Stoofs Around the Boat, a VX-3 Hog, When Ignorance Isn't Bliss, Tamiya's Big Spitfire Mk VIII, Another Rough Day at the Office, An FJ Kind of Day, and a Turkey

 Down to the Sea in Stoofs

In this edition of our ongoing Stoof Extravaganza we're going to take a look at the Tracker in its intended environment; at sea. The S2F was a good airplane around the boat in any of its variations and was well-liked by those who crewed her (or at least I've been completely unable to find any former "Stoof" aircrew who didn't like her) except for the noise which was deafening in that airplane, both figuratively and literally.

Here's what it looks like when you own a whole bunch of "Stoofs" and have to find someplace to park them! At least 8 VS-25 S2Es are shown sharing the flight deck with VMF-223 Det Tango A-4s. The photo was taken aboard CV-10 Yorktown and provides us with a graphic illustration of why most jet-era naval aviators preferred larger decks. Tailhook Association via Doug Siegfried

Ambush Three-Niner, an S-2E from VS-25, is tensioned and ready for the cat shot in this dramatic photo. She may be heading for some air-to-surface work judging from the LAU pod hanging off her starboard wing---control of the sea lanes was a secondary mission for the "Stoof" throughout her career.  Tailhook Association via Doug Siegfried

Another "Stoof" waiting for the cat. 152841 is from VS-38 and is shown here as she gets ready to take the last S-2 cat shot in 1975. This photo provides a graphic illustration regarding the need for that tail bumper. There are some interesting lumps and bumps on that bird!  Tailhook Association via Doug Siegfried

Providing ASW for the Fleet was the primary reason for the S2F family's existence, as graphically illustrated in this shot of a VS-25 S-2E overflying the Yorktown with 'dome and MAD boom deployed. In The Real World that airplane would be just the least little bit further away from the boat, but it still makes for a nice picture!  Tailhook Association via Doug Siegfried

Here we are in the cockpit of another VS-25 S-2E, lined up on the center ball and ready to trap. It looks really easy in this photo, doesn't it? I'm told on very good authority that it sometimes isn't really that way; there's a reason those naval aviators are such good sticks.  Tailhook Association via Doug Siegfried

Even the good landings can be a little sporty, as depicted by this VS-25 "Stoof" caught in the act of trapping aboard the Yorktown. There's another S2 in the racetrack; let the games begin!  Tailhook Association via Doug Siegfried

The flying's done for a while and it's time for a little R and R. USS Bennington is making a port call, with a VS-38 S2F-1 spotted next to the island. We've mentioned it before but it bears repeating; the Peacetime Navy of the 1950s and early 1960s was, by and large, a clean Navy, airplanes included. Modelers take note! Tailhook Association via Doug Siegfried

We're not out of "Stoofs" yet, so join us next time for another chapter in our S2F essay when we take a look at a couple of unusual Trackers, some Reserves, and maybe even a little drama. Don't touch that dial!

All Beat to Snot is What It Is

Rick Morgan sent along this photo of a VX-3 Corsair a while back and I'd been holding off running it, but today's The Day. It's a post-War bird and is a little different from the norm. Let's check it out.

VX-3 is, and pretty much always has been, a test and evaluation unit. In that role they've flown a wide variety of aircraft, and it's never been unusual to find multiple types within the unit at any given time, which makes this F4U-4 the norm rather than any sort of exception. What is exceptional is the overall condition of the airframe which is, not to put too fine a point on the matter, just all beat to pieces. There's no doubt the airplane is in excellent condition mechanically, but there can also be no doubt that bird has been used, and used hard. Anbody want to step up and build a model of that one? (If anybody does, please send a photo of the results!)  R. Morgan Collection

A Missed Opportunity

OK, ya'll, here's another of my seemingly endless There I Was stories to amuse and astound you but, if your own personal take on that sort of thing is that it's yet another boring tall tale from that Replica guy, feel free to move on. In my world it bears repeating because of the lesson learned and the opportunity missed and I think it worth sharing, but to each their own.

Way back yonder, in 1972 or so, the American Fighter Aces Association held their annual convention in San Antonio, a city in which I was resident at the time. The local IPMS group had committed to put on a display of relevant model aircraft, and I'd volunteered to work said display. How could I go wrong? Lots of aces, lots of stories, and a chance to show off some models---in 1972 it didn't get much better than that as far as hobbies went!

