any guesses at what this is
Community
any guesses
any guesses
Any guesses ?? I took the picture on the boat on the 73 cruise. I was using a Kodak X-15 It came by right at supersonic and at flight deck level.
No idea. The space between wing and the horizontal stabs and if that's a single vertical stab, makes me think f16.
the A-3's would come aboard once in awhile also. this was a photo recon plane, that was an x nuke carrier. Jack
Looks like a high wing... F 111? Maybe an A 4. on second thought I don't think it could be an A 4. I'll stay with F111. Scratch the A 4 and F111. It's an A 5
a-3 was not supersonic. fa-18 came out in 1999. su-27 came out in 1980's. f-16 came out in 1978. f-111 came out in 1973. My guess is f-8 crusader. Navy plane, supersonic in level flight. Introduced in the late 50's and stayed in the inventory until the 80's.
Terry
I thought about the F8 but I ruled it out because I don't think it was ever configured to carry nukes. If you look close at the OP's photo, it looks to me like you can see the bomb bay on the bottom of the plane.
I missed the "73" as in 1973.
Yes, It was a Viggy. RA5-C from RVAH-11. You could always tell when they were on deck. They had a high pitched whistle when taxiing. funny that the picture of the Viggy is from RVAH-11. they had the J-79 GE-8's in them. the same engine as our Phantoms. The F-4b's
this was the 1973 Med Cruise on the Kennedy. Someone mentioned the A-3. The squadron was VAQ-130 and were TAD.
Jack VF-32 X-Phantom Phixer
Arguably the best looking plane the Navy ever had in it's inventory.
The Vigilante was the largest and fastest airplane to ever operate from an aircraft carrier. Douglas' A3 Skywarrior was a contender, as it could launch at a heavier weight (its trap weight was the same) and it had a wider wingspan. The Vigi was a little bit longer; it was basically an even contest between the two, but the "and fastest" settles the score because the Vigi's approach and top speed was higher.
In 1969, the London/New York Mail Race was held. A new 156 series Vigi was delivered to NAS Albany without the reconnaissance canoe installed. North American engineers said the Mach 2.0 speed restriction was Navy conservatism, and the airplane was capable of higher speeds. On a practice run for the race, the Vigilante went to Mach 2.5, and the pilot said he felt he could go faster. A series of KA-3 tankers were arranged over the Atlantic. Then the Navy bureaucracy gave a thumbs down on the idea. The unlimited category was won by an RAF Phantom.
Another record is a sad, but proud, one. The RA-5C had the highest loss rate of any Navy aircraft during the Vietnam War. Twenty-three Vigilantes went down. The loss rate had nothing to do with the airplane itself but was the hazard of its primary mission; pre- and post-strike photography. Getting in before a major Alfa strike was relatively easy; there was an element of surprise and the Vietnamese gunners were waiting for the attack aircraft. It was getting the vital bomb damage assessment (BOA) photos that was risky.
The smoke and dust from bombs took 10 minutes to clear, so the Vigilante would wait to come back over the target. This was also how long it took for the gunners to reload their weapons. The exact target was obvious, and the sky above would be filled with flak.
They used to also send in ground troops to do BDAs sometimes too.....that's pretty crazy as well. They don't even need to put people in harms was to get a BDA today. I think I am remembering that the F4 Phantom held some speed records for a while as well.
The F-4 Phantom would break fifteen aviation world records listed below.
1. December 6, 1959. Absolute altitude record of 98,556 ft (30,040 m).
2. September 5,1960. Attained and average speed of 1,958 mph over a triangular course for 15 min and 91 sec.
3. September 25,1960. 100 km closed circuit speed record of 1,390 mph (Mach 2) with a continuous sustained turn of 3Gs.19
4. May 24,1961. Ontario, CA to Brooklyn, NY (Floyd Bennett), 2 hr 47 min, @ average speed of 870 mph. 2,446 miles (3,936 km).
5. August 28,1961. Low altitude record of 125 ft (38 m) at 902 mph (1,452 km) for 1.86 miles (3 km).
6. December 5,1961. Sustained altitude record of 66,443 ft (20,252 m).
7. February 21,1962. Time to height record. 9,843 (3,000 m) in 34.52 sec.
8. February 21,1962. Time to height record. 19,685 (6,000 m) in 48.78 sec.
9. March 1,1962. Time to height record. 29,528 (9,000 m) in 61.62 sec.
10. March 1,1962. Time to height record. 39,370 (12,000 m) in 77.15 sec.
11. March 1,1962. Time to height record. 49,213 (15,000 m) in 114.54 sec.
12. March 31,1962. Time to height record. 65,617 (20,000 m) in 178.50 sec.
13. April 3,1962. Time to height record. 82,021 (25,000 m) in 230.44 sec.
14. April 4,1962. Time to height record. 98,425 (30,000 m) in 371.43 sec.
15. April 4,1962. Absolute altitude record of 100,000 ft (30,480 m). Not officially recorded by the FIA.
That whole flying back over the target 10minutes later was the height of insanity.
Good info on the f4
Yeah I know... a little embarrassed by that but at the time that was the first thing that popped into my mind as a high wing, I wasn't fully committed to that idea but I also wasn't entirely sure of the context of the photo. It took me a while to read between the lines on the description. Then I was picturing the F8 but typed A4 until I realized what I did. The f111 guess as bad as it was was still better than the A4.
Oh well it fun to guess . It was a hell of a plane
Its Russian, their pictures are always blurred......lol
Paul, sorry, I didn't realize you were guessing, I thought you were questioning my original guess which was also an F111. The reason why I say it wasn't a particularly good guess is there was no reason for that plane to be flying around a carrier but I wasn't too sure what the circumstances were behind the photo.
Paul, the F-14 came about because of the F-111
After this cruise we switched to the F-14. this is our first 3 planes. us (VF-32 and VF-14) had the first Tomcats on the east coast. NAS Oceana.
Hard to believe they have been gone for years now. Free, they were full of computers. Open up the CADC and it looked just like the computers today.
I saw someone wearing a t-shirt once with an F14 on it that said "anytime time Kaddafi baby" underneath.
