DREAM SHEET -- '60's-'70's

[ea6bflyr]

No Zunis on th A-4? You sure about that? I know that they stopped doing rockets off of the TA-4J right before I got there, but what were they? 2.75"?

IIRC, that's why multiple A-4 pilots ended up in Vietnam. Just saying....You DON'T WANT THEM....not that they couldn't carry them.

-ea6bflyr

 

[A4sForever]

No Zunis on th A-4? You sure about that?....

Viola !!! ZUNI's on A-4's ... you even got a bonus of them launching off a USMC A-4 !! We had a thread a while back on that subject -- or at least some posts ...

 

[A4sForever]

Just to clarify, McDonnell Douglas (no hyphen) ...

Leave me alone. I like to put the hyphen in McDonnell-Douglas. It's one of the few joys I have left in life ...

 

[Harrier Dude]

That looks like shadetree/loom lobby. Don't recognize the squadron, though. Is that VMAT-204?

 

[A4sForever]

That looks like shadetree/loom lobby. Don't recognize the squadron, though. Is that VMAT-204?

I think it's VMA-324 from either Yuma or Beaufort .. I think they were home ported in each MCAS at one time or another ... I don't know the tail code, but the patch on the fuselage "looks" like the Devil Dogs ... ???

Most likely the Yuma time frame as they're flyin' the humpback.

*edit* .... that is it -- I found this on the Skyhawk website:

" ..... A-4M Skyhawk BuNo. 158158, side number DX 3 was on Detachment at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona on April 22, 1971 and is shown firing a Zuni rocket. VMA-324 was the first operational Marine squadron to receive the A-4M Skyhawk. The A-4Ms were received by VMA-324 at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma ...."

 

[insanebikerboy]

If I could fly a Huey with the HA(L) squadrons of that period, then it'd be a helo all the way, otherwise.....hmm, I'd probably have to say A-4 just b/c it could get so close to the fight.

 

[Redux]

Some of the F3H aircraft in the first batch, with the J40 engines, were towed through the streets of St. Louis and loaded on barges for a trip down the Mississippi River to Memphis, where they were used as "A" and "B" school training aids at NAS Memphis.

I can attest to that, SECOND aircraft I ever laid a hand on in AMH-A school circa 1969/1970 Memphis. (ask old timers about the "finger room") The first you ask?.............the A4, neatest set of flight controls I ever saw, hydro MECHANICAL. The F3 btw was a oversized pig especially for a under powered engine but it had a modern hydraulic system, or so they said.

 

[NavAir42]

1. A-1: Guns, rockets, bombs, and a prop. What more could I want? The current ride has four of one of those and not so much on the others. Maybe I really belong on the dream sheet of the 1940s thread.

 

[scoober78]

Yup...make mine...

 

[bert]

If we can specify eras and missions as well -

Phrogs (with the dynamic component upgrade) on an MSC ship making the great circle route from Austrailia to Bali to HK to Singapore to Thailand, etc.

 

[Uncle Fester]

Can't believe the Viggie ranks so low! Who wouldn't want to fly a plane whose sole mission in life was to go like stink?

 

[MasterBates]

I picked the following:

F8- Because it is cool. And a no-shat fighter.
A6- Because it carries a shat-ton of bombs.
A4- Would have been higher, but I like legroom.

 

[phrogpilot73]

Here's what I selected (and in order of my preference)

1. Helos (UH-1/CH-46 would be sweet back then)

If I had to fly fixed wing:

2. A-6
3. A-4
4. OV-10

 

[MIDNJAC]

Can't believe the Viggie ranks so low! Who wouldn't want to fly a plane whose sole mission in life was to go like stink?

Couldn't agree more.....it looks like its going 1000 mph just sitting on the deck

 

[eddie]

I used to hate the F-4 irrationally. About three years ago I suddenly decided after the Corsair and P-38 there was no plane I loved more. A-4 had been my favorite of the era before that. OV-10; hell of a mission / would love a COIN / RIVRON T-6 / H-60 pipeline to open up.

Bring back HAL and VAL ('course, I want fighter-floatplanes off a CA and PT boats too)!

This is the dream sheet thread, right?