Willy the Whale | F3D Skyknight

[Music] [Music] designed after the second world war the Douglas Sky Knight was meant to be the defender of the American Carrier Group after dark the ambitious design sought to use all of the lessons learned from night fighter designs and tactics in the second world war and produced the first specialized all-weather jet fighter in August of 1945 at the very end of the second world war the Navy's Aviation Bureau set its requirements for a new carrier-based jet KN fighter it called for a top speed of 500 mph a service ceiling of up to an altitude of 40,000 ft and a 125m radar intercept range Beyond its performance requirements it was also to carry a pressurized cabin with temperature controls and a robust set of deicing equipment four companies presented bids these being Douglas Curtis Grumman and fleetwing with preliminary design work beginning in October by April of the following year the contest was over with only Douglas's proposal receiving a letter of intent the resources to construct three prototypes and ground testing materials the aircraft's chief designer was the prolific Ed heiderman who designed some 20 aircraft through a very productive career some of his most notable Creations were the venerable SBD dauntless ad Skyraider and A4 Skyhawk his Sky Knight featured a Cutting Edge search radar which was operated by a crew member seated beside the pilot allowing for easier communication Beyond its intercept ability it was to be a very straightforward aircraft to fly with stability at both extremes of its speed limits its only eccentricity was that it had an ejection shoot as a means of crewman to escape the aircraft in an emergency altogether it was a conventional honest aircraft that flew well the first XF 3d1 prototype was flown by test pilot Russ thaw on March 23rd 1948 with the second flight following in June and the final in October apart from basic safety and performance tests the aircraft was flown in mock intercepts against single seat jet fighters even with their World War II era scr 720 radar they easily managed 85 M intercepts with GCI support after satisfactory land-based flight testing the skynight received a production contract the F3 D1 would replace the prototyped j34 w22 engines with more powerful we 38s and it received the powerful apq 35 search radar the new radar boasted a much longer effective range and was the first airborne radar with a lock on feature which allowed for the continuous automatic tracking of radar contact the sky Knight was built around the concept of the heavy KN fighter and was thus at the limits of how large a carrier born aircraft could be the bridal which connected the nose wheel to the Catapult needed to be significantly stronger than those used for other Navy Fighters and the proximity of the wheel to the engine intakes required a greater level of safety and these precautions lengthened launch procedures the landing gear shock absorbers were also judged inadequate as the plane bounced excessively during arrested recovery and high vibrations were noted these and other problems saw the f3d rated for a marginal daylight use and was prohibited from launching and recovering at night the new f3d 2 model was equipped with an improved version of the Westinghouse j34 engine an autopilot gun laying radar tail warning radar wing spoilers to increase the aircraft's roll rate and they received the modifications to clear them for full use aboard aircraft carriers the first of the new Sky Knights took flight on February 13th 1950 with the Navy accepting the first deliveries which were then turned over to composite Squadron vc3 in December of the same year the sky Knight proved problematic aboard carriers being far larger than what the deck Crews were accustomed to with the plane soon earning the moniker Willie the whale Pilot's views of the new aircraft were mixed the sky Knight was like nothing Naval Pilots had flown before it lacked all the Familiar trappings of a Navy fighter and if anything it reminded them more of a trans Port aircraft than any fighter they have ever flown beyond that the tandem seating arrangement proved unique as did the spacious carpeted airconditioned canopy equipped with a cigarette lighter and ashtrays while the sky Knight was not proving to be the answer to after hours protection the US Navy was looking for many of those assigned to the new jet could not help but be fascinated while the US Navy found the sky Knight totally unsuitable for their purposes the Marine Corps were eager to get a hold of them as opposed to the Navy with jet fighters of Plenty the sky Knight represented a massive upgrade for the Marines it was thus in the core that the sky Knight found its new home and would soon demonstrate itself to be a fantastic night Fighter the aircraft would first see combat in the Korean War the UN forces flew a bewildering variety of propeller and jet aircraft especially when compared to Communist forces who by the middle of the war were using Mig 15s and light ground attack planes in