2011 is the 100th anniversary of Naval Aviation, and by default USMC and Coast Guard Aviation since we all wear the same Wings of Gold. It started with Eugene Ely launching from a makeshift deck on the USS Birmingham (CL-2) off Virginia in Nov 2010 and then in Jan 2011 recreated the feet including landing this time on the USS Pennsylvania (ACR-4) in San Francisco Bay.

As part of this celebration each community has painted one of their planes in a historic scheme from that rich history and I thought folks here might like to see some of them. I�m proud to have worn those Wings for 20 years. Mine were Naval Flight Officer wings, specifically an Electronic Countermeasures Officer in the E-6B, the smarter and better looking half of the Naval Air team, but make no mistake, we are a team as committed to the mission and each other as we have always been.


MH-60S (BuNo 166323) "Knighthawk" - HSC-3 "Merlins" - Paint as reminiscent of aircraft of the 1950s


TH-57C (BuNo 162064) "Sea Ranger" - Training Wing FIVE (TRAWING5) - NAS Whiting Field - Paint as US Navy aircraft prior to 1917



T-45C (BuNo 163656) "Goshawk" - Training Wing TWO (CTW2) - NAS Kingsville - Paint as Reminiscent of the 1930s �Yellow Wings�





T-45C (BuNo 167100) "Goshawk" - Training Wing TWO (CTW2) - NAS Kingsville - Centennial scheme


TC-12B (BuNo 161197) "Huron" - Paint as 1942 Coral Sea Markings with red and white rudder


T-6B "Texan II" (BuNo 166064) - VT-3 "Red Knights" - NAS Whiting Field - Paint as reminiscent of trainer aircraft of the 1940s & 1950s

[img]http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b52/gaepps/Aviation/1291958118-1.jpg[/img]

S-3B (BuNo 160581) "Viking" - VX-30 "Bloodhounds" - NAS Point Mugu - Paint as TBF Avengers during the Battle of Midway

[img]http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b...018732_62148248732_5541266_2905156_n.jpg[/img]

T-44A "Pegasus" - NAS Corpus Cristi - Paint as a Navy-Curtiss NC-4 Flying Boat 1919
[img]http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b52/gaepps/Aviation/xT-44A160984-10.jpg[/img]

T-39N "Sabreliner" - VT-86 "Sabrehawks" - Paint as ENT air wing markings circa 1938 (yellow wing & tail blue)

[img]http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b52/gaepps/Aviation/xT-39N165523-11.jpg[/img]

T-34C "Mentor" (BuNo 161841) - Training Wing FOUR (TRAWING4) - NAS Corpus Christi - Paint as 4th Section leader USS Ranger


EA-6B "Prowler" VAQ-129 - Paint as USS Coral Sea airgroup markings (one of my old squadrons)


EA-18G "Growler" - Paint as three-tone WWII (same scheme as a late war F4U Corsair)


P-3C "Orion" - VP-44 - Paint as Battle of Midway


VT T-34C with a Coast Guard Scheme 1935/36


I'm sure more will be coming out this year and there will be some better shots of the finished birds - I'm sure they will be hitting the air show circuit this summer.

Cheers Pugs, those are great pictures!

Congrats Pugs and to all Campfire Squids and the rest for a long history of keeping America safe!!!

Yup. Great pix.

OUTSTANDING Pugs, a BIG thanks Sir.

The service was my pleasure. I am a mere less than shadow of the giants of Naval Air history.

Superb thread!!

Thanks for the cool pics Pugs- my father was a Naval Aviator

Pugs: I checked the BUNO on that Viking in my log books and guess what? Logged 4.2 hrs in her in 1996 when I was going through the VS RAG at North Island in 96 as PXO. :::SIGH:::

Cool - I need to find the buno of that Prowler - better than even odds I flew it at some point in one of my 5 squadrons.

Levrluvr - What did your Dad fly?

Cool pics Pugs. Didn't realize it's been that long already.

For a minute I though your were going to say you were Eugene Ely's wing man!

Jeez, I ain't that old!

More seriously, my google fu found this:



Perhaps the true start of Naval aviation is even further back?

Below depicts a recce balloon which I gather dates to the Civil War..

P2V's- sub chasing. From what my aunt tells me, he was pretty stressed by it.
He developed a duodenal ulcer during his duty in the Korean War, had to leave on a medical discharge. He passed away when I was four, one week after Kennedy's assassination in 1963.

Dang, I remember when we were makin' a big deal out of the 75th year of Naval Aviation. Time sure passes when your havin' fun.

That was a tough business back then. The P2V's were critical at tracking shipping during the Cuban Missile Crisis as well as around the world working the growing Soviet sub threat. Sorry he wasn't around for you.

