Leneord, My dad (Philip A Horne) was also a VB-144 pilot, I believe he may be the only living Plankholder from the squadron. I have his logs and there are numerous flights where he flew with your dad.
At age ninety-six I'm blessed that he is still lucid and has sharp memories of his...
The P-51 was the first aircraft with a laminar flow wing.
The Lockheed Model 14 (Super Electra-civilian Hudson-military) was the first aircraft equipped with Fowler flaps. This was an adaptation of a civil aircraft drafted into the military service. With bigger engines it morphed into...
I grew up around it. My dad was a Naval Aviator. He was at Coral Sea, Midway and Guadalcanal (VCS-6, SOC's fron New Orleans). During `44 he was a pilot flying PV-1s (VB-144) out of Tarawa. During the 1950's he flew
P2Vs and other large aircraft. He retired in 62.
I remember his...
It depends. These are what are in my Dad's logbook (1941).
Primary: N2S and N3N
VS-VO: OS2U and SOC
Advanced: SNJ and SNV
Instrument: SNJ
Seaplane: PBY,
What was your Uncle's name?
Jonathan Horne
About 1978-79 at Sacramento Executive airport there was an aerial photography company that had two photo version P-38's. I saw them fly a few times. Sacramento Exec also had an adjacent duster strip that operated TBF's as crop dusters.
I currently reside in southern California and I've...
VPNAVY - VP-144 Crew Summary Page - VP Patrol Squadron
VPNAVY - VP-144 History Summary Page - VP Patrol Squadron
Links are for a picture of my dad and crew (with PV-1) and also some squadron history that was released by the Navy Department in 1944. I found all this stuff in my dad's...
I don't think the PV-1 Ventura was a death trap. It didn't provide the Brits with any operational advantage over any other aircraft they had to choose from so they gave it back to the US. The lend lease returned aircraft flew as the PV-3, mostly with training command and US inshore patrols...
The Curtiss SOC prooved itself valiently through out wwii with duty on cruisers and a few battleships. The VCS/VO pilots liked it better than the
OS2U, SO3C or the Grumman J2F-5/6. The Grumman only saw shipboard duty on a few Coast Guard Cutters. The Curtiss SO3C was removed from fleet duty...
I found an interesting forum thread with pictures at the practical machinist website. The text deals with wartime aircraft TBO's plus it has some real nice Centaurus sleeve engine pictures. Have a look...
My (1942) Pratt-Whitney R28000-8/-10 operators manual states:
"General reccommendations on the number of flight hours between overhauls,
to serve as a starting point for maintenance procedure, are acceptable only to operators who are begining to operate new equipment with which they have no...
I would have loved to see the Lockheed P2V-1 Neptunes in service for large tactical aircraft. For fighter's I would have liked to see Ryan FR-1 Fireball and the F8F Bearcat. If Japan had been invaded these would have seen active service. I wonder how the prototypes of the B-32 and B-36 were...