HEY PANTHER FANS (teaser)

[gregv]

The polished area is to help the pilot see if the nose gear is down and locked.

Gary

Gotcha, that's what I thought, although I must admit to not having noticed this feature on Panthers before. I went through my old copy of the Squadron/Signal F9F "in action" book, and lo and behold some, but not many, had the polished area. In some cases it was much more straight-edged and mostly on the lower part of the tank.

Probably a dumb question, but how does the tail letter system work? For instance, I have noticed that "V" is on both VF111 & VF112 aircraft, with the former having aircraft numbers in the 100 range, while VF112 have 200 series numbers. Does the V stand for both sqaudrons, as they were intended to both be quartered on the same carrier, similar to RN aircraft in WWII? In the same book mentioned above, the "V" is also accredited to VF113 (with 300 series aircraft numbers), so I'm probably way off base here.

keep these great shots coming!!!

greg v.

[Tailspin Turtle]

[/quote]

Probably a dumb question, but how does the tail letter system work? For instance, I have noticed that "V" is on both VF111 & VF112 aircraft, with the former having aircraft numbers in the 100 range, while VF112 have 200 series numbers. Does the V stand for both sqaudrons, as they were intended to both be quartered on the same carrier, similar to RN aircraft in WWII? In the same book mentioned above, the "V" is also accredited to VF113 (with 300 series aircraft numbers), so I'm probably way off base here.

keep these great shots coming!!!

greg v.[/quote]

The letter is assigned to the air group that was deploying with that carrier. The airplanes of squadrons assigned to that air group (as opposed to airplanes of detachments from composite squadrons making the deployment with that air group) were marked with that letter. The 1xx, 2xx, etc. number series were assigned by squadron.

At that time, the detachments were marked with the letters of their parent squadrons, e.g. ND. Later, these detachments also were marked with the tail code of the air group they deployed with. Squadrons were frequently reassigned between air groups to meet deployment requirements and schedules. Their tail codes were changed accordingly.

[the330thbg]

[isldtime]

A small bit of info

http://navysite.de/cv/cv33deploy.htm

[isldtime]

timeline for above post

Kearsarge sailed again for the Far East 1 July 1953 and operated with the 7th Fleet fast carrier force during the uneasy truce in Korea. The "Mighty Kay" also kept watch over the Formosa Straits to prevent the Communists from interfering with the Chinese Nationalists on Taiwan. Kearsarge returned San Diego, 18 January 1954, to resume training operations off California.

[isldtime]

A few more airborne views

[Holedigger]

Sounds like the same time frame my dad was on a radar picket station on an island off the coast near the DMZ, tracking AC, logging radio traffic. Air Force Intel. Not a shooting war, but a very uneasy time.

Nice shots for flying with one hand and shooting with the other. Some very desolate land there!

[isldtime]

A few more random AC shots and viewed from shots..



















I hope you enjoyed them..

[gregv]

tailspin turtle

Thanks for the info on the tail letter designation, I always wondered about that.

The Panthers in these shots look like the later F9F-4's or -5's, correct?

isldtime, thanks again for posting all these great shots.

greg v.

[Joe Scheil]

The Cruiser is the Baltimore Class ship USS Quincy CA 71. A great WWII history, and a long lived surface fleet survivor.

She was the ship Roosevelt used in Malta.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Quincy_(CA-71)

Great pictures

[Tailspin Turtle]

tailspin turtle

Thanks for the info on the tail letter designation, I always wondered about that.

The Panthers in these shots look like the later F9F-4's or -5's, correct?

greg v.

Almost certainly -5s as the Allison-engined -4s were considered underpowered for carrier operations. The most obvious differences between the -2/3 and the -4/5 is the slightly taller and more pointed vertical fin and leading edge protrusion just outboard of the intake of the latter; the others are more subtle. These are -2s in a similar setting:

[Tailspin Turtle]

Air Group 11 was aboard for Kearsarge's deployment in the Western Pacific from July 1953 to January 1954. You'll note that there is no 1xx squadron present. On its previous deployment, VF-111 and -112 were flying the F9F-2 and VF-113 and -114, the F4U-4, which by then was assigned light attack, along with VA-115 equipped with AD Skyraiders. VF-112, 3, and 4 had all reequipped with the F9F-5 by the time of this deployment. I'm not sure what the status of VF-111 was. It could have been transitioning to a new airplane or three fighter squadrons were considered sufficient. (When jet light attack squadrons were added to the air group, the number of fighter squadrons assigned was generally reduced to three, only two of which would deploy while the third was in the process of transitioning to a new airplane.) The air group's fighter squadrons and its attack squadron, VA-115, all had the V tail code. The side numbers begin with the last digit of the squadron number. (In general, the colors of the unique squadron markings are also specific to the first digit of the side numbers in each air group.)

The composite squadron detachments are VC-3 (NP) F2H-3 all-weather fighters and nuclear bombers, VC-61 (PP) VC-61, VC-35 (NR) AD-4N all-weather attack, VC-11 (ND) AD-4W airborne early warning, and HU-1 (UP) HUP for plane guard and utility duties. The AJ-1s are from VC-6 (NF) and were probably just on board for that particular day for refresher training of the pilots and ship's crew.

[isldtime]

tailspin turtle

Thanks for the info on the tail letter designation, I always wondered about that.

The Panthers in these shots look like the later F9F-4's or -5's, correct?

greg v.

Almost certainly -5s as the Allison-engined -4s were considered underpowered for carrier operations. The most obvious differences between the -2/3 and the -4/5 is the slightly taller and more pointed vertical fin and leading edge protrusion just outboard of the intake of the latter; the others are more subtle. These are -2s in a similar setting:

Tailspin Turtle---How ironic for you to post that photo... My dad was with VF 721 during his reserve days. Got to stay at a beach house for 2 weeks every year while he was at Los Alamitos NAS...

[Lynn Allen]

Well done and welcome to the WIX World.... What did you used to scan them??

Lynn

[isldtime]

Well done and welcome to the WIX World.... What did you used to scan them??

Lynn

Used a Canoscan 8800F and very pleased with it.