Carrier Deck Hands called it "Jaws". For good reason as it had a tendency to suck up anything that got near that intake. But, they were sturdy and highly reliable. Many were used as fueling tankers during long range ops. The most remarkable thing about them was the "Attack roll". As they were a slow speed aircraft they usually approached their targets and avoided detection by staying low. So low in fact that it was impossible to drop the bombs on the target if the bombs had no air-brakes. So, the pilot would pop the aircraft up to a bombing altitude and roll the aircraft on to its back before returning to a diving position and releasing the bombs. This also enabled the pilot to see the target at the top of the roll before returning to the bombing dive. All that said. It was a devastating and precise attack on small ground positions. And when it took that three wire on the deck, Man, you knew where they came up the sound for the Star Wars Tie Fighter. Awesome!
1983 or 1984 We had an A-7 from Rickenbacker AFB do a low fly over of my hometown of Felicity, OH breaking a LOT of windows. I was on the tennis courts at the high school when it happened and I could see the writing on the pilot's helmet he was so low. AWESOMENESS for a teen age boy!
gary mckee -same...waist cats, Connie 84-88. I loved hooking up this bird but you had to stay low. Loved how it bounced around on the mains during a trap.
I was on the USS America (CVA-66) during the WestPac - Round the World cruise in 1970. We brought the first operational A-7 squadron to Vietnam for the Navy. I don't know which squadron it was perhaps both, VA-146 & 147. The squadrons on the America for that deployment were: Our Air Wing "CAG NINE": VA-146 (A-7's), VA-147 (A-7's also), VF-92 & VF-96 ( F-4'S), VA-165, "Boomers", (A-6's); VAQ-132 (EA-3'S), RVAH-12 (RA-5C'S) & VAW-132 (E-2'S); and last but not least our ships helicopter squadron Fleet HC-2 Angels. Left April, 1970 - returned December, 1970.
That was great thank you! I really liked that you interview BOB and he told us about *The inertial measurement system* that made the A7 so special. I know Russia (And probably us as well?) still uses a system like this. I think this is still necessary because not every munition needs to be an expensive GPS guided one -and then we must consider that GPS can be jammed! So this is a technology and skill set that should never be abandoned.
Worked on A-7Ds in ABQ on Kirtland AFB full-time NM ANG for several years. When he was pointing out the Sidewinder, I was looking at the two panels directly behind him. Just to his right the smaller of the two panels was where the 171 forms were stored (jobs not done 'til the paperwork is finished). The one panel next to that (further aft) was one of the Avionics bays that held the airborne electronics. Ah memories...
Back in the 80s I flew from CA to SD for a funeral. I remember seeing a line of A-7s at Sioux Falls airport being really excited by it ( i was a teen).
First engines I worked on as a rookie in the AF (Rolls Royce TF-41). They were just returning from Vietnam and we were prepping them for the Bone Yard while transitioning to the A-10A.
The A-7 was too heavy to operate from the forward fields the Marines used. That and despite all the talk of the A-7 having good handling, the A-4 STILL had better handling and agility. The A-7 definitely had more advanced avionics and greater range with superior weapons loads (better, in fact, than the planes that replaced it!) but you were never going to dogfight in an A-7. It doesn't have the thrust for that and the wings are TOO THICK for modern fighter-class acceleration. They did in fact re-engine two A-7Ds with F100's and did minimal changes with those planes (YA-7F) but even then they could NOT exceed Mach 1.2 because the plane was NOT designed to be supersonic! Top Gun used A-4s in its curriculum for over 20 years. It was economical, fuel-efficient for its time, AND had very good handling -- basically F-86 like handling and performance. An A-4 is NEVER going to outrun a Mach 2+ fighter or modern interceptor with decent supersonic performance but it can stay in the air longer than many of those planes and has better handling in the low range of the speed zone. There's a trade-off for Mach 2 performance. The supersonic-capable planes very often DO NOT handle well much below 300mph. The wings are TOO THIN in the smaller planes to handle much if any fuel (if they can carry internal wing tanks!) while they're wonderful at high speed, they're very often LOUSY lift-generators at lower-speeds, ie, they're not great "dogfighting wings." The private Adversary Training/tackle dummy companies are still using A-4s in service because of the economy, long life of the airframe (essentially unlimited under normal conditions, AT LEAST 15,000 hours even under Vietnam War combat conditions), and availability of spare parts. Even today, they still have several hundred A-4s in storage at AMARC. I bet the military is keeping those in reserve for spares to support the private companies they're contracting for "tackle dummy" services.
@@TheTurtleinariver It is a neat little plane isn't it? I bet it will outlast just about everything else from the 1950s, too. It was WAY overengineered and as long as they have spare parts and good engines it could virtually fly forever...
@@vmlelectronics The funny thing is that some of the issues the A-7 had were taken care of by the re-engining with the Pratt & Whitney F100 turbofan (26,000lb thrust; unclear if it was a stock F100 pushed "to the limit" or purposefully modded for the A-7F program) in the 2 A-7F "Super Corsair" prototypes they built in the 1980s! The problem was that the A-7 wasn't sexy, it was a Navy plane the USAF was forced to adopt in the 1960s, and the Air Force wanted to get out of the A-7 business and replace the bulk of the ANG and USAF A-7's with the F-16 which is what happened. The plane that resulted from the A-7F engine upgrade was light-years ahead of the A-7D in performance and could STILL out-range the F-16. It had a credible (from what I've read because of the fuselage/fuel tank extension) supercruise ability that the F-16 couldn't match, either. It wasn't going to set the ultimate speed records -- the wings were still too thick for anything like Mach 2 speed -- but it had a lot more thrust, shorter runway requirement, and could accelerate faster AND hold 7-G turns which is what the airframe was good for anyway; it's just that it had more thrust and could sustain that loading. These planes that are thrust-limited (regular A-7 with the Spey engine) or have old-style delta wings (F-102, F-106) are good for one hard turn and that's about it.
I was in the Air Force in the early to mid 70s, and I was a weapons control system technician on the A7D at Myrtle Beach AFB. I transitioned to the A10 warthog later on. It had groundbreaking technology that was unheard of in those days.
I grew up near Buckley ANG base back in the 80’s and remember these planes flying over my house all the time. They were phased out by F-16’s sometime in the early 90’s.
I was in an Air Guard unit that flew these. When I got out of the Active Duty Air Force and went to the guard, they offered for me to fly backseat on their 2 seater “K” model. What I thought was an “opportunity” was actually more of an “initiation”. I puked my frigging guts out.
