Warbird Information Exchange

There was some discussion earlier on this thread concerning antennas and the Yankee Escape System used in Vietnam.I found an very interesting USAF A-1 Flight Manual at Mach One Manuals in Australia.If anyone is interested,they have quite a selection of manuals.Here's a link to their website.I just bought some A-1 manuals and some DC-7 manuals that I couldn't find anywhere else:

http://www.flight-manuals.com/info.html

Here are a few pages showing the antenna locations and the HF Trailing Antenna that was mentioned earlier:









Here's the page showing the Yankee System on A-1Es



The manual pages aren't always perfectly centered during the scanning process,but I've scanned enough pages to realize how difficult it can be when you can't remove pages from a manual.The important part being the full content is there and completely readable.

Wow! It's taken me nearly three months to puzzle out and piece together the information in that E antenna drawing, which looks pretty accurate.

The H/J drawing, however (which I have in at least two books), is not. At least not as regards the appearance and placement of some of the antennas.

One day here soon I'm going to draw my own A-1 antenna diagrams for USN, USAF, and VNAF, E/G and H/J. It's going to take at least six drawings to tell the whole story, maybe seven. Yeah, seven.

Oh, and I'm back to Square One in trying to figger out what the oddball blade antenna seen on some USAF A-1E/Gs is.

I thought I had it narrowed down to either a Collins 437S, a RAMI, or a Dayton-Granger. The RAMI and Dayton-Granger are both dual-band VHF and UHF, good for the same bands as the common Skyraider VHF and UHF antennas. I assumed the Collins 437S was the same thing, but I finally found specs on the thing: It's listed as "VHF-FM," not VHF/UHF. Now I'm back to wondering if that antenna was installed for some sort of "special" purpose.

Maybe it was there to pick up Wolfman Jack on XERB?

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Lest Hero-worship raise it's head and cloud our vision, remember that World War II was fought and won by the same sort of twenty-something punks we wouldn't let our daughters date.

I had posted a couple of Bird Dog pix in the Skyraider Questions thread that has more details on antennas. I only have the 1961 O-1 manual handy here - can anyone please confirm the nomenclature and use of the white Collins antenna on the Vietnam-era FAC airplanes?

thread here, pictures on page 4: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=52685&hilit=Skyraider

Ken

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"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

No. Never seen anything like it on any Skyraider. I can tell you that it is NOT a Colllins 37R-1, 37R-2, or 437S, although it might be functionally equivalent to one or more of those.

Actually I kinda thought it looked just like the antenna you're trying to identify - I've seen them on O-1's in both white (with & without logo) and black.

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"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

While looking for something else, I ran across this site of a crashed AD-5 in the Santa Rosa mountains. Apparently all this is still sitting there, due to the remoteness of the location. Some interesting pictures here.

http://www.aircraftarchaeology.com/ad5n.html

What should the color for the wheel wheel be? I have see everything from Dark Grey to Zinc Chromate

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Better is the enemy of Good.

Depends on when, basically.

Factory fresh, Glossy Sea Blue airplane: Probably Interior Green, or possibly ZC yellow; at first repaint, would have been probably been painted Glossy Sea Blue with rest of the airplane.

USN Gull Gray/White scheme: White

USAF COIN Gray or Camo: White

VNAF Overall gray (COIN Gray or Gull Gray) or Camo: White

Thanks. I started with Zinc Chromate and it just looked wrong. I'll airbrush it to white. Navy Gull grey H version.

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Better is the enemy of Good.

Various USAF A-1E/G; sources unknown.

Appears to be 133914 or 133514 in formation with another A-1E/G in the years prior to the adoption of the 2-letter tail code. Unlike VNAF airplanes that often had gray cowl rings and/or cowl flaps, this one looks as if a replacement cowl ring was installed, possibly with the remnants of the black anti-glare panel.


The setting appears to be NKP (or possibly Udorn), Thailand. No specific unit markings visible. Interesting in that all stores are gone except the tanks on the centerline and right stub. Although a SUU-11 minigun pod is commonly seen on the left stub, either that was not the load-out for this mission or it was punched off to reduce drag. Almost looks like the tail data was scrubbed by a censor, but hard to say. This was taken after the conversion to solid wheels, in this case painted red.


132612, apparently a VNAF loaner to the 1st SOS at Pleiku. Centerline tank is of the non-standard camo type often seen on Pleiku birds. Note the pilot's hands remain raised and visible on the canopy bow, which is common practice in the arm/dearm area. I don't recognize the object on station #6 ... can anyone say?

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"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

133514 isn't an AD-5 BuNo, so must be 133914. I have two photos of it in my database, one in USAF gray with VNAF markings (meaning it's a very early USAF A-1), the other in USAF camo with small SN and light-colored cowl ring and cowl flaps, as here--possibly the same photo.


I have several pics of 612 in my database, most like this one, but also one from 1966 when it was still in VNAF service in GG/W markings and had a G-type metal back room:

Awesome pic, Snake. Please share the gray shot of 133914!

Ken

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"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

I'd have to look it up and scan it. But it's gonna look exactly like every other pre-Feb '65 USAF A-1 pic you've ever seen.

Oh, wait, you have it. According to my notes, it's a color profile on page 23 of Hook's book. Sorry it's not a photo.