Unusual aircraft used by the US Airforces

The353rd Fighter Group used a Tiger Moth they called "El Pistoppho". It was painted OD/neutral grey. The 56th Fighter Group had a Heinkel 111 painted black with red trim, red rudders and red codes, which was the pattern for one of the squadrons at the time. The 325th FG had a Bf109f and G model, and a Macchi MC 200, all captured and airworthy, that they flew for a time. The two 109's were repainted od/neutral grey with 1943 period markings; th eMacchi was left in original colors.

Hey Dai;
as a matter of fact the USAF has had a lot of other countries A/C in its Inventory, after WWII they had almost all types of enemy A/C in it's inventory by capturing them and flying them to find their weakness & strengths, also in the Korean conflict the US had gotten it's hands on a MiG 15 and a YAK , and now at Nellis AFB they have a bunch of old Soviet A/C's in their museum that are in flyable condition, also if you've seen the C-26 Sherpa, it's made by an European Company, as for the paint schemes the US only painted over the national insignia's and put the US insignia's
Ugly Butt Effective Hawg's
Cuda

QUOTE: Originally posted by Keyworth The two 109's were repainted od/neutral grey with 1943 period markings; the Macchi was left in original colors.

The Bf-109G was eventually repainted overall black with some red trim and named "Hoimann". Col. Bob Baseler, who was the 325th C.O. at the time buzzed one of the P-38 group bases at lunchtime one day while flying "Hoimann" , scattering everyone who was in the chow lines. Bob was sick and tired of the 325th's P-40's being bounced by over-zealous Lightning pilots who believed that anything with a single engine was hostile.

Jim

Thanks Guys.
Actualy I was thinking about those bought into the US inventory and issued serial numbers. Some like the Bf108 and the French Dewotine? were used by the Diplomatic Corps. Were there any others and in what colours were they painted?
Dai

Hey Dai;
Well I do know that the USAF has IAI's Astra SPX's , Hawker's 600, 700, & 800 series, Bombarder's Challenger 600 & 604 in their inventories I can't remember their Military designation iI think they are C-34's, 35's, 36's or someting like that, and they basicly used as Laison type A/C or to transport Government Officals around in overseas locations, also the Army fly's the C-26 Sherpa which is built by an English corp or a comglomeration of European corp's
Ugly Butt Effective Hawg's
cuda

The Sherpa was built by Short Bros of Belfast.
Was it the US Navy or Marines that used ex Israeli Kfirs?
I think a Meteor was sent over there for evaluation in the 50's, there were a few other Brit kites too, but the memory cells are... where was I?
keep it up guy's this one is interesting!
Pete

Hey Albert;
you're right about the Kfir and it was both US Navy/Marines( please forgive me, I used those two words in the same sentance), and the US's coded it F-21 Lion Cub, and they flew out of Marimar NAS or at Top Gun, they also used the USAF's F-16's that where moded for thier aggressors too.
also the USAAF flew the DeHavland Mosquito's, Supermarine Spitfires, and in later wars the USAF flew DeHavland's Caribo & Beavers in Vietman,
thanks for jogging my memory Al
Ugly Butt Effective Hawg's
cuda

I know for a while the USAF was operating some Aeritalia G.222 transports, I can't remember the American designation for them, but I heard they'd been liscence built by Chrysler.

They also used BAe Jetstream transports under the C-21 designation.

On the matter of DeHavilland machinery, I belive they still have some Dash 8s in service.

I'd also heard that a few Canadair built Sabres with Orenda engines had found their way into American service as they did have a higher thust to weight ratio than most American built Sabre variants.

But if you want really unusual, I seem to recall reading a magazine article within the past few years about a U.S. Army unit that got set up after the Warsaw Pact was disolved, the U.S had gotten some surplus Hind gunships as some sort of deal with one of the former Warsaw Pact nations and the unit was set up to evaluate the Hind. I'm not sure where the unit is, if its still around or what their Hinds looked like, but it was certainly interesting.

