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Q'ns about retired airframe

Griz882

Frightening children with the Griz-O-Copter!
pilot
Contributor
Gents,
Another one: why the ADM James Holloway III being fresh winged LT just before Korean War rated Vought AU-1 as "second best", worse than Douglas AD-1? Final Corsair was battle-proven, after all, while Skyraider's fame was still uncertain then...
Not at all an unusual opinion. One article notes, “The first time I saw a Skyraider, I wasn’t very impressed,” said former U.S. Marine Corps Captain William C. Smith. “After flying Corsairs, I thought it looked like a great big airplane with a little bitty engine.” Later that same writer said, “My original opinion of the plane did a complete 180,” Smith recalled. “When you fly combat, you need to have confidence in your airplane, and after that first week there was no question in my mind that our ADs were the best planes in the world for the job expected of us....” Smith added, “Even after all these years of progress, I believe the AD is still the best airplane ever made for close-in attack option…better, in fact, than anything flying today.”

In his career my father flew aircraft ranging from the Wildcat to the Crusader including the Skyraider and later the A-4 Skyhawk. In his diary he noted the A-4 was a better aircraft but the AD-1 was a superior attack bomber. Go figure.
 

brownshoe

Well-Known Member
Contributor
Edward Henry Heinemann

Too bad Ron Marron isn't still with us, he flew both as well. Both the Skyhawk and the Skyraider were amazing aircraft! ('course I favor the A4. :))

600_1965--VA-35Making10,000landing.jpg600_VietnamCruiseUSSIntrepid1966-67.jpg
 
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Max the Mad Russian

Hands off Ukraine! Feet too
Scooters are still in business, on Brazilian carrier. I cannot ask thus, it isn't retired type. Though a carrier herself, an old French steamer, is reportedly in very bad condition and so has just been placed in a dock for repair. So do two other single-carrier navies - Russian and French: both Charles de Gaulle and Kuznetsov are in a midlife upgrade and still will be for a year at least. Now there is the only navy which runs the big carriers deployed - your Navy:cool:
 

zab1001

Well-Known Member
pilot
Super Moderator
Contributor
Sao Paulo is being decomm'ed.

They also lost an A4 about 2 years ago-ish.
 

zab1001

Well-Known Member
pilot
Super Moderator
Contributor
Prestige? More like requirement. Brazil's economy does not lend itself to vanity purchases. The acquisition was a smart move.

I wasn't insinuating any intent to use for fixed wing ops, merely pointing out that the Paulo is out of business and they're shifting focus.
 

Max the Mad Russian

Hands off Ukraine! Feet too
Thanks.
Look, can you imagine the situation when S-3B pilot in left seat allowed the rookie pilot in starboard one to land on a carrier? No relation to W. In 1996 two Russians were on board of USS America in Med and flown F-14 and S-3. One in a Tomcat was Col Victor Pugachev (father of Flanker Cobra pattern), a famous test pilot, but he was a backseater then. The other guy was Maj Gen Timur Apakidze, then with 283 traps on Kuznetsov in Su-25KUB and Su-33, and he was in starboard seat of a Viking. The rumors were that he landed that Hoover on an America from that seat being approved to do so by CAG. Apakidze himself neither confirmed nor denied that until his death in airshow accident in 2001. Could that be true? To land on a carrier such a heavy aircraft by seasoned but unqualified foreign pilot?
 
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