Anyway, there I was, standing by one of our display cases minding my own business (more or less), when these two guys walked up to the case that contained our paltry collection of Vietnam-era jets. They were both a lot younger than the WW2 and Korean War aces we'd been talking with all day, so there was no doubt they were just a couple of passers-by who held an interest in model airplanes. Still, they were interested.

They looked at the display for a minute, then the more outgoing of the two turned to me and asked "Do you have any 17s here?". 17s? OK, his dad must've been 8th AF or something during The Big One, right? "Yep, sure; there's a B-17 over there in that corner case." He grinned at me and said "No, not those old bombers. I mean MiG-17s. Do you have any models of a 17 here?" "No, I'm sorry; there's a kit available but nobody here's built one yet. There's just not enough information on the North Vietnamese air force out there, and that's what most of us would want to build."

The Outgoing Guy got an even bigger grin and said "I've seen a bunch of 'em. You could probably just paint the model silver and you'd be ok." I stood there for a minute letting his remark soak in, but obviously not letting it sink in enough since I just wasn't snapping to what he'd said about seeing NVAF MiGs. The conversation went on for another minute or so, small talk mostly, and The Quiet Guy (he being the one who hadn't said anything yet) said "Thanks for showing us the models. It's a neat display, but we've got a meeting to go to and we need to leave." I said thanks and opined that I'd been rude and hadn't introduced myself. I told them my name, and The Outgoing Guy stuck our his hand. "Randy Cunningham. My friends call me Duke". The Quiet Guy chimed in: "Willie Driscoll." Then they left.

There's a lesson to be learned here, something to do with open-mindedness, a character trait I haven't always possessed. I missed a golden opportunity to talk to the Navy's only Vietnam ace and his RIO because I was so down-and-locked about model airplanes and I never got a second chance at it, at least not with those guys. Like I said, it was A Lesson Learned, but it wasn't the only lesson I learned that day. NosirreeBob; when I'm on a roll, I'm on a roll! Let us continue.

There I was yet again, same day/same place, shaking my head and wondering if I could somehow physically manage to kick myself really hard for the opportunity I'd just blown, when an older gentleman walked up and went straight to the case that held all the representatives of the Pacific War. He stood there with his hands behind his back, obviously thinking about something as he looked at the model of an Australian Spitfire Mk V in the case. OK, I thought to myself; this guy speaks my language. Maybe he was there. I'll go say hello.

So I marched myself right on over there to say hello to the guy. He smiled and returned my greeting, his accent immediately identifying him as being a member of The Former Empire. That should have been a clue but, as usual, I was pretty clueless, presuming that he was British because of that accent (never mind the Aussie Spit he'd just been looking at). I guess I figured that I'd impress him with my worldliness (read "abysmal ignorance" here) because I asked him which part of England he was from, a question that prompted an immediate and somewhat impassioned response regarding the British, Great Britain in general, and his opinion of anything that could even remotely be tied to that distinguished group of islands. He then informed me that he was Australian and had been a P-40 and Spitfire pilot during the war. He was in a hurry to get somewhere too, but was gracious in his leaving and held out his hand. "I'm sorry, I've been quite rude. My name's John Waddy."

John Waddy. Holy cow; John Waddy. Waddy was one of the RAAF's high-scorers, in case you didn't know, and a legitimate person to look up to if your interest runs to personalities of the 2nd World War. He was also (and still is) one of my personal heros, which was probably why I suddenly lost the ability to coherently say my name in reply to his introduction. John Waddy. Holy cow...

So there you are; two really good reasons to listen instead of talk when you meet somebody new. It's a lesson I haven't fully learned even now, but it's a pretty good lesson nontheless; You can't listen when you're talking. Some day that may sink in, but somehow I doubt it...

Everybody Needs a Spitty, Right?

If you build 1/32nd scale you've probably already seen the series of late Merlin-engined Spitfires recently released by Tamiya. To this point we've seen a Mk IX, a Mk VIII and, most recently, a MK XVI, and I'm guessing there will be more to come since the kit's component breakdown easly lends itself to the accomodation of a large number of variants.

