The Second Seat

[Oyaji]

"THE SECOND SEAT" 1960s U.S. NAVY AVIATION OFFICER RECRUITING FILM PENSACOLA, FLORIDA

[RED]

Thanks for posting.

Great video but it was out of date before it was made public. The most interesting thing is all the emphasis on the A-5 Vigilante. It was a terrible flop at the job it was created for, Tactical Nuclear Bombing. The plane had the same engines as the F-4B. There was a tunnel between the engines where the nukes were stored. They were to slide out of the tunnel with the aircrafts nose up. The A-5 was pretty complex and maintenance on a pitching and dark carrier deck was not good.

As a result, only 161 were made, 137 were overhauled as recon birds. The tunnel between engines were turned into fuel tanks. This allowed it to outrun F-4s that were carrying external fuel tanks and missiles. The Guy In Back (GIB) was only able to see out a pack of cigarettes sized window. Of 18 shot down over Vietnam, only 9 of the flight crews were rescued plus 9 more were lost to operational mishaps. All in all it was probably the prettiest Navy jet aircraft ever made.

[Oyaji]

Thanks Red. I was hoping you would respond to the video post. Would love to hear goo's take on the video as well, were he still amongst us. Never had any exposure to NFO's; all my Navy squadron/staff experience was limited to A-4F's, A-7A/B/E's and F-18A's which are all single seat aircraft.