I saw A-7 Corsairs of the Colorado Air National Guard at the 1990 Red Deer International Airshow, in Alberta, Canada. What a spectacular performance! They did a simulated napalm attack, and I'll never forget that wall of fire at the end. I could feel the heat of the fire on my face, which is amazing given that it was 37 degrees Celsius that day. It's call the SLUF (Short Little Ugly Fella), but I think it's a beautiful aircraft. Then again I'm biased, I think that all airplanes are beautiful.
GaFoot72 ...he he ....the Thunderbirds didn’t appreciate that performance when it was done in Colorado. To say they were upset was an understatement. For what it’s worth..... I was a crew chief on these at Buckley ANGB, Colorado.
@@CJP-oz6hr So they 'stole their thunder' in the most literal of sense of the phrase? I'm sure the Thunderbirds got over it, once their feathers stopped smoldering ha ha! As for you being a crew chief on Corsairs, yeah, I'd say that's worth a lot!
Wow I just watched the video and the picture that is shown during the video when you are talking about the A-7's being called a SLUF is when they had them at England Air Force Base in Alexandria LA. They were there until they were replaced by the A-10 Thunderbolt II in 1981. The one in this picture was with the 74th Tactical Fighter Squadron Vanguards. I know this information as I have live in Alexandria LA for most of my life. There is an Airpark that has an F-86, A-7, A-10, F-105 and a F-84 all of which were aircraft that were home to England Air Force Base. Sadly this base was closed in 1992.
The Sidewinder AIM-9 does not track just any heat source. Before being launched, it has to already be locked on to its target. Early versions had a problem with keeping locked on to their targets and going for the sun which was a hotter heat source. The A-7 was a great attack aircraft, but you had to be extremely careful when near the intake, at least in the Navy versions, because even at idle the engine was capable of drawing water up of the ground. Powered up, it was capable of sucking a fully grown man into the intake and turning him into a red mist. I served as an Aviation Ordnanceman in the USN.
I was a maintainer on the Navy version of this aircraft, specifically the A-7E. It had the TF-41 engine. TF, turbo-fan and it did not have a afterburner! Other subtle differences were the Navy’s A-7s had a launch bar on the nose wheel for connecting to the ships catapult, a “male” refueling probe not the female receiver that the Air Force models had.
There was one of these at the tech school I got my A&P license at. We got to tug it out and run it up several times and the power was awe inspiring. I remember running it up one day and the MD-82 and the 717 behind it started to bounce the nose wheels when one of our instructors got it up to 90% throttle.
This aircraft missed killing me by seconds during a crash in Smyrna GA. It crashed 500 yards from my front door. Unfortunately it did kill 3 people that night. The pilots parachute didn’t have time to inflate after ejection. He survived but was left in a coma for a month.
I remember when the A-7 flamed out and crashed into the Ramada hotel in Indianapolis international airport back in the 1980s. The pilot event Ted and landed on the lawn of the plant that produced the engine. What we didn't know at the time was that that A-7 belonged to the squadron that was operating the then top secret F-117A stealth fighters. The A-7s were part of the squadron's cover.
Our Guard Unit, 180 Fighter group had these for a time. They were trained as Fighter pilots and had to adjust to this plane. One thing that was not talked about on this Plane was the flight system. The plane could fly close terrain by the use of a computer punch card.
From a weapons guys standpoint it was super easy to load and troubleshoot. The gun system was super reliable due to the feed and return chutes installed in a more relaxed position than say an F-16. If you had a hung store, reset the ACRP and that usually fixed it. The bombing fire and control system made it super accurate, so much so it won Gunsmoke in 1981 against the new F-16’s from Hill AFB if I recall and many other fighters from different wings around the world.
My dad was an a-7 pilot in the greek air force and one time during the landing the wheels exploded and the plane flipped and it caught on fire , that happened again an other time and one that time the pilot died.
Wonderful memories when that baby flew with the 198th Tactical Fighter Squadron "The Bucaneros" from the Puerto Rico Air National Guard. They flew it from 1976 to 1992 when was replaced by the F-16.
@@b.chuchlucious5471 One, TAKE that partisanism elsewhere and STOW IT! Two, this is an AIR & SPACE Museum. If you want to be technical, there ARE Air Force-only museums but this isn't one of them. They display BOTH Navy and Air Force planes in that museum AND Wings Over the Rockies HAS an F-14 in its collection. I'm pretty sure they did a video about their F-14... The A-7 itself was a Navy design ADOPTED by the Air Force just like the F-4 Phantom was a Navy design ADOPTED by the Air Force because there was nothing else better or more flexible than the F-4 at the time in the 1960s. The A-7 was a very good plane for what it did but the Air Force higher-ups acted like buttheads BECAUSE it was a Navy design they were forced to adopt even though the A-7 was more advanced and BETTER than anything the Air Force had for light attack! The F-16, for all its advances, WASN'T much more accurate than the A-7 at bombing and couldn't match the A-7's payload/range ability. It's STILL not that much better even with the improved radar and will never match the A-7's range without a radical redesign. NONE of the A-7 replacements (F-16, F-18) could match its payload/range and A-7's could have been updated and in service for longer than they were!
@@AvengerII to bad they couldn't do one on the navy A-12 avenger 2. Obviously you know what that is. Most others will say it's the sr-71 and there was no navy a-12. So if anyone knows what it is chime in.
Very enjoyable video. I'm glad I found this channel. I've never been around A-7D Corsairs, but I was around a metric crapton of Navy A--7E's, which had the Allison version of the Rolls Royce Spey, or TF-41, and I believe that was the motor on the D as well. USN A, B, and C models had the TF-30, which even in the F-14 and with AB wasn't a very good engine.
