BLUEBEARD 5
RH-53D BLUEBEARD 5 There is a rare and unique helicopter that sits vigilant as a gate guardian at the Wrightstown Gate of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (JB MDL) in New Jersey. However, the very existence...
Category: Aircraft carrier
Grumman F-14 Tomcat History Part 2
Service The US Navy put the F-14A Tomcat into service in 1974 with VF-1 and VF-2. The F-14 took off on its maiden flight in December 1970 and was introduced to the group just...
Grumman’s Long-Serving C-2A Greyhound To Be Replaced This Decade
About to catch a wire, a C-2A arrives aboard an aircraft carrier in the Pacific. Dion Makowski photo The Grumman C-2A Greyhound was developed from the E-2 Hawkeye AWACS during the 1960s. More than...
Grumman F-14 Tomcat History, Part 1
First F-14A 159607 in IRIAF camouflage Story and photos by Peter Boschert – this was written during the Tomcat’s final operational days. Development The Hughes (Raytheon) AWG-9 was a weapon system for which an aircraft...
COD OF WAR: FLYING ABOARD THE US NAVY NUCLEAR AIRCRAFT CARRIER USS RONALD REAGAN
I’m surrounded by twenty-somethings, in a war zone and this is no drill! Aviation Report and PhotoRecon were recently invited aboard the 97,000 ton, twenty-story-high, Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76). Forward-deployed...
Carrier Air Wing Nine Returns Home
Portions of Carrier Air Wing Nine (CVW-9) returned to Naval Air Station Lemoore following a 7 month around the world deployment on May 16th. The VFA-14 Tophatters (F/A-18E), VFA-41 Black Aces (F/A-18F), VFA-151 Vigilantes...
Fleet Week New York 2019
New York City held its 31st annual Fleet Week from Wednesday May 22nd through Tuesday, May 28th and was invaded by not only 15 international Naval ships but also by aircraft in overflights including:...
Super Hornets!
This is Part 3 of a multi-part history of the McDonnell Douglas/Boeing F/A-18 Hornet/Super Hornet… more to come next month! The US Navy then looked for an actual successor to the aged Grumman F-14 Tomcat,...
HMS Queen Elizabeth Visits Norfolk VA
This past September I had the good fortune to see the Royal Navy’s newest and largest ship the HMS Queen Elizabeth (R08) in Norfolk Virginia. Her visit to Norfolk coincided with my visit to...
Sundown for the U.S. Navy’s Legacy Hornets
On Friday February 1, 2019 a rare sundown had occurred at 1303 hours at the U.S. Navy’s East Coast Master Jet Base, Naval Air Station Oceana. This sundown had not come early, because this...
McDonnell Douglas/Boeing F/A-18C and D Hornets
This is Part 2 of a multi-part history of the F/A-18 Hornet by Peter Boschert McDonnell Douglas F / A-18C / D Hornet This variant contains extensive improvements, which for the most part includes...
The 30th Fleet Week New York in 2018
The 30th “Fleet Week New York 2018” was celebrated from May 23rd through May 29th, 2018, all around New York City and there was actually an aviation component included with the participation of the...
