A-5 Vigilante - The Aircraft Carrier Nuclear Bomber

a vigilante ensures justice in their own way taking matters into their hands and fighting for what's right such were the objectives for north american aviation's a5 vigilante or vg a state-of-the-art cold war-era aircraft and the last strategic bomber ever built for the navy the vg's mach 2 plus speed capability appealed to the navy as they wanted to deliver nuclear payloads at high speeds and in the shortest amount of time possible that meant catapulting them off of aircraft carriers stationed in the world's most dangerous military hot zones but regardless of its technological superiority the vigilante was disappointing in its original purpose as a carrier-based strategic nuclear bomber quite simply it was a dangerous idea even the most skilled pilots were afraid of flying the plane and emissions during testing its bomb and fuel tanks would drop off the plane when launched from a catapult having a nuclear bomb falling and rolling around on deck was the last thing a carrier needed conveniently during this period submarine missiles became the best option for bomb payloads and the vigilante became outdated out of all the things that could go wrong in a bomber aircraft the vg seemed to have suffered most of them despite its failure in the bomber role engineers took advantage of its speed capabilities they modified the a5 to perform as a fast reconnaissance aircraft in vietnam where it conducted pre and post-strike photography missions these kinds of operations were dangerous but critical for the war although the vg didn't deliver its original role its heroic reconnaissance ops performance went down in the vietnam war's history [Music] the fiji in the early 1950s the navy bureau of aeronautics received proposals for an aircraft capable of nuclear armament this plane would be the eventual successor to the north american aj savage the lockheed p2 neptune and the douglas a3 sky warrior north american aviation development team led by frank g compton came up with the north american general purpose attack weapon which was approved by the navy in 1955 after a few revisions the jet became known as the vigilante or vigi and was the last strategic bomber ever built for the navy the vigilante was a long and sleek design with a swept back wing the craft had a tricycle style landing gear with the main gear retracting into the fuselage some of its technology was revolutionary for its time for example it had the first fly-by-wire control system in a production jet the aircraft also carried a computerized attack and navigation system a multi-mode monopulse radar system with terrain avoidance features a radar equipped inertial navigation system a closed circuit television camera under the jet's nose and a versatile digital analyzer capable of integrating the take from the sensors the bg was powered by the same engines used in the iconic macdonald douglas f4 phantom 2 and the convair b-58 hustler bomber two general electric j79 ge8 afterburning turbojet engines another unique aspect of the a5 design was a linear bombay required by the navy this hypothetical bombay could carry up to 28 mark thermonuclear missiles with a pair of attached fuel tanks according to andy burns aviator with the u.s navy quote the a5 as originally designed was intended to be able to deliver its nukes in a high-speed dash that would preclude either carrying them externally or using a conventional bombay the solution was a unique linear delivery system where the weapons along with extra fuel tanks were carried in a centerline tube and ejected from a port between the exhaust nozzles on december 13 1960 navy pilot leroy heath and lieutenant larry monroe broke a world altitude record of 91 450 feet in a vigilante carrying 2 204 pounds of ammo this record was held for 13 years from bomber to recon sadly the a5 didn't excel at its bomber roll for several reasons ever since its first test flights the jet's modern bombay proved to be quite tricky to maneuver according to pilot burns the vg failed at its role because the revolutionary weapons delivery didn't work which became a risk for the crew he said the weapon system was quote cool in theory in practice the payload tended to get caught in the jet slipstream and either tumble uncontrollably or more distressing for the crew follow the jet along for a bit either way it made for unacceptable delivery accuracy even by nuclear weapon standards another crucial factor in its failure was timing as happened quite often with cold war era aircraft by the time the a5 was in service with the navy the service branch had switched to using submarine-launched missiles and even though the vigilante had groundbreaking technology more adaptable planes replaced it in the bomber roll in 1963 all production of the a5 stopped but north american saved the aircraft by adapting the leftover a5s into reconnaissance planes the ra5c it was a modification that kept them in service for many years the vigilante was now a reconnaissance attack heavy plane in the bomber roll the bg's crew consisted of a pilot and another crew member in a bombardier navigator role that flew in the back of the plane under the vg's new role the bombardier navigator switched to a reconnaissance attack navigator the pilot was able to control the ejection for both crewmen but the backseater could also eject on his own if necessary the vg's bombay was altered