Innholdsfortegnelse for March - April 2021 i Flight Journal

The experimental X-15 and its capabilities are truly legendary and certainly captured the imagination of so many young Americans when it was first introduced over 60 years ago. The design, engineering and materials demands and requirements for this aircraft were epic. The goal was to gain a better understanding of the aerodynamics associated with departing and reentering Earth’s atmosphere with a human aboard. The specification was to reach 250,000 feet and to fly at Mach 6.6! Yes, propel a human wearing a full pressure suit into weightless space, in a hypersonic, rocket-propelled aircraft to an altitude of 62 miles—and fly back to Earth. And unlike the Mercury and Gemini space capsules of the time, the X-15 demanded the highest level of piloting skills. Much of the internal space of the…

The EA-6B Prowler first flew in 1968 and first deployed to Vietnam in 1971. The EA-6B was designed to replace the interim and less-capable EA-6A “Electric Intruder” that spanned from the years 1963 through 1993. The EA-6A was a U.S. Marine Corps two-seat Electronic Attack model based on the A-6A Intruder, and the aircraft saw widespread service in Vietnam. The Prowler also replaced the Navy’s large Douglas EKA-3B Skywarrior, known as the “Whale,” being the premier jamming platform serving aboard carriers. The EA-6B also saw combat operations in Libya terrorist-related targets, Operation Desert Storm, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Around 1995, budget constraints forced the EA-6B and the EF-111A Raven (a U.S. Air Force jamming aircraft based on the F-111 Aardvark airframe) to be pitted against each other in…

Do you have aviation in your blood? Crazy about aircraft and flying? Add your unique perspective to our content mix! We’re looking for flightline reporters and contributors to share their expertise and advice in videos and posts. (Original and unpublished content only, please.) If you’re the kind of pilot or aviation enthusiast who likes taking videos and photos while in the hangar or at an airshows, getting the inside scoop on civilian planes, jets, warbirds, and the pilots who fly them, we hope you’ll consider joining us. Team members will get featured posts on our premium site and, of course, unlimited bragging rights. Contributors may be published in Flight Journal magazine. If you’d like to contribute, here are a few topics we’re interested in getting articles and videos about, or…

IN JULY OF 1943, Sutcliffe was on a training mission over the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut, when his engine quit. “I couldn’t find a place to set it down. We were taught to dive at the wing and to fall between the wing and the tail. I looked at the wing and decided I would hit my head and get knocked out. I looked back at the tail. I could be out of here before I hit it. I curled up in the cockpit, put my arms on the side and shoved straight up. The vertical stabilizer came under me like a huge knife. Anything dangling would have been gone.” Sutcliffe was falling head first, and when he pulled the parachute ring, the jolt knocked off his shoe. He drifted…

When we put ourselves under a surgeon’s knife, we usually also put ourselves into the trust of someone who knows his craft and can work under pressure, particular when things start to go really bad. For instance, as a patient, it would be reassuring to know that the doctor about to work on me had also been a carrier-based light-attack naval aviator with the Silver Star and the Purple Heart, and that he was the young A-4 pilot in a famous series of photos taken during a mission to the heart of North Vietnam in 1967, right in the middle of the aerial campaign known as Rolling Thunder. On April 25, 1967, Lt. (j.g.) Al Crebo, of VA-212, flying from the carrier Bon Homme Richard (CVA-31), took part in a…

On November 5, 1959 an engine bay fire erupted on Scott Crossfield’s fourth X-15 flight after one of the rocket chambers exploded. Scott shut down the engine and began jettisoning propellants while setting up for an emergency landing on the Rosamond Dry Lakebed. Due to the steep nose-down attitude during the landing approach, there was insufficient time for Crossfield to jettison all the propellants. He touched down at a low speed in a nose-high attitude with a considerable fuel load still in the tanks. The fuselage buckled just behind the cockpit when the nose slammed down. Three-quarters of the bolts securing the fuselage at the break point sheered. The airplane slid to a stop on its nose gear, belly, and main gear skids. It was not his best landing; fortunately,…

Fighter Squadron 212 was established on June 20, 1955. It was redesignated an attack squadron (VA) on April 1, 1956. The squadron’s striking insignia was approved on September 4, 1956, along with its colorful nickname, the Rampant Raiders. Its range of aircraft included the F7U-3 Cutlass, F9F-8 Cougar, FJ-4B Fury and the A-4B/E/F Skyhawk. It took its first Echoes (A-4Es) in January 1964 and Foxtrots (F-models) in October 1967. VA-212 flew throughout the conflict in Southeast Asia, making a record seven combat deployments. It became one of the last three carrier-based A-4 squadrons in Vietnam, flying from USS Hancock (CV-19) along with VA-55 and VA-164. VA-212 lost two commanding officers in combat: Cmdr. Homer L. Smith in May 1967 (who would receive a posthumous Navy Cross, having died while a…

Sutcliffe grew close to two pilots who were killed during the War. One was Capt. Robert S. Anderson, who was killed by small-arms fire over Canisy, France, on July 26, 1944. “His mother refused to believe he was dead until she talked to someone face to face who had seen it. When I came back in November, she flew out to see me, and I told her what happened.” The other was Lt. Norman Langmaid. “He and I were very close, being the only guys from Rhode Island.” Langmaid was hit by flak and died near Omaha Beach on June 7, 1944. Sutcliffe has visited Langmaid’s grave several times. He always wondered what happened to him that fateful day, “It’s one of those things that happen in war. A comrade…