Category: Naval Aviation Post-war
Korean War Skyraiders
Post-War Props
EC-121 at NAS Barbers Point, 1963
Photo taken just after the 1962 big switch which saw US Navy and Marine Corps aircraft adapting (pretty much as a rule ) to Air Force standard nomenclature. You flew the WV-2 one day, the EC-121 the next. Different name, same mission: flying the Pacific Barrier on long and tedious missions that ranged from Hawaii to Alaska (and back).
Airshow time, circa 1979
There was something for everybody at this open house back around 1979: Phantoms, Voodoo, Thunderchief, Vulcan, and the USAF Thunderbirds in their T-38s. Not 100 percent certain of the location, but I believe it is Whiteman AFB, MO. The photographer was not using the best of equipment, but I’m glad he took the pictures.
PBY Catalina Day
P2V Neptune, and the boss
Seen here with the bird that bears his name, Commander Bill Hodges, CO of VP-11, poses while on a deployment to Malta in the mid-1950s.
Note: Hodges had a long career that included surviving the sinking of his ship, USS West Virginia, at Pearl Harbor (a good swimmer, Hodges took a few deep breaths and dove down into the wreck to retrieve his wallet).
Whale-o-rama
Johnson Air Base, Japan, early 1950s
USS Randolph, 1945-46
Shooting Stars
Mixed bag of B-29 Superforts
Big plane = Big splash
Given the A3D Skywarrior (AKA the “Whale) was the largest/heaviest plane to ever operate from an aircraft carrier, it stands to reason that if one hit the water it also made the biggest splash. A3D-2 (#138910) of Heavy Attack Four was no exception.
The aircraft was only a few months old when, on its first deployment, it encountered some unplanned excitement while landing (note hook down, speed brakes open) on the USS Ticonderoga, August 12, 1957. It went like this:
Things were looking ops normal when the aircraft bounced down on deck snagging the #3 arresting wire.
Then the damned wire broke.
Now, that busted #3 wire had held long enough to decelerate the aircraft below flying speed, but unfortunately it did not hold long enough to slow the plane’s speed to where it could stop before running out of deck.
Too fast to stop, but now also too slow to fly, the now highly agitated pilot briskly ascertained that his only available option was to fire-wall the throttles and hope for the best. However, what with the Whale’s less than amazing thrust-to-weight ratio, the outcome was never in doubt: The hapless A3D ambled off the deck and wallowed towards the waves.
The effect of a 25-ton aircraft smashing into the sea is apparent.
Having impacted the water, the crew did not loiter about the cockpit pondering what to do for the rest of the day. In fact, that decision had already been made for them: the aircraft’s nose had sheared off. Fortunately for them, policy dictated that the overhead hatch would be open for landing. What with the hatch already open, and the nose gone, egress was relatively simple if not somewhat frantic. You can see the crew floating in the Pacific Ocean sunshine with a fish-eye view of their aircraft carrier as the Ticonderoga draws abeam the wreck. Skywarrior 138910 is on its way to the bottom of the sea.