combat the American Air Forces pursued an offensive anti-air campaign over the northern half of the peninsula using their own cutting Edge f86 saber while swarms of piston engine f-51 Mustangs F4U Corsair and the new A1 skyraiders were used for close air support and massed b-29s were flown against strategic and tactical targets these strategic raids were much the same as those of the second world war the strata fortresses targeted factories power generating infrastructure and bridges and a campaign that left much of the northern half in the peninsula in ruins in an effort to stop the raids the Communist forces used their new Mig 15s as interceptors and could comfortably attack the formations with their combination of heavy weapons and near unapproachable speed only the American f86 Sabers were fast enough to catch them and thus any real hope of keeping the b29 safe during daylight hours was gone their solution was a transition to night bombing which would eliminate all but a few Soviet mig5 Crews from being able to intercept this nocturnal shift in the war over the peninsula saw night fighting transitioning from a mostly tactical affair involving aircraft raiding or defending positions at night to a strategic one that pitted each side's most advanced aircraft against one another Marine night Fighter Squadron vmf n513 arrived in Korea in August 1950 with a dozen Corsair night Fighters and a very difficult job to do the pilots of the flying nightmares flew night ground attack sorties in their tiger cat and Corsair World War 2 era Fighters it was in June 1952 that the Squadron was resupplied with a cadra of the Squadron that had reinforced them having retrained on the new f3d Sky Knight they would join the nightmares in June bringing 15 new KN Fighters their task to escort the Air Force's b29 raids over Northern Korea Lieutenant Colonel Lam would take charge of the deployed unit now with 12 aircraft three having been retained in Japan as was in World War II Knight intercepts were difficult and any failures on the part of the groundbased radar director or the RO on the plane could result in losing the target even with new radar closing with the target was still challenging and tested the pilot and radar operator alike it was clear that even with the new technical advances bringing down enemies at night would require a Mastery of the equipment and excellent coordination between all parties the enemy they chased was typically either Cutting Edge Mig 15s that were usually flown by Soviet pilots who were rarely encountered outside of the north and very light trainer aircraft flown in a ground attack role they lacked radar but the Soviet Pilots were well Tred and instrument flying and were proficient in ground directed radar intercepts their most effective tactic was a trap in which one Mig flew a straight and level course while a second trailed it at a lower altitude should the first plane find itself pursued the ground radar would warn them to speed up and direct the second aircraft to climb and attack the pursuing Sky Knight as the American KN fighter had a tail radar it was often forewarned of the approach of the trailing Mig while the sky Knights of the 513th were working themselves into combat a pair of incidents would leave a dark mark on some of the unit's early service on August 15th the squadron's CEO Colonel Lamere disappeared while on patrol from cusan and the Corsair sent to search for him failed to identify any wreckage on the 1st of September a catastrophic engine failure brought down another Sky Knight as the plane was flying out of the air base it fell into the sea and only the radar operator escaped the crash the culprit proved to be a turbine compressor failure which sent shattered turbine blades through the fuselage and into the second engine while local flights were still carried out combat patrols would not be flown until they installed protective plates by October 17th the nightmares wasted no time and once they were Airborne again they took on the job of escorting Air Force bombers under the leadership of Lieutenant Colonel Homer Hutchinson who succeeded the late commander in early September he was notably a much more aggressive commander who tasked his Pilots with seeking out enemy road traffic on their return from their escort missions upwards of six Fighters were flown on separate tracks to find and bring down the enemy one group flew barrier patrols between bombers and known enemy fighter bases a second group flew with the bomber formation and the final group Flew Over the bombers Target area a typical escort operation involved nine Sky Knights the first victory was soon achieved with major William Stratton and master sergeant Hans hogland catching the enemy at 14,000 ft they struck the aircraft with 20 mm cannon fire hitting the port Wing fuselage and tailpipe with the Burning Plane shortly descending rapidly out of sight Soviet records identify the aircraft as a mig5 flown by Captain V vishak who survived and brought the wrecked mck home the squadron's second