There's very little difference between the A-7D and A-7E. Essentially, they're the same plane except one model was flown off of aircraft carriers! And, yes, they were both Spey-powered. The Spey is a Rolls Royce engine. They called the non-afterburning American-built licensed model of the Spey the Allison TF41. An afterburning model of this turbofan engine was used in the UK's F-4 models, the F-4K (Royal Navy) and F-4M (Royal Air Force). It was more powerful and better engine than the TF30 (the same engine that gave headaches for both the F-111 and F-14) it replaced. The A-7's TF30 (used in the A-C models) never had an afterburner unit. I saw the A-7 fly around Toledo, Ohio several times in the late 1980s. They had a non-fatal accident and lost a plane (A-7) around 1989? A few years later, they lost an F-16 in another accident. The ANG unit based there used the A-7 all the way up until the attack plane's retirement (1992 or 1993) and then switched to F-16s. They're still flying F-16s. That Toledo unit is actually the last fighter wing based in Ohio. They used to have other fighter squadrons at Springfield and Newark but their missions changed and they lost their fighters. My guess is that politics saved the fighter wing in Toledo otherwise they probably would have re-equipped with another aircraft type or gone drone operations like Newark(?) did. Don't ask me why they have those F-16s in Toledo. The nearest body of water there is Lake Erie. They're hundreds of miles from the Atlantic! I don't think we're going to war with Canada any time soon! *********** *********** I found out something very interesting about a year ago. A few of the decommissioned A-7Ds used by Ohio ANG wings were sent to Maryland to be used as recon and bombing range targets instead of being scrapped or sent to AMARC for good. When they had nothing good to do with them -- they've probably preserved all the A-7s they ever will in museums(!) --, they packed a bunch of these ex-ANG A-7Ds in the decommissioned USS America for a live-weapons test in 2006. These A-7s were in the hangar of the USS America (CV-66) while it was pounded to heck by they US Navy with about every non-nuclear weapon you can think of! They NEVER released pictures of the USS American's internal hangar but I bet those planes were shredded. To this day, I've only seen video of the America being blasted from a distance and 2 photos taken during her sinking. (She was scuttled in 15,000ft+ of water off the eastern coast of the US.) The one photo that's clear shows a ship that doesn't look it took much damage but you can only see the carrier from the front. The bow is already in the water but you can see the rear end of the flight deck and the island. It looked fairly pristine to me. No views of the sides or insides like I mentioned.
05:50 "You want more firepower you say? Come with me my friends!" And me so: "Yes, the B43 thermonuclear free falling bomb with the yield of one megaton..." But nope! I feel a little cheated... ☹️
Dude, short of flying one of these, you have the greatest job in the world. Thank you so much for posting and God Bless from Florida. P.S. I wished I lived closer, though we have some pretty amazing air museums of our own, Pensacola anyone. :)
When I joined the USS Theodore Roosevelt in 86 (yes, a Plankowner) they had all but phased out this bird. Once in a while we would head out for a three day operation off Roosevelt Roads and the air wing reservist would train landing these birds and we would head back. Our air wing was all Intruders by that point. But a fantastic aircraft.
A-7D was not powered by the TF30 but by the TF41, a license produced version of the Rolls Royce Spey turbofan, but in this case built by Allison in the US. TF41 had 15000 lbst vice 11350 for the TF30. TF30 powered A-7A through C models and while conferring unbelievable fuel economy left the early SLUFs decidedly underpowered When USAF was mandated by McNamara to use yet another Navy type they insisted on drastic improvements, not least of which was the engine (but also vastly improved avionics including TFR, the first real HUD, and an incredibly accurate nav/attack system centered around an INS and integrated mission computer). They also switched from the unreliable Colt Mk 12 20 mm cannon to the M61 mentioned in the video. The result was an incredibly improved airframe that set radical new standards in bombing accuracy (CEP of about 60-70 ft). The Navy liked the A-7D so much they copied it as the A-7E pretty much stem to stern, the last of which served in Desert Storm in 1991.
I left Germany in 79 and went to England AFB in Alexandria Louisiana to work on these. I was a INS tech on these for 2 years before they started the changeover to A10s. Spent many a night and day in the cockpit and all over these things. There was a radome under the nose that was a PITA to work on, but other than that they werent that bad. They were one of the most accurate ground attack aircraft the AF had.
My 1st duty station was VA-147, flying the A-7E. First a plane captain then I worked in Airframes and Corrosion. When we retired the A-7, I went back to the Line shack as the ALPO on F/A-18s.
1984 at Carswell AFB, unbeknownst to me, an excercise was about to take place but did not involve the entire base. All of a sudden, (I believe there were 4 aircraft) some A-7 Corsairs came screaming in and flew a simulated attack on the airbase coming in from different compass points. While looking for the one that just flew overhead, another one comes streaking in from another direction then another from another direction. Think they made a second simulated attack pass and then flew off. That was one sweet little show I got to see that day!
uh. My Division Officer? Took her TA-7C 'Tasmanian Devil' Corsair to Mach 1.1 during a Adversarial Electronic Warfare attack on a Carrier Battle Group during a war game. The wing stations were removed for trouble shooting a fuel leak and because a message came out about wing cracks it was decided to slick the wing to try to make it last. So, no LAU stations on the fuselage and no wing stations hung, no gun or gun system, every bit of armor removed lightened the aircraft by a few thousand pounds. The TA-7C has superior aerodynamics to the A-7D/E version because of the lengthened fuselage... and they were trailing a A-3 Sky Warrior that had brand new engines meant for updating the B-52, and no one thought to do anything for the older model engine so the A-3 community was on its last legs. Since the A-3 was designed as a supersonic bomber, engines with higher thrust meant that the pilot could dip the nose and hit Mach without a twitch from the controls or any indication to the pilot but a Mach gage, same as the TA-7C, just a small 2 inch gage on the panel that the pilots never looked at....so the A-3 dipped its nose to attack the group and hit Mach, the slick wing TA-7C followed the hole the A-3 made like always and they pulled up crossing over the carrier in the group......they didn't notice anything remiss until a Hornet pilot said something about a Blackjack and Fishbed blowing by them doing Mach, and then the Tom Cats started chattering about the same as they blew by them....... but, that was the job. No one looked at their Mach gage until someone in the Tom Cats said "They're going over Mach 1.1.....can the do that and where did they come from anyway". It was then both pilots looked at their Mach gages and both said they soiled their Pickle Suits. But, both aircraft WERE built for Mach. The A-3 started off as a Super Sonic Bomber, but the A-7 wasn't really built for Super Sonic Flight....except, it was. When they were designing the aircraft? Folks were mumbling that Subsonic Aircraft were doomed, so the engineers built it for Super Sonic Flight.... knowing if the DoD changed its mind at the last minute? They could throw an Afterburner on the engine, and it would be Super Sonic with ease. The very last iteration of the A-7 Corsair II was the YFA-7 Corsair III, an A-7 with its TF-41 Turbofan outfitted with the same Afterburner used on the F-14 Tomcat. It flew perfectly well up to Mach 1.6.
Awesome! I'm absolutely in love with the A-7 Corsair II. I'm just old to see these fly over my house all the time in Colorado Springs. Then we moved to Penrose and could watch A-7's and F-4's make practice bomb runs on Fort Carson land. If I had a make a wish foundation situation, I would wish I could sit in the cockpit of an A-7.
I can see why this plane was so vital during a war crisis. Those cluster bombs were pretty devastating, the sidewinders were pretty tough too. That’s a lot of firepower.
I was ships company (Air dept) on the Forrestal around that time. VA-37 and VA-105 (IIRC) were still flying A-7Es. Other ships were just getting the F/A-18A which we jokingly called the “Sea Hornet” because initially they had relatively short range for a fixed wing aircraft; helicopters like the old SH-3H had less range and they all had “Sea” in their denomination.
