I was in the USN and worked with what we called A3's or a B66 in the Airforce.
The B66 and A3 had a ton of differences but mostly they were internal and the most important was the B-66 had ejection seats and the A3D had a slide and chutes. A reason we were told A3D stood for all three dead.
My class from VT-86 was the last one where those on the Overwater Jet Navigator track I was the Tactical Nav track)could select A-3 and one did and he ended up getting killed in a midair over Alaska less than 6 months after winging.
That being said, it hauled ton of gas and was the fastest non-afterburning jet out there. Another Ed Heinemann design that the Navy got yeoman service out of serving as a Bomber/Tanker/SIGINT platform. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Heinemann)
They just flew one that Raytheon was using as a test platform to NAS Whidbey for it's final resting place as a memorial.
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Member, Clan of the Border Rats -- “Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.”- Mark Twain
Pugs: Thanks for the Whidbey link. I spent two years there in VAH 123 who's duty was to train and qualify A3 pilots for carrier landings. The A3's were the largets birds to habitually do carriers. We also brought in the first A6's and trained them up to split off as VAH 128 about a year later. Now I think even the A6's are retired.
Some familiar looking ground in that video. The north Cascades was really neat ground to fly over. Thanks again,
Pugs: If I recall correctly, I think about 18 months ago you posted an image of Deception Pass with an A6 somewhere in the image. Neat country indeed up there, and that's what made an eastern boy come west after I finished the service and some early college years. I'm from Tenn, Va, and WVa, and the wife comes from western Maryland (Cumberland).
Back to the 707 (or more precisely the 360-80 prototype). At the 1955 Lake Washington hydroplane races, Tex Allen rolled the plane to demonstrate its stability.
AJ300... THAT is what I was looking for! always wanted to see that. Just freakish amazing machines. Thanks bunches.
Cross... quite the horsepower displays. Fun stuff, thank tons. MARK
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Pugs: There was a boatload of JP burned up in that last link. Amazing display of power, and I feel for anyone that lived near the end of that runway.
On the F4's, they just looked mean to me. Those intakes always looked like shoulders. Never happen, but I'd pay big bucks for a ride down the runway with the afterburners wide open.
Way back in the spring of '73 I was on the SAC ramp doing a post-flight inspection on a KC-135. Up on a stand at the tail of the airplane checking the boom nozzle. I looked behind me at the runway, there was a B-52 with it's wing tip on fire heading for the end of the runway. The pilot stopped the aircraft almost parallel to me, shut down the engines and then the crew evacuated the aircraft running upwind like a bunch of muthaphuckers. Fire trucks showed up and put the fire out before the aircraft blew.
The pilot had turned onto the runway taxiing a little too fast. When he made the turn onto the runway the right wing slammed down, the tip landing gear failed and bent outwards. This ruptured the tip tank and started the fire. The pilot taxied the flaming aircraft down the runway 13,000' feet to get it closer to the fire trucks. IIRC he started his takeoff roll, didn't know he was on fire until the tower notified him, he aborted the takeoff. Would been really ugly if he had gotten airborne...
First Phantom I saw was a Blue Angel at the Williamsport airshow, summer of '69. I was working that day and he came up from the airport and went vertical over my head. Second time was at Ft. Dix for basic, March '73. The PT field was near the end of McGuire's runway when two Air Guard F4s pulled up for take-off. They ran the engines up to full power and we could barely hear each other. (All activity stopped for this little show, including the drill sargeants.) Then they lit the burners. Damn, what a load of decibels! Still a great memory.
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Crossfire, great picture of the 707. My first commercial flight was in a 707, from Pittsburgh to San Francisco. I have good memories of the old planes.
Guess I'd be dating myself to let on that mine (first flight) was on a "Connie". ......New Yawk to TAMPA Fla,.....never to return, either.
Yeah, flying WAS fun, back than,some of the family jaunts around the Carib and South America were just the finest imaginable,...
The Sea-going was quite a different scenario, too.
GTC
Member, Clan of the Border Rats -- “Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.”- Mark Twain
Yes. Those B52 carry a bunch of J57's. Always wondered just how much fuel it took to get a loaded one down the runway and up to 5,000 ft. I know each engine at 100% can burn about 9,000 lbs of fuel and hour.
I was in the USN and worked with what we called A3's or a B66 in the Airforce. They ran the same engines, and I always got a kick out running them wide open for tune ups. We'd take them out to the middle of the airfield, chain them down, and then spin them up. When we'd shut down, half the crew that was not involved in the actual work would be asleep. Conversation was near impossible what with the vibration and noise, and folks would just get into snooze mode.
One can get an idea of how much air moves through those engines by walking up beside one going wide open and tossing a paper towel into the exhaust plume. It would just disappear and then reappear about 100 yds back.
I did exactly the same work as a 20 yr old ADJ-2. That would have been in 1968 with VAW-13. We were tanking and ECM off the America. Small world isn't it. Ken
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