It's a good kit too, in any of its several iterations. Think of those big Tamiya Zero kits, and then think of anything good (or maybe even superlative) you've ever heard about a Tamiya kit, and it's all there in spades. Detail, fit, overall accuracy; it's all there and there's relatively little needed that's not already in the kit (although I personally found an Eduard Zoom offering for the Mk VIII to be a tremendous help in the cockpit).

Anyway, this isn't a review, or anything close to one, but it does tie into the editorial immediately preceeding this missive. I've always wanted to build an Australian Spitfire Mk VIII, but not the ubiquitous sharkmouthed MK VIII from 457 Sqdn which is, I suspect, what most folks will want to do with this model. (It's a sharkmouth, right? And, in all fairness, a sharkmouth looks really good on the Spit. I just didn't want to do one on my model.) That said, I pretty much jumped right out and got myself a Brand Spanking New Tamiya Spitfire Mk VIII as soon as they were released, and got started on it a couple of weeks ago. Here's where we are with it as of today:

It took about 2 weeks of pretty steady work to get to this point, but that's mostly because this is a kit you want to be careful with. It's expensive, of course, but it's also really good and you'll want to do it justice. As with most big Tamiya kits, there's a lot on this airframe that could be considered to be gimmickery, at least if you're like I am. All the control surfaces move, the landing gear is positionalble through the magic of optional components, and there's that now-famous series of magnets to allow the easy removal of the cowling, thus allowing us to display the amazingly well-detailed Merlin engine. On my model everything has been rendered inoperable except for the prop which will, I suppose, turn once it's added. I tend to break things with lots of working features; always have, probably always will. On the other hand, all the gun panels are separate items, and all fit flawlessly, absolutely flawlessly. The kit-supplied photo-etch is really good too, with the pilot's armor plating being particularly noteworthy. It gives a scale appearance that's just amazing when installed. One other thing; as complete as it is, the kit doesn't provide any of the cockpit wiring, electrical conduit, control cables, or placards that reside in the genuine article. Eduard has the placards and the rest is easy enough to cobble together if you want to, and you might go ahead and decide that you do indeed Want To, because the cockpit will look a little bare if you don't. And, for the record, I much-preferred the Eduard instrument panel, et al, in the cockpit. It spiffed things up a lot more than I thought it would.

Here's what the other side looks like. The decals are a mixture of kit (the fin flashes), Victory Productions (the roundels), and the decals found in Kagero's Top Colors 18/Supermarine Spitfire Mk VIII, which includes a whole bunch of RAAF Spitfire markings including the ones you see here. I've only seen photos of the left side of this particular airplane and have no idea if the squadron codes really infringed on the fuselage roundel that way, but it's the only way they'll fit and it's how Kagero shows it, so it's how I did it. If it's wrong we can always look at the other side instead! For what it's worth, all the decals except Tamiya's worked flawlessly and we're waiting for everything to cure out a bit before weathering the beast. The Tamiya decals were a surprise because they were stiff and didn't really conform very well to anything---that's not the norm by any means and maybe it was just me, but this time I'm going to say it wasn't. You might want to invest in some aftermarket stickies if you're going to do an Aussie Spit; the Victory sheet ("Aces of the Empire", or something like that) provides a sharkmouthed 457 bird as well as Clive Caldwell's aircraft, while the Kagero set has ten or eleven (I forget which) different offerings including "Avagrog" as done here, "Hava Go-Jo", "Sweet as a Song", and "Hal-Far", among others. I consider both to be essential if you're going to do a Spitfire from Down Under. One other thing about those decals before we go: I still don't care for the notion of squirting floor wax on my models and usually perform the pre-decal glossing ritual using either Testor Metalizer Sealer or Testor clear laquer, but I also really thin my paint (60% or so) and tried something different this time around. The undersurfaces of the wings got the usual coat of Metalizer Sealer, but the upper surfaces were lightly polished with an old cotton tee-shirt; no polish, just the shirt. That activity produced a really nice eggshell finish and all the decals went down flawlessly with no silvering. I just may start doing that all the time.

