Top Gun vs Alien

[Hans Jaeger]

There sure seems to be something behind these things...

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/ufos/article1830693.ece

BTW, nice pic of one of the sweetest-looking planes ever built - the F-86 Sabre (except if you were a MiG pilot).

[Toastmaker]

A few details of the story (as printed) seem unlikely. Ordered to fire all 24 of his missiles ??? Then they must have been air to ground unguided Zunis, completely inappropriate weapon for air-to-air combat.

And, if he was "scrambled", that means he was on alert duty and highly unlikely the alert aircraft would be armed with Zuni rockets.

Something smells like Flounder. . .

[Snuffy]

As it has been pointed out to me before, by those in the know ....

Awww c'mon its from The Sun ... its a gossip rag.

But who knows ...

[Hans Jaeger]

Yes, I know it's a gossip rag. ;)

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A few details of the story (as printed) seem unlikely. Ordered to fire all 24 of his missiles ??? Then they must have been air to ground unguided Zunis, completely inappropriate weapon for air-to-air combat.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but rocket packs were available for jet fighters in the 50's that were unguided air-to-air packs for attacking Russian bombers. Similar to the R4M unguided rockets the Germans used in WWII to good effect. The Canadian CF-100 and the American Scorpion (I forget the F number --- F-85?) were equipped with such rockets as standard armament, I'm pretty sure.

The article may simply have mis-labelled rockets as missiles. It happens all the time. To my understanding a rocket is unguided, a missile is guided. But maybe I'm wrong; maybe the terms are interchangeable.

[Nausicaa]

There is a LOT more stories like this. Problem is, there is almost no serious documentation around that would regroup and analyze them. It's all scattered around--but when you look into it, as I did last year, you find the most amazing things. Russia also opened it's UFO files recently, and there is a lot of very mysterious stuff.

[Nausicaa]

Official UK gov page:

http://ufos.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

[Toastmaker]

Could be, Hans - I'm not 100% sure either but first generation Sidewinders came into the AF inventory at the time the F-86 was the primary fighter/interceptor, specifically for air-to-air use.

I think you're right about rocket vs. missile terminology re: guidance.

The story just smelled funny to me. Maybe it wasn't Flounder - maybe just Cod !!


I still haven't seen any real evidence of Alien visitors, after all these years of stories and accusations. As Nausicaa brought up, who knows what the Russians have been hiding !

[Foggy]

Yes, I know it's a gossip rag. ;)

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Correct me if I'm wrong, but rocket packs were available for jet fighters in the 50's that were unguided air-to-air packs for attacking Russian bombers. Similar to the R4M unguided rockets the Germans used in WWII to good effect. The Canadian CF-100 and the American Scorpion (I forget the F number --- F-85?) were equipped with such rockets as standard armament, I'm pretty sure.

The article may simply have mis-labelled rockets as missiles. It happens all the time. To my understanding a rocket is unguided, a missile is guided. But maybe I'm wrong; maybe the terms are interchangeable.


You are correct Hans. The F-89 Scorpion and some models of the F-86 had air to air rocket packs for the air defense role.

The F-86 had a tray that dropped open below the belly to fire a short barrage. The F-89 fired them from wingtip pods. I know the F-86D model had some of these barrage rockets. And these had the guns removed for some reason. I don't remember whether any models had both guns and rockets.

The F-86D was the all weather radar equipped interceptor in the Air Defense Command with the mission of downing Soviet Bear bombers.