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    RA-5C Vigilante Units in Combat
    RA-5C Vigilante Units in Combat
    RA-5C Vigilante Units in Combat
    Ebook234 pages3 hours

    RA-5C Vigilante Units in Combat

    By Robert R Powell and Jim Laurier

    2.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Developed from the A-5 nuclear bomber and used in a reconnaissance role, the RA-5C Vigilante was the largest and fastest aeroplane ever to operate from the deck of an aircraft carrier.

    During the Vietnam War it sustained the highest loss ratio of any American aircraft in that conflict. This volume includes compelling accounts of combat missions over key communist targets, where crews dodged Surface-to-Air Missiles (SAMs) and anti-aircraft fire to secure all-important mission photographs.

    Written by a Vigilante combat veteran this book is crammed full of action-packed first-hand accounts.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateOct 20, 2012
    ISBN9781782005421
    RA-5C Vigilante Units in Combat
    Author

    Robert R Powell

    Robert 'Boom' Powell had a 20-year career as a naval aviator, flying both the Vigilante and A-4 Skyhawk in combat over Vietnam. Leaving the Navy to join Pan Am in the 1980s, he now flies B747-400 freighters across the globe.

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      Book preview

      RA-5C Vigilante Units in Combat - Robert R Powell

      COMMENTARY

      PREFACE – BDA RUN

      The dust, dirt and debris from 100 Mk 82 500-lb bombs was still settling back to the ground as the Vigilante began its photo run. The pilot had both afterburners blazing, and he lowered the nose of his aircraft to pick up more speed. In the back cockpit, the Reconnaissance Attack Navigator (RAN) checked that the film counters were running down, the image-motion bars were tracking and the inertial navigation readouts were correct, all while watching the ALQ scope for any signs of SAM radar lock-ons and missile launches. The Vigilante was doing 650 mph as the wings snapped level over the primary target. Inside the planned turn, the Phantom II escort was in full afterburner trying to keep up.

      The Vietnamese gunners who had not been injured in the attack had reloaded their weapons as fast as they could, and they began to shoot as the RA-5C came over the target. The smaller guns tracked the fast moving aircraft while an 87 mm site put up a barrage of exploding shells where they hoped the Vigilante would be.

      The pilot jinked left to throw off the track of the gunners, avoid the shell bursts and get closer to one of the SAM sites which had been attacked. Tracers streaked the air, the ALQ screen was a mass of pulsing golden strobes and missile lock warnings warbled in the crew’s earphones. The RAN continued to monitor the reconnaissance and navigation systems as the aeroplane swerved and bounced. The Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) in the escorting Phantom II called out gunfire when he saw it.

      After long, breathless minutes, the two aeroplanes cleared the target area. The RAN moved a cursor handle, punched a button and told his pilot to ‘Follow steering’. On the pilot’s instrument panel a needle swung towards the southeast, and numbers showing the distance to their aircraft carrier spun up. They were still 40 miles from the safety of the Tonkin Gulf, and remained in afterburner until off the coast, and having reported ‘Feet Wet’ to the carrier.

      Such was a typical BDA (Bomb Damage Assessment) mission flown by RVAH squadrons during the whole of the air war in Vietnam.

      The vast majority of RA-5C flights were either BDA or route reconnaissance. The Vigilante had the most sophisticated suite of reconnaissance systems of any aircraft flying at the time. It also had the highest loss rate of any carrier-based aircraft during the war in South-East Asia.

      The Vigilante crews used to taunt the attack and fighter pilots;

      ‘We have to get back from our missions to be successful. Once you hot-shots have dropped your bombs, you’re done. Furthermore, it is our photos that are firm evidence that a target has been destroyed so you don’t have to go back. Our cameras don’t lie.’

      ‘Unarmed and Unafraid’ was the cynical motto of the Vigilante photo-reconnaissance crews who flew into the world’s most heavily defended airspace.

      Robert R ‘Boom’ Powell

      Virginia Beach, Virginia

      July 2004

      LINEAGE

      The North American Aviation (NAA) RA-5C Vigilante had its origins in the US Navy’s heavy attack aircraft programme. Early atomic bombs weighed thousands of pounds, and required a large aeroplane to drop them. This was not a problem for the land-based US Air Force, which operated from bases that boasted long concrete runways, but getting an A-bomb off a ship was a different matter entirely.

