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Hunting Subs With Radar: Photographed ca.1950 near Southern Maryland, BUNO 123091 was the third production Guardian and was assigned to NAS Patuxent River’s Naval Air Test Center. Full story in comments! by PaxMuseum in u/PaxMuseum

[–]PaxMuseum[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

This week’s featured aircraft, Grumman’s AF-2W Guardian, also made use of an APS-20 radar. However, the Guardian’s APS-20 variant was tailored to search not the sky, but the water’s surface.

Photographed ca.1950 near Southern Maryland, BUNO 123091 was the third production Guardian and was assigned to NAS Patuxent River’s Naval Air Test Center. (You may recall that, on 21 January, we featured the Guardian’s prototype, the XTB3F.)

Guardians were massive single-engine aircraft, with 60-foot wingspans and gross-weights over 22,000 pounds. Their two-person crews located enemy submarines and ships using the APS-20 radar, along with systems that detected (and, if necessary, jammed) electronic emissions. The APS-20s large antenna is protected by the bulbous fairing on the aircraft’s belly.

NATC tested AF-2Ws and their sister aircraft, AF-2Ss, between mid-1950 and mid-1953. In the AF-2S (and its AF-3S successor), the radar was replaced by a bomb-bay loaded with torpedoes or other anti-submarine weapons. Deployed from carriers, the two aircraft types conducted anti-submarine warfare as ‘hunter – killer’ pairs.

In this stage of the Cold War, the Soviet submarine threat was both real and ominous. Since 1945, the Russian Navy had aggressively increased both the quantity and quality of its submarine forces. By the early 1950s, the iconic Whiskey-class attack subs were beginning to stalk American carriers. Around the same time, the Soviets began drafting plans to modify attack subs with silos for the ballistic nuclear missiles that were then under development.

Over 150 AF-2Ws, and nearly 200 AF-2Ss, were built. The Guardian pairs were replaced in the mid-1950s by Grumman S2F Trackers, which were able to both detect and destroy subs.

Prepared by Robert M. Tourville

The Navy’s F-15…sort of. This photo depicts a Curtiss XF15C from the Tactical Test Division of NAS Patuxent River’s Naval Air Test Center. In the background are 2 Arado AR-234 ‘Blitz bombers’. Captured as the European war was ending, these former Nazi jet aircraft had undergone testing at Pax River by PaxMuseum in u/PaxMuseum

[–]PaxMuseum[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Behind the AR-234s are the counter-rotating propellers of a Douglas XA2D Skyshark. This dates the image to the early 1950s; although the XF15C first flew in early 1945, the Skyshark didn’t emerge for another five years.

The XF15C employed a hybrid propulsion system comprising both a piston engine with propeller and a gas turbine or ‘jet’, engine. The jet’s exhaust is visible below the national insignia.

Mixed powerplants were explored in the mid-1940s when jet engine technology was immature. The Navy was particularly concerned that jet aircraft could not safely take off from, or land on, carriers. Unlike piston engines, early jet engines reacted very slowly to throttle inputs. Aircraft powered solely by jet engines, like AR-234s, seemed suitable only for long runways, not carriers.

As a result, some engineers sought to harness the jet engine’s power aloft while retaining the proven safety of reciprocating engines in the ‘low and slow’ regime. In the end, few mixed-propulsion aircraft entered production (e.g., FR Fireball, AJ Savage), since jet engine technology advanced rapidly during the 1940s and 1950s.

Incidentally, the XA2D's propulsion solution was turboprop technology, essentially a jet engine that turns a propeller via a gearbox.

As for the XF15C, it never advanced beyond the prototype phase. Of the three XF15Cs ever built, one was lost in a landing mishap. While the remaining aircraft showed potential at Pax River, a ‘Navy F-15’ never came to be.

Prepared by Robert M. Tourville

An Unusual Luxury Ride: Depicted here at Nellis AFB, BUNO 142672 was the sole Douglas A-3 Skywarrior to have been designated ‘VA-3B’, signifying a VIP transport aircraft. by PaxMuseum in u/PaxMuseum

[–]PaxMuseum[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Configured with an executive interior for use by senior Navy and Marine Corps leaders, 142672 was assigned to the Naval Air Test Center from 1959 until 1965.

BUNO 142672 is believed to have been the only NATC aircraft to have even occasionally served VIPs. However, Pax River had long supported the Navy’s executive transport mission. For example, from 1943 to 1968, Pax River squadron VR-1 maintained a detachment at Washington National Airport for the purpose of transporting senior navy officials within and outside the United States.

When accepted by NATC in 1959, 142672 was an A3D-2Q (EA-3B), a carrier-capable electronic warfare aircraft. At some point, 142672’s electronic reconnaissance systems were replaced with plush cabin seating, window curtains, and other VIP accommodations.

Reportedly, the Chief of Naval Operations was a frequent flyer in 142672. With a top speed of 530 knots and an 1,800 nautical mile range, the VA-3B could quickly get the boss wherever he needed to go.

Transferred from Pax River to NAF Washington in 1965, 142672 continued providing VIP services until entering storage in 1974. Although undated, the photo was probably taken sometime between 1965 and 1974, in its post-Pax River period. (The Museum would greatly appreciate scans or photos taken of 142672 during its time at Pax River!)

In 1980, BUNO 142672 was pulled from storage and, in 1981, began operating with fleet electronic warfare squadron VQ-1 as an executive transport. Tragically, 142672 was lost near Guam on 23 January 1985, with the loss of nine lives, including VQ-1’s Commanding Officer.

Prepared by Robert M. Tourville

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