The 11th Hour, of the 11th Day, of the 11th Month – When the Guns Fell Silent
At the 11th hour, on the 11th day of the 11th month…the guns fell silent along what was known then as the Western Front as the Allies and Germany observed the agreement to end this “War to End All Wars.” While fighting continued sporadically elsewhere, in what were fast becoming the former empires of Russia…
Gray Eagles
A little something for your viewing pleasure going into Veteran’s Day… Filmmaker and P-51 Mustang Pilot Chris Woods has put together a wonderful film that captures the emotional reunion between a humble WWII Mustang ace (Jim Brooks) and the historic plane he thought he’d never see again. Inspired by the flood of memories triggered by…
Reflections on the E-2 Hawkeye’s 50th Anniversary
This Thursday, 21 October 2010, marks the 50th anniversary of the first flight of the first purpose built AEW aircraft, the E-2 Hawkeye (actually, it was the YW2F-1). Designed around the radar, rather than adapting an existing airframe, the Hawkeye symbolized function over form – from the 24ft “rotodome†prominently perched over the fuselage, to…
Project CADILLAC: The Beginning of AEW in the US Navy (Part III)
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 of…
United States Navy: Happy 235th Birthday
13 October 1775: Continental Congress “Resolved, That a swift sailing vessel, to carry ten carriage guns, and a proportionable number of swivels, with eighty men, be fitted, with all possible despatch, for a cruise of three months, and that the commander be instructed to cruize eastward, for intercepting such transports as may be laden with…
Remembering USS COLE (DDG-67) Ten Years Later
12 October 2000 . . . . . . When another chapter in the Long War against terror was written in the blood of the free: The toll: * Seventeen American Sailors dead: Hull Maintenance Technician Second Class Kenneth Eugene Clodfelter, 21, of Mechanicsville, Va. Electronics Technician Chief Petty Officer Richard Costelow, 35, of Morrisville,…
Project CADILLAC: The Beginning of AEW in the US Navy (Part II)
Project CADILLAC (Part II)     Project Cadillac was more than just a program to develop radar – it would develop an entire AEW system — Radar, IFF, relay equipment, shipboard receivers, and airborne platform. Such an undertaking would be ambitious enough in peacetime, at the height of a critical stage in the…
Flightdeck Friday: Of Oxcarts and Old School Ways
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…
Project CADILLAC: The Beginning of AEW in the US Navy
Project CADILLAC (Part I) Ed note: Everything has a beginning and that beginning is usually quite humble compared to present conditions. Consider, a small spring at the headwaters of the Madison River in Montana is the source of the mighty Missouri River which itself empties into ol’ man river — the Mississippi, all of which…