War Hoover: The Fabulously Flexible Lockheed S-3 Viking
WEBGoing to The Boat. Production of S-3A Viking aircraft began at Lockheed’s Burbank production facility in 1974 and fleet S-3As entered service with Air Antisubmarine Warfare Squadron FOUR ONE (VS-41) Shamrocks on 20 February 1974. VS-41 was the S-3 Fleet Replacement Squadron (FRS) or RAG until East Coast squadron VS-27 Pelicans/Sea Wolves was tasked with East Coast RAG duty during the 1980s.
Col Stapp Endured The Highest G-Forces Ever To Advance Safety
WEBJanuary 1, 2024. Mike Killian. Col Stapp was a real human crash test dummy who advanced aerospace safety. He then went on to advocate for seatbelts. Oh, and he coined the term “Murphy’s Law”! Over the decades, a lot of research has been conducted by the USAF to understand the affects and limits of G-forces on aircrews.
JAL Flight 123: A Seven Year Old Shoddy Repair Job Brought …
WEBThis repair was improperly made. The ensuing seven years of the jet’s regular operations gradually weakened the aft pressure bulkhead. The repair failed 12 minutes into the flight of JAL 123 at an altitude of 23,900 feet and at a speed of 300 knots over Sagami Bay at 1824 local time. The resulting rapid decompression brought down the cabin ...
He’s Back! Blue Angels C-130 Fat Albert Poised To Return To …
WEBJune 6, 2017. NAS PENSACOLA, Fla. — The workhorse of the Blue Angels is returning to the squadron on Friday following nine months of intensive upgrades and repairs to the hulking C-130 Hercules aircraft. An airshow favorite across America, the C-130T transport known as Fat Albert has not attended an airshow since last July following the Blue ...
There Can Be Only One: The Saga of the Only SR-71C Ever Built
WEBThe Lockheed SR-71 is as iconic an aircraft as any that has ever flown. There have been numerous stories, legends, and myths about the Blackbird. This is the story of what may be the most unique SR-71 of them all. The two-seated SR-71C, SN 61-7981- the only SR-71C ever built. Few individual Blackbirds received nicknames of their very own.
Flown by Aces, The F4U Corsair Carried Allies to Victory in the Pacific
WEBFeb 14, 2017 · First Corsair Combat. Twelve Marine Corps F4U-1s of VMF-124, commanded by Major William E. Gise, arrived at Henderson Field on Guadalcanal on 12 February 1943. These were the early “birdcage” version of the Corsair. Their first mission, an escort of Army Air Corps B-24s to Kahili, resulted in no sightings of enemy aircraft.
Classic MD-87s Still Earning a Living as Aerial Firefighting Tankers
WEBJul 30, 2018 · Airliners like the Boeing 747, Douglas DC-10, and Bae 146 are working the wildfires. One of the newer aerial tanker solutions is the Erickson Aero Tanker MD-87. The company already owns seven aircraft with five of them converted for tanker duty (tankers 101, 102, 103, 105, and 107) and hopes to build a fleet of ten tanker-configured MD-87s.
The T-45 Goshawk: It’s What You Fly When You Want to Fly Navy
WEBGulf Coast Goshawks. In addition to TW-1, TW-2 (Tail code B– VT-21 Red Hawks and VT-22 Golden Eagles) at NAS Kingsville in South Texas also employs the T-45C for the Intermediate and Advanced portions of the Navy / Marine Corps Strike Pilot Training Program.When the T-45 finally began to replace the T-2C and TA-4 in service, there was an entire integrated training system package that came ...
The Delta-Winged Deuce: Convair’s First Century Series …
WEBThe F-102A Delta Dagger Interceptor Was a ‘Round The World Cold-War Warrior. Convair’s F-102A Delta Dagger served with distinction as an Air Defense Command (ADC) interceptor with the United States Air Force (USAF) and with the Air National Guard (ANG) for twenty years. Commonly referred to as The Deuce, the F-102A was the first operational delta-winged supersonic jet interceptor to see ...
Movie Star Aircraft: The P-51 Mustang in Top Gun: Maverick
WEBMar 29, 2020 · Cruise’s Mustang, registered as N51EW, was built as an F-6K-15-NT with a Construction Number (CN) of 111-36123 at North American’s Dallas assembly plant in 1944. P-51Ks and F-6Ks were built in Dallas and differed from the D models primarily in the propeller department. Ks were equipped with an 11 foot Aeroproducts prop as …