And a view of the bottom. Preliminary weathering has begun, and I still have to add the bomb racks; the model represents A58-526 "Avagrog" from 79 Sqdn as seen at Morotai in mid-1945, when the squadron's duties consisted primarily of moving mud. That 30-gallon aux tank is a nice touch and is removable---the kit also provides a 60-gallon tank if you're so inclined, and the Morotai ships often went on ops with external tanks in place---they needed the gas. Paint is the ubiquitous (over here, anyway) Testor Model Master (RAF Ocean Grey, RAF Dark Green (faded), and RAF Medium Sea Grey, with dingy off-white for the ID bands on the leading edge of the wings, while the weathering has all been done with pastels. Those Morotai Spitfires were well maintained but looked really beat up, providing an interesting challenge in terms of weathering. I don't know if Eduard produces a "regular" photo-etch set for this family of aircraft or not, because I bought a Zoom set for the interior, but as complete as this kit is there are a couple of smaller details that are missing. You're probably sick of hearing it, but good references are a necessity, even with a Tamiya kit. You'll definitely want photo references for your exterior too; most of the Australian Spitfires operating out-of-country in 1945 were heavily weathered and duplication of same will be a challenge without them.

There's not much left to do on this one and it ought to be finished in a few more days, at which time we'll reconvene and see how it came out. Up to this point I'm really impressed with the kit. It's every bit as good as everybody says it is and sets the bar pretty high.

The SpAD Was a Tough Old Bird

Most of those old American prop planes were pretty darned tough, and could survive a tremendous amount of battle damage. That could be attributed to good design, good materials, simple systems (and not many of them), and, sometimes; luck as well. Here's an example.

There are any number of ways we could caption this photo, but I think the grins may say it all. This A-1 has just recovered with a substantial chunk of its port aileron hors de combat courtesy of the NVA. The airplane's broken, it's raining, and those guys are pretty darned happy. They've probably both been down this particular road before, in Korea and maybe in World War 2 as well. Every man a tiger...  USAF via Paul Jahant

The Fury Around the Boat

It's been a while since we've done anything with North American's FJ Fury, and there are still a whole bunch of pictures we could look at. Today's as good a day as any, so without further ado:

Steam catapults really add a mystic appearance to the flight deck, I think. This section of FJ-3Ms from VF-84 are in the process of moving up to the cat for hookup and launch. The Deck Division is scrambling, although a couple of airdales off the nose of 202 give things a business-as-usual aspect. Some of those guys are wearing cranials and ears, but more than a few aren't. Those flight decks were incredibly noisy...  Tailhook Association via Doug Siegfried

If it launches it recovers sooner or later. Usually.  This is, dare we say it, a picture-perfect approach by one of Fighting Twenty-One's FJ-3Ms. The speedboards are out and everything's hanging as 204 prepares for what appears to be a perfect trap. Note the closed canopy.  Tailhook Association via Doug Siegfried

207 gets ready to take the wire. The landing gear is at full extension and looks somewhat odd in consequence. Those early jets weren't happy around the boat because of their distinctly disadvantageous thrust to weight ratio, compounded by the fact that the early engines were slow to spool up. The price for a missed approach or sloppy landing could be high indeed.  Tailhook Association via Doug Siegfried

Sometimes you know there's going to be a problem ahead of time, which is when you rig the barrier a little further aft. The driver of this unidentified FJ-4 is having a bad day, but it could've been a whole lot worse. Some carrier accidents could best be termed horrendous, but this is more of an incident, declared in advance and worked according to procedure. Still, things were probably pretty sporty in that cockpit for a while.  Tailhook Association via Doug Siegfried

We Almost Never Run Pictures of F-14s Around Here

And that's a shame, considering what a neat airplane it was.

If any airplane picture could be considered a classic photo, this one would surely be in the running. An F-14A from VF-111 poses for his wingman while flying CAP somewhere over the Pacific. There's not much to be said here except that it's the perfect way to end a day.  Nankivil Collection

Happy Snaps

Last time around we discussed the possibility of a new section devoted to the contributions of our aviator readers called "Happy Snaps", and here's our first installment of same. If any of you are interested in contributing, here are the ground rules:

1. The photo needs to be air-to-air, preferably but not necessarily of a military airplane.
2. You had to have taken the picture yourself---nothing from official sources, etc.
3. If you didn't take it yourself, you need to have been there when it was taken.

