I'm pretty sure that jet ended up back in that squadron - where it stayed for quite a few years and made too many appearances in my logbook.
Bureau Number (BUNO) 158542 is made up of three EA-6Bs pieced together as one. The unorthodox method for building an airplane has been dubbed ̶0;Franken-Prowler.”
Franken-Prowler is the result of the efforts of NAVAIR Depot, Jacksonville, Fla. Their goal is to provide the fleet with an additional Electronic Warfare asset by combining the forward fuselage of BUNO 158542, the aft fuselage of BUNO 158547, and pieces of BUNO 156482. The three aircraft were all part of the Advanced Capability (ADVCAP) Program, which aimed to incorporate multiple improvements into the airframe.
I'm sure Recovering LSO can relate to that sentiment.Thanks for the update. This happened not long after I left VAQ-35 and went TAR but my prior to that I was VAQ-141wonderful so I knew the players and ECMO 1 had sought me out looking for advice. No one was surprised that this happened to the Aviator driving - he defined the single seat mentality in a multi-seat jet.
I'm sure Recovering LSO can relate to that sentiment.
Brett
Supposedly the T-34C's with shark teeth are the ones that survived crashes/ditches/gear up landings. Just a stud rumor, not sure of the validity. There was one in Corpus.
I can confirm that the Corpus T-34 with teeth was a former FRS bird......it arrived at Corpus right when I was checking out for Meridian, and it had VFA-125 on the tail.
I can't speak for the Corpus birds, but the tradition at Whiting was that the aircraft with teeth were gear up landings. However, that seemed to be dieing when I was leaving around 2008. Maintenance wasn't very happy with losing that tradition, at least the couple I talked to. Maybe that got turned back on later.