RA-5C carrier landing

North AMerican RA-5C Vigilante lands aboard the USS Constellation (CVA-64) sometime in 1973

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• jet
• carrier
• ra-5c
• landing
• lso
• vigilante
• photo

[VQ1whales]

Looks like the power plant held them up and not lift. A regular rocket I'd say. What was there appoch speed?

[Tailspint]

Seems to me approach speed as about 145 knots, roughly 165mph

[dsoutherngent1]

The RA-5 was the Navy's SR-71. That was one FAST bird, and yeah, can count the dimples of a golf ball from 50,000 feet. Too bad they were so hard to manuver around the carrier deck with the nose wheel so far behind the pilot.

[cashkate3]

Of course! The Navy is a very cultured service, you know. Don't believe it? Watch Victory At Sea. The orchestra is there in every episode!

[cowboytim98]

Wow! Was there an orchestra on the flight deck?

[smoobooty]

@GenieMB1 all the above. I was a airframes guy and didn't grasp all the photoshop activities. I think there were oblique mounts ith 30" focal lengths. The processing was done in a secure environment with the work product seldom shared with deck plate guys like me so I don't know what equipment was used. The film was likely the 5" B&W. We also had IR and SLR capabilities plus some early electronic warfare applications the Internet world doesn't need to know about.

[GenieMB1]

smoobooty What were the different camera stations vert, l/r obliq, fob,lpan, hpan?

I was with RF-4C's for 11 years in the photo/interpretation facility. What kind of processing equipment was aboard a carrier? All of our equipment was commercial Kodak. Our systems used mostly 5''x1000' b&w and some 9.5''x250'.

[smoobooty]

@GenieMB1 Perkin Elmer cameras with 6" wide film. It may have all been BS to keep us off the golf course during the workday. The cameras were mounted inside what was the linear bomb bay. Aft of the camera was a pod full of electronic stuff and antenna for side-looking radar and other gadgets.

[GenieMB1]

Leon you were right in one respect. The RA-5 started out as a nuclear bomber but that mission changed and the aircraft was modified and became a Recce bird. If you look closely at pictures of the aircraft you can see the side oblique camera windows as well as the vertical and panoramic windows on the bottom forward fuselage. One of the most sleek aircraft, looks fast standing still!

[leonelp51]

@GenieMB1 didnt know that the "R" meaned reconaissance :-)

[GenieMB1]

@smoobooty Faces from 50,000ft, with what sensor system?