Pretty easy, huh?  That said, here's our first official entry in the Happy Snap Department:

I don't know about you, but I think this is a pretty amazing way to lead off a new department. It's an F-5, sortof, but it's a special one. Let's let contributor Kolin Campbell explain: Here's an aircraft you may not have seen. It's the 'shaped supersonic boom demonstration' test aircraft, a modified F-5E. When NASA finished their tests, our squadron was tasked to lead the aircraft during its ferry flight to Florida, due to its avionics fit. The photo was taken near Palmdale, CA. I did not take this particular photo (I'm in the F-18D), and cannot recall who did. You can credit it to 'USN'. I have some other pictures that I took during the ferry flight, but don't have easy access to those right now. Break out your balsa wood and see if you can't carve up a model.    Kolin

Pretty cool, I think. Thanks Kolin! Anybody else have some happy snaps they'd like to share with us?

The Relief Tube

Tommy Thomason's been following our "Stoof" series, and offers a link to some interesting tests involving the type. http://thanlont.blogspot.com/2010/12/davis-barrier-one-more-time.html

And while we're talking about "Stoofs" and Tommy, here's another photo that may be of interest:

The Author as a Young Man. That's Tommy in the middle, taken in front of a VS-21 S2F-1 at Sangley Point, PI, Way Back When. Thanks for sharing, Tommy!
The whole reason we run The Relief Tube is to correct mistakes. Every once in a while I manage to drop a real clanger, as pointed out by sharp-eyed reader Grant: Thanks for your write-up on Monogram. One small point that you already know, it was the USS Pueblo Crisis in 1968 that sent the F-106s to Korea, not SS Mayaguez in 1975. Yikes! I'm embarassed over that one, having watched the whole "Pueblo" thing on TV!

Grant also had something to add regarding that last B-50 piece we did:  Interesting comments on the B-50. One aircraft that doesn't get enough attention. 46-0005 should be a B-50A. I am an ex-airborne weather equipment repairman, though the B-50 was before my time. Bernie Barris, ex ARWO is a fount of knowledge on weather aircraft. He said that the weather marked B-50As were trainers and not fitted with weather equipment, so it should be TB-50A if redesignated at all. 310 is now at the Air Force Museum and the non-standard modifications (small camera window on the nose and small scoop before the prop warning line) along with the missing AMQ-133 Psychrometer on the left nose has thrown an error into some WB-50D profiles. I believe that it flew out of Panama before being flown to the Museum and vaguely remember that it was concerned with upper atmosphere or space radiation. If you wish to discuss weather aircraft, Bernie can be reached through the AWRA Homepage. Thank you for the pleasure of reading your blogs.  Grant

And thanks to you, Grant, for both the correction and the additions to the B-50 piece, and thanks for helping to keep us honest!

And that's what I know. Thanks for dropping by, and we'll see you again real soon. Meanwhile, be good to your neighbor.
phil

A Brand New Year, Corsairs, a Zapped Bug Sucker, an Uncommon Boeing, Thuds, Stoofs, and Some Nose Art

Our First Edition for a Brand New Year

This is going to be what we might call a Brief Blog, but I wanted to do a little something to kick ff our brand new year with. I haven't rambled senselessly for a while, so let's start off with Some Thoughts On the Hobby:

Thought the First:  As scale modelers we've never had it so good. In spite of the worst economic times many of us have ever known the new kits keep coming, albeit at a reduced pace when compared to a couple of years ago. There's an amazing selection of aftermarket decals to choose from, and an equally amazing (if sometimes unnecessary) selection of aftermarket parts. To put the icing on the cake, we're also blessed with proliferation of reference works that we could only dream of back in those Halcyon Days of Long Ago.  It's truly a Golden Age for our hobby, doomsayers notwithstanding.

Thought the Second:  I think we should mostly build for fun. It's a hobby. When it's all said and done I try to do my best to get things right,  but at the end of the day it's still a hobby, and I don't go nuts over stuff I miss or mistakes I make, at least not most of the time, and when I do get bothered by such Intrusions into My World I either fix them and move on or, more likely than not, decide I can live with whatever the problem might be and, you guessed it; move on. My personal standards are still relatively high but nowadays I build for me, not for anybody else. In my world that's the way to do it.