to incorporate a state-of-the-art reconnaissance system it included a radar installed under the fuselage three different kinds of cameras and electronic countermeasure equipment each photo taken by the vg included markings of the latitude and longitude of the plane at the time it was taken which helped pinpoint target locations the images only took one hour to process an impressively short time for the 1960s the data obtained were then interpreted by specialists the ra5c could reach mach 2 plus speed during electromagnetic optical and electronic reconnaissance operations it could also cruise as high as 50 000 feet the first recon bg was delivered to the navy in june 1963. it entered service missions over vietnam from carriers stationed in the gulf of tonkin the very next year the bg in vietnam the vg's most outstanding service contribution was during the vietnam war in carrier air wing operations some of the vigilantes were painted in traditional camouflage schemes but such callers only worked while they flew at low altitudes against enemy fighters attacking from above since the vg ordinarily outran its enemy interceptors that wasn't a big problem the camouflage made the aircraft more visible at high altitude so the navy asked that fiji's colors revert to its standard light grey after arriving in southeast asia in the summer of 1964 the ra5c began flying missions over south vietnam the army didn't want to risk the aircraft's expensive equipment falling into vietcong hands when they did fly to the country's northern side the vigilante suffered the highest loss numbers of any other naval aircraft during the war out of the 18 ra5 seas that were lost during combat 11 of them were due to anti-aircraft fire two of them were shot down by surface-to-air missiles one was lost to a mig-21 fighter jet and five of them were lost for unknown reasons the loss rate had nothing to do with the airplane itself but was the hazard of its primary mission pre and post-strike photography most of the vg's lost to anti-aircraft machinery were destroyed during these post-strike recon missions the vietcong's men knew that the vigilante would be overhead taking pictures shortly after a strike flying without any defense on august 13th 1967 captain leo hyatt and his navigation officer were flying their vg over a railroad bridge near the china border suddenly they were shot down by a fire blast from 37-millimeter anti-aircraft guns hyatt had already piloted 33 high-speed reconnaissance missions and was part of reconnaissance attack squadron 12 which flew ra5c missions over north vietnam off the aircraft carrier uss constellation captain hyatt dislocated his shoulder during the ejection from the aircraft and was shot while trying to evade capture on the ground at the naval submarine base kings bay commemoration in 2010 hyatt said quote i wasn't supposed to get shot down because i was good the captain was subsequently held as a vietnam prisoner of war for more than five years at the infamous swallow prison captain hyatt was released on march 13th 1973 after being held captive for 2040 days about his time as a prisoner hyatt stated quote the 67 months of captivity will never be redeemable for me however it was a small price to pay to help guarantee the freedom of millions of people in south vietnam and the rest of southeast asia end of production and cancellation during the 1960s 43 ra5cs were built when the last recon bg was finished in the ohio assembly line north american aviation assumed that the production had ended but in 1968 after hostility prevailed and grew in vietnam the navy ordered 46 new ri5cs the only real difference with the second tier of models was a leading edge extension that extended from the wing to the forward air intake which enhanced pitch control during the landing approach the aircraft were all powered by newer j79 ge10 engines only 36 of these new aircraft were actually built though and the last completed vg was finished in august 1970. they began to be phased out of service during the 1970s as they were too large for carrier vessels and they were expensive to operate and repair vigilante squadrons made a total of 31 deployments during vietnam in the earlier period of their operations the units were deployed with six aircraft but as the war progressed the number began to decrease until 1976 when only three aircraft per squadron flew with the end of the vietnam war the a5 vigilante and its variants became one of the many post-war downsizing and budgeting victims the final operational vigilante sortie took place at nas key west on november 20th 1979. by 1980 the last ra5c squadron had been deactivated although the vigilante had a lackluster and poor record in its bomber role its reconnaissance missions changed future jets parameters the a5 vigilante was quickly overcome by more modern compact and cheaper options you

Channel: Dark Skies

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Keywords: a-5, a5, vigilante, aviation, airplane, airplanes, aircraft, history, history channel, documentary, nuclear, aircraft carrier, us, us navy, jet, mach, warplanes, dark docs, dark skies, history documentary, flight, dw, navy, air force, documentary history channel, explainer, docu, documentaire, aerospace, aviation history, factual, jets, us military news

Id: _oG3uPTpDM8

Length: 11min 21sec (681 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 01 2020