I worked on the A-7 during my days in the Guard. When you took the panels off to work on the engine you could stuff your whole head and upper torso in--that's a lot of room. I was taking off a part that I couldn't really see and my hands got hung up on the sharp ends of safety wire. I was so stuck i needed help freeing my hands, but everybody had gone to get chow, so I was stuck there all afternoon.
I used to watch the A-7's practice bombing off the fantail of the USS. Ranger CV-61 back in the mid-1980's. It was amazing, they would corkscrew over pitch up and TOSS the bomb onto the towed target. Amazingly they usually came pretty close to hitting it and were LONG GONE the other direction before the bomb hit.
A-7 was a great replacement for aircraft used for interdiction in 1950s-70s. The F-100s and A-1s were flown till they couldn't fly anymore, A-1s in particular suffered from wiring problems and airframe stress. The USMC opted to go with an upgraded/remanufactured A-4 and the AV-8A/C instead of the A-7.
Actually VAX stands for: V (FIXED WING), A (ATTACK), X(Experimental) which lead to the A-7 series. The A-7 Series replacement program was the VFAX. Based on the USAF L(ight)W(eight)F(ighter) program which produced the YF 16 and YF-17. The Air Force developed the F-16 while the navy chose the Y(PROTOTYPE) F (FIGHTER) 17 cobra as the basis of the V(Fixed wing) F(Fighter) A(Attack) X(Experimental), which resulted in the infamous FA-18 Hornet coming into service. Just like the F-14 VFX program. Fixed wing FIGHTER Experimental. This has since changed since the advent of the F/A series (which now slashes aren’t even allowed anymore).
I live in ABQ N.M in the mid 1980s I would see squadron of these jets land at Kirkland airforce base.f-4s A-10s A-7 f-5.kirtland had a big airforce then. now just a childhood memory
A-7D, as the E, had TF41s not TF30s. Only A, B, C and Ps had TF-30s. The TF41 was the RR Spey used in the Bucanner and in the British Phantoms with afterburner.
My Dad was a air frame maintenance tech in the Air Force during Vietnam , and he would ask the pilots if they fired the cannon would it fly backwards?......and kudos on the SLUF reference ....
Thanks *Lt Col Bob Beabout* for coming out and adding to the collective memory as well as his service to this great nation. Also thanks to *WOtRAaSM* (did I get that right?) for making these short glimpses into thier very cool and very important museum and its awesome displays and to the men and women personally involved. Still slowly working my way through you alls existing library. 👍
Now I know what they were talking about in the movie "Platoon" when Rah tells Taylor to stay down because they'll be dropping a lot of "snake & nape'", haha.
Last two squadrons to fly the A-7 in combat were VA-46 and VA-72 in the 1991Gulf War. They were the last two A-7 units in the Navy, all others had converted to the F/A-18 by then. I believe they were aboard the JFK forvthat deployment and they converted to Hornets on their return to the States.
The A7 was the first military jet I reqlly knew about. They were flown at the 185th Iowa ANG, the Bats, out of Sioux City, IA. Kinda sad to see them go but they were replaced by the F-16 which didnt suck because by that time, my employer was located in the flight path of KSUX airport so they were constantly flying overhead. Thise were replaced by the KC 135 which was a different level of cool.
![Baby Kia - GLOVES & DRACS (BLACK AF1s) [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ajm8LeB0qQk/mqdefault.jpg)
What a great guy Bob is! Down to earth, friendly, humble. No fighter jock ego detected. Maybe it's due to his age!
Humbled by trying to fit in the same cockpit after 50 years.
In Greece we opereted those boys until 2014 some of them still in flying condition
get over it, your military is trash
@@coolfungame8467 thanks
@@cheapestf1598 ??
@@coolfungame8467 bruh
@@coolfungame8467 kek freedom fanboy
Οne of the very favorite combat planes of Greece !
Long Live A-7 Corsair !
Ah yes, the F in SLUF definitely stands for Fellow...
3:06 "Oh my god, my ... Corsair ... is on fire"
*significant emotional event as would say another guy*
we miss you mat, noone can replace you, you made this channel
First there was Gun Jesus - Ian from Forgotten Weapons. Now there is Plane Jesus
Only one left we need is Tank Jesus
@@silaslambertsen5473 Oh damn, forgot about him. But he must grow a long hair and a beard to be a true tank jesus
@@NorthernPagan he's not Jesus he is God himself
Don’t forget Steve1989 - the Ration Jesus
There is only one Jesus that's gun Jesus
We flew them until 2014 in Hellenic Air Force. An amazing aircraft. It could fly on the tree level and carry a tremendous payload.
Man you Greeks do some amazing low level flying!
Carrier Deck Hands called it "Jaws". For good reason as it had a tendency to suck up anything that got near that intake. But, they were sturdy and highly reliable. Many were used as fueling tankers during long range ops. The most remarkable thing about them was the "Attack roll". As they were a slow speed aircraft they usually approached their targets and avoided detection by staying low. So low in fact that it was impossible to drop the bombs on the target if the bombs had no air-brakes. So, the pilot would pop the aircraft up to a bombing altitude and roll the aircraft on to its back before returning to a diving position and releasing the bombs. This also enabled the pilot to see the target at the top of the roll before returning to the bombing dive. All that said. It was a devastating and precise attack on small ground positions. And when it took that three wire on the deck, Man, you knew where they came up the sound for the Star Wars Tie Fighter. Awesome!
I actually had the amazing experience of sitting in the cock pit of one of these awesome birds when I was about 26.
Was jogging in the hanger deck and scrapped my head open on a pylon hanging off of one of these. Can’t forget that ever!!!!!
1983 or 1984 We had an A-7 from Rickenbacker AFB do a low fly over of my hometown of Felicity, OH breaking a LOT of windows. I was on the tennis courts at the high school when it happened and I could see the writing on the pilot's helmet he was so low. AWESOMENESS for a teen age boy!
Good stuff! I grew up around the A-7. My dad was in Naval Aviation Maintenance. I did a lot of plane-watching on the weekends. :)
Ask him if he ever worked on the tail number 825. A7E
launched many an A 7E off the Independence, and almost got vacuumed up once by its intake.
VA 66
That's why we called them Kirbys, after the vacuum cleaner. VA-125
My dad was on the Independence as well, as ordinance man. He saw those aircraft as well.
gary mckee -same...waist cats, Connie 84-88. I loved hooking up this bird but you had to stay low. Loved how it bounced around on the mains during a trap.
VA-147 checking in. 81-82 West Pac. Plane captain at that time.
My grandfather helped build these at LTV in Grand Prairie. I've got a model of the A-7 he brought home from work in my office.
We had them on board the USS Midway when I served on her. Great aircraft. With a few minor upgrades it could still be effective today....
