SJ:
At the dawn of career 1.0 I worked on the S-3 FIT (Fleet Introduction Team) program and was at NORIS when we had the formal “first delivery” day: VIP’s abounded, SecNav flew down from Burbank in one of VS-41′s birds, the whole schmeer. (Including worried audience looks as the bird, which was parked next to the podium, had the wind blow through the fan blades and they slowly turned, each one rattling loudly throughout the speeches – these were the first turbofans most everyone had experienced!)

As a fellow cats-n’-dogs bubba, I feel the Hoover community’s end of the trail pain. BTDT x 2. The bean counters and the Bug mafia have won this round, to be sure. But it was a sturdy, if unexpandable (hard to longitudinally splice a keel) system that was a tireless yeoman that did a number of missions it was never envisioned to do, and performed them well.

Of course L-M was its own worst enemy in some ways; the unit price they quoted the Navy both in the late 70′s and again in the early 80′s for a dedicated COD run was higher than a full up VS bird, which is part of why the C-2 line was reopened. That could have kept things opened long enough to look at the proposed S-3B+/S-3C and other options. But what’s done is done and we best keep looking forward. I will always remember those generic post flight ops Air Plans: “H3: Hoovers, Hummers and helos” 24/7 some days. (translation for those who didn’t experience it: when the rest of the Air Wing wasn’t flying, the E-2′s, S-3′s and helos would still be flying multiple cycle missions, keeping us all a bit safer)

V/R,
Andy

Our watch fades into the log books;

S-3 Viking Ball

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=CA&hl=en&v=C7npszAUYpc

Farewell old friend…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig1GvxFdjes

Ah, yes, SJ. Interesting. As somebody involved with the A-12 back in the day, I had heard a variation of that joke.

I always wondered how the “Flying Dorito” would have worked out.

So many years…so many strange turns of events.

Well, we have the bugs, and now we have tanker bugs, and even Growler bugs. The one I’m waiting for is for some bird brained CVN “ex-spurt” to decide that the “Flying Dorito” was a great idea, and now we only need to stick a roto-dome on top of a Hornet variant! Maybe another fuselage extension so we can have some tunnel rats in the back. Sing along one and all (to the tune of “All We Need is Love)
“all we needs is bugs,
all we need is bugs
bugs is all we need”
We’re eliminating some of the greatest learning opportunities I had – cross pollinating with other communities and platforms. Admittedly, the maint and support cycle is easier to manage, man, and budget, but “multi-tasking” often is another term for “not doing any one of my jobs particularly well”.
Sorry to see such a capable platform with airframe hrs still left put out to pasture.
Rant over and out.

Byron,

As one cannot compare apples and oranges, on can never compare Vikings and Intruders…The 80′s rewinging program for the Intruders was a so-so proposition that didn’t pay off- they had to go…As did the used up Tomcat. Most aircraft over time and fatigue life expended become dangerous to fly and unlike your ships you can refit and weld over, an aluminum aircraft structure cannot be so easily worked…..

The average S-3 on the other hand has almost another service life left. Structural service life is determined at design phase- the
S-3 was overdesigned. So why did it get the axe? It went away because of internal Naval Aviation politics with decisions made by consensus and because “they” said “make it happen”…nothing else. Nothing. Any other story or reason is Bull.

Again- the S-3B Viking lives, and will continue to live; it’s the “VS community” that has been Sundowned. There’s the distinction I’ve been pounding on.

BTW, most Intruders are part of a reef near you. Less than 1/3 of them made it to the desert…They hid the evidence sorta. LOL.

b2