The 1966 film “The Strength of SAC” showcases the weapons and the personnel of Strategic Air Command. The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress strategic bomber is featured prominently in the film, but this is a comprehensive look at SAC- from tankers and ground support personnel to strategic missiles and command posts on the ground and in the air. North American F-100 Super Sabres and Republic F-105 Thunderchiefs also appear in the film as do Boeing KC-135 Stratotankers. The film was uploaded to YouTube by PeriscopeFilm.
SAC was a wide-ranging command that utilized all sorts of systems to defend the country. B-52s flew thousands of radar bombing runs (simulating attacks) all over the nation during this period.
One way to score those simulated bomb runs was the Radar Bomb Scoring (RBS) train, dubbed the “RBS Express.” These trains, three of which were pieced together using Army rolling stock, consisted of 21 cars each and were seen wearing SAC badges on tracks near SAC bomb plots across the country and in Canada.
Between the 1956 and 1963 show seasons the United States Air Force Precision Flight Demonstration Team, otherwise known as The Thunderbirds, flew North American F-100C Super Sabres. Their F-100Cs made them the world’s first supersonic flight demonstration team. The Air Force, with an eye toward positive publicity for the service, made a film about the team and their first supersonic mounts in 1958. The Thunderbirds even produced a sonic boom or two (just for demonstration purposes of course) during their performances until the FAA banned supersonic flight over the continental United States. Thanks a bunch FAA! The film is awesome in that late-1950s kind of cool way.
The Thunderbirds flew the Republic F-105B Thunderchief beginning in 1964, but after only six performances the Thud was deemed unsafe due to an accident that occurred at Hamilton Air Force Base (AFB) in California. Captain Eugene Devlin was killed when his Thud broke up in midair during a pitch-up maneuver prior to landing on May 9th 1964. The Thunderbirds went back to flying the F-100, albeit the D variant, for another four years until they began flying the McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantom II in 1969. Thanks to YouTuber Classic Airliners & Vintage Pop Culture for uploading this period film about the Team and their aircraft.
American film maker John Ford (1894-1973) was an Academy Award-winning director whose 140 films, including “Grapes of Wrath”, “Stagecoach”, “How Green Was My Valley”, and “The Quiet Man” were often set against sweeping vistas and harsh terrains and backgrounds. There is no more harsh background than war. Ford served as Commander John Ford, USNR and head of a photographic unit for the Navy Department during World War II. Ford and his cameras were present at Midway when the climactic battle was fought during early June of 1942. Thanks to PeriscopeFilm for uploading this classic film.
When Ford arrived at Midway he believed his job would be to simply document life on the atoll. He was completely unaware that the Japanese were planning to attack Midway until June 2nd– two days before the battle began. The combat footage shot by Ford and his two assistants was completely spontaneous. After the battle Ford returned to the States and edited the film in secret, believing that military censors would hack the film to pieces. Ford craftily spliced footage of the President’s son James, a Marine officer, into the film before a Presidential viewing. When Roosevelt saw the film he proclaimed that he wanted “every mother in America” to see it. That’s how Ford’s film was released uncensored.
Army Air Forces Boeing B-17E Flying Fortresses.
Starring Many of Your Favorites
The film “The Battle of Midway” won Ford another Academy Award (for Best Documentary) in 1942. It is a first-person view of the battle as it affected the island and depicts the aircraft and personnel based there and at sea during that fateful June more than 75 years ago. Footage from Ford’s film was spliced into many other movies made during and after the war. You’ll no doubt recognize some of it. There are a few places in the film in which footage shot elsewhere was used, but the majority of the content of the feature was created by Ford and his team. Footage includes Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boats, Boeing B-17E Flying Fortresses, Vought SB2U Vindicators, Douglas SBD Dauntlesses, Grumman F4F Wildcats, and lots of Midway’s own Gooney Birds.
Last month, an Air Canada A320 (Air Canada Flight 759) mistakenly lined up to land on a taxiway instead of the active runway. On the taxiway were 4 other aircraft, including three wide-body aircraft each carrying hundreds of passenger. The potentially deadly incident was only avoided after one of the 787 pilot’s holding short made a radio call to ask where that plane was going. Another aircraft turned on its landing lights. The Air Canada flight conducted a go-around, passing just feet overhead of the other aircraft. Now the NTSB has released an interim update with photos and new details. Here’s are some new details:
Runway 28L was closed for scheduled maintenance. The runway had a lighted “X” on the field. It was NOTAMed closed with ATIS also reporting that the left runway was closed.
Runway 28R (the runway which Air Canada was cleared to land) had full instrumentation and full instrument approach lighting. Additionally, taxiway C parallel to runway 28R had full operational taxiway lighting.