      First, the Navy toyed with the idea of using P2V Neptunes launched off carriers with supplemental rockets. Although the Neptune had tremendous range, it was a slow, reciprocating engine aeroplane and much too large to recover on board ship. Furthermore, with any more than two P2Vs on deck, no other flying was possible. The concept was tested, but was never anything more than a stop-gap measure.

      Next, NAA designed and built the AJ Savage to meet the requirements for an atomic bomb-carrying aeroplane capable of flying off and then recovering back aboard a carrier at sea. The Savage was the world’s first heavy, multi-engined carrier aircraft. However, it was powered by two reciprocating engines and was slow, even with a supplemental jet engine fitted in the fuselage. Eventually, the Savage became a tanker for the new practice of aerial refuelling, and saw further service for a few more years.

      Douglas Aircraft came up with a winner in the A3D Skywarrior. Soon known as the ‘Whale’, it was effective at delivering heavy bomb loads, conventional or nuclear – in the early days an engine pod would occasionally rip off during the pull-up into a loft manoeuvre, resulting in the bomb landing way short of the intended target, and an unexpected and rapid roll. The Skywarrior was fast – the fastest Navy aeroplane built without an afterburner – but it was subsonic. Supersonic was the requirement of the time, so NAA developed the Mach 2 Vigilante.

      After the Navy deleted the aircraft strategic nuclear mission, which also affected the A-5, the A-3 was put into roles such as a dedicated air-refuelling tanker and an electronics warfare platform, which gave it a service life longer than its Vigilante replacement as a dedicated bomber. The ‘Whale’ remains the only challenger to the Vigilante for the title of the largest aircraft to routinely operate off a carrier. If the contest is made the largest and fastest, then the Vigilante wins. The Skywarrior could launch at a heavier weight (its trap weight was the same), and had a wider wingspan, (the Vigilante was slightly longer), but the A-5 was faster, whether measuring approach or top speed.

      The North American AJ Savage bomber had two reciprocating engines and a jet in the tail. Savages were operational during the Navy’s changeover from the all-blue to grey and white paint scheme (Backstall)

      The Douglas A3D Skywarrior was the Vigilante’s predecessor in carrier-based heavy attack squadrons. The black and white checked band that gave VAH-11 its nickname ‘Checkertails’ and the old squadron insignia are visible on both jets seen in this photograph (Backstall)

      Designed as a high-flying, highspeed strategic nuclear bomber, the A-5 may have introduced more new technological features than any other aircraft in history, including:

      •    variable engine-throat inlets with profile and area adjustments for flight at high Mach numbers.

      •    lightweight, high strength wing skins manufactured by milling a single piece of aluminum-lithium alloy.

      •    ducted engine bleed-air blown over flight surfaces for improved lift and control at low airspeeds.

      •    major structures and frames were built out of Titanium.

      •    first variable inlet using horizontal ramp geometry.

      •    a fully retractable refuelling probe in the forward fuselage.

      •    the first production fly-by-wire control system.

      •    a single-piece, bird-proof, Mach 2 capable windscreen made of stretched acrylic.

      •    gold-plating in the engine bays to reflect heat.

      •    first monopulse radar with terrain avoidance features.

      •    first operational heads-up display (HUD).

      •    first Weapons-Navigation System with inertial auto-navigation coupled to radar and television (ASB-12).

      •    airborne digital computer for weapon and navigation computations(VERDAN).

      •    fully integrated auto pilot/air data system.

      The Vigilante also had no conventional flight controls. The A-5 did not have ailerons, elevators or a rudder. Spoilers provided roll control and acted as speed brakes. The horizontal tail surfaces were solid slabs. Together, they controlled pitch, and were adjusted separately for roll trim. The vertical tail was also one piece, rather than a hinged rudder. Each of these gave the RA-5C some handling quirks.

      Like all jets the Vigilante had a yaw augmentation system. When you taxied behind another Vigilante, the vertical slab would move in response to the rudder pedals, which were used for nose wheel steering while the ‘Yaw Aug’ responded to spurious inputs by shaking and shimmying the tail like a dog trying to get dry!

      Landing Signal Officers (LSOs), while waving the Vigilante on board the carrier, could see every tiny movement of the horizontal slab because it was so big. A well flown Vigilante pass had the nose steady on speed while the slabs fluttered and twitched from the pilot’s small, constant stick inputs.

