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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 1411.PDF
September 1955 523 apart and with the "slot-man's" cockpit about 3ft below the jet blast of the leader. The pilots are Capt. Jacksel M. Broughton leader; Capt. W. L. "Bill" Creech, left wing-man; Lt Billy j' Ellis, right wing-man; and Capt. Edwin D. Palmgren, "slot-man "' Home base is Luke A.F.B., Phoenix, Arizona, where the near- perfect flying weather affords the maximum time for practice Between formation manoeuvres individual pilots demonstrate the F-84F's performance more or less on the limits. A solo run at 100ft and 700 m.p.h. was, in fact, the curtain-raiser at Phila- delphia, followed by six vertical rolls to 12,000ft. A pet manoeuvre of the four-man team is the "whifferdill," a vertical U-tum wherein the formation repositions from diamond to line astern (or trail, as the Americans term it). They change, too, from diamond to line astern in a roll, from line astern to diamond in a loop, and make a 360-deg turn in 35 seconds, calling for a speed of some 600 m.p.h. and a sustained loading of 4^-5g. The path of some manoeuvres is traced with smoke. At length, the '84Fs climb vertically and split to the cardinal points, returning in a vertical dive and pulling out to meet, more or less head-on, at minimum altitude and at a declared speed of 640 m.p.h. With a view to "spotlighting the enlisted man" the Allison Trophy was put up this year for a quick engine-change by Lockheed T-33 ground crews from the Crew Training and Flying Training Commands. Each of six five-man crews had to detach the rear fuselage of a T-33, remove the Allison J33, instal a replacement, reinstate the tail and start up. Every move was scrutinized by an inspector (die sixth man of each team), and the winners—from Webb A.F.B., Texas—had their aeroplane back in business after 11 min 32.2 sec. Each man must have been a pound or two lighter at the end. With thirteen on the job, I understand, the sequence has been completed in 8£ min. Attention was now directed to the 40,000-ton attack carrier U.S.S. Ticonderoga (the "Big T"), her upper works gleaming in the sun as she lay to the south of the field. Daily from 9 until 11.30 she had been at home to visitors—28,000 by the end of the show—and every afternoon she had a leading part to play in the Navy's flying programme. She roused herself from a siesta with a spasm of steam-catapult blasts, as two each of F7U-3M tailless fighters and S2F-1 twin-engined anti-submarine aircraft were successively punched out over the river at 140 m.p.h. With its propulsive force of 33 million ft-lb (the commentator gave his assurance) a vertically mounted steam catapult could project a family car 8,000ft into the air. Before I left America I was to see a number of cars which appeared to have undergone this treatment. The F7Us built up the Mach with reheat and came in for a mock strike; then, with everydiing depressed, opened and lowered (except the nose, which reared grotesquely up in the air) each came dragging round the circuit at 7 kt above the stall. The first touched down like something out of The Lost World; the second was batted into the wires of Morest gear and stopped as willingly as a 16in shell. On the previous day I had seen one of these supersonic missile carriers (they are said to be able to launch "any modern weapon" at speeds in excess of Mach 1), pull a wire clean out, sending the attendant crew precipitously to earth and disconcerting one and all. The F7U's rate of climb, incidentally, was announced as 13,000 ft/min. The S2Fs now came into the picture, with radomes lowered, MAD gear extended and searchlights winking. They climbed away at an angle quite unbecoming their matronly figures and three P2V-7s similarly conducted themselves under the urge of their Turbo-Compounds and under-wing Westinghouse jets. These knobbly, spiky sea lawyers, however, appeared almost medieval compared with one of the new A3Ds which introduced itself in a "dirty pass," then quickly cleaned itself up to return for a speed and climb demonstration worthy of the name Sky- warrior. The weight of this carrier-borne attack bomber was announced as 70,000 lb. Meanwhile, the Ticonderoga had been shooting off more aero- planes with impressive prodigality, for diey were not, of course, landed back after each day's performance. There were two F2H twin-jet fighters and an AJ-2 atom bomber/tanker, the AJ having probe and drogue equipment by Flight Refuelling Inc., of Balti- more. I heard that the F2H squadron commander had had a bet with his admiral that a refuelling contact would be made in front of the stands, a feat often attempted but never achieved at previous shows. On the Saturday he lost his bet, but, in face of low-altitude turbulence on the following day, an F2H hitched up fair and square. Three P5M-2 anti-submarine and patrol flying-boats (claimed to carry the most powerful tactical radar equipment found in any U.S. aircraft) sailed over winking with their searchlights; but whether in salute to the Land of the Free, or to all the nice girls who love a sailor, I could not make out. One of the most edifying items on the Navy's programme was a parallel take-off by two Patuxent-based F9F-4s, one plain, the other with boundary layer control (B.L.C.) in the form of flap blowing. I gathered that take-off and approach speeds are reduced by anything up to 20 kt by this means, and that landing runs are, Douglas A4D-1 Skyhawk lightweight attack bomb*. Douglas R4D-8 (Super DC-3) transport. Republic f-S4t ittunaerstrean. [one oi the Thunderbird team). Douglas ADS Skyraider carrier-borae multi-purpose aircraft Cessna L-19A Bird Dog, an A.O.P./liaison machine.
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