Clik here to view.
FDR Circa 1951, Turning Into the Wind
John J. McKenna brought this photograph to my attention.He found it on the excellent FDR website—http://ussfranklindroosevelt.com/—that I had not seen before. It was in this section of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Back from Space, But Not Home Yet
Jodie Peeler is my go-to person for the Sikorsky SH-3 (H-3) Sea King. She graciously volunteered to be the guest blogger for this post, distilling the information that she's collected over the past two...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Call Sign Boron?
A couple of people have asked me about the picture of the VA-55 A-4C above. It was reportedly taken at Danang circa 1967 when the squadron was aboard Constellation.Although guesses included a call...
View ArticleClik here to view.
TBM-3N versus the TBM-3Q
I was recently asked if I had any pictures of a TBM-3Q. First, I had to refresh my memory of the type, one of several modifications of TBM-3Es, a veritable alphabet soup of repurposed Turkeys.The...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Post-War Eastern TBM Variants
Rick Morgan (http://rickmorganbooks.com/index.html) and I have continued to explore the poorly documented post-war history of the various variants of the Eastern Aircraft TBM-3. The Navy still had lots...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Gutless Cutlass?
Some airplanes just don't get any respect. The Vought F7U Cutlass suffers worse than most: "Ensign Killer", "the engines put out less heat than Westinghouse's toasters", "Gutless Cutlass", and so...
View ArticleClik here to view.
TailDragger Transition
Mark Frankel and I are in the process of finishing up our book on U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy trainers, Training the Right Stuff. It will be published by Schiffer in the spring.One major feature of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Carriers and Tricycles
Except for a few very early biplanes, for many years airplanes had tail wheels, not nose wheels, even though the latter made landings less likely to result in excursions off the runway or worse. The...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Carrier-Based Airplane Self-Boarding
Mark Nankivil passed along the following from Jack Abercrombie:While watching the Banshee at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khVPlD2rNfc, which shows a ground crewman exiting on the right side. the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Republic R-46?
Okay - it's a bogus designation, based on the Navy practice of designating a research aircraft with its identifier for the manufacturer and the manufacturer's model number of the design, e.g. Douglas...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Training the Right Stuff
Mark Frankel and I have written a book on the development and operational history of U. S. Air Force and Navy jet trainers.It will be available in May 2016. For more information,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A-6 "Iron Hand" Conversions
Operation Iron Hand was a belated endeavor to deal proactively with Surface to Air Missile (SAM) sites during the Vietnam War. Although construction of the sites was no secret, attacking them was not...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Grumman S2F/S-2 Tracker Monograph
Finally (it's been a work-in-progress for a long time). It's currently being printed and should be on Steve Ginter's website (http://www.ginterbooks.com/NAVAL/NAVAL.htm) shortly. My coauthor, Bob...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Clik here to view.
A3D Skywarrior Third Crewman
From Naval Aviation New, May 1960:Note that "weaponeer" was the crew member assigned to arm a nuclear weapon after takeoff. Navy officers had this responsibility on the Hiroshima and Nagasaki missions.
View ArticleClik here to view.
A3D Skywarrior Bombardier/Navigator
Paul Bless suggested the following article from the October 1959 issue of Naval Aviation News as a companion piece to the preceding post on the A3D third crewman.To read it, simply click on the image...
View ArticleTailhook Design Redux
I've updated the original "Brief History" post with an additional example and some minor rewording:http://thanlont.blogspot.com/2011/12/brief-history-of-tailhook-design.html
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Westinghouse J40 Engine Program
The rise and fall of the Westinghouse Aviation Gas Turbine Division is a fascinating story, worthy of being a Harvard Business School case. I posted a summary here:...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Power Steering
The U.S. Navy carrier-based jets did not initially have nose-wheel steering. The reason at the time was that implementation was thought to restrict the turning radius, a critical capability for deck...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Grumman Stoof and Stoof with a Roof Monograph
Part 2 of Steve Ginter's series on the S2F and its variants is now available:It was written by Doug Siegfried and Steve Ginter. (Bob Kowalski and I wrote Part 1. See...
View Article