Jan 99 newsletter

Happy Birthday to us.

That's right, we are one year old this Jan. 20th. On this date in 1998 we began taking members and today we are 360+ strong. Mark & I consider this a roaring success and we applaud your participation.
    Interest in the A-3 Skywarrior Assn. varies widely. By far the most overwhelming has been the submission of photos. It is our intention to share these with everyone via the web site as time permits. Disk space may dictate a rotating photo display versus just adding on. Stay tuned !
    We hope you have been able to contact former friends and shipmates or meet new ones through this endeavor. Suggestions for making this organization stronger or this web site more informative would certainly be encouraged. We will be adding a reading list of known publications and articles that pertain to the Skywarrior. Keep watching!
    One thing to keep in mind, and has always been a long term goal, is a 50th reunion. 50 ?? Oct. 1952 was the 'first flight' of an A-3 Skywarrior, taking place at Edward AFB. 2002 will mark the 50th anniversary of that event. What better time than that to bring all 'Ole Whalers' together. All squadrons, all personnel, all interested parties in one spot for a celebration! It's only a concept at this point but now is the time to start the ball rolling. Again, the suggestion box is open. If you would like to volunteer or have experience in organizing a reunion event, your assistance would be valuable. Mark and I think southern California would be logical if we can wrangle a tour of Raytheon's flight line. San Diego has acquired the USS Midway to turn into a harbor museum with convention facilities. They have an A-3 on their list of planes to procure. If that facility comes together in time, it would be a natural. If a more central location is sensible, their are always the prairies of the midwest. But I'm afraid there is'nt an A-3 in sight.

	Dateline: Hanscom AFB, Bedford, Mass. Ron Woltman
Three of the few remaining flyable A-3's were seen leaving Hanscom AFB in late November, 1998. Raytheon Flight Test, located at Hanscom AFB, has been operating A-3's in support of DoD programs for approximately 18 years. Hughes Flight Test, located at Van Nuys, has been operating A-3's in support of DoD program for almost 30 years. Following the recent acquisition of the Hughes Defense Sector by Raytheon, it was decided to consolidate all of the company's jet flight test activities at the Van Nuys facility. The three aircraft involved were ERA-3B 144838 (now N573HA), ERA-3B 144841 (now N572HA), and RA-3B 144843 (now N571HA). None of these aircraft had flown for a couple of years and 144841 had only flown once since 1991 when it was moved from Holloman to Hanscom about 5 years ago. Needless to say, preparation required to safely move these three aircraft would not be a trivial task so it became a team effort. Steve Banks, Raytheon Hanscom, spearheaded the effort with the assistance of Dennis Stock and Bill Edwards from Raytheon Van Nuys.
Following two weeks of dedicated preparation, all three aircraft were up and ready to go. At the same time, all the required paper work was completed and the weather looked good, so the flight crews packed their flight gear and headed to Hanscom during the Thanksgiving week. The three plane flight departed
Hanscom Monday, 23 November, at approximately 1300. Following a quick join-up, the fingertip formation of Whales overflew the airport and bid farewell to the many friends at Hanscom. Charlie Stender led the formation in 71HA with Ron Woltman on the port wing in 72HA and Chris Vande Weerd on the starboard wing in 73HA. In two short hours the flight landed at Wright-Patterson AFB ( "I'm sorry Tower, but we are NOT delivering these aircraft to your museum!" ) for fuel and to spend the night. Early Tuesday morning the flight departed WPAFB for Van Nuys with a quick enroute stop at Holloman AFB for fuel. It's been many years since the world has last witnessed a flight of three Whales, but all three aircraft arrived on the west coast without incident, thanks to the outstanding maintenance support preparing the aircraft for the journey and the dependability of the Whale.

It is the staff's intent to feature an A-3 Association member in each issue of the Whale Watcher. Included is a biography of the featured member, followed by an interview conducted by the editor.

Antelope Valley, Calif.
Feb. 1956

A $2,000,000 Navy bomber that began falling apart minutes after it took off from International Airport was shot down by jet fighters over the desert yesterday after the three man crew parachuted to safety.

      Lt. W.M McGinty Jr., the pilot; Lt. Kenneth Melin, the co-pilot; and Airman Third Class C. W. Huffines had taken delivery on the big A-3D Skywarrior at Douglas Aircraft.
      The plane's landing gear stuck seconds after taking off on a ferry flight to Patuxent River, Md. Over Lennox, nacelle doors, landing gear covers, and other parts tore loose and fell.
      No one was injured by the falling parts. McGinty explained later, "Evidently some of the falling gear damaged the horizontal stabilizer, so I felt it was not safe to attempt a belly landing at Muroc Dry Lake."
      The plane was flown over the desert and observer planes flew alongside as ground experts offered advice by radio.
       After four and a half hours the crew decided to bail out and F-100 Super Sabres were ordered into the air to shoot down the new bomber.
       The crew parachuted from 4000 feet and landed safely on the desert. They were picked up by helicopter.

Editors note: The above photo was provided by Ray Puffer, Historian, at Edwards AFB. It shows BuNo 135424 semi-buried in the desert floor. Two F-100s were dispatched to bring it down with 20mm fire. Most of the ammo was expended, but there were very few (some say only one) bullet hole in the wreck afterwards. The photo would lead one to believe it came in pretty shallow and at a relatively low speed. The 'shoot down' may have been reported for the benefit of the Super Sabre pilots to try and save face. Ultimately, it was scrapped. Close inspection of the photo shows the starboard engine laying in the foreground, the nose radome tore off, the port wing tore off at about the fold, and the starboard wing inboard of the engine location heavily damaged. Not to mention a gear up landing and the ensuing damage that causes.