The Great, Constantly Changing Picture Gallery, Troisième partie: la vengeance!

[ea6bflyr]

Are they F's? I thought the Mikes were the only ones with the dorsal "hump".

From Wikipedia:

A-4F: Refinement of A-4E with extra avionics housed in a hump on the fuselage spine (this feature later retrofitted to A-4Es and some A-4Cs), wing-top spoilers to reduce landing roll out, nose wheel steering, and more powerful J52-P-8A engine with 9,300 lbf (41 kN) of thrust, later upgraded in service to J52-P-408 with 11,200 lbf (50 kN), 147 built. Some served with Blue Angels acrobatic team from 1973 to 1986.

A-4M Skyhawk II: Dedicated Marine version with improved avionics and more powerful J52-P-408 engine with 11,200 lbf (50 kN) thrust, enlarged cockpit, IFF system. Later fitted with Hughes AN/ASB-19 Angle Rate Bombing System (ARBS) with TV and laser spot tracker, 158 built.

The A-4F did have a hump:

 

[zipmartin]

When we got our Super Fox's at VC-12 (later VFC-12), we stripped off the humps and everything else with weight/drag to make it a lean, mean, fighting machine.....even more so than it was. Did the same to the Mikes we had at NAS Dallas. Pics of A-4F from VFC-12 and A-4M from OMD NAS Dallas.

 

[Uncle Fester]

Speaking of Scoots: Brazilian A-4KUs doing T&Gs on Reagan

 

[Uncle Fester]

When we got our Super Fox's at VC-12 (later VFC-12), we stripped off the humps and everything else with weight/drag to make it a lean, mean, fighting machine.....even more so than it was. Did the same to the Mikes we had at NAS Dallas. Pics of A-4F from VFC-12 and A-4M from OMD NAS Dallas.
View attachment 40654 View attachment 40657

What was in those humps originally, anyway? Obviously nothing critical to flight.

 

[ChuckMK23]

What was in those humps originally, anyway? Obviously nothing critical to flight.

Avionics - additional comms, KY, TACAN, etc.

 

[Llarry]

Are they F's? I thought the Mikes were the only ones with the dorsal "hump".

During the Southeast Asian unpleasantness, some A-4Es also got humps.

 

[Uncle Fester]

Neat pic showing four different carrier classes from the prewar/wartime era: Sara, Enterprise, Hornet, and CVL San Jacinto, tied up at Alameda in Sept 1945.

 

[Llarry]

The contrast in this photo struck me. The brand-new super whiz-bang futuristic USS Enterprise (CVAN 65) with A-1s of VA-65 loaded up with bombs in 1961. The jets just could not match the A-1 for airborne endurance or load-carrying capability and so the anachronistic A-1s remained in service. Until Vietnam proved them too vulnerable to air defenses.

 

[Griz882]

A-1s remained in service. Until Vietnam proved them too vulnerable to air defenses.

They were replaced by the A-6 but air defenses had little to do with it. The Navy lost 65 A-1s (oddly the most losses were in 1965), while losing 272 Skyhawks and 128 Phantoms. Most A-1s were shot down by gunfire because of their close support work. The 1960s were the real “Jet age” and all the services were scrambling to replace all their tactical aircraft with something new, shiny, and not propeller driven.

 

[AllAmerican75]

JFK starboard shot and New Jersey overhead while on approach to 27 at Philly.
The Navy Yard has a bunch of FFG 7's and Flt 1 Tico's still.



View attachment 40586View attachment 40587

My former FFGs are in there somewhere. It's sad to see the old girls in such bad shape.

The yard is down quite a lot. Last time I was there the basin was practically full!

We've been selling a ton of FFGs to foreign navies. I just saw the former USS TAYLOR in Bahrain colors a couple of months ago. Her refit work was done in Charleston and she stopped by the Weapons Station before heading over across the pond. I drove past her on my way into the office and she looked fantastic.

View attachment 40588

"Anybody can make rate but only God can make a Boatswain's Mate." ~ Every single BMC (SW) ever.

I love my Deck Apes. They're the backbone of the Navy.

Right, but how do you get the messenger lines out of the focsle. If you look at Hozer's picture, there's no "cut out" to toss the line, just the two hawse pipes (and the anchor hawse hole). So are the messenger lines lowered to a tug?

I mentioned the lines from the flight deck because if you look at the picture, there are lines run up to there from the focsle. I understand those are just untended lines that got left there and that wouldn't be normal, but they had to get up there somehow.

You tie a monkey fist to the end of the messenger line and use it like a slingshot to get the messenger over. And yes, if you're tying up to a tug, you'd lower the line down, though for a ship that size, they probably wouldn't tie up. Even in the CRUDES world, we rarely tied up to a tug unless we were being towed.

 

[hscs]

The contrast in this photo struck me. The brand-new super whiz-bang futuristic USS Enterprise (CVAN 65) with A-1s of VA-65 loaded up with bombs in 1961. The jets just could not match the A-1 for airborne endurance or load-carrying capability and so the anachronistic A-1s remained in service. Until Vietnam proved them too vulnerable to air defenses.View attachment 40678

Amazing that the wings can be in the folded position with that much ordnance. Probably a Handler nightmare for all the spread spots needed to load.

 

[Llarry]

Years ago I watched a video of a section takeoff of an F6F Hellcat and an F-14. Takeoff and then a couple of passes. The F-14 was probably flown by Dale "Snort" Snodgrass. My google-fu is weak -- I cannot find the video. I do find a similar video with an F7F and a Snodgrass-piloted F-14. Perhaps my old-man memory has conflated the Hellcat and the Tigercat. Does anybody remember seeing the F6F & F-14 video?

 

[Gatordev]

You tie a monkey fist to the end of the messenger line and use it like a slingshot to get the messenger over.

Yeah, I know how a messenger line works, but I apparently wasn't being clear in what I was asking so I gave up on asking my question.

 

[Llarry]

I'm Llarry and I'm a Scooterholic.

 

[Uncle Fester]

Always find it neat seeing pics of aircraft you tend to think of as belonging to totally different eras, that actually overlapped in active service. The Coast Guard’s first Herk (R8V-1G/HC-130B) and last Fort (PB1G/SB-17G) on the ramp at Liz City in 1959.