Maritime Antiques and Collectibles

Naval Air

by admin | April 11th, 2010

Naval Air

The Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum

Glancing into New York's East River at the U.S.S. Intrepid's slender bow which progressively arched, almost triumphantly, many stories above to support the flat steel deck from which take offs of considerably gross weighted aircraft had been routinely conducted, I could not refrain from awing at the dual sea-air technological conquest man had made since Eugene Ely had first taken to the air from the U.S.S. Birmingham in a Curtiss biplane in 1910. The Royal Naval Air Service had commissioned the world's first aircraft carrier, the HMS Furor, in 1917, and the US subsequently commissioned its own first carrier, the Langley, in 1922, albeit converted from a collier. The versatility of the combined ocean-air technology provided a self-contained, moveable world, which traversed sea and extended aircraft range. Complementing each other, the aircraft then provided advanced surveillance for the carrier. Collectively, they had played an indispensable role in aviation and space history. These accomplishments could only be told by the individual designs which had operated from it.

The Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat, for instance--powered by a single 2,000-hp Pratt and Whitney R-2800-10 piston engine with a three-bladed propeller and featuring a 380-mph maximum speed--had been the most successful carrier-based fighter during World War II and had won the Naval Air War in the Pacific. Grumman had produced some 12,275 of the foldable-wing designs, which successfully downed 5,216 enemy aircraft as opposed to only 270 losses of its own.

The Curtiss SB2C-3 Helldiver, a carrier-based Scout bomber with a 16,607-pound gross weight, a 1,110-mile range, and a 295-mph speed, had been the US Navy's frontline WWII dive bomber and had first reported aboard the Intrepid in September of 1943 during shake-down trials.

Another design familiar to the aircraft carrier during the war had been the Grumman TBF/TBM Avenger. Operationally introduced in June of 1942, the 17,895-pound, foldable-wing aircraft became the US Navy's standard torpedo bomber. The 9,836 built featured 1,000-mile range capabilities and 276-mph maximum speeds.

Some propeller designs bridged the gap between World War II and the pure-jet fighters of the 1950s. The Grumman HU-16 Albatross, for example--a high-wing, dual-engined aircraft built according to Naval requirements by Grumman Aerospace for air-sea rescue missions—featured two 1,425-hp Wright R-1820-76BA radials and a 35,700-pound gross weight. Succeeding several earlier Grumman-designed amphibians, the Albatross had first flown in prototype form on October 24, 1947. Operated by a crew of four to six, the HU-16 typically carried ten stretcher cases and cruised at 150 mph. Of the 71 eventually operated by the US Coast Guard, the last had not been removed from service until 1982.

Rotorcraft had also played an important role in air-sea operations. The 15,000-pound Boeing Vertol H-21C Shawnee, powered by a 1,425-hp Wright Cyclone R-1820-103 and able to lift a 5,000-pound payload, had been instrumental in providing mobility in road infrastructure-poor and geographically-obstructed Vietnam. By mid-1962, five companies of Shawnees had been distributed into the country's four military regions. The 22-troop, 120-mph rotorcraft had provided the basis for the succeeding 44-troop Chinook.

The predominantly straight-winged designs of the 1940s had been remolded into the delta-winged fighters of the 1950s. The Grumman F11F-1 Tiger, operated by the VF-33 Squadron from the Intrepid during 1959, was the first carrier-borne single-seat fighter with supersonic capability and the first design to employ the NACA-developed "area rule" from inception.

Another innovative design had been the McDonnell F-3B Demon—the first Navy jet comparable in all respects to its land-based contemporaries. Tracing its origins to the earlier F-4 Phantom and ordered in 1949, the swept-wing fighter had conducted its inaugural flight on August 7, 1951. But because of the unsuitability of its original powerplants, the 33,900-pound aircraft did not enter service until 1956, now powered by a single 14,250-thrust-pound Allison J71-A-2E.

The 80,000-pound, foldable-wing Rockwell International RA-5C Vigilante, powered by two 17,000-thrust-pound General Electric J-79-GE-8s, was a Mach 2.1 high-performance, all-weather, strategic attack carrier-born design. First flown on August 31, 1958, it introduced several innovations, including variable-geometry air intakes, a linear bomb bay, blown flaps for low-speed handling, and an all-moving, differential tailplane. Its design obviated the need for traditional ailerons.

Equally innovative, yet providing the vertical take off capability of the Shawnee and the swept, fixed wings of the Vigilante, was the Hawker Siddeley AV-8C Harrier which was operated by the Marine Corps as a Close Support fighter and bomber. Rotating the four exhaust nozzles of its 21,500-thrust-pound Rolls Royce Pegasus F402 vectored-thrust turbofans, it was able to achieve both vertical- and short-take off and landing (V/STOL) capability, thus generating vertical and horizontal lift, yet attain forward speeds of 737 mph. Because of this maneuverability, the type was instrumental in the Gulf War, operating from the ships at sea and forward land bases in Saudi Arabia and enabling it to hit key Iraqi frontlines.

The U.S.S. Intrepid had eventually even been instrumental in the space program. Succeeding the initial single-person Mercury missions and bridging the gap to the Apollo moon missions, the two-man Gemini program had been launched on March 23, 1965 with a five-hour orbit piloted by Gus Grissom and John Young. The Intrepid conducted the recovery of the first splashdown, raising the capsule to its hangar deck level. The ten manned Gemini missions, conducted over a 20-month period, would demonstrate man's ability to function in space for extended time periods and facilitate rendezvous and docking procedures which would pave the way toward the Apollo moon landings.

Instrumental in both peace and war—in benevolence and destruction—the U.S.S. Intrepid—and the numerous other aircraft carriers of its type—had provided the sea-shielding foundation from which to protect and explore--regardless of the technological height its fixed- and rotor-wing aircraft had attained. Upon return, it was the landmass they called "home."

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Breaks of Naval Air, Pt 2 of 2