Flightdeck Friday: Early Guided Weapons Edition

  Before JSOW and JDAM, before Harpoon, SLAM-ER, and Walleye, there was the Pelican, BAT, and Kingfisher/Petrel. All of these saw development that started around 1942 and some even saw action before the end of the war. As we have seen in the development of AEW radar, there was a surprising degree of technological sophistication…

Flightdeck Friday – Flat-top oddities

Over the years, the acreage afforded by carriers from the Essex through Nimitz-classes have stirred some creative thinking as to what might be launched and/or recovered therein. Of course, everyone should remember the specially configured P2V-3C’s that provided an iterim nuclear capability until the AJ Savage could come along. Along the way, though have been…

Flightdeck Friday: The AM-1 Mauler

Today — the Martin AM-1 Mauler: In 1943 the Navy issued a requirement for a new series of carrier-based attack aircraft, looking to combine the heretofore separate missions of scout/dive bomber and torpedo bomber. The venerable Dauntless had been replaced by the problematic Curtis Helldiver and the TBF/M Avenger had assumed the torpedo and bomber…

Flightdeck Fridays

Well, we have Friday Musings , Fullbore Fridays, Beer and Babes Fridays, so I guess it’s time to roll in with Flightdeck Fridays, presented herewith. What will one find? Well, it likely won’t be the usual stuff. Sorry, but they border on the overexposed anyway. Instead this will explore some of the lesser known or…