Victory came in the eth when Captain Oliver Davis and drus festler were vectored onto a Target the enemy noticed them and attempted to evade but several shots struck the Mig which set fire to its engine before it plummeted between November and January they claimed four enemy Jets and were getting a better handle for the ordeal that the escort mission was soon proving to be the massive number of aircraft airborne and The Limited number of ground directors meant that the communications with GCI operators were heavily strained in spite of all that they proved extremely successful the sky Knight was proving to be an exceptional night fighter and was conducting patrols over Northern Korea largely with impunity in those first 3 months bomber losses fell and between February and July no b-29s would be lost to enemy Fighters the ungainly Sky Knight once considered almost use useless by the Navy was now proving itself indispensable to Knight operations over Korea the nightmares will be joined by another Sky Knight unit in the summer of 1953 a Detachment of vc4 after being effectively grounded aboard the carrier USS Champlain their Commander Lieutenant oor successfully petitioned for the unit to be sent to shore to join the Marine aviators they settled into Airfield K 6 alongside the 513th and were quickly worked into their schedules settling in proved a challenge as they traded their carrier births for conet at the Rainy muddy Airfield outside of Pion Tech it rained constantly and the Airfield had a permanent muggy atmosphere which made Landing more difficult and keeping dry an impossibility the two were combined during the frequent air strip overruns when the planes rolled off the tarmac and into the mud reinforced the 513th continued its Mig chasing their job remained the same and they still had the same issues GCI services overburdened and the radar station on Chu Island missed a good deal of contacts while on patrol the long search range of the apq 35 was particularly useful and Crews reported spotting numerous contacts that the GCI stations never called out the final mid kill likely belonged to a lieutenant Bob Bick and his CPO Linton Smith on July 2nd after pursuing a contact firing and setting it a blaze his next message to his GCI director was that his aircraft had taken several Cannon hits and bick's plane fell off the radar screens at Choo Bick had fallen into a trap and though he had claimed the bait plane a low-flying trailing Mig had him in a unit as small as Detachment 44n his loss was felt hard having successfully shot down one of the sky Knights the Soviet Crews felt a burst of enthusiasm and doubled down on the bait tactic the lone tracker was replaced with three or more and they flew out more frequently in the war's final tally the sky Knights claimed six Mig 15s and lost one of their own in combat with another possibly sharing its fate a less dangerous but more frustrating threat came in the form of harassment attacks from the so-called KN hecklers by 1953 these were training aircraft usually Yak 18s in the extremely outdated po2 biplane apart from a raid on fuel supplies at incon they were otherwise a threat only to a good night's sleep in addition to the AAA Gun Crews who had not had any Target for months the Navy's night fighter squadrons were called in to deal with the hecklers there was some excitement among the air Crews as the prospect of a defensive intercept was a new Mission excitement soon turned to disappointment instead of calls to scramble what they got were long nights playing cards in their full flight suits in the summer heat Beyond this the sky Knight was also unsuitable for the job as the disparity and speed between the two aircraft meant the pursuer rarely had a chance to fire before they had to break off and avoid Collision as the war came to a close and an Armistice was fast approaching both sides fought tooth and nail while diplomatic talks were underway at penmon Jam the sky Knight's Mission soon changed they were to patrol the front line which proved extremely disappointing to Crews who were accustomed to owning the night skies over Northern Korea oddly enough in the last week of the war they were also tasked with the ground attack missions a job once reserved for the squadron's now retired f7f Tiger Cats for the members of the 513 the war ended at 2200 hours July 27th 1953 the war over they now transition to training operations and DMZ no fly line enforcement as an aircraft that had failed miserably in its planned purpose the air Crews of the 53th found in it something that could take them deep into enemy territory and hunt the most dangerous opponent the war had to offer this concludes our video on the f3d sky night what are your thoughts on this unique aircraft feel free to share your thoughts on this unique vehicle in 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Channel: Plane Encyclopedia

Views: 3,246

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Id: lti0mcDisUk

Length: 14min 49sec (889 seconds)

Published: Fri May 17 2024