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Old 14th Oct 2018, 19:38
  #53 (permalink)  
gums
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: florida
Age: 81
Posts: 1,609
Received 52 Likes on 15 Posts
Salute!

Sluf was single seat, single engine. It and the A-6 Intruder replaced the A-1 and A-4 for the USN, allowing the F-4 types to be CAP/Sweep and a lot less pig iron missions. The Sluf replaced the A-1, A-37,F-100 and F-105 in USAF. F-4's still carried iron as they had so many of them and only 72 Slufs at Korat. We also had F-111 'vaarks at Tahkli for Linebacker in 1972. They flew mainly at night.

A-5's became RA-5 recce birds within a few short years and had a crew of two. Never dropped a bomb, best I can tell. It was very fast, and apparently a great recce platform. Never ran into anyone that flew the beast.

Both the Intruder and Sluf were subsonic designs, although the Sluf could get above the mach in a dive without ripping the wings off, and FCF pilots would occasionally "boom" Myrtle Beach. I personally exceeded the redline on that Hanoi mission with the aimpoint depiction. Forgot to pull off power enuf and noticed very slow pitch rate on dive recovery, then saw airspeed. That was my first mission with the 2,000 pounders on parent racks, and was a very clean load re: drag. Normally, we did not reduce power very much in a dive because of the drag or if we were dropping manually and needed to hit angle, speed and altitude.

The dive toss computer was extremely accurate, and only the A-1 and A-37 compared. Actual BDA from FAC's gave us 15 meter CEP, as well as for the A-37. So you can see why the grunts liked us for troops in contact events. Our CEP was documented in Corona Harvest reports and also referenced in the A-37 book, "Dragonfly". On one mission we had in Laos to hit a artillery tube, the Raven FAC was giving corrections using bomb crater widths!! ( Mk-82 slicks) The second and subsequent pass accuracy with the Sluf was eye-watering. And then the Viper came along a few years later.

The Sluf and Intruder both had "legs" and did not require all the tankers that the Double Ugly needed. So we carried 10 x Mk-82 from Korat Thailand to places near Saigon, and then dropped in singles!! 350 nm +/-, and we could hold for 10 or 15 milutes. The Hanoi mission was a tad over 400 nm, but one pass, haul ass.

Man, those were the days, and I relish my time in three planes of the era.

Gums sends...

Last edited by gums; 14th Oct 2018 at 19:46. Reason: typo/hurricane closeby
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