I was on the USS America (CVA-66) during the WestPac - Round the World cruise in 1970. We brought the first operational A-7 squadron to Vietnam for the Navy. I don't know which squadron it was perhaps both, VA-146 & 147. The squadrons on the America for that deployment were: Our Air Wing "CAG NINE": VA-146 (A-7's), VA-147 (A-7's also), VF-92 & VF-96 ( F-4'S), VA-165, "Boomers", (A-6's); VAQ-132 (EA-3'S), RVAH-12 (RA-5C'S) & VAW-132 (E-2'S); and last but not least our ships helicopter squadron Fleet HC-2 Angels. Left April, 1970 - returned December, 1970.
All above is correct. I flew with VA 146. We took the first A7Es to Vietnam (us and VA 147). Big improvement over the B model.
That was great thank you! I really liked that you interview BOB and he told us about *The inertial measurement system* that made the A7 so special. I know Russia (And probably us as well?) still uses a system like this. I think this is still necessary because not every munition needs to be an expensive GPS guided one -and then we must consider that GPS can be jammed! So this is a technology and skill set that should never be abandoned.
Worked on A-7Ds in ABQ on Kirtland AFB full-time NM ANG for several years. When he was pointing out the Sidewinder, I was looking at the two panels directly behind him. Just to his right the smaller of the two panels was where the 171 forms were stored (jobs not done 'til the paperwork is finished). The one panel next to that (further aft) was one of the Avionics bays that held the airborne electronics. Ah memories...
5:10 "This may look like a bomb, but it's actually a… bomb."
Great video. Very informational. Thanks for the upload!
Back in the 80s I flew from CA to SD for a funeral. I remember seeing a line of A-7s at Sioux Falls airport being really excited by it ( i was a teen).
How is this not recognized as the best RUclips channel yet
Cornbread Because of the guy’s over-entousiasm and childishness and the slight lack of deitails but otherwise yes it is a very good channel
So awesome this was captured for the rest of time.
One of my favorite planes when I was a kid. I think it's a pretty plane.
I thoroughly enjoyed this....I love aviation history. Nice video!
Thank you for watching!
Skyhawk and A-7 are both legends!
First engines I worked on as a rookie in the AF (Rolls Royce TF-41). They were just returning from Vietnam and we were prepping them for the Bone Yard while transitioning to the A-10A.
This is my absolute favorite Nam Era fighter/attack plane. I really enjoyed seeing it in the museum as a kid
I got to work on the A-7D and the A-1E skyraider, I loved them both
i grew up in greece and my father is a fighter pilot and he was on A-7H .These planes served till 2014 in greece
The A7 Corsair looked like a beast with all the gun’s!
Beach boy here as adds more to this outstading . Well done production staff!
This guy is so upbeat. I love it.
He's a Steve Irwin/Jeff Corwin kind of crazy...
Dear Matthew, I've really enjoyed your programs on RUclips. Thank you very much.
When the Navy switched over to the A-7, the Marines
remained with the A-4. They never did fly the A-7.
The A-7 was too heavy to operate from the forward fields the Marines used.
That and despite all the talk of the A-7 having good handling, the A-4 STILL had better handling and agility. The A-7 definitely had more advanced avionics and greater range with superior weapons loads (better, in fact, than the planes that replaced it!) but you were never going to dogfight in an A-7. It doesn't have the thrust for that and the wings are TOO THICK for modern fighter-class acceleration. They did in fact re-engine two A-7Ds with F100's and did minimal changes with those planes (YA-7F) but even then they could NOT exceed Mach 1.2 because the plane was NOT designed to be supersonic!
Top Gun used A-4s in its curriculum for over 20 years. It was economical, fuel-efficient for its time, AND had very good handling -- basically F-86 like handling and performance.
An A-4 is NEVER going to outrun a Mach 2+ fighter or modern interceptor with decent supersonic performance but it can stay in the air longer than many of those planes and has better handling in the low range of the speed zone.
There's a trade-off for Mach 2 performance. The supersonic-capable planes very often DO NOT handle well much below 300mph. The wings are TOO THIN in the smaller planes to handle much if any fuel (if they can carry internal wing tanks!) while they're wonderful at high speed, they're very often LOUSY lift-generators at lower-speeds, ie, they're not great "dogfighting wings."
The private Adversary Training/tackle dummy companies are still using A-4s in service because of the economy, long life of the airframe (essentially unlimited under normal conditions, AT LEAST 15,000 hours even under Vietnam War combat conditions), and availability of spare parts. Even today, they still have several hundred A-4s in storage at AMARC. I bet the military is keeping those in reserve for spares to support the private companies they're contracting for "tackle dummy" services.
@@AvengerII I love the A4. Probably my favorite Jet design, period. Such a beautiful little plane.
@@TheTurtleinariver It is a neat little plane isn't it? I bet it will outlast just about everything else from the 1950s, too. It was WAY overengineered and as long as they have spare parts and good engines it could virtually fly forever...
@@AvengerII very good explanation!
@@vmlelectronics The funny thing is that some of the issues the A-7 had were taken care of by the re-engining with the Pratt & Whitney F100 turbofan (26,000lb thrust; unclear if it was a stock F100 pushed "to the limit" or purposefully modded for the A-7F program) in the 2 A-7F "Super Corsair" prototypes they built in the 1980s! The problem was that the A-7 wasn't sexy, it was a Navy plane the USAF was forced to adopt in the 1960s, and the Air Force wanted to get out of the A-7 business and replace the bulk of the ANG and USAF A-7's with the F-16 which is what happened.
The plane that resulted from the A-7F engine upgrade was light-years ahead of the A-7D in performance and could STILL out-range the F-16. It had a credible (from what I've read because of the fuselage/fuel tank extension) supercruise ability that the F-16 couldn't match, either. It wasn't going to set the ultimate speed records -- the wings were still too thick for anything like Mach 2 speed -- but it had a lot more thrust, shorter runway requirement, and could accelerate faster AND hold 7-G turns which is what the airframe was good for anyway; it's just that it had more thrust and could sustain that loading. These planes that are thrust-limited (regular A-7 with the Spey engine) or have old-style delta wings (F-102, F-106) are good for one hard turn and that's about it.
I was in the Air Force in the early to mid 70s, and I was a weapons control system technician on the A7D at Myrtle Beach AFB. I transitioned to the A10 warthog later on. It had groundbreaking technology that was unheard of in those days.
I grew up near Buckley ANG base back in the 80’s and remember these planes flying over my house all the time. They were phased out by F-16’s sometime in the early 90’s.
