Iron Hand
Posted on 11/16/2018 7:06:06 PM PST by sukhoi-30mki
Awesome AC.. sad to see it go.
EW airframes come and go, but the EC-130h lives on.
Incredible airframe in both EW, tanker, and bomber. Now they’ll have to make do with a less capable super hornet variant.
The Navy never had a plane with such loiter endurance and a load. 3 intruders was equal to a B-52. They wanted a stealth A-12 that was a failure. But to clear the way they dumped most of the A6-Es into the ocean off St Augustine. Many of them were almost -brand new- and others were functionally new and re-engined and re-winged.
[they dumped most of the A6-Es into the ocean off St Augustine]
Dang
Bump
I worked on Whidbey Island NAS back in the late 90’s. Those Prowlers have to be the loudest planes they ever made. The F-15’s I was around for 2 years after that were like whispers compared to the Prowlers.
Thanks for posting - great article. I worked with MALS 14 (Cherry Point) back in the late 80’s, also spent some time in Iwakuni supporting this aircraft/Marine squadrons. Even back then, they were difficult to troubleshoot and repair.
My sister lives just about at the end of the runway of Westover AFB.One of Westover's main duties is to repair and maintain the C-5.As a result C-5s are passing over her house,on takeoff,at about 200 feet.
"Loud" doesn't begin to describe the experience.
Always a sad thing to see these planes get sent out to pasture, so to speak.
It can be very emotional (quite understandably) for some.
Miss your reports
Miss your reports
A friend of mine is a retired Prowler pilot. Being a 4 seater, he said if he triggered ejection, he would have the wait for the other 3 seats to eject before he ejects. Yikes!
Look up “intruder reef”.
During Nam there were a few pilots, called “Wild Weasels” who intentionally flew low, dangerous patterns to incite the NV and Cong missile sites to fire up their radar so they could turn around and knock the site out with a missile. Were any of these planes used for that?
No, the Proweler was not a Wild Weasel. It did carry a HARM missile, but its mission was not killing SAMs. Personally, I hated the damn planes. Their transmitters were few in number and frequently did not work. It was all too common to have a Prowler fly a mission with only 2-3 operating jammers. They were grossly inferior to the EF-111, except the USAF tossed EW into the trash and put all their eggs in the stealth basket!
Loved the plane.
A-6 was great, but there was something about the Prowler that made it seem much faster than I think it was. I remember them doing flybys of the ship during impromptu air shows at sea, and those things could really screw!
Reminds me of the funniest air show participant...an E-2B Hawkeye. After all the other planes had gone...the Tomcats doing their supersonic fly-bys...the Intruders and Corsairs dropping their bombs (and you would feel the sound hit the hull of the ship before the sound of them exploding came through the air) the very last one to go by was a Hawkeye...
Heh, those engines leaving a visible smoke trail on full power, the thing with that huge radome actually in a dive, diving for the deck, the wings and radome strut actually visibly shaking! When it flew by at flight deck level, everyone gave it a lusty cheer for the effort...:)
I knew nothing of the reliability, but they looked awesome with that gold canopy...
I was once buzzed by one flying down the Columbia river as I was crossing over the bridge on I90 -- the one by the George. It startled me so much it was a good thing there was no one in the lane next to me.
Iron Hand
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