1.
Airborne early warning and control
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AEW&C units are also used to carry out surveillance, including over ground targets and frequently perform C2BM functions similar to an Air Traffic Controller given military command over other forces. Like a ground based radar, it can be detected by opposing forces, the system is used offensively to direct fighters to their target locations, and defensively, directing counterattacks on enemy forces, both air and ground. The designation airborne early warning was used for earlier similar aircraft, AWACS is the name of the specific system installed in the E-3 and Japanese Boeing E-767 AEW&C airframes, but is often used as a general synonym for AEW&C. Modern AEW&C systems can detect aircraft from up to 400 km away, one AEW&C aircraft flying at 9,000 m can cover an area of 312,000 km2. Three such aircraft in overlapping orbits can cover the whole of Central Europe, the intention was to cover the North West approaches where German long range Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor aircraft were threatening shipping. A Vickers Wellington bomber was fitted with an antenna array. It was tested for use against aerial targets and then for possible use against German E boats, another radar equipped Wellington with a different installation was used to direct Bristol Beaufighters toward Heinkel He 111s, which were air-launching V-1 flying bombs. In February 1944 the U. S. Navy ordered the development of a system that could be carried aloft in an aircraft under Project Cadillac. A prototype system was built and flown in August on a modified TBM Avenger torpedo bomber, tests proved successful, with the system being able to detect low flying formations at a range in excess of 100 miles. The U. S. Navy then ordered production of the TBM-3W, tBM-3Ws fitted with the AN/APS-20 radar entered service in March 1945, with some 36–40 eventually being constructed. The Lockheed WV and EC-121 Warning Star, which first flew in 1949 served widely with both the US Air Force and US Navy and provided the main AEW coverage for US forces during the Vietnam war. It was to remain operational until replaced with the E-3 AWACS, in 1958, the Soviet Tupolev Design Bureau was also ordered to design an AEW aircraft. After determining that the projected radar instrumentation wouldnt fit in a Tupolev Tu-95 or a Tupolev Tu-116 and this solved the problems with cooling and operator space that existed with the narrower Tu-95 and Tu-116 fuselage. To meet the range requirements, production examples were fitted with an air-to-air refueling probe. The resulting system, the Tupolev Tu-126, entered service in 1965 with the Soviet Air Forces, many countries have developed their own AEW&C systems, although the Boeing E-3 Sentry and Northrop Grumman E-2 Hawkeye are the most common systems worldwide. The E-3 Sentry was built by the Boeing Defense and Space Group and was based on the Boeing 707-320 aircraft,65 E-3 were built and it is operated by the United States Air Force, NATO, the British Royal Air Force, France and controversially, Saudi Arabia. The specially designed Grumman E-2 Hawkeye entered service in 1965 and has operated by eight different nations. Over 168 have been produced so far and new versions continue to be developed making it the most widely used AEW system, for the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, the E-3 technology has been fitted into the Boeing E-767
2.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
3.
Grumman
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The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, later Grumman Aerospace Corporation, was a leading 20th century U. S. producer of military and civilian aircraft. Founded on December 6,1929, by Leroy Grumman and partners, factory in Baldwin on Long Island, New York. All of the early Grumman employees were former Loening employees, the company was named for Grumman because he was its largest investor. The company filed as a business on December 5,1929, keeping busy by welding aluminum tubing for truck frames, the company eagerly pursued contracts with the US Navy. Grumman designed the first practical floats with a landing gear for the Navy. The first Grumman aircraft was also for the Navy, the Grumman FF-1 and this was followed by a number of other successful designs. Grumman ranked 22nd among United States corporations in the value of wartime production contracts, Grummans first jet aircraft was the F9F Panther, it was followed by the upgraded F9F/F-9 Cougar, and the less well known F-11 Tiger in the 1950s. The companys big postwar successes came in the 1960s with the A-6 Intruder and E-2 Hawkeye and in the 1970s with the Grumman EA-6B Prowler, Grumman products were prominent in the film Top Gun and numerous World War II naval and Marine Corps aviation films. The U. S. Navy still employs the Hawkeye as part of Carrier Air Wings on board aircraft carriers, Grumman