Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche
"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke
“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier
"Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas
"Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex
Sweet sassy molassy! That A3D looked HUGE coming onto that deck.
What’s the grade, Nose?
Those F3H’s didn’t look like they had big enough air intakes to feed a jet engine…
I remember seeing somewhere in the early 90s a headline about a Whale (intel collection type) whose pilot apparently lost his confidence… just couldn’t get it back aboard the ship… and didn’t have any other alternatives. Unfortunately I lost the story before I could read it and have never found out what happened….
A walk down Memory Lane.
Jeff-The air ducts were big enough, Problem was the J71 only gave out about 6600# thrust w/o burner. But we had a pretty good radar and missile capability for the era.
Lex, Super video, watched it four times…Commander Morris’s presence of mind and excellent flying skills on display for all to see…he definitely earned his flight pay that day. Best
PS, Nicknamed a Whale ?…was it because it was as big as a whale or that the pilot had a whale of a time landing the beast…or possably both ? … a very appropriate name no matter…
Shipmates,
Loved that old bird. I was fortunate enough to get a ride in this one:
http://www.a3skywarrior.com/donatedpics/144865.jpg
Flew from Moffet to Andrews and it was better than any commercial flight I’ve ever taken. Great view, great food, comfy accomodations all around.
Respects,
So did his wheel come off from a too hard landing? Or did hitting the water at speed shear it off?
The part that impressed me, was getting the Whale back in the air after slidding down the angle on the nose. THAT’S aviating…the Naval Aviation way…
Sorry, there’s something inherently wrong about launching a 73000 lb aircraft off a Midway class carrier. I’m impressed he didn’t even break the IFR probe off.
Big plane on a small deck! I can’t imagine riding in the back of that pig – back of the Viking was bad enough. A3D (all 3 dead) had a rather bad rep as far as survival rates go.
Zane: Grade? I dunno, had my eyes closed.
Nose
So is 200 landings about right for a CDR? Seems a bit light for me.
The A-3 was truly a dangerous airplane, and no ejection seats. Lost some shipmates one dark night who couldn’t get aboard, tried to barricade, and flipped the plane over the net into the sea. May their souls rest in peace.
Pogue – We had a detachment of A3Ds on the Essex class I was on…CVA-19. They were huge on our deck. The F-11f Tiger blew out nose wheels as well more than once during my time aboard…kept Repair 8 busy and hangar bay 3 full of broken airplanes.
Steve,
I hear ya. Some of my most nervous moments were launching and trapping in the back seat of an S-3. I was so very happy to get back to the P-3 community….
Respects,
Sgt Jeff, you might checkout this link about the loss of that Whale. http://www.silent-warriors.com/nsg011.html
ok so this is not as difficult but I like the way the pilot puts the wheel down sliiightly to the left as if anticpating the flaming drift so he can end with it on the centerline. best part of all: the pilot refused all interviews with the media.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoMf7lTpWzU
http://airlinepilotcentral.com/web_video/now_showing/broken_wings_20060528101.html
Get a cup of coffee…37 min…riveting.
A3D (all 3 dead) had a rather bad rep as far as survival rates go.
A rep not entirely deserved. Back in the 50s Naval Aviation suffered on average a Class A accident a day.
More diminutive aircraft types had their share of troubles about the boat as well.
Especially during the bomber era…after flawed personnel policies led to an ignominious incident in which a Sixth Fleet CarDiv threw one A-3 squadron off the boat were rectified… A-3 squadrons operated aboard as well as any other.
Later on, as the remaining queer bird “Whales” spent less time around the boat and the requisite stick skills to sucessfully operate such a big 1948 vintage aircraft aboard were not as good as they perhaps should have been, that rep tragically gained traction again.
PS, Nicknamed a Whale ?…was it because it was as big as a whale or that the pilot had a whale of a time landing the beast…or possably both ?
The moniker “Whale” seemed to originate on the west coast in the late ’60s. Never heard it used around Sanford while the A-3 were still there….
You want to get get a good belly laugh from an old A-3 codger (redundant term I ‘spose) let them hear about how some now consider the FID a “small deck”…
It can be argued those who flew in the West Coast A3D dets Way Back When could wax eloquent about small decks….
note the position of the mirror landing aid
Great pics, Sid. Amazing they’d even try to land a Whale on that last deck. What ship was that? Was that a straight deck carrier?
It was the Hancock
Note she is anchored here. It was the SIOP days….
AFAIK, unlike the previous AJ Savages no A-3s ever operated from a straight deck, but they did routinely operate from the 27 Charlies.
The reason the A-3 was an ~80,000 lb aircraft and not the 100, 000 lb beast the USN originally wanted was because Ed Heineman correctly postulated the USN would want Heavy Attack aboard the converted Essex’s and Midway’s as well as the Forrestal’s.
Shamelessaly lifted the wing dance pic from here where you can get the “rest of the story” as well.