WHALE of a tale ... the A-3 Skywarrior returns to Whidbey !!!

[A4sForever]

Today -- a great day in the Pacific Northwest and a particularly great day for Naval Aviation history when this ol' girl returned at @ 1330 to the applause & approval of many ...

She even did a little 'whale-dance' on touchdown ...

A-3 Landing at NAS Whidbey

 

[jmcquate]

Is she done flying ?

 

[Recovering LSO]

Was at the hold short for 14 (13 for you older guys) today. Delayed takeoff so we could hang out and watch the flyover and subsequent landing. Had no idea they used a drag parachute after touchdown.

If you were there, I was the next jet to takeoff after the old girl cleared the runway.

 

[MIDNJAC]

Thats cool as hell. Is this the one Raytheon was using for a while?

edit: maybe I should learn to read the article before asking questions

 

[nittany03]

Someone needs to line it up with a Prowler and Growler for a "Three generations of VAQ" pic. EPIC FAIL for not getting one in formation . . .

 

[phrogdriver]

That's a beast of an aircraft. Who owned her before she came back home?

 

[scoolbubba]

Raytheon. It's a shame she's going to be stuck on a stick.

 

[phrogpilot73]

Raytheon. It's a shame she's going to be stuck on a stick.

According to the article, it was the Navy...

This particular Skywarrior was used as a radar research and test aircraft but was recently removed from the Navy’s active fleet inventory.

Also from the article:

Woltman is a former Navy A-3 pilot and currently works as Raytheon’s A-3 program manager.

Talk about a job with no future...

 

[phrogdriver]

Raytheon. It's a shame she's going to be stuck on a stick.

Ah...perhaps I should've tried the "read more" link.

 

[KBayDog]

Ah...perhaps I should've tried the "read more" link.

Nah. Anything worth reading is worth putting on the front page. The rest is just filler material.

(On a related note, a buzzword I hate: BLUF Anyone who uses this puke-inducing term (read: every ppt-making, EOT award-"earning" staff weenie in the Corps) is telling me to ignore everything else in the presentation. Mission accomplished.)

 

[Fog]

It's a shame that Douglas & Grumman no longer exist as stand-alone, independent companies. Before they were bought & merged into McDonnell & Northrop respectively, they had a unique handle on building the kinds of aircraft especially fitted to the unique needs of the US Navy. We still get a lot of good a/c today, but they're (necessarily) built to be sold to different users.

 

[teabag53]

The 'ol girl swung through Pt Mugu enroute. I was out running and thought I saw one of our S-3's coming in for the break out of my peripheral vision and then did a double take!!! I had no idea there were any still flying. Sounds like I shouldn't have waited for this coming week to check it out as it's no longer here.

 

[Recovering LSO]

Next question. Any idea why there are 3 Navy 53's at NUW? Between these three behemoths, the existing P-3s, and the whale that just showed up - the whole Whidbey ramp is growing at the waist line a bit

 

[Catmando]

This particular Skywarrior was used as a radar research and test aircraft but was recently removed from the Navy’s active fleet inventory.

I wonder if this is the same Whale we had at NADC in the mid '70s. It was a test-bed aircraft that flew many different projects. It was especially used heavily in the development of TCAS, but I never got to fly it.

 

[Sapper!]

someone put this in the comments section of the article
http://youtu.be/fmglOdsLkpk