2 Mar update: Flightdeck Fridays are now a feature over at the Tailhook Association’s blog site, The Daily Briefing. To avoid cannibalization, I will be posting different FF topics on this site and at the Daily Briefing. Many thanks again to John Carmichael and the good folks at Tailhook for this opportunity! – SJS In…
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…
Prologue The concept of seaplane fighters was neither new nor novel – several examples had been put to desultory effect during WW2 and even combining floats with jets (like the British SR.A.1) still failed to overcome the shortcomings of the type. The problem lay in a combination of weight and drag – ruthless enemies where…
Writing in the latest edition of The Hook (what, you’re not a member? Right this way then — and there’s associate memberships available for those who support tailhook aviation but haven’t experienced it first hand…yet), Boom Powell (“From the Catwalk”) relays a contributor’s lament about squadron tailcodes and callsigns, citing as examples VMA-255’s tail code…
Hawker Sea Hawk F.Mk.1-6 It may (but really shouldn’t) surprise some readers that the Royal Navy once boasted an air arm of flattops with airwings similar in composition to those of the US (mix of fighters, attack, ASW and of course, AEW) which saw action in various corners of the world. Alas, that heritage is…
(ed: BTW, huge props to Vought for their heritage site from whence most of these photos were sourced and double props since they are refurbishing the V-173 at the Vought facility in Gran Prarie, Tx. (Thanks for the heads-up Tommy!) ) June, 1947. Navy Day. Bathers along the beaches lining Long Island Sound look aloft…
It’s May 1947 and you, as a senior service see that the new upstart service has taken over an Army order for a turbojet powered, unmanned missile that will be capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. What do you do? You go out and place a similar order with a competitor. Welcome to Flightdeck Friday…
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…
This is Air to Air footage of Warbirds from the Planes of Fame Air Museum in Chino CA. P38, Zero, Hellcat and others.Yeah, a cop out but you don’t see many (flying) Dauntlesses, real Zeros and Hellcats anymore and well, Lex started it with his P-47 vid 😛-SJS
Martin XPB2M-1 & JRM Mars August 2004. While conducting a survey in Hawaiian waters of a Japanese mini-sub site, a NOAA minisub crew stumbled upon a large debris field, consisting of what appeared to be a seaplane keel and wings. Maneuvering the sub around the crew was able to clearly read the word “< ?xml:namespace...
