General Robin Olds had a career that most pilots could only dream of. The only pilot to earn air to air victories in both World War Two and Vietnam, his Airforce career spanned 30 years of combat, command and even aerobatic demonstration.
Perhaps the most envious part of his career was the wide variety of high performance fighters he had the opportunity to fly. Each time he was issued a new plane, he'd name it after his buddy (nicknamed "Scat") from officer school who never got to fly and was killed in infantry combat. His final plane was an F-4C named Scat XXVII, a hint at the massive number of planes he had been issued over the years.
I haven't been able to assemble a complete list, but these are the aircraft I've seen him mention flying in interviews, listed chronologically. It is a safe bet that there are many other planes as well.
Lockheed P-38 Lightning
North American P-51 Mustang
Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star
North American F-86 Sabre
North American F-100 Super Sabre
McDonnell F-101Voodoo
Lockheed F-104 Starfighter
McDonnell/Douglas F-4 Phantom II
@KnightOfRen No idea, I'll unblock him. Sometimes I accidentally block ppl when I try to respond etc.
Theres only two ppl I have blocked that I know why, biltbio and banban. Because they both spend all their time trolling.
Hey, @KangaKangaTheRoo wants to know why you blocked him
@KnightOfRen No idea. He has quite a few interviews online and they're all pretty cool. He did have a nasty habit of licking his lips tho, which is irritating.
@F104Deathtrap
XD thats insane. What did he think of the Voodoo?
@KnightOfRen One of the interesting things is that he didn't always fly the best version of a particular plane. For instance, he hated flying the famous F-86 Sabre because he had one of the early versions (either an A or a B, I forget) instead of the superb F-86 F. He had some crazy story where loose bolts fell into the landing gear lever and he had to turn the plane upside down to get the stuff to shake loose inside of the console and then deployed the gear while he was inverted so he could land.
@F104Deathtrap
Oh interesting. XXVII hints to an enormous amount of planes XDDDDDDDD
@KnightOfRen There may not be photos online of them, but keep in mind he was issued 27 different aircraft and I seriously doubt we'll find pics of every one. Also, sometimes he would fly stuff that wasnt his just to see what it was like.
or f-100
I don't think Olds flew the F-86. I looked for pics of his f-86 and found literally NOTHING
@KnightOfRen Cool
@F104Deathtrap
That must've been terrifying! I'm working on a replica of his F-4C now
@Blue0Bull Thanks
@KnightOfRen He accidentally brought his first P-38 up to the sound barrier in a dive, the pressure blew out the side windows on the cockpit and he thought he was hit by flack. He got lucky and was able to pull up a few feet above a wheat field, most of the time when you go that fast in a WW2 plane the controls stop responding and you end up making a hole in the ground. I think he scored 14 victories over his whole career but he may have hidden some.
P-38
Heres a pic I found of his F-4
@F104Deathtrap
I've seen pics and heard of his F-4. Wasn't he a triple ace when he retired?
@KnightOfRen If you ever see any clips or articles about him, check it out. His stories are always crazy.
Damn thats sick
@HistoricBirds Yeah. She was a brilliant design. Kelly Johnson himself headed the project. But Lockheed management was corrupt back then, and very little was known about the other side of the sound barrier. As a result, many pilots needlessly lost their lives.
Eventually, the Starfighter became a reliable jet once the bugs got worked out, and people learned how to fly her properly. With a design that ahead of its time, it took a while for people to catch up.
@F104Deathtrap so thats how you got your name: F-104 starfighter
@RamboJutter Will do!
Have a read about Eric "winkle" Brown (sadly died last year) but his exploits from ww2 till retirement was something else.
@TheDepressedPig Thanks! Olds is a little bit too fascinating, almost to the point of being not believable, but his life is well documented and the facts are facts.
Nice compilation!