A Day in the War in Vietnam

[Finn]

A series of 5 videos showing various USAF a/c, F-100s, F-105s, F-104's, FAC 0-1s and B-57s in action in SEA:

 

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/69617

 

Jari

[Cheetah11]

Thanks for posting Finn. I loved the cowboy style ammo belt, six shooter and knife of the pilot near the end of the video. Maybe it would not have stayed on during an ejection but it does looks cool for sure.

[Dave Williams]

I enjoyed seeing the B-57 rotating bomb bay door in action, but was very surprised how slow it was.  Was it really that slow in actual combat, or just a slow ground mode?

[Alex]

Very cool!  Thank you for posting these.  I was surprised to see the F-100s in the first video painted gray - the majority of photos I've seen have them in SEA camo.  Perhaps this was shot shortly after those aircraft arrived in theater.

[Finn]

4 hours ago, Dave Williams said:

I enjoyed seeing the B-57 rotating bomb bay door in action, but was very surprised how slow it was.  Was it really that slow in actual combat, or just a slow ground mode?

 

In flight to fully open takes 4 seconds and 6 seconds to close according to the manual.

 

Jari

[Martinnfb]

Priceless, thank you for sharing.

Cheers

Martin 

[Ben Brown]

6 hours ago, Alex said:

Very cool!  Thank you for posting these.  I was surprised to see the F-100s in the first video painted gray - the majority of photos I've seen have them in SEA camo.  Perhaps this was shot shortly after those aircraft arrived in theater.

These are some great films!

 

The F-100s in the film are painted silver. As it weathered, it took on a dull tone that could look grey in some lighting. They started camouflaging them around 1965.

 

I was impressed by the amount of runway the F-100s used to get off the ground. It looked like one didn’t lift off until ~1000 ft from the end of the runway. Heavy bomb load and high heat and humidity must’ve made for some interesting takeoffs!

 

Ben

[Finn]

Here is another video, of F-100Cs this time:

 

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/148015525

 

Jari