Paul wrote:

Greetings all,

My hiker friend took another trip out to the site yesterday and found
some more debris about 1/2 mile away. I didn't get a chance to talk
to him before he went, but he took a few more photos which are here,
scanned from disposable camera prints : -o

http://home.earthlink.net/~jpa_2/


Well that's the underside of the wing, as shown by the projecting flap
hinge- now I'm not _sure_ about this, but the aerilon, flap, and panel
layout resembles that of a A-5 Vigilante Navy supersonic attack bomber;
which is one of the few aircraft that has that fairing on the outside of
the wing visible to the right in this photo:
http://home.earthlink.net/~jpa_2/pages/item2a.htm
Compare http://avionsdechasse.free.fr/chasse...5vigilante.jpg
The Vigilante also has landing gear that retracts entirely into the
fuselage, as opposed to the fuselage and wings; and this has no visible
gear doors on the wing.
Now...assuming this _is_ a crashed Vigilante, when the first gizmo you
found and photographed may be the Vigilante's one certifiably strange
feature...its bomb bay door. The A-5 had a slopping internal tubular
bomb bay that ran most of the length of the aircraft from behind the
cockpit to the back end where it emerged between the engine nozzles:
http://ciel.me.cmu.edu/soji/photo/00...igilante02.jpg
Housed in the tubular bomb bay was an atomic weapon hanging on the front
end of two fuel drop tanks- once the tank assembly was empty it served
to stabilize the bomb as it extended folding fins at its rear end and
both the tanks and the attached bomb were ejected backwards out of the
plane: http://www.vectorsite.net/ava53.jpg
This would neatly explain both the hydraulic/pneumatic cylinders and
their insulation blankets; it's hot back there, and these are the means
by which the bomb bay door (doors? I'm not sure how exactly it
opens...clamshell-like...or retracting up and into the body like a early
torpedo tube cap?) opens. The layout of the cylinders suggests upwards
and inwards to me.
I've contacted a Vigilante website about this, and forwarded the web
address for the pictures to it.

Pat