I was in an Air Guard unit that flew these. When I got out of the Active Duty Air Force and went to the guard, they offered for me to fly backseat on their 2 seater “K” model. What I thought was an “opportunity” was actually more of an “initiation”. I puked my frigging guts out.
I wish I had been driving down I70 that day. Bob is an absolute legend! I would"ve stopped and given him a beer.
I saw A-7 Corsairs of the Colorado Air National Guard at the 1990 Red Deer International Airshow, in Alberta, Canada. What a spectacular performance! They did a simulated napalm attack, and I'll never forget that wall of fire at the end. I could feel the heat of the fire on my face, which is amazing given that it was 37 degrees Celsius that day. It's call the SLUF (Short Little Ugly Fella), but I think it's a beautiful aircraft. Then again I'm biased, I think that all airplanes are beautiful.
GaFoot72 ...he he ....the Thunderbirds didn’t appreciate that performance when it was done in Colorado. To say they were upset was an understatement. For what it’s worth..... I was a crew chief on these at Buckley ANGB, Colorado.
@@CJP-oz6hr So they 'stole their thunder' in the most literal of sense of the phrase? I'm sure the Thunderbirds got over it, once their feathers stopped smoldering ha ha! As for you being a crew chief on Corsairs, yeah, I'd say that's worth a lot!
Wow I just watched the video and the picture that is shown during the video when you are talking about the A-7's being called a SLUF is when they had them at England Air Force Base in Alexandria LA. They were there until they were replaced by the A-10 Thunderbolt II in 1981. The one in this picture was with the 74th Tactical Fighter Squadron Vanguards. I know this information as I have live in Alexandria LA for most of my life. There is an Airpark that has an F-86, A-7, A-10, F-105 and a F-84 all of which were aircraft that were home to England Air Force Base. Sadly this base was closed in 1992.
The Sidewinder AIM-9 does not track just any heat source. Before being launched, it has to already be locked on to its target. Early versions had a problem with keeping locked on to their targets and going for the sun which was a hotter heat source.
The A-7 was a great attack aircraft, but you had to be extremely careful when near the intake, at least in the Navy versions, because even at idle the engine was capable of drawing water up of the ground. Powered up, it was capable of sucking a fully grown man into the intake and turning him into a red mist.
I served as an Aviation Ordnanceman in the USN.
I was a maintainer on the Navy version of this aircraft, specifically the A-7E. It had the TF-41 engine. TF, turbo-fan and it did not have a afterburner! Other subtle differences were the Navy’s A-7s had a launch bar on the nose wheel for connecting to the ships catapult, a “male” refueling probe not the female receiver that the Air Force models had.
There was one of these at the tech school I got my A&P license at. We got to tug it out and run it up several times and the power was awe inspiring. I remember running it up one day and the MD-82 and the 717 behind it started to bounce the nose wheels when one of our instructors got it up to 90% throttle.
This aircraft missed killing me by seconds during a crash in Smyrna GA. It crashed 500 yards from my front door. Unfortunately it did kill 3 people that night. The pilots parachute didn’t have time to inflate after ejection. He survived but was left in a coma for a month.
Just stumbled on this channel.....it's fantastic! Love your delivery.
I love the quotation marks around fellow
I remember when the A-7 flamed out and crashed into the Ramada hotel in Indianapolis international airport back in the 1980s. The pilot event Ted and landed on the lawn of the plant that produced the engine. What we didn't know at the time was that that A-7 belonged to the squadron that was operating the then top secret F-117A stealth fighters. The A-7s were part of the squadron's cover.
Our Guard Unit, 180 Fighter group had these for a time. They were trained as Fighter pilots and had to adjust to this plane. One thing that was not talked about on this Plane was the flight system. The plane could fly close terrain by the use of a computer punch card.
If I lived in Denver, I would SOOO volunteer at this place!
Bob, God Bless!
We want more Bob! Just one video of Bob telling me about the A7
From a weapons guys standpoint it was super easy to load and troubleshoot. The gun system was super reliable due to the feed and return chutes installed in a more relaxed position than say an F-16. If you had a hung store, reset the ACRP and that usually fixed it. The bombing fire and control system made it super accurate, so much so it won Gunsmoke in 1981 against the new F-16’s from Hill AFB if I recall and many other fighters from different wings around the world.
My dad was an a-7 pilot in the greek air force and one time during the landing the wheels exploded and the plane flipped and it caught on fire , that happened again an other time and one that time the pilot died.
Whoa! Glad your dad was OK. That must have been terrifying! MB
Wonderful memories when that baby flew with the 198th Tactical Fighter Squadron "The Bucaneros" from the Puerto Rico Air National Guard. They flew it from 1976 to 1992 when was replaced by the F-16.
Don't you guys have an F-14? Maybe you could do a Behind the Wings on that.
I second this.
I third this
Air Force Museum . . . go elsewhere swabbies!
@@b.chuchlucious5471 One, TAKE that partisanism elsewhere and STOW IT!
Two, this is an AIR & SPACE Museum. If you want to be technical, there ARE Air Force-only museums but this isn't one of them.
They display BOTH Navy and Air Force planes in that museum AND Wings Over the Rockies HAS an F-14 in its collection.
I'm pretty sure they did a video about their F-14...
The A-7 itself was a Navy design ADOPTED by the Air Force just like the F-4 Phantom was a Navy design ADOPTED by the Air Force because there was nothing else better or more flexible than the F-4 at the time in the 1960s.
The A-7 was a very good plane for what it did but the Air Force higher-ups acted like buttheads BECAUSE it was a Navy design they were forced to adopt even though the A-7 was more advanced and BETTER than anything the Air Force had for light attack!
The F-16, for all its advances, WASN'T much more accurate than the A-7 at bombing and couldn't match the A-7's payload/range ability. It's STILL not that much better even with the improved radar and will never match the A-7's range without a radical redesign. NONE of the A-7 replacements (F-16, F-18) could match its payload/range and A-7's could have been updated and in service for longer than they were!
@@AvengerII to bad they couldn't do one on the navy A-12 avenger 2. Obviously you know what that is. Most others will say it's the sr-71 and there was no navy a-12. So if anyone knows what it is chime in.
Thanks for the video Ace Ventura.
LOL! Thanks for watching! MB
The Hellenic Airforce which was the last user called this plane " FLY LOW , HIT HARD" they flew it till around 4 years ago. Great plane.
Thanks for having Bob in your video
This is my new favorite channel
Great video; I've always been curious about this rather unpretentious and inconspicuous aircraft.
Very enjoyable video. I'm glad I found this channel.
I've never been around A-7D Corsairs, but I was around a metric crapton of Navy A--7E's, which had the Allison version of the Rolls Royce Spey, or TF-41, and I believe that was the motor on the D as well. USN A, B, and C models had the TF-30, which even in the F-14 and with AB wasn't a very good engine.