      This photograph was released by NAA when it was touting the A-5’s conventional weapons capabilities following problems with the jet’s complex nuclear bomb delivery system. This particular aircraft is probably a rare A-5B. While a full series of ordnance tests were conducted, during which the Vigilante proved itself to be a stable and effective weapons platform, the A-5 never shot a rocket or dropped a bomb in anger (EBAL)

      Neither of these was apparent in the cockpit while flying, but using the spoilers to roll certainly was. Rather than the centre of the roll axis being through the pilot’s belly, as it is on most aeroplanes, it felt like it was out on the high wing. Jam the control stick to the side, and one seemed to drop as the roll started.

      The first flight of an A3J (as the aircraft was initially designated) took place in August 1958. While still in the development stage, Vigilantes set several speed and altitude records. One such flight took place in December 1960, when an A3J set an altitude/load record by carrying a 1000-kg (2400-lb) payload on a zoom-profile flight that peaked at 91,451 ft.

      Improvements (especially in its fuel capacity) were made with the advent of the A3J-2/A5B in the early 1960s. Only two A5Bs were delivered to the Navy before two events complicated identification of the Vigilante. First, NAA merged with the Rockwell Corporation to become North American Rockwell (NAR). Second, the Department of Defense redesignated all aircraft to a unified system. The A3J became the A-5.

      In June 1961, the first Vigilantes went to VAH-3 at NAS Sanford, Florida, to train crews and maintenance personnel. ‘Heavy Three’ had been the RAG (Replacement Air Group training unit) for the A3D, so the transition was a natural – all A-3 training was subsequently performed by VAH-123 at NAS Whidbey Island, in Washington state. The men in the back cockpits of the A-5s were BNs (Bombardier-Navigators), and many were enlisted men until, in 1962, the Navy decreed that there would be no more enlisted BNs, and many former chiefs and petty officers rapidly became ensigns.

      As A3J-1s were delivered from NAR in Columbus, Ohio, two more squadrons transitioned from the A3D – VAH-1 ‘Smoking Tigers’ and VAH-7 ‘Peacemakers’.

      The latter unit became the first squadron to deploy with the Vigilante when it took a dozen A3Js on board USS Enterprise (CVAN-65) for the ship and aircraft’s first extended time at sea in early August 1962. The carrier’s planned stay in the Mediterranean was cut short, however, when the Cuban Missile Crisis arose in October 1962. VAH-7 left the carrier and was placed on standby status at NAS Sanford, but the unit did not fly any missions directly related to Cuba. CVAN-65’s Mediterranean deployment finally resumed in early February 1963, and lasted for seven months. In August 1963 VAH-1 went to sea in USS Independence (CVA-62) with 12 A-5A (the redesignation now in effect) supersonic bombers.

      VAH-3 flew two A3Js marked with flamboyant orange trim, these jets being used for experimental work at the Naval Weapons Facility. This publicity photograph with local beauty pageant contestants was taken in 1962 in Sanford, Florida (Backstall)

      Wearing full-pressure suits for high altitude flight, three A3J crews of VAH-7 walk to their jets across the flight deck of the brand new nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVAN-65). The suits were not popular as they were difficult to don and uncomfortable anywhere besides sitting in the cockpit. They did keep you alive if cockpit pressurisation failed above 50,000 ft, however (Backstall)

      VAH-7 deployed again on Enterprise in February 1964, and it had been in the Mediterranean for five months when the carrier was joined by the cruiser USS Long Beach (CGN-9) and the destroyer USS Bainbridge (DLGN-25) to form a nuclear-powered task force for an around-the-world cruise. Operation Sea Orbit ended in October 1964.

      RECONNAISSANCE BIRD

      After much high-level political wrangling and bitter inter-service arguments, the US Navy gave up its aircraft delivery strategic nuclear bombardment role in 1963. The Vigilante suddenly had no mission.

      Work on the reconnaissance version of the aircraft, designated the RA-5C, had begun while VAH-7 and VAH-1 were on the only deployments of the A3J/A-5A. The Cuban Missile Crisis gave added impetus to the development of the reconnaissance version. The A-5B was converted into a reconnaissance machine through the addition of a belly ‘canoe’ containing interchangeable sensors and side-looking radar. The RA-5C prototype was first flown in June 1962, and a total of 43 new airframes were built. All 18 surviving B-models, as well as 43 A-models, were converted to RA-5C specification by NAR in

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