OK, so we’ve seen C-130’s, U-2’s and P-51’s launch and recover aboard CV’s with varying degrees of success. We also are well versed in the story of Colonel Jimmy Doolittle and his group launching off Hornet for a strike of the Japanese homeland – and the challenges they faced being unable to come back tot…
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 The venerable Dauntless had been replaced by the problematic Curtis Helldiver and the TBF/M Avenger had assumed the torpedo and bomber…
Forty years ago, man had slipped the gravitational pull that had kept him shackled  in orbit around his home planet, and boldly struck out for the Moon.  Forty years ago, in a live broadcast on Christmas Eve  for the ages, he sent back stunning images of his world and our perspective was forever changed: William…
1050L 24 Oct 1944. USS St. LO (CVE 63) is under heavy air attack. After successfully fending off the superior surface force of VADM Takeo Kurita’s Center Force, “Taffy 3″ is now defending against a surprise air attack that has lasted some 40 minutes already. One of the features of this attack is the use…
Sometime in April 1958, Lockheed first undertook the study of a replacement for the U-2. Unlike the U-2, this would be an aircraft able to cruise at Mach 3, with a range of over 4,000 nm at altitudes exceeding 90,000 ft. It would also have an RCS (radar cross section) smaller than the U-2 and…
A little something for the recce crowd out there: 1. What is it? 2. What is it used for? 3. What platform is it a part of? Hint: You’ve read about it here before…look in here. Update: What Am I? — dive brakes on the martin AM-1 Mauler:
