited April 23, 2018 by Thud4444 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhoenixII Posted April 23, 2018 Share Posted April 23, 2018 14 hours ago, Gekko_1 said: Are you able to read the names under the cockpit of 01 and 03? Richard. Richard, 01 only the rank, Lt. Cd. possibly first name 'Bill'? 03 I'm reading it as 'NASTY'! Well.........they ARE Marines!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Viper Tester Posted April 23, 2018 Author Share Posted April 23, 2018 15 hours ago, Gekko_1 said: Are you able to read the names under the cockpit of 01 and 03? I've pulled the slides for these birds and did a higher-rez scan. PhoenixII has 03 correct as NASTY: and 01: Looks to me like LTCOL. BILL INGSWORTH. It would be Lt Col for a Marine. At first I thought I was seeing IRV.I. INGSWORTH (rather alliterative), but checking the spacing of the letters and the stenciled spaces in the other letters leads to BILL (which is a lot more believable). Here's the national insignia FWIW... Looks like the M in Marines has been blotted out, as I can make out the rough shape of the letter. The 4 in the vertical tail buno is there, but very faint. Why the very light upper roundel rather than the same light gray as in the bars is strange. Maybe it weathered that way? Hope this is of some use, Sven 5 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Dot Posted April 23, 2018 Share Posted April 23, 2018 cracking photos Sven, cheers Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boman Posted April 23, 2018 Share Posted April 23, 2018 Cool pics! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gekko_1 Posted April 23, 2018 Share Posted April 23, 2018 6 hours ago, Old Viper Tester said: I've pulled the slides for these birds and did a higher-rez scan. PhoenixII has 03 correct as NASTY: Looks to me like LTCOL. BILL INGSWORTH. It would be Lt Col for a Marine. At first I thought I was seeing IRV.I. INGSWORTH (rather alliterative), but checking the spacing of the letters and the stenciled spaces in the other letters leads to BILL (which is a lot more believable). Here's the national insignia FWIW... Looks like the M in Marines has been blotted out, as I can make out the rough shape of the letter. The 4 in the vertical tail buno is there, but very faint. Why the very light upper roundel rather than the same light gray as in the bars is strange. Maybe it weathered that way? Hope this is of some use, Sven Excellent Sven, thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gekko_1 Posted April 23, 2018 Share Posted April 23, 2018 6 hours ago, Old Viper Tester said: This Skyhawk is actually very unique. For instance I have never seen an intake warning marking with the forward vertical stripe before. The camouflage scheme is a variation on one of the earliest low-viz schemes applied to the Marine A-4F and A-4M's. To me it looks like FS. 35237 as the upper most colour, then FS. 36320 and FS.36495 underneath. Like this.......... The national insignia is the right size and style for the early low-viz schemes, but the upper part of the circle and the two horizontal bars either side look like they have been sprayed FS. 36495 which is very unusual. Normally they would just be counter shaded in the upper and side colours in the same pattern shown. It looks like a re-spray has happened underneath the "MARINES" and "4987". With the "ARINES" and the "4" being covered over by a stencil? Fascinating stuff! Richard. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glen Posted April 24, 2018 Share Posted April 24, 2018 Are these A-4Ms? I thought the A-4M had the bigger canopy or did they have the original canopy at first? Cheers Glen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Viper Tester Posted April 24, 2018 Author Share Posted April 24, 2018 45 minutes ago, Glen said: Are these A-4Ms? They are upgraded A-4Fs and still carry the A-4F designation above the bureau numbers on the aft fuselage. Hence the earlier style canopy and, I think, original/smaller engine intakes. Though I think some Super Fs had the engine and intake upgrade. Others may know more. Sven Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-32 Posted May 11, 2018 Share Posted May 11, 2018 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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