Thought the Third:  Because I build for fun it rarely takes more than three or four weeks for me to finish something, and a kit such as the Tamiya Bf 109E can generally go from box to display shelf in three or four days if I can stay with the project with minimal interruptions. That takes us back to Thought the Second---it's a hobby and it ought to be fun.

Thought the Fourth and Final:  Because it's a hobby and because we're building for fun, we ought not make a given project harder than it needs to be. There's another side to that coin too, of course, because we won't get better as modelers if we don't constantly challenge ourselves, but a challenge is different from a ritual beating, and it's relatively easy to turn the hobby into just that. Challenge is Good. Beatings are Bad.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled ("Scheduled"? Did he say "scheduled"?) program.

A Few Things I Like

In the truest spirit of producing a brief New Year's edition of this missive, here are a couple of photos of airplanes that I like. Don't look for a theme because there isn't one; we're just going to look at some pictures that I think are neat.

Fighting Seventeen was the first Navy squadron to take the legendary F4U Corsair aboard a carrier, where they quickly discovered that it was a handful around the boat. That long nose, coupled with a short tailwheel strut and mushy main mounts (on the F4U-1), made for quite an adventure when trying to recover aboard ship. As a result, VF-17 ended up flying their first combat tour from shore bases, although the Navy was ultimately able to cure most of the carrier suitability problems by lengthening that tailwheel strut and stiffening up the oleos on the mains. This photo is from those early evaluations; better days lay ahead.  Tailhook Association via Doug Siegfried

Somewhere in the South Pacific...   This F4U-1A could be the poster child for what some folks might call an Evocative Shot. 901 is from an unknown (at least to me) Marine outfit, and I have no idea where the photo was taken, but it's a fine study of a beautiful airplane. Modelers note that not all SWPAC Corsairs were beat to snot; every one of them was relatively new when they got there. This one probably got grungy pretty quickly, but it's relatively pristine here.  Tailhook Association via Doug Siegfried

The AU-1 was the final American version of the "Hog". The type saw combat in Korea and survived far enough into the 50s to wear the then-new grey over white paint scheme in service. 129411 would be(and has been, come to think of it) a neat subject for a model. Check out that Glossy Sea Blue gas bag down there; it's a nice touch. The rudder of this bird is almost fully deflected, making it look as though the last four of the BuNo painted on the verticals have been applied incorrectly. The elevators are deflected too, making me suspect that some plane captain had a really bad day shortly after this was taken. Tailhook Association via Doug Siegfried

Zapped!

For those of you who may not have spent a significant portion of their adult lives photographing military airplanes, a zap is the application of an emblem or similar device to an airplane that ought not be wearing same. Sometimes such things are painted onto the airframe, although that particular method of application is generally highly frowned upon; mostly zaps are stickers or aviation decals (real "decalcomania", not the scale stickies we modelers use), easily applied and, most importantly, relatively easily removed. Here's an example:

The 178th FIS/119th FIG of the North Dakota ANG, known to one and all as The Happy Hooligans, operated the F-4D for several years. 64-0973, an F-4D-26-MC from the "Hooligans",  is an example of a bird that's been zapped by the Candian Armed Forces. This sort of thing used to happen fairly frequently during international (or even joint services) training operations. It probably still does. Don Jay Collection

It was once considered a Good Idea to make airliners, or at least civil transports, out of bombers. Boeing went down that road with both the B-17 and the B-29 (not to mention the B707 to KC-135 thing, although that one went the other direction, from airliner to tanker). The transport you see here is the Boeing 307, which was based on the B-17. It wasn't a bad airplane, but tricycle landing gear and a need for better capacity kept it out of the big time. It looks pretty cool in spite of all that, and was a good airplane that just happened to be built at the wrong time. If we had a 1/48th scale kit I probably wouldn't build it, but it's still a neat airplane. Nankivil Collection

A Pair of Pretty Thuds

Last time around we saw an example of an F-105 that survived both North Vietnamese AAA and the smelter to end up in the back lot of a truck repair facility. Here's something a little closer to the beginning:

