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Old May 28th 04, 12:14 AM
Henry Spencer
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In article ,
Pat Flannery wrote:
The Vig also had a 'dummy' bomb/ 'live' fuel tank combo that it
carried for day-to-day operations, but IIRC it was not jettisonable...


They found out the hard way that the bomb itself wasn't very
jettisonable...
The aircraft promptly got changed into a recon machine.


If memory serves, the bomb-ejection system did *eventually* work, although
only after a lot of development grief. The switch to the recon role was
because of a more global change: the USN strategic-weapon-delivery
mission was transferred from the carrier-based bombers to the missile
subs. The carrier-based bombers had to find other roles, and by and large
they weren't well-suited to the attack role, so they ended up doing things
like recon and EW.
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"Think outside the box -- the box isn't our friend." | Henry Spencer
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