No Easy Days

Military aviation sifts with the finest of mesh screens for judgment and skill, leaving only the best qualified in the cockpit. The US Navy has an even finer mesh screen with fewer aircraft to command than the men and women in blue. Since the end of the Cold War, we have witnessed the “Incredible Shrinking Navy'' with fewer billets for pilot trainees with fierce competition for one of the most challenging jobs in the world. Plenty of lessons to be learned with lives and assets at stake in the air and on the ground. Courage is tested, missions completed and sometimes people even shoot back.

Naval Aviation is unique given the precision required during trapping an aircraft on a pitching deck. Arguably aviation's toughest maneuver is measured in inches and microseconds at the moment a jet lands crashes on deck. Add darkness for more excitement. A coworker dreaded night landings which never got any easier as he flew F-4’s off Yankee station. By his account, the preoccupation with landing accuracy at times overshadowed the importance attached to delivering ordnance on target (which is a little strange when you think about it). “No Easy Days” is a pretty good description and also a riveting movie and book. If you want more current (and excellent) sea stories, spend some time at this place.

As for WWII action, there’s a bit of it here:



Of course tearing off the empennage is plenty dramatic but some of the most visceral footage (for me) is half way into the clip. - Flying into a barrage of artillery during strafing missions. A gunfight with the Quick and the Dead.

I can shoot an ILS without it shooting back. Landing to minimums in IMC can lead to sweaty palms but that beats heck out of a steep approach into a hail of lead. So a big thanks to all our military aviation heroes, both past and present. Air superiority makes all the difference.

Americas First Jet Fighter: The P-59 Airacomet

TOP SECRET 

in 1941

This is America's first jet airplane -- the P-59 first flown in Oct.1942. Volunteers have spent 10 years restoring it. In 1942, this was a Top Secret project at Edwards AFB. When the dry lake flooded, they had to transport it by road so it was disguised with a dummy wooden propeller on the front and covered with a shroud.

Supposedly on the test flight the jet was spotted by pilots getting checked out in P-38s operating from Van Nuys Airport. When the P-38 pilots reported seeing an airplane with no propeller, their account met with skepticism but the story kept circulating, so on a subsequent flight the test pilot of the P-59 dressed up in a gorilla mask, put on a derby hat and smoked a cigar when in range of the airport. When the P-38 pilots got back to the base, they told everyone about the plane with no propeller flown by a gorilla wearing a derby and smoking a cigar.
Of course folks would chalk this up to excessive drinking and tall tales by fighter pilots (Not much has changed) so the plane remained secret.

Power plant Two General Electric J31-GE-5 turbojets
Thrust 907 kg 8.89 kN
Max. speed 413 mph 664 km/h
Range: normal 240 miles 386 km
Weight empty 7,940 lb 3,600 kg
max. takeoff 12,700 lb 5,760 kg
Wingspan 45.5 ft 13.88 m
Length 38.85 ft 11.84 m
Height 12.3 ft 3.76 m
Armament One 37 mm cannon, three 12.5 mm machine guns;
under wings 2x 450 kg bombs or 8x 27 kg rockets
Date deployed to active service: 1944
Number built 66 (incl. three training XF2L-1 for US Navy)