In the Beginning...  54-0099 is the second of two JF-105A-1-RE Thunderchiefs built, shown here proving the feasibility of buddy pack refueling with 54-0102, one of three F-105B-1-REs constructed. The "Thud" could tank off either probe and drogue or a boom, although both methods resulted in a cockpit full of JP-4 fumes. 102 ultimately ended up on public display, a rare survivor of her type.  USAF via Don Jay

A Taste of What's in Store

You may remember, but then maybe not, that we ran a couple of Grumman "Stoof" shots a while back. That elicited a comment from Doug Siegfried (of Tailhook Association fame) to the effect that he'd been an S2F driver for the greater part of his Navy career and would sure like to see us run some more pictures of his favorite airplane. As much as I love that bird (and I truly do, an addiction that dates back to my childhood) I don't have much in the way of photography in my own personal collection. Mention of that sad fact led to action on Doug's part, which will result in several installments of S-2s and C-1s over the next few months. Here's a taste:

It seems as though every single airplane that the United States operated during the ten years between 1959 and 1969 was equipped to fire the AGM-12 Bullpup. That list of aircraft includes the "Stoof", as demonstrated here by an S-2E from VS-21. Shooting a command-guided missile from a slow airplane was a recipe for Certain Disaster in an operational environment, but to the best of our knowledge the type never made an actual war shot with the weapon.  It was probably a Good Thing.  Tailhook Association via Doug Siegfried

Some Nose Art From Desert Storm

If you've been following us for a while you'll recall that we periodically run nose art photos taken by Rick Morgan immediately following his combat tour with VAQ-141 during Operation Desert Storm. You've seen most of it, but for some reason we never got around to running the A-6 photos that constitute the final installment of the series. It's time to correct the ommission, I think.

You may recall that the nose art found on certain of the aircaft assigned to the Theodore Roosevelt immediately post-War was the result of an ad-hoc competition within the air wing. "The Big Stick" was VA-65's entry in the competition. Aside from the nose art this is a useful shot for modelers; check out the deployed curtain and canopy bow detail that's shown in this photo.  Rick Morgan

And here's "Heartless", VA-36's entry in the competition. Note the mission markers beneath the wing root and the intake cover. Yes, Virginia, that's a real, honest-to-goodness cover purpose-made for the A-6 family; it's far more practical than the "hard" type of cover around the boat.  Rick Morgan

Our First Relief Tube of the New Year

When last we met Don Jay sent us a comment regarding The End of Kodachrome. Here's a follow-up to that comment. It's the end of an era.

This makes me sad, ya'll.  via Don Jay

I ran some early FJ-3 photos a while back, and immediately thereafter ran a comment from Tommy Thomason regarding the hard-wing FJs that we didn't look at in that particular piece. He mentioned he'd sent a photograph of same, which you didn't get to see because I couldn't figure out how to open it. I've since worked past that particular Act of Random Stupidity on my part and can now show you the photo that Tommy wanted you to see last time.

BuNo 136153 is an FJ-3M from VF-51 and shows the hard (slatless) wing to advantage, and if you look at the front of the wing root you can see what Tommy was referring to when he said the aircraft was missing the little fairing that ran up against the gun bay door. And, speaking of guns, this bird has obviously just returned from the range; note that it's slick, with no underwing tanks, and there's a considerable amount of blast residue and gun lubricant all over the nose by the cannon ports. Thomason Collection

When we ran those most recent OP-2E photos I made comment about the racks hanging off the wing stations, mistakenly referring to them as TERs. I should've known better! Here's a correction from Rick Morgan:

(The rack in question) is a Practice Multiple Bomb Rack, usually held Mk76 or Mk106 Blue Bombs, frequently used by A-4s and A-6s Stateside. Jim Rotramel tells me the PMBR is an A/A37B-3.  Rick

Thanks, Morgo! Rick also sent along a photo of a PMBR from the era with sensors attached, thus defining the reason VO-67 was using that particular piece of equipment at the time. Those of you who can still remember things (and I'm obviously not part of that group) may recall the caption to an A-4 photo we ran way back when this blog first got started where we described a practice bomb dispenser attached to said "Scooter" as a "Banger Board". Those Neptunes were carrying "Banger Boards", I think.

And that's it for our Very First Edition of 2011. Stay tuned; we've got some really neat stuff coming to you during the coming year. Meanwhile, be good to your neighbor. We'll meet again soon.
phil