No Skyraiders?? WTF??

Bob,the Squids wore em out in Korea and then turned em over to the Airfarse in SEA ......actually not true just tryin to start some chit

Cool pics Pugs!


I love some of the old paint schemes of military aircraft.

I'm going to have to ask my dad what the colors were of his Korean War era F4U Corsiars they flew off the Phillipine Sea were painted--all of his photos are in black and white!


Casey

Neat pics, Allen. Thanks for sharing.

Here's the one it's based off of. It was VBF-85 off of USS Shangri-La (CV-38) http://www.vbf-85.com/


It's likely in your Dad's era that they were all Gloss Blue with the large white tail markings as the air wings reorganized like this one.

Just my way of honoring this 100th Anniversary .. Dad was a Marine aboard CV-11 and Task Force 58 during The Battle of the Philippine Sea...These pics show the devastation of Kamikaze attacks and the hazards of Flight Ops. A tribute to all that served then and now in the Navy,Marines and Coast guard.Well done men and a big Thank You from your country!!













[img]http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/zz14/Arch48/IMG_1580.jpg[/img]

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Always was very proud of my Dads' service and just wanted to share these with you..Semper Fi..Pop !!!

Wished he had been- everyone should cherish their Dad, as growing up without one is a horrible thing.
My Aunt, Dad's only sister, just passed away at the age of 90 and the cousins found some pictures of Dad with his P2V aircraft. I'll get them me next time I get over to Ohio.

I could only imagine the stresses of flying a large recip engine prop plane off a carrier. I understand they JATO assisted most if not all gross fuel P2V takeoffs?. I know it was a long-legged but heavy plane at gross fuel.
A few internet pics I've saved over the years, searched out of my own curiosity.
Cool stuff- launches off the Midway and Roosevelt.

If Naval Aviation does not stir your soul, you don't have one.

Steve

The P2 was the Navy's only ticket into the nuclear war business before the Polaris missile and the Neptune was pressed into service as a one way ticket nuclear bomber before we had the smaller generation of weapons. With two recips, two jets and JATO it could make it off the carriers but it couldn't come back so was expected to drop it's bomb and then go ashore someplace.

That mission for the Neptune was replaced when the North American AJ Savage came along. The Savage fullfilled the mission but likely makes the top 5 list of worst planes in Naval Air history with it's habits of massive fuel leaks (and subsequent explosions since it used Avgas for both it's engines and the jet in the belly) and with the engines commonly twisting off upon a carrier trap.

The Truculent Turtle (http://www.vpnavy.com/turtle_01.html) held the record for longest unrefueled flight in a piston powered plane until the Yeagers broke it in the Voyager. The Turtle left Perth 15 tons over gross weight and arrived in NAS Columbus OH 11,236 miles and 55 hours and 18 minutes later.

I was invited to take a three day cruise on the Shangri La when it came out of PSNS Bremerton when had sea trials right after they put the hurricane bow, canted deck and the steam cats on her. In '56 thru '58 I was a Sea Scout at the Naval Fuel Depot at Manchester and the Sea Scout Troop was invited to make one of the runs on her as it turned out I had more Sea Time as a Sea Scout than I had as Sailor in the Navy. The navy brought all the WWII carriers into Bremerton and did the modifiactions mentioned above to them. I went to high school over in Port Orchard, which is on the other side of Sinclair Inlet, and we would watch them shoot dead weights off the bow of the carriers testing the newly installed steam cats.

A couple of years later when I was stationed at USNM Yellow Water we took a load of Ammo down to Mayport to top off a destroyers stores and we went aboard the Shangri La for our noon meal because we couldn't make back to our base for our noon meal.

VP-6 now has their Commemorative bird done in a 1950's scheme. Hopefully I'll find some better pictures as it's out and about.

Here's a link to a page from French gent who is collecting pictures too with a few more including a replica Curtis Pusher onboard a modern CVN

http://www.amv83.fr/Navycag/centennial.htm

America forgets how much it owes the bravery and sacrifice of Naval Aviators. Were it not for their efforts, we would not be living in the America we now enjoy.

I've been following these. There is also a VFC-12 Hornet getting done in late WWII dark blue scheme. We painted a couple of our Tomcats for a Fallon det one year and one was in a pattern similar to the WWII three tone blue. Looked very cool!

Very Cool! Thanks Pugs for your service and these great pictures! Thanks to all who served!

Hey, Pugs..any pics of Phantoms and Tomcats for us older "Fighter Pukes"?:)
__________
NRA Patron,Life or Benefactor since '72

Great photo!

I have a good buddy(flies biz jets now) that was a crew member on the Orions-he loves that airplane.

