Flightdeck Friday – Fleet Air Arm Edition: “Hurricats”

  Desperate times call for desperate measures…  In 1940 Britain was in a desperate fight for survival.  Isolated from the Continent, Britain was relying on a lifeline extended from the States via merchant convoys.  Plying the North Atlantic, out of range of land-based air cover, the convoys were subject to attack from German submarines, operating…

Reflections: Smuggler’s Blues (IV) – The Pilot

Ed note: We’re going to try something a little different here and change the POV for a couple of posts.  Note that the events portrayed here are a conglomeration of many encounters over several years and do not represent any one interdiction flight.  Think of this part as being ‘informed fiction’ and try not to…

Sixty Years Ago – The Beginning of the End of an Era

23 July 1947:  VF-17A becomes the Navy’s first all-jet squadron with the initial delivery of 2 x FD-1 Phantoms at NAS Quonset Point, RI and the era of props on carriers begins to close.  This followed by a year, the first carrier ops of a jet with a FD-1 onboard  USS Franklin D. Roosevelt.  Taking subsequent…

Monday’s Roll-up of Naval/Missile News

India and Israel – Joint Medium-Range Naval SAM Development:        Following in the footsteps of a February announcement of joint development of a naval long-range surface-to-air missile comes the announcement that a medium-range variant will also be jointly developed. As with the long-range variant, the MR version will be based on the Israeli-developed Barak…

Reflections: Smuggler’s Blues (II)

Part I here. “Yeah, should be a good night for hunting – wonder what we’ll bag tonight…” he thought as he walked out to the waiting Hawkeye with the Skipper. “Omaha 51, check right one o’clock, 4 miles, heading 280, angels 3…” “51, negative contact” Damn he thought, Is this guy blind or what?