Air Canada flight 759 was cleared for a visual approach to Runway 28R at night under VMC conditions.
The Air Canada was lined up with the taxiway for the final three miles of the approach.
The sequence of events (in photos):
In this first photo provided by the NTSB, AC flight 759 appears to be lined up with taxiway C while United flight 1 holding short of runway 28R. At this time, the United pilot openly queries tower saying “Where’s this guy going?”. Pilots in the A340 turned on their landing lights in a last ditch effort to alert the landing aircraft that they were off course. The latest NTSB update states that “the airplane flew too far right of course to be observed by the local controller’s ASDE-X/ASSC and was not visible on the ASDE-X/ASSC display for about 12 seconds.” In layman’s terms, the aircraft was so far off to the right of the expected track that the aircraft didn’t appear on the radar screen.
In the second photo, Air Canada flight 759 passes just feet over United 1, a fully loaded Boeing 787. The flight was so low that the pilot stated “He’s on the taxiway” over tower frequency.
Seconds later, the controller states “Air Canada Go-around”. By this time, the Air Canada flight had already initiated a go-around. They returned to the field later and landed without further incident.
The Air Canada captain commanded a go-around on Airbus A320 when the aircraft was 85 feet above the ground. During the go-around sequence (time it takes to spool up the engine and set a go-around attitude) the jet came as low as 59 feet above the ground.
The NTSB states that, “In postincident interviews, both incident pilots stated that, during their first approach, they believed the lighted runway on their left was 28L and that they were lined up for 28R. They also stated that they did not recall seeing aircraft on taxiway C but that something did not look right to them.”
Some unanswered questions:
An incident like this one highlights the importance of breaking the error chain to prevent an accident. Based on the details of this interim report, the error chain was down to its final links. The crew was highly experienced with a total of over 30,000 flight hours between the two pilots. They were experts in their trade but they still fell short on this approach that occurred at night during visual conditions. An incident like this brings up a couple important questions though. Why weren’t the pilots backing up their visual approach with an ILS? Doing so would have provided critical situational awareness that they were lacking that night. Also, what role did fatigue play a role in this incident? Were the pilots awake for an extended period of time before flying? Did they get adequate rest before their duty day?
The NTSB is excellent at finding an answer to these questions. The final report will be released within 12-18 months.
The Air Force-produced film “All For One- Air Force Rescue in Vietnam” portrays the rescue of USAF Captain Gerald Lawrence. On August 20th 1972, Lawrence was flying a single engine Beech QU-22B Pave Eagle reconnaissance aircraft near the Ho Chi Minh Trail when he was shot down. The 40th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron (ARRS) based at Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base (RTAFB) immediately went to work to retrieve Lawrence from the jungle terrain in which he was evading the enemy.
Lawrence was assigned to the 553rd Reconnaissance Wing (later the 554th Reconnaissance Squadron) Vampires. His mission was to orbit near the Ho Chi Minh Trail receiving signals from Igloo White acoustic and vibration sensors on the ground and relaying those signals to the Information Surveillance Center (ISC or Task Force Alpha) at Nakhon Phanom RTAFB. Not long after Lawrence was shot down the Air Force cancelled the QU-22 program.
Official US Air Force Photograph
The film includes footage of interviews with the 40th ARRS HH-53 Jolly Green rescue helicopter pilots and crews as well as A-1 Sandy and OV-10 Bronco “Nail” forward air control (FAC) pilots. There is plenty of live-action footage of the Jolly Greens, Sandys, and Broncos in action as well as radio calls between the aircraft during the actual rescue of Lawrence by an Air Force Jolly Green pararescueman (PJ). After his harrowing experience on August 20th 1972, Captain Lawrence remained in the service until his retirement as Major Lawrence in 1986. Sadly he passed away on July 28th 2012. Thanks to YouTuber PeriscopeFilm for uploading this informative film.
When the Navy’s TOPGUN program began teaching advanced air combat maneuvering (ACM) at Naval Air Station (NAS) Miramar in 1969 the sweeping changes introduced there eventually touched nearly every part of Naval Air in one way or another. The Naval Air Training Command (NATC) needed to play catch up. Teaching student Naval Aviators the basics of tactical formations and basic fighter maneuvering (BFM) became a part of the training syllabus at places like NAS Pensacola in Florida, NAS Corpus Christi and NAS Kingsville in South Texas, and NAS Meridian in Mississippi as well as at air stations where fleet squadrons were based like NAS Oceana in Virginia and NAS Miramar in California.