There's very little difference between the A-7D and A-7E. Essentially, they're the same plane except one model was flown off of aircraft carriers! And, yes, they were both Spey-powered. The Spey is a Rolls Royce engine. They called the non-afterburning American-built licensed model of the Spey the Allison TF41. An afterburning model of this turbofan engine was used in the UK's F-4 models, the F-4K (Royal Navy) and F-4M (Royal Air Force). It was more powerful and better engine than the TF30 (the same engine that gave headaches for both the F-111 and F-14) it replaced. The A-7's TF30 (used in the A-C models) never had an afterburner unit.
I saw the A-7 fly around Toledo, Ohio several times in the late 1980s. They had a non-fatal accident and lost a plane (A-7) around 1989? A few years later, they lost an F-16 in another accident. The ANG unit based there used the A-7 all the way up until the attack plane's retirement (1992 or 1993) and then switched to F-16s. They're still flying F-16s. That Toledo unit is actually the last fighter wing based in Ohio. They used to have other fighter squadrons at Springfield and Newark but their missions changed and they lost their fighters. My guess is that politics saved the fighter wing in Toledo otherwise they probably would have re-equipped with another aircraft type or gone drone operations like Newark(?) did.
Don't ask me why they have those F-16s in Toledo. The nearest body of water there is Lake Erie. They're hundreds of miles from the Atlantic! I don't think we're going to war with Canada any time soon!
***********
***********
I found out something very interesting about a year ago.
A few of the decommissioned A-7Ds used by Ohio ANG wings were sent to Maryland to be used as recon and bombing range targets instead of being scrapped or sent to AMARC for good. When they had nothing good to do with them -- they've probably preserved all the A-7s they ever will in museums(!) --, they packed a bunch of these ex-ANG A-7Ds in the decommissioned USS America for a live-weapons test in 2006. These A-7s were in the hangar of the USS America (CV-66) while it was pounded to heck by they US Navy with about every non-nuclear weapon you can think of! They NEVER released pictures of the USS American's internal hangar but I bet those planes were shredded.
To this day, I've only seen video of the America being blasted from a distance and 2 photos taken during her sinking. (She was scuttled in 15,000ft+ of water off the eastern coast of the US.) The one photo that's clear shows a ship that doesn't look it took much damage but you can only see the carrier from the front. The bow is already in the water but you can see the rear end of the flight deck and the island. It looked fairly pristine to me. No views of the sides or insides like I mentioned.
05:50 "You want more firepower you say? Come with me my friends!"
And me so: "Yes, the B43 thermonuclear free falling bomb with the yield of one megaton..."
But nope! I feel a little cheated... ☹️
Dude, short of flying one of these, you have the greatest job in the world. Thank you so much for posting and God Bless from Florida. P.S. I wished I lived closer, though we have some pretty amazing air museums of our own, Pensacola anyone. :)
ay i've been to the one in pensacola!
def a badass fucking mueseum
Yo I literally visit Pensacola all the time. Absolutely my favorite museum.
When I joined the USS Theodore Roosevelt in 86 (yes, a Plankowner) they had all but phased out this bird. Once in a while we would head out for a three day operation off Roosevelt Roads and the air wing reservist would train landing these birds and we would head back. Our air wing was all Intruders by that point. But a fantastic aircraft.
A-7D was not powered by the TF30 but by the TF41, a license produced version of the Rolls Royce Spey turbofan, but in this case built by Allison in the US. TF41 had 15000 lbst vice 11350 for the TF30. TF30 powered A-7A through C models and while conferring unbelievable fuel economy left the early SLUFs decidedly underpowered When USAF was mandated by McNamara to use yet another Navy type they insisted on drastic improvements, not least of which was the engine (but also vastly improved avionics including TFR, the first real HUD, and an incredibly accurate nav/attack system centered around an INS and integrated mission computer). They also switched from the unreliable Colt Mk 12 20 mm cannon to the M61 mentioned in the video.
The result was an incredibly improved airframe that set radical new standards in bombing accuracy (CEP of about 60-70 ft). The Navy liked the A-7D so much they copied it as the A-7E pretty much stem to stern, the last of which served in Desert Storm in 1991.
I left Germany in 79 and went to England AFB in Alexandria Louisiana to work on these. I was a INS tech on these for 2 years before they started the changeover to A10s. Spent many a night and day in the cockpit and all over these things. There was a radome under the nose that was a PITA to work on, but other than that they werent that bad. They were one of the most accurate ground attack aircraft the AF had.
My 1st duty station was VA-147, flying the A-7E. First a plane captain then I worked in Airframes and Corrosion. When we retired the A-7, I went back to the Line shack as the ALPO on F/A-18s.
1984 at Carswell AFB, unbeknownst to me, an excercise was about to take place but did not involve the entire base. All of a sudden, (I believe there were 4 aircraft) some A-7 Corsairs came screaming in and flew a simulated attack on the airbase coming in from different compass points. While looking for the one that just flew overhead, another one comes streaking in from another direction then another from another direction. Think they made a second simulated attack pass and then flew off. That was one sweet little show I got to see that day!
uh. My Division Officer? Took her TA-7C 'Tasmanian Devil' Corsair to Mach 1.1 during a Adversarial Electronic Warfare attack on a Carrier Battle Group during a war game. The wing stations were removed for trouble shooting a fuel leak and because a message came out about wing cracks it was decided to slick the wing to try to make it last. So, no LAU stations on the fuselage and no wing stations hung, no gun or gun system, every bit of armor removed lightened the aircraft by a few thousand pounds. The TA-7C has superior aerodynamics to the A-7D/E version because of the lengthened fuselage... and they were trailing a A-3 Sky Warrior that had brand new engines meant for updating the B-52, and no one thought to do anything for the older model engine so the A-3 community was on its last legs. Since the A-3 was designed as a supersonic bomber, engines with higher thrust meant that the pilot could dip the nose and hit Mach without a twitch from the controls or any indication to the pilot but a Mach gage, same as the TA-7C, just a small 2 inch gage on the panel that the pilots never looked at....so the A-3 dipped its nose to attack the group and hit Mach, the slick wing TA-7C followed the hole the A-3 made like always and they pulled up crossing over the carrier in the group......they didn't notice anything remiss until a Hornet pilot said something about a Blackjack and Fishbed blowing by them doing Mach, and then the Tom Cats started chattering about the same as they blew by them....... but, that was the job. No one looked at their Mach gage until someone in the Tom Cats said "They're going over Mach 1.1.....can the do that and where did they come from anyway". It was then both pilots looked at their Mach gages and both said they soiled their Pickle Suits. But, both aircraft WERE built for Mach. The A-3 started off as a Super Sonic Bomber, but the A-7 wasn't really built for Super Sonic Flight....except, it was. When they were designing the aircraft? Folks were mumbling that Subsonic Aircraft were doomed, so the engineers built it for Super Sonic Flight.... knowing if the DoD changed its mind at the last minute? They could throw an Afterburner on the engine, and it would be Super Sonic with ease. The very last iteration of the A-7 Corsair II was the YFA-7 Corsair III, an A-7 with its TF-41 Turbofan outfitted with the same Afterburner used on the F-14 Tomcat. It flew perfectly well up to Mach 1.6.
