U.S. Navy Aircraft Designation System

[ccheese]

Mike:

I remember the Conyngham was busting a gut to keep up with the
Forrestal. Their CIC kept telling us to move to the port side of Forrestal, but
we couldn't keep up with her there, so we stayed in her wake. I'm sure
she was pushing 33-35 knots.

Think I'm old ? Check out my post in WW-I about my father.

Charles

 

[Graeme]

The C-130 is still a great airplane, and has always been a great performer from small or unprepared airstrips.Mike

Very True.

'Lockheed'-Bill Yenne.
According to this book, Flatley completed 29 touch-and-go landings, 21 unarrested landings and 21 unassisted takeoffs from the USS Forrestal. For his efforts he received the distinguished flying cross. The book is 'dated' (1987), and reports him as now an admiral.

 

[renrich]

Even the F4U was that way-it never was well thought of on a carrier. might be a little bit of an overstatement. The Navy evaluated the Corsair and Hellcat in late 44 and declared the Corsair as superior as a ship board fighter in all respects and recommended that Hellcats be replaced by Corsairs as soon as practicable and of course Corsairs did yeoman service in the Korean War off of carriers and also the French used the F4U7 for a number of years. I have a friend who flew Corsairs off carriers in the Korean War and he said there was no particular problem operating them as long as one was prepared for the torque factor during a wave off. The landing gear bounce was the main problem with the early Corsairs and films of the landings of those early models demonstrate a huge contrast when compared with the later models with the soft oleos.