"No Slack in Heavy Attack"

There a a few comments elsewhere on this site about qualifying to fly in the back seat of the RA-5C. But what about the pilots? That's quite another story. We need to go back to World War II.

The Navy was faced with a dillemma after the war. What was the role (if any) of the Navy in gneral and carrier aviation in particular in the post-war environment? This dillemma was put on the front burner as tensions with the Soviet Union heightened during these years, marked by the Berlin Blockade and the soviets testing their own nuclear weapons.

There is something to be said for a nuclear armed carrier. Advance deployment would shorten the flight time to targets in the Soviet Union. However, none of the current aircraft were capable of carrying the hefty weapons of the day. So the Navy adopted a two pronged approach: begin development of a new aircraft designed to carry the bomb, and meanwhile convert an existing aircraft for interim service. There was no requirement to land back aboard the carrier for these aircraft, the expectation being that they would land at friendly or (or at worst, neutral) countries on their return, with ditching at sea near available aid a poor third option.

The aircraft selected for this mission was the P2V Neptune maritime patrol aircraft. Its bomb bay was large enough, and takeoff from carrier decks was deemed feasible, using jet assisted take off (JATO) bottles.

Naturally, the pilots for these aircraft came from the land-based patrol community. While naval aviators (who had to qualify on a carrier before getting their wings), they generally lacked the experience of their sea going comrades. Still, if carrier landings (the most difficult part of naval aviation) weren't part of the mission, maybe it would work out.

The P2V's were a stopgap measure, and the Navy quickly began the process of fielding its replacement, one that could both carry an atomic bomb and land aboard a carrier. The winner of the competition was the AJ Savage, designed by the North American Aviation Company in Columbus, OH. The AJ turned out to be a mixed blessing, with a reputation as a good handling aircraft with high speed capability with its jet engine in the tail, together with its two prop engines-- "Two turning and one burning." Handling on deck was another matter. The wings would fold, but required attachment of a hydraulic pump on the to top of the wing fold joint. A difficult operation to conduct during flight operations! Maintenance requirements were quite high as well.

Even the AJ was a longer term stopgap. Hybrid jet-prop as well as turboprop designs were not rare during the post war period. But as jet engine technology advanced rapidly, all-jet designs dominated. There was some consideration of a replacement in the A2J (photo nearby), but the Douglas A3D Skywarrior (photo nearby) won the design competition and went into production.

P2V Neptune JATO Takeoff (above)

AJ Savage (below)

A2J Super Savage (above)

A3D Skywarrior (above)

But while a fine aircraft that would see long service with the Navy, the A3D would have some teething troubles and longer term issues. A large all jet, swept wing aircraft was much harder to bring aboard than the reciprocating, straight wing AJ. Accident rates were high. Navy gallows humor held that "A3D" stood for "All 3 Dead" given the three crewman aboard. There were no ejection seats for the crew; escape was to be through a exit ramp on the underside of the aircraft aft of the cockpit.

Many in the AJ community had difficulty adopting to this new, modern aircraft. Its shortcomings become well known. From "Strike from the Sea":

"This [pilot performance] was a carry-over from the selection of pilots for the AJ Savage squadrons. From a pilot's standpoint, the multi-engine AJ was more like a big patrol plane than a carrier-based bomber. Patrol plane pilots were more experienced with its mission: single-airplane, long-range, all-weather. On the other hand, pilots assigned to patrol squadrons had few, if any, carrier landings, as there was little crossfertilization between the land-based and carrier-based components of the Navy. Similarly, few carrier pilots had any multi-engine experience. Overly simplified, the question had been whether it was easier to train a carrier pilot to fly a multi-engine airplane for the allweather atomic bomb delivery mission or train a patrol plane pilot to land on an aircraft carrier. As it happened, then CAPT John T. Hayward, who led the creation of the heavy attack mission in the Navy, had experience both as a carrier pilot and a patrol bomber pilot. Although he favored the overall experience of the latter, his first squadron had a 50-50 mix of the two. The preponderance of patrol plane pilots didn't seem to have been a problem with the AJ Savage. The A3D, however, added an additional degree of difficulty in carrier landings-higher speed and swept-wing handling qualities.

In August 1957 the Commander of the Sixth Fleet, VADM Charles "Cat" Brown wrote:

“I am convinced we must begin at once to undo the mischief that has been a long time brewing. As a temporary palliative I recommend insuring that at an early date the senior officers in each (heavy attack squadron ) be former carrier pilots. As a matter of course (this) will filter down and do good. While I think this will help, the only truly effective answer is to begin again at the beginning and from a sound premise, namely the precise reverse of what we are now operating on. We must begin with carrier-qualified pilots and train them in multi-engine aircraft. “

At the time the above was being written, two prototypes of the A-5 Vigilante were under construction in Columbus, with first flight less than a year away. With exotic flight controls, supersonic capability, boundary layer control, and fly by wire, the A-5 would bring an even greater challenge to the Heavy Attack community. Some changes would have to be made.

One way of meeting the need was the obvious one: only detailing highly qualified aviators to the Heavy Attack community. This almost always meant successful completion of a tour of duty with a carrier based jet squadron. Given the career patterns for naval officers, this usually meant the pilot replacement would be well along in their careers, usually at the rank of Lieutenant Commander (LCDR- O-4). As a group they held considerable seniority over the Reconnaissance Attack Navigators, who were mainly Lieutenants Junior Grade (LTJG-- O-2) with a scattering of Ensigns (O-1) and full Lieutenants (O-3). This was sometimes a problem.

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