wanttaja@ssc-vax.UUCP (Ronald J Wanttaja) (02/28/85)
I've got a bit of a question about the A-5 Vigilante, the '50s Navy attack bomber/Recce aircraft. I seem to remember a model kit of the A-5 that featured a rearward-firing torpedo. Did the A-5 actually have that? Did it eject backwards merely to cancel out the forward speed of the aircraft, or did it also travel in the reverse direction to the aircraft flight? How was it planned to use this operationally... was the aircraft required to fly over the target ship before firing? Ron Wanttaja (ssc-vax!wanttaja) Archbury control, this is Ramrod Leader...
faunt@hplabs.UUCP (Doug Faunt) (03/07/85)
> I've got a bit of a question about the A-5 Vigilante, the '50s > Navy attack bomber/Recce aircraft. I seem to remember a model kit > of the A-5 that featured a rearward-firing torpedo. Did the A-5 The A5 carried (or was supposed to) a nuclear weapon btween the engines, and "dropped" by ejecting it aft. It was one of the Navy's "strategic" bombers. It meant the weapon could be released at quite high speed (no bomb bay doors open in the airflow). I looked at RA-5C's and the IPB's for them in the late 60's because of my curiousity about that. The recon version had equipment pallets and fuel tankage there. ex-airdale -- ....!hplabs!faunt faunt%hplabs@csnet-relay.ARPA HP is not responsible for anything I say here. In fact, what I say here may have been generated by a noisy telephone line.
tggsu@resonex.UUCP (Tom Gulvin Root) (03/12/85)
> I've got a bit of a question about the A-5 Vigilante, the '50s > Navy attack bomber/Recce aircraft. I seem to remember a model kit > of the A-5 that featured a rearward-firing torpedo. Did the A-5 > actually have that? Did it eject backwards merely to cancel out > the forward speed of the aircraft, or did it also travel in the > reverse direction to the aircraft flight? How was it planned to > use this operationally... was the aircraft required to fly over > the target ship before firing? > > Ron Wanttaja > (ssc-vax!wanttaja) > > Archbury control, this is Ramrod Leader... The North American A-5 Vigilante had a rearward ejecting weapons pod that contained the "nuclear device" to be dropped on the target. The pod nestled between the (I think) J-79 engines and allowed a heavy and bulky nuke (nowadays they are COMPAQ sized) to be carried w/o too much aero penalty. Tom Gulvin - Resonex, Inc. - Sunnyvale, CA. BTW, the A-5 introduced many new concepts in a production machine and was (arguably) the largest regular service navy aircraft carrier plane.