A-3 Skywarrior. Huh?
Brett Jaffee
On the way home from work this evening in the San Fernando Valley (CA.), I saw
a Douglas A-3 Skywarrior fly by at about 200 feet, obviously heading for the
pattern at Van Nuys airport. Does the navy actually still use this thing?
Are any privately owned?
__________________________________________________________________________
Brett Jaffee
http://www.earthlink.net/~jaffee
jaf...@earthlink.net
or hbac...@huey.csun.edu
__________________________________________________________________________
MarcReid
At least two are in private hands. Both were at an airshow at Hanscom AFB
in
Massachusetts in 1995. I believe the company is based in VA. Both A-3s
were
still in faded USN markings, but one had some Norwegian writing and a
picture of
a whale on the nose. I was told the plane was being used for
environmental
research and whale-tracking in the N. Atlantic.
Martin Sagara
MarcReid (marc...@aol.com) wrote:
: At least two are in private hands.
Bob Stanley, founder of Stanley Aviation in Aurora (Denver)
Colorado, used an A-3 as a corporate aircraft. The plane
went down in the Atlantic on a trip to Europe (early '70s?)
and no trace of it, the passengers, or Mr. Stanley were
ever found. I can't really vouch for the details of this
story because I heard it third hand. Any more information
would be appreciated.
BTW: Stanley Aviation built the encapsulated ejection
seats for the Convair B-58 Hustler. They now build
aircraft ground support equipment.
Martin Sagara "Never before have so many,
Research Associate understood so little,
Wings Over The Rockies Air and Space Museum about so much"
Hangar No. 1, Old Lowry AFB
Denver, Colorado USA James Burke speaking about
(303) 360-5360 technology in "Connections"
msa...@rmii.com
Visit our web site at http://www.dimensional.com/~worm
Bunelou
Hughes Aircraft has about 5 flyable A-3 that fly out of Van Nuys. There
are 2 or 3 other A-3s at Mojave Airport that use to fly for Thunderbird
Aviation.
A-3s Forever !
L. Franco
Brian Elliott
Dennis Buley
According to the FAA data base which can be reached at:
N161TB is a Douglas ERA-3B, BuNo 146446 and is still owned by the Navy,
but is operated by Thunderbird Aviation of Phoenix, AZ. The aircraft has
an "experimental" certificate and is used for R&D.
Remove * from reply to address
Dennis Buley
J.McEachen
Brett Jaffee wrote:
>
> On the way home from work this evening in the San Fernando Valley (CA.), I saw
> a Douglas A-3 Skywarrior fly by at about 200 feet, obviously heading for the
> pattern at Van Nuys airport. Does the navy actually still use this thing?
Thunderbird Aviation out there in arizona or Van Nuys had at least two
A-3's, one was TA-3B 144856. It was modified with a tail boom and a
"saucer" radome, two a/c were used for stealth testing in-flight with a
B-2. Last report was that Thunderbird closed up, but their a/c (also an
F-8 if I remember correctly) may still be around those territories.
These are different from the ones seen at Hanscom, and a photo in
"Aviation Week" of the stealth testing showed clean a/c with fresh NAVY
markings, Buno and all. Actually, I prefer to call the TA-3B an A3D-2T,
and 144856 was the a/c I made my first bomb run in (on Charlotte RBS)
when it was practically new in VAH-3. It is still a pretty sleek
looking a/c.
Bill Waskowitz
> > Brian:
>
> According to the FAA data base which can be reached at:
>
> http://www.landings.com
>
> N161TB is a Douglas ERA-3B, BuNo 146446 and is still owned by the Navy,
> but is operated by Thunderbird Aviation of Phoenix, AZ. The aircraft has
> an "experimental" certificate and is used for R&D.
>
> Remove * from reply to address
>
> Dennis Buley
Hi,
Hughes Aircraft has their flight test group located at Van Nuys airport
unless they have moved in the past few months. Hughes had bailed to them
an A3 that had an AWG-9 radar planted in the nose with a F-111B or F-14
radaome and all. This might be the airplane that was spotted over the
San Fernando valley. I used to see this airplane frequently at Point
Mugu. I never recorded to Buo Number.
Bill Waskowitz bwask...@pacificnet.net