Banana River Naval Air Station ...

[Mark Allen M]

For those going Bananas at home.

"Construction of the Banana River Naval Air Station began in December 1939 and the station was commissioned on 1 October 1940. The station supported seaplane patrol operations during World War II, a blimp squadron which conducted search and rescue along Florida's east coast, a PBM seaplane pilot training program, and an advanced navigation school. In 1944 the station consisted of 391 officers, 2492 enlisted and 587 civilians. The number of aircraft present on the base, including F6F Hellcats and OS2U Kingfishers, reached a high of 228. The station continued to operate as a Navy support base for two years after the war, but the installation was finally deactivated on 1 August 1947.

The Navy transferred the station to the Air Force on 1 September 1948 and it was renamed the Joint Long Range Proving Ground (JLRPG). On 1 August 1950, it was renamed Patrick Air Force Base in honor of Major General Mason Patrick. Patrick Air Force Base is now the headquarters of the 45th Space Wing, the parent organization responsible for operations at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.








A lineup of NAS Banana River SNJ's.


SNJ-4 TEXAN AIRPLANE - NAVAL AIR STATION, BANANA RIVER, FLORIDA


SBD's in flight over FLA


Grumman F6F's in flight over FLA


NAS Banana River OS2U's in flight


OS2C out of NAS Banana River

[junkman9096]

Were the "Mousetrap" the same as the Hedgehog anti-submarine bombs?

[airnutz]

Were the "Mousetrap" the same as the Hedgehog anti-submarine bombs?

Nice rack, huh Junkman? Errr...back on topic...Mousetrap, was a short duration rocket and was smaller and lighter than Hedgehog, but did a similar job.

[junkman9096]

Were the "Mousetrap" the same as the Hedgehog anti-submarine bombs?

Nice rack, huh Junkman?

You've been home too long.

[wls3]

Mark,
Thanks for the pictures of Banana River NAS!
Living just minutes away, I am always looking for anything related to it's history.

The Valiant Air Command museum has several artifacts from Banana River NAS.





I have collected a few photos also, here's a couple.





If anyone has more photos of Banana River N.A.S. I would enjoy seeing them.
Again Mark, Thanks

[airnutz]

Were the "Mousetrap" the same as the Hedgehog anti-submarine bombs?

Nice rack, huh Junkman?

You've been home too long.

Mmmm...mebbee so, not much of a strain was exerted for that low hanging fruit. Mea culpa..mea culpa...

Back on topic. Been doing a little digging in the meantime. In the configuration shown in the photos above the rocket propellant shot the projectile forward with a second charge firing rearwards to cancel its forward travel to drop it "like a dead duck"..to quote one of the Weps guys.. CalTech being the developer of Mousetrap went on with another idea and decided to use the rocket motor to cancel out the forward airspeed of the projectile by firing it rearwards from the aircraft causing it to drop straight down upon the target. These versions were called Retrorocket, Retrobomb or VAR-Vertical Antisubmarine Rocket. There's a pretty good aerial photo of them being launched rearward from a B-18, tho initial tests used a PBY-5A for ground and later aerial test firings utilizing a MAD boom for detection.

Here's a link with a quick overview of the program, tho I think the author erred in calling it a depth bomb. I'm pretty sure it was a contact weapon followed with depth charges if intitial contact didn't kill or disable the subs ability to stay submerged.
http://www.designation-systems.net/dusr ... ocket.html

The B-18 photo and others is on page 135 of the "History of the Naval Weapons Center, China Lake, Calif. Volume 1. I found it using Google Books with search words, "mousetrap retrorocket"

[airnutz]

Just a note..In reading up on this relatively obscure ASW weapon there are a few conflicting accounts on the web. In looking at Marks photo's of the racks on the Kingfisher, I initially thought the weapons would be air dropped without firing the rockets. I doubt the Kingfishers ailerons fabric covering or wing skins would remain unscathed. I still think that's the case with the racks being a proof of concept with inert drops or maybe with a forward travel counter charge being fired after launch from the aircraft.

[mike furline]

[pjpahs]

I think that looking at the “rack” there are no rails for rocket propelled projectiles. Each bomb has what looks like a strap bolted around each with perhaps a ring lug to engage what looks to be a retaining hook in the picture “enclosure G “, bottom view empty rack. The “hook” would retain bomb till activated to release. Just a simple use of the hedgehog spigot bomb. Back view of bomb shows it having a hollow tube and no rocket. To install a retro rocket would complicate things , just drop the “dumb bomb”

[Chris Brame]

The B-18 photo and others is on page 135 of the "History of the Naval Weapons Center, China Lake, Calif. Volume 1. I found it using Google Books with search words, "mousetrap retrorocket"

Thanks for the info! Another find for WIX's resident B-18 nut.
And they appear to be bouncing off the horizontal :

[airnutz]

Thanks for the info! Another find for WIX's resident B-18 nut.

Glad I could help with your Bolo-fix Chris! Here's another photo a bit closer with a little more detail of a B-18 letting loose some Retrobombs...

http://www.worldwarphotos.info/gallery/ ... omb-tests/

Note the lower projectiles appear a bit wobbly, so I dunno if the China Lake photo captures them striking the tail or they're just caught while wobbling obscured a bit by propellant smoke. Note also the dark bulbous fixtures on the nose of the bombs, which appears to be the HIR fuse(Hydrostatic Impact Rocket fuse)...also developed at CalTech.


I got the image from the following page of B-18 photos...Bolos, Digby's, Louis Zamperini, and a very preggers-looking Bolo with a breechload M1898 75mm cannon mounted...

http://www.worldwarphotos.info/gallery/ ... -2-3/b-18/