Archive for the ‘Catblogging’ Category
Pic from the USS VALLEY FORGE Korean War collection. Check out the one of the snow and ice. I think that one, or one very similar, was in the National Geographic.
Here’s a Hellcat right after landing on a carrier. The lower engine cowling looks a bit rough.:
It’s a French Hellcat and the image is from BIENVENUE SUR LE SITE DES ANCIENS DE L’AERONAUTIQUE NAVALE, which has a number of pics of various planes wearing French colors.
According to frenchnavy.free.fr:
The French Navy bought 124 F6F-5s and fifteen F6F-5Ns between 1950 and 1953. They were used by the 11F (ex-1F) and 12F combat squadrons, and by the 54S, 57S and 59S training squadrons. Those aircraft used to intervene over Indochina from various carriers such as CV Arromanches, CVL Lafayette and CVL Bois-Belleau. They were scraped in 1960.
The Arromanches was the former HMS Colossus, the Lafayette was the former USS Langley, and the Bois-Belleau was the former USS Belleau Wood.
I don’t generally run the same ‘Cat two weeks in a row while cat-blogging, but this is too good to miss. LT Scott “Timmeh” Timmester is photo-blogging the Final Cruise of the Tomcats and gives us this shot:
His entire collection of photos from the cruise (70 so far) is available on Flickr. Good stuff, and I hope he doesn’t mind I grabbed this one for today’s entry. This particular photo is from training back in July.
He’s also keeping Instapinch appraised of what’s been going on. Here’s a snippet:
During the night hop, we were directed to abandon our training mission and vectored to investigate a surface contact of interest. Apparently we had some info that a Chinese freighter may have been headed through the Med with a suspicious submarine onboard. We found the ship easily, made a low pass, and got some good IR footage clearly showing that it was carrying nothing of the sort. The Tomcat has the ability to transmit such footage via secure radio, so after a few fumblings in the back seat, I managed to get the images back to the intel dudes on the ship. By the time I was safely on deck, they had already used the shots to ID the exact ship, home port, etc., and had sent the shots back to the super spies back home. So you can all relax, the Greek Missile Crisis was narrowly averted tonight due to some very inept reconnoitering.
With the end of the Tomcat’s service looming, there will no doubt be many more F-14 entries in Cat Blogging during the coming months. Please bear with me.
The F-14 Tomcat made its final public appearance as an active part of the Navy over the September 17th weekend in an air show at Naval Air Station Oceana, Va.
The classic Northrup Grumman fighter jet that rose to prominence in the 1986 hit film “Top Gun” and has worn U.S. Navy colors since its first test flight in 1970 attracted a legion of fans from around the world at its public goodbye.“It’s basically a bittersweet day for us,” said Lt. Cortney Kinna, an F-14 naval flight officer from Amarillo, Texas. “It was our favorite airplane. I just think it’s the sexiest looking airplane out there. It’s unique, big, powerful and loud.”
The Tomcat will be retired after the USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT returns from her current deployment to the Persian Gulf area next spring. The last two Tomcat squadrons, VF-32 “Swordsmen” and VF-101 “Grim Reapers” VF-31 “Tomcatters” and VF-213 “Black Lions”, are aboard the ‘Big Stick’ and will transition to the F/A-18 Super Hornet when they return.
Radar intercept officers (RIO) said they will particularly miss the concentrated teamwork needed between the pilot and “backseater” to let the F-14 do its job. Unlike the F/A-18 Super Hornet, one said, pilots do not have the same cockpit controls in the front seat to operate the radar and fire all weapon systems.“The Tomcat is a RIO’s airplane,” said Lt. Tim Henry, a Gettysburg, Pa., native who took his last F-14 flight during the airshow. “It’s sad. I caught myself looking around the cockpit.”
Retired Capt. Phil Grandfield, of Virginia Beach, said he favored the Tomcat over the F-4 Phantom and the F/A-18 Hornet in his 26 years of flying Navy jets.
“I’m most proud of having flown the F-14,” said Grandfield, who has more than 2,000 flight hours in the aircraft and made his 1,000th carrier arrested landing in the jet. “It’s a unique airplane. It’s respected around the world.”
The AIM-54 Phoenix missile, the Tomcat’s long range ‘fleet defender’ missile, was retired about a year ago, leaving the AIM-120 AMRAAM as the longest-range air-to-air missile in the Navy’s inventory.
Also posted at Winds of Change.
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F7 and F8 flying over the USS Roosevelt. Bigger version at Old Glory Prints. You can buy one for $40.
Image from US Centennial of Flight’s Grumman: Post-WW2 to 1994 page.
Today we have the F7F. I wasn’t at all familiar with this cat until I saw one at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo.
Image from War Bird Registry’s Tigercat page.
All engine, all the time. Image from Screaming Eagles.
Last week the Wildcat, this week its follow-on. Image from Gary’s Military Art Page.