was the chief contractor on the Apollo Lunar Module that landed men on the moon. The firm received the contract on November 7,1962, as the Apollo program neared its end, Grumman was one of the main competitors for the contract to design and build the Space Shuttle, but lost to Rockwell International. The company ended up involved in the program nonetheless, as a subcontractor to Rockwell, providing the wings. In 1969 the company changed its name to Grumman Aerospace Corporation, the company built the Grumman Long Life Vehicle, a light transport mail truck designed for and used by the United States Postal Service. The LLV entered service in 1986, Gulfstream business jets continue to be currently manufactured by Gulfstream Aerospace which is a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics. For much of the Cold War period Grumman was the largest corporate employer on Long Island, Grummans products were considered so reliable and ruggedly built that the company was often referred to as the Grumman Iron Works. At its peak in 1986 it employed 23,000 people on Long Island, a portion of the airport property has been used for the Grumman Memorial Park. Northrop Grummans remaining business at the Bethpage campus is the Battle Management and Engagement Systems Division, under the Grumman Olson brand it made the P-600 and P-6800 step vans for UPS. Grumman manufactured fire engines under the name Firecat and aerial tower trucks under the Aerialcat name, the company entered the fire apparatus business in 1976 with its purchase of Howe Fire Apparatus and ended operations in 1992. Grumman canoes were developed in 1944 as World War II was winding down, Company executive William Hoffman used the companys aircraft aluminum to replace the traditional wood design
4.
Northrop Grumman E-2 Hawkeye
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The Northrop Grumman E-2 Hawkeye is an American all-weather, carrier-capable tactical airborne early warning aircraft. The fourth major version of the Hawkeye is the E-2D, which first flew in 2007, the E-2 was the first aircraft designed specifically for its role, as opposed to a modification of an existing airframe, such as the Boeing E-3 Sentry. Variants of the Hawkeye have been in production since 1960. The E-2 also received the nickname Super Fudd because it replaced the E-1 Tracer Willy Fudd, in recent decades, the E-2 has been commonly referred to as the Hummer because of the distinctive sounds of its turboprop engines, quite unlike that of turbojet and turbofan jet engines. In addition to U. S. Navy service, smaller numbers of E-2s have been sold to the forces of Egypt, France, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Singapore. Continual improvements in airborne radars through 1956 led to the construction of AEW airplanes by several different countries, the functions of command and control and sea & air surveillance were also added. The first carrier-based aircraft to perform missions for the U. S. Its design, initially designated W2F-1, but later redesignated the E-2A Hawkeye, was the first carrier plane that had been designed from its wheels up as an AEW and command and control airplane. These ‘smaller’ carriers were built during World War II and later modified to allow them to operate jet aircraft, consequently, various height, weight and length restrictions had to be factored into the E-2A design, resulting in some handling characteristics which were less than ideal. The E-2A actually never operated from the modified Essex class carriers, the first prototype, acting as an aerodynamic testbed only, flew on 21 October 1960. The first fully equipped aircraft followed it on 19 April 1961, by 1965 the major development problems delaying the E-2A Hawkeye got so bad that the aircraft was actually cancelled after 59 aircraft had already been built. Particular difficulties were being experienced due to cooling in the closely packed avionics compartment. Early computer and complex avionics systems generated considerable heat, without proper ventilation this would lead to system failures and these failures continued long after the aircraft entered service and at one point reliability was so bad the entire fleet of aircraft was grounded. The airframe was also prone to corrosion, a problem in a carrier based aircraft. The unreliable rotary drum computer was replaced by a Litton L-304 digital computer, in total,49 of the 59 E-2As were upgraded to E-2B standard. These aircraft replaced the E-1B Tracers in the various US Navy AEW squadrons, although the upgraded E-2B was a vast improvement on the unreliable E-2A, it was an interim measure. The US Navy knew the design had much greater capability and had yet to achieve the performance, in April 1968 a reliability improvement program was instigated. In addition, now that the capabilities of the aircraft were starting to be realized, improvements in the new and upgraded aircraft were concentrated in the radar and computer performance
5.
