Carrier Planes

Didn't expect to find this in an air museum - but then again, why not?  It's whole purpose for existing is to carry planes closer to the battle before they take off.

This particular aircraft carrier, CVA-61, the USS Ranger, was Pa's.  (I don't know why this poster is showing CV-4...??  Ah!  this was the original Ranger.  She would be able to carry 86 fighters; CVA-61 could carry anywhere from 70 to 90 fighters.  Like Star Trek's Enterprise, NCC-1701-D, they keep naming new and improved versions the same thing.  There's a note in the stat board saying the CV-4 version was sold for scrap on January 28, 1947.  Speaking of Star Trek, probably the reason Gene Roddenberry chose to name his vessel the starship Enterprise is because the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier was the USS Enterprise, CVAN-65 ...  but I digress.)

Pa was coming home aboard the Ranger (CVA-61) from a tour in the Tonkin Gulf during the Viet Nam war when it was diverted to join the task force responding to Korea's capture of the USS Pueblo.  He was in communications and was sent out on the sponson to do some work.  The sea spray froze his mustache, and he was in the geedunk thawing it out over a cup of coffee when some wiseacre came along and thumped it.  Broke the end right off.  Not a happy camper was Pa.

When the ship would pull into port or leave port, they would play the William Tell Overture over the PA system.  You might know it as the theme to the "Lone Ranger."  There's about 3,000 sailors that man an aircraft carrier, and they would all get in their dress whites and stand at attention on the perimeter of the flight deck.  'Twas a pretty sight.  Not Pa though.  I think he was busy shinnying down a line to be first on the dock.  Always was a bit of a non-conformist, Pa was.

I was having Granpa take this picture with his good camera while I tried the same picture with both my iPhone and my underwater camera.  Granpa's pictures came out best - less glare.  No surprise.  He's always been a much better photographer than I.

So, anyway, back to airplanes.  In order to get more planes on a carrier, and to get them up and down the massive elevator from the hanger deck to the flight deck, they created a couple of planes with wings that fold like a birds.

This is the Avenger built by Grumman.  It first saw action in June 1942 against the Japanese at the battle of Midway.  Six of these were involved in that first battle against overwhelming odds, and five were shot down.  That thing under it's belly is a torpedo tube.  There were also three .30 cal machine guns.  It carried a crew of three:  pilot (of course!), rear gunner, and belly gunner/bombardier.  This is what former President (Daddy) Bush was flying when he was shot down during World War II.  9,836 of these were built; only 42 are still flying today.  The Avengers fought in every carrier-vs-carrier battle of WWII, and after Guadalcanal it flew from land bases, too.  In battle, it could climb at over 2,000 feet per minute.  Wowser!

From the 2003 Hemlock Film, "The Restorers"

There was also the cool Vought F4U Corsair.  (Pa's father, Poppa, worked for LTV - Ling-Temco-Vought.)  The Corsair was a single-seat fighter that first flew in 1940, but it wasn't until 1942 that the Navy got it's first delivery of them.

It first saw action in February, 1943 with a Marine at the controls!  It was considered to be the best carrier-based fighter of WWII.  During the Korean war, it actually operated for a NORTH Korean airfield!  USN Lt. Guy Bordelon was piloting one of these when he became the only US Navy "ace" of the Korean War.  This baby had six .50 caliber machine guns and could carry up to 3,000 pounds of other ordinance.  Over 12,000 of these were built, the last coming off the line in 1952. And here one sits, wings folded, at the Fargo Air Museum in Fargo, North Dakota!