So they had an antique aircraft duplicate the feat, launching/landing with a modern ship? Love to see video of that!

pugs great pics and thread ty

A few more have shown up.

F/A-18C, BuNo 165210 assigned to VX-31 at NAS China Lake. Aircraft represents test schemes used by aircraft at China Lake in the 1960s. The one's I flew on dets there were all just plain gray and boring!


P-3C, BuNo 160770 assigned to Patrol Wing 2 at MCAS Kaneohe Bay, HI. Aircraft is painted with a white top and a seaplane gray bottom, with VP-6 markings.


HH-60H, BuNo 163787 in a HAL (3) paint scheme. Aircraft assigned to HSC-84


T-39N, BuNo 165523 in a ENTERPRISE Air Group scheme circa 1938. Aircraft assigned to Training Wing SIX in Pensacola, FL.

I spent my four years in Naval Aviation as Crash Crew onboard USS RANGER from 84 to 86 and then swapped duty with a guy and went to USS CORAL SEA from 86 to 88.

Pugs,
I thought those T45s were T2 buckeyes?

And glad you were there! My Cousin is still in the Reserves as an Aviation Bosun Chief but when he was active duty was deployed on Danger Ranger doing flight deck firefighting circa 90-93. Ranger and the Coral Maru are about the only two old ships I don't have traps on. Prowlers were too heavy for the Lex.

The T-2 is gone. Retired in 2008. I think VT-10 was the last one to fly them or maybe it was Test Pilot school since it was such a great spin trainer . No matter what your fleet aircraft's procedure was to get you out of a spin it worked in the T-2. We did upright an inverted spins in VT-10 as a demo item. Mostly I think it was to prove they can always make you puke.

The T-45 had a long period of gestation but had turned into a good trainer and some have been upgraded to glass cockpits and with GPS Nav.

Another one with lots of ink in my log book!

The T-39 or an F3F off the Big E in 38?

Touche'

We launched 3 B-25s, 2 Corsairs a Wildcat and a few others off the Carl Vinson for the 50th anniversary of VJ day. Was cool to be standing on the flight deck launching (deck runs actually) those old warbirds. Aircraft were craned aboard in San Francisco and launched just off Waikiki. The landed at Barbers Point Naval Air station before being loaded back aboard and taken back to San Fran where they launched off again.

I would to have love to have seen that.

We took a squadron of USMC OV-10's across the Atlantic and deck ran them in the Med. They stopped in Egypt for fuel before heading to Saudi Arabia.

The used the angle and before they had near reached the end of the deck they had the gear up and were climbing away. Not a fast plane but as it can carry two people and a bunch of stuff in the back I thought it would make a great backcountry plane for someone.

Great thread, Pugs! And thanks to the 100yrs of Naval Aviators who have served and defended our country.

I was a FAC(A) in the Tomcat and really liked the OV-10s. Read every book I could about them back in Vietnam. A re-engined version with a targeting pod would be very useful today.

Friend of mine works for Grumman and they proposed just such a beast as they apparently have all the North American Rockwell tooling. Cost was enormous though. Apparently there would have to be enough changes to meet modern standards that it would be just as easy to build a new plane.

I think they're looking at one built on the Tucano platform.

A few more of note.

101104-N-0000X-001 NORFOLK (Nov. 1910) In this file photo provided by the U.S. Naval Historical Center taken in November 1910, a floating crane from Norfolk Naval Shipyard lifts a Curtiss Model D biplane to the deck of the Chester-class cruiser USS Birmingham (CL 2). Civilian aviator Eugene B. Ely flew the plane off Birmingham on Nov. 14, 1910, the first aircraft launch from a warship. (U.S. Navy photo/Released)


101112-N-9589S-003 NORFOLK, Va. (Nov. 12, 2010) Retired Navy Cmdr. Bob Coolbaugh, prepares to fly his replica Ely-Curtiss Pusher aircraft on board Naval Station Norfolk, as part of a ceremony to commemorate 100 years of naval aviation. The orginal Curtis Pusher flown by Eugene Ely took off from the light cruiser USS Birmingham on Nov. 14, 1910 marking the beginning of Naval Aviation. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Richard J. Stevens/Released)


101115-N-3885H-191 NORFOLK (Nov. 15, 2010) A shooter signals to retired Cmdr. Bob Coolbauth, the pilot of a replica of a Curtiss-Ely Pusher, on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77). The Curtiss-Ely Pusher was the first aircraft to launch from the deck of a Navy ship. The original aircraft was flown off the deck of the light cruiser USS Birmingham by Eugene Ely on Nov. 14, 1910, to launch naval aviation. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Nicholas Hall/Released)

Ah yes, but you tread the same halls Sir.