I still love the Spad. Carried more longer although slower but it still came home.
SPAD I heard that before, I called them SLUFs ....advanced bombing radar and a dive bomber
@@ne1cup Spads were A1 prop planes. Very effective in the attack and ground support role.
Awesome! I'm absolutely in love with the A-7 Corsair II. I'm just old to see these fly over my house all the time in Colorado Springs. Then we moved to Penrose and could watch A-7's and F-4's make practice bomb runs on Fort Carson land. If I had a make a wish foundation situation, I would wish I could sit in the cockpit of an A-7.
I need to start calling people “fellow” when I’m angry.
😂
I can see why this plane was so vital during a war crisis. Those cluster bombs were pretty devastating, the sidewinders were pretty tough too. That’s a lot of firepower.
Very interesting and entertaining video! Thanks so much!
It really is very cool to put the actual pilot back in that seat a couple of years later...
This guy is nuts! Love it
THANKS! :)
@1:37 😂 Bob just dont GAF! Lookin ready to fly again
Bob is awesome! One-of-a kind guy!
Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum
Definitely can’t wait to stop by! I’ll be in Denver soon 😎
my dad used to work on the A-7E back in the mid to late 80's when he was in the navy.
Not many A7E squadrons left in the Nav in late 80s which VA was he with?
I was ships company (Air dept) on the Forrestal around that time. VA-37 and VA-105 (IIRC) were still flying A-7Es. Other ships were just getting the F/A-18A which we jokingly called the “Sea Hornet” because initially they had relatively short range for a fixed wing aircraft; helicopters like the old SH-3H had less range and they all had “Sea” in their denomination.
Great channel, awesome planes. Loving the inclusion of pilots too. Keep it up!
Great Job Bob!! Nice to see you and COANG on RUclips.. From Steve Seiler Clyde's son.
I worked on the A-7 during my days in the Guard. When you took the panels off to work on the engine you could stuff your whole head and upper torso in--that's a lot of room. I was taking off a part that I couldn't really see and my hands got hung up on the sharp ends of safety wire. I was so stuck i needed help freeing my hands, but everybody had gone to get chow, so I was stuck there all afternoon.
I used to watch the A-7's practice bombing off the fantail of the USS. Ranger CV-61 back in the mid-1980's. It was amazing, they would corkscrew over pitch up and TOSS the bomb onto the towed target. Amazingly they usually came pretty close to hitting it and were LONG GONE the other direction before the bomb hit.
A-7 was a great replacement for aircraft used for interdiction in 1950s-70s. The F-100s and A-1s were flown till they couldn't fly anymore, A-1s in particular suffered from wiring problems and airframe stress. The USMC opted to go with an upgraded/remanufactured A-4 and the AV-8A/C instead of the A-7.
The B-26 Invader can be included in this group. Flew in WWII as the A-26 and in Korea and Vietnam as the B-26.
Speedwell! I worked on this airplane (and many others) from ‘85-‘89 while in the COANG.
"fellow"
I'm sure the word was fuck. 😂
@@maxwellhatkow6209 Add an "-er" to the end of that and you would be correct, Sir!
Just like _"BUFF"_ and _"FRED"._
😊😊😊
Actually VAX stands for: V (FIXED WING), A (ATTACK), X(Experimental) which lead to the A-7 series.
The A-7 Series replacement program was the VFAX. Based on the USAF L(ight)W(eight)F(ighter) program which produced the YF 16 and YF-17. The Air Force developed the F-16 while the navy chose the Y(PROTOTYPE) F (FIGHTER) 17 cobra as the basis of the V(Fixed wing) F(Fighter) A(Attack) X(Experimental), which resulted in the infamous FA-18 Hornet coming into service.
Just like the F-14 VFX program. Fixed wing FIGHTER Experimental. This has since changed since the advent of the F/A series (which now slashes aren’t even allowed anymore).
What’s wrong with the hornets?
The A-7 was on the VAL program .
Great Videos Thank You!!
Love these interviews you guys do great stuff!
I live in ABQ N.M in the mid 1980s I would see squadron of these jets land at Kirkland airforce base.f-4s A-10s A-7 f-5.kirtland had a big airforce then. now just a childhood memory
Could you do a episode of the F-101 Voodoo and show the cockpit too?
A-7D, as the E, had TF41s not TF30s. Only A, B, C and Ps had TF-30s. The TF41 was the RR Spey used in the Bucanner and in the British Phantoms with afterburner.
My Dad was a air frame maintenance tech in the Air Force during Vietnam , and he would ask the pilots if they fired the cannon would it fly backwards?......and kudos on the SLUF reference ....
The A-7 is one of my favorite strike fighters. I have a 1/72 scale model on my work station. I prefer the A-7E. Excellent war-bird.
"they needed to replace the aging a-4 skyhawk" - day one of the skyhawk's service said by everyone
Thanks *Lt Col Bob Beabout* for coming out and adding to the collective memory as well as his service to this great nation.
Also thanks to *WOtRAaSM* (did I get that right?) for making these short glimpses into thier very cool and very important museum and its awesome displays and to the men and women personally involved.
Still slowly working my way through you alls existing library. 👍
Now I know what they were talking about in the movie "Platoon" when Rah tells Taylor to stay down because they'll be dropping a lot of "snake & nape'", haha.
WOTR looks a lot different than when I visited there in 2006/7. And it had changed A BUNCH from when I trained to load bombs there in 1993.
Last two squadrons to fly the A-7 in combat were VA-46 and VA-72 in the 1991Gulf War. They were the last two A-7 units in the Navy, all others had converted to the F/A-18 by then. I believe they were aboard the JFK forvthat deployment and they converted to Hornets on their return to the States.
*SUPER COOL, SUPER SCARY, SUPER AWESOME*
The A7 was the first military jet I reqlly knew about. They were flown at the 185th Iowa ANG, the Bats, out of Sioux City, IA. Kinda sad to see them go but they were replaced by the F-16 which didnt suck because by that time, my employer was located in the flight path of KSUX airport so they were constantly flying overhead. Thise were replaced by the KC 135 which was a different level of cool.
Bob is a legend