By Tommy H. Thomason

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Tailhook Design Redux

I've updated the original "Brief History" post with an additional example and some minor rewording:
http://thanlont.blogspot.com/2011/12/brief-history-of-tailhook-design.html

Friday, February 12, 2016

A3D Skywarrior Bombardier/Navigator

Paul Bless suggested the following article from the October 1959 issue of Naval Aviation News as a companion piece to the preceding post on the A3D third crewman.
To read it, simply click on the image to view it. Right click on the resulting image to "View Image". There should then be a magnifying glass with a + sign that you can click on to get an even bigger image.

Saturday, February 6, 2016

A3D Skywarrior Third Crewman

From Naval Aviation New, May 1960:
Note that "weaponeer" was the crew member assigned to arm a nuclear weapon after takeoff. Navy officers had this responsibility on the Hiroshima and Nagasaki missions.

Paul Bless provided more information on the individuals listed above: Shelly and Szeller were misspellings; their last names were Skelly and Szeyller.  Greenwood and Skelly went on to become A3D bombardier/navigators (see the Naval Enlisted Bombardier/Navigator Association website). Szeyller became one of the first F4H RIOs and was killed in a midair collision with another F-4 in 1967.