The training film “Air Combat Maneuvering: Tactical Formation” was produced for the Navy by Bray Studios during the mid-1970s and was intended to familiarize Naval Aviators with standard tactical formations and US Navy air combat tactics. Shot primarily using VT-21 Redhawks Douglas TA-4J Skyhawks in non-specular paint schemes for demonstration purposes, the film goes through such basics as the combat spread formation and different types of coordinated turns. It’s an entertaining look at some material that may not be common knowledge to the public. There is an issue with sound tracking on the film for the first couple of minutes but it clears up. The HD visuals are priceless. Thank goodness the film is UNCLASSIFIED! And thanks to PeriscopeFilm for uploading another nostalgic aviation film!
A Douglas TA-4J Skyhawk assigned to VT-21 Redhawks. Official US Navy Photograph
For many avgeeks, a visit to tour the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group at Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, AZ, is a must do at some point in their lives. Known as the boneyard, it’s where it’s where all excess military and government aircraft go at the end of their lives.
Operation Fire Fly was a 1962 test of the Ryan (later Teledyne-Ryan) 147D Lightning Bug drone aircraft modified to perform photographic reconnaissance. This film, produced by Ryan in conjunction with the Air Force, explains how each aspect and phase of the entire operation was prosecuted and how the Lightning Bug performed as a photo-recon platform. Two 147D drones, developed from Ryan’s hugely successful Firebee target drone, were utilized to fly a total of five missions flown from MacDill Air Force Base (AFB) in Florida over the Caribbean Sea and from the test ranges near Eglin and Tyndall AFBs over the Gulf of Mexico. These 147Ds were unarmed but Ryan had already successfully used drones for remote weapon release.
The Lightning Bug was a stealthier version of the Firebee, with longer wings for higher altitude flight and longer range with radar absorbing material (RAM) incorporated into its design. Air Force Douglas C-124 Globemaster II transports were used to fly the drones and test equipment to MacDill AFB for the initial tests. Lockheed DC-130A Hercules drone controller aircraft were used to control the drones during the test flights. Sikorsky CH-37 Mojave helicopters were used to recover the drones post-flight and return them for re-conditioning and re-use. Thanks to YouTuber sdasmarchives for uploading this comprehensive look at some of the early tech that was eventually developed into the UAVs of today.
This video of the United States Navy Precision Flight Demonstration Team, otherwise known as the Blue Angels, was shot during the team’s first full show performance at EAA AirVenture 2017 on Saturday 7/29/2017. The visuals are in awesome HD and the producers chose some super-smooth music to accompany the visuals where sound wasn’t clean. There’s plenty of jet noise too, but what sets this video apart (and makes it simply sublime) is the slow motion sequences in the clip.
Slow motion really brings out the precision component of precision flight demonstration. It’ll make you appreciate the finer points of separation so minute that distances between the jets can be measured in inches. Five abreast and diamond formations reveal themselves to be much more precise than they look in real time. Opposing passes appear to be even closer than they are when seen live and in a blur. Enjoy this unique perspective on the Blues and their craft uploaded by YouTuber airailimages.
On June 18, a U.S. Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet from the carrier air wing aboard the USSGeorge H.W. Bush (CVN-77) shot down a Syrian SU-22 fighter jet, after it dropped bombs on part of a U.S.-led coalition dedicated to defeating ISIS.
The film “Saga of the Skyraider” was produced by McDonnell Douglas Aircraft in 1969 to celebrate one of their most successful designs- the A-1 Skyraider. The film opens and concludes with footage shot during the Navy retirement ceremony for the Skyraider and subsequent fly-off of VA-25 Fist of the Fleet A-1H BuNo 135300 to the National Naval Aviation Museum. The retirement ceremony took place at Naval Air Station (NAS) Lemoore in California during April of 1968. In between the retirement footage the film looks back at the development of the Skyraider and its 22 years of service with the United States Navy (USN).
135300 was accepted by the Navy in June of 1954 and flew its last combat mission after 14 years in Navy service from the aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea (CVA-43) in 1968. The mission was rescue combat air patrol (ResCAP) and close air support (CAS) of the besieged Marines at Khe Sanh. Lieutenant Junior Grade Theodore D. Hill Jr. flew that final mission and also flew 135300 to Pensacola and the museum, where it can still be viewed today. The Skyraider was replaced in Navy service by the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk and the Vought A-7 Corsair II, although some would say the A-1 was never really replaced. Thanks to YouTuber sdasmarchives for uploading this Skyraider retrospective.
A-1H Skyraider 135300 depicted at the National Naval Aviation Museum. Photograph by the author.
By now most of us have seen the videos of the incredible B-1 flyby last week at EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, WI, with the bird from Dyess AFB in Texas going full burners and creating a thick vapor cloud which wowed everyone in attendance.
Now, here’s some new footage from our friends at AirshowStuff, showing the B-1B Lancer bombers and a B-52 Stratofortress departing Oshkosh on Monday, July 31.