The US (Army I think) got hold of one of the AvroCar flying saucers for evaluation in 1959. I don't know if it ever wore US insignia and the experiments were a failure, but the Avrocar is still extant in private hands.

There was also a B-47 (I might be wrong on the designation) that carried a Avro Canada Iroquois engine strapped to the rear fuselage for a while. That was the engine that was to have powered the Mark II Arrow. The bomber was scrapped soon after returning to American inventory. I don't have a photo but I know several were published in various Arrow references.

There was also the Grumman Super Tiger (2 built, lost out to the 104). They wore US Navy insignia and were also flown by some RCAF pilots.

I also have a photo of a ex-RCAF C-119 with a J-34 engine on top of the fuselage over the wing. This was a fire bomber conversion and carried the civil designation N3560.

That's all for now ... BTW a lot of the Canadair Sabres were shot out of the sky as missile target drones in Arizona.

Regards,
Bruce

Hey D;
Did you know that the Sabres that flew in the Korean war alot of them where built by Canadair, North American Aviation was gearing up for the F-100 series and couldn't keep up with the demand the USAF put on them so they did a reverse contract type thing and the USAF purchased the Sabres from their northern brother
Ugly Butt Effective Hawgs
cuda

72cuda's mention of the Spitfire and Mosquito reminded me that one or two ( or more ) USAAF nightfighter squadrons operated Beaufighters for a spell.

Jim

Ok, I may be having a senior moment here but didnt the USAF have a vertical take off plane called a "POGO" in the late 50's?? Weird plane that looked like it was sitting on its tail.

It was sitting on its tail. It was Navy, one from Convair and I think the other from Lockheed. They were turbo prop. Navy gave up because the ilot couldn't tell how close he was to the ground until he felt the bump.

id say its gotto be this

http://www.af.mil/search/media.asp?mediaID=6753&mediaType=1

and the Mil 24 Hind used at the training grounds were captuered from iraq and there were Mig 29 Fulcrums givern to the USAF by Germany when the East German airforce re-united with the German AF

Hey Cuda,
The U.S. Army uses the Sherpa and it's designation is a C-23 not a C-26. However, the real problem is the thing is a death trap!!!! I personally lost 18 friends of mine 2 years agoe in one. It's a peice of junk with 2 fatal crashes and one near crash except the pilot was touched by GOD himself!!!

Wroper11

Here is an ex-RCAF C-119 converted into a firebomber with a P2V jet assist engine.

Dai, something was nagging at me and yesterday it rang the bell. What about the Kestrel/Harrier/AV8 ?
Okay so the last two are USMC, but I think the Kestrel was tested by the USAF.
I remember a picture in (I think) a squadron book of an early Harrier/AV8 in full USMC markings
but with the RAF serial number still under the tailplanes.

If you're into the Kestrel/Harrier/AV8 idea and don't mind straying a bit further from USAF, how about the YAV-8B? It had the fuselage of an AV-8A and wing of an AV-8B, and just doesn't look right. I think it's still flying with NASA.

A couple that come to mind immediatly are the Fi 156 Storch and the early B-57. The Storch seems to have been put to use by everyone who captured one of them. Eisenhower even had one for personal use in France after D-Day and I think that one was assigned a serial number. Not to mention all the Storches which were grabbed by USAAF units on the continent and used unofficialy. (I read an article not long ago that claimed the Brits were using as many as 60 Storches at the end of the war). I believe the first B-57A's (The one with the round off-set canopy) were built in England and issued USAF sn's. I think only a few were built in England, maybe a half dozen or so and were more for patterns for Martin for production and flight training. Martin only built about 30 or so before the design was changed to the B-57B.

I realy must thank all of the respondents to my original question. It realy unearthed some interesting information.
However the intent of the question was to find out the colour scheme and regestration of the Bf 108 used by the Air Atache US State Department in Berlin prior to the 2nd World War. Is that information available?
Dai