Personnel and Cargo Pods (EXINT, GRIER, and other types)

[Mossie]

Thanks for the pics Harold, that Tornado pic is new to me.  I'd thought I'd seen it written somewhere that there were proposals to air drop the pod, but it was years back and the possibility that I was going a bit strange had occurred to me.  The pic confirms there's a bit of sanity left to lose.

[Weaver]

Thanks, I had never seen that artwork for the Joint Strike Fighter contenders. 

It could have been a bad day if the soldier hopped into the nose intake of the F-32, which shared a similar shape to the POD

Well, at least he'd only do it once...

I like the way there's an armed soldier in a 'guard' stance next to the SHAR on the deck of the carrier in the 'civilian evacuation' picture? What's he there for? To force the civvies into the pods at gunpoint? (Which admittedly might be necessary...)

[NARSES2]

The R5 photo is fascinating, cheers Harold 

I'm assuming the pods would have been "simply" used to transport the guys in them. They wouldn't be ejected as there is no way they could get in them wearing a parachute. However having read somewhere in the dim and distant past of Soviet plans to drop guys without parachutes from low altitudes into deep snow I'm not 100% sure 

They do look remarkably cheerful though, so perhaps they hadn't been told this isn't just a pose for propaganda purposes yet ? The flight crew on the other hand ?  Is one a female btw ?