Grumman S-2 Tracker
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The Grumman S-2 Tracker was the first purpose-built, single airframe anti-submarine warfare aircraft to enter service with the U. S. Navy. Designed and initially built by Grumman, the Tracker was of conventional design with twin reciprocating propeller engines, the type was exported to a number of navies around the world. Argentina and Brazil are the last countries to use the Tracker. The Tracker combined both functions in one aircraft, grummans design was for a large high-wing monoplane with twin Wright Cyclone R-1820 nine cylinder radial engines, a yoke type arrestor hook and a crew of four. Both the two prototypes XS2F-1 and 15 production aircraft, S2F-1 were ordered at the time, on 30 June 1950. The first flight was conducted on 4 December 1952, and production aircraft entered service with VS-26, follow-on versions included the WF Tracer and TF Trader, which became the Grumman E-1 Tracer and Grumman C-1 Trader in the tri-service designation standardization of 1962. The S-2 carried the nickname Stoof throughout its career. At least 99 and possibly 100 aircraft carrying the CS2F designation were manufactured in Canada under license by de Havilland Canada, U. S. -built versions of the Tracker were sold to various nations, including Australia, Japan, Turkey and Taiwan. The Tracker carried an internal torpedo bay capable of carrying two torpedoes or one nuclear depth charge. There were six underwing hard points for rocket pods and conventional depth charges or up to four additional torpedoes, a ventrally mounted retractable radome for AN/APS-38 radar and a Magnetic Anomaly Detector AN/ASQ-8 mounted on an extendable rear mounted boom were also fitted. Early model Trackers had an Electronic Surveillance Measures pod mounted dorsally just aft of the front seat overhead hatches and were fitted with a smoke particle detector or sniffer. Later S-2s had the sniffer removed and had the ESM antennae moved to four rounded extensions on the wingtips, a 70 million candlepower searchlight was mounted on the starboard wing. The engine nacelles carried JEZEBEL sonobouys in the rear, smoke dispensers were mounted on the port ventral surface of the nacelles in groups of three each. The Tracker was eventually superseded in U. S. military service by the Lockheed S-3 Viking, the last Navy S-2 was withdrawn from service on 29 August 1976. For many years the TS-2A version of the Tracker was used by U. S, a number of Trackers live on as firefighting aircraft while the design also continued to provide excellent service with the naval forces of other countries for years after the U. S. retired them. For example, the Royal Australian Navy continued to use Trackers as front line ASW assets until the mid-1980s, the Argentine Naval Aviation received seven S-2A in 1962, six S-2E in 1978 and three S-2G in the 1990s. They were used both aircraft carriers, ARA Independencia and ARA Veinticinco de Mayo and used in the COD, Maritime Patrol. In the 1990s, six remaining airframes where refurbished by Israel Aerospace Industries with turboprop engines as S-2T Turbo Trackers, between 1967 and 1984 the Royal Australian Navy operated two Squadrons of S-2E and S-2G variants, based at NAS Nowra
6.
Folding wing
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A folding wing is a wing configuration design feature of aircraft to save space, and is typical of carrier-based aircraft that operate from the limited deck space of aircraft carriers. The folding allows the aircraft to occupy space in a confined hangar because the folded wing normally rises over the fuselage decreasing the floor area of the aircraft. Vertical clearance is limited in aircraft carrier hangar decks. Short Brothers, the worlds first aircraft manufacturer, developed and patented folding wing mechanisms for ship-borne aircraft, the wings were hinged so that they folded back horizontally alongside the fuselage, usually being held in place by latches projecting sideways from the rear of the fuselage. Since the monoplane supplanted the biplane in the late 1930s, virtually all fixed-wing aircraft designed for shipboard duty have been equipped with folding wings. Notable exceptions include the SBD Dauntless, F2A Buffalo, and A4D/A-4 Skyhawk, the Mitsubishi A5M, and Yokosuka D4Y, all six are relatively compact designs. A folding wing has some disadvantages compared to a fixed wing and it is heavier and has more complex connections for electrical, fuel, aerodynamic and structural systems. Many naval helicopters have rotor blades that can be aligned over the fuselage to save space on board ships, folding surfaces are rare among land-based designs, and are used on aircraft that are tall or too wide to fit inside service hangars. Examples include the Boeing B-50 Superfortress and its folding tail, the Saab 37 Viggen and the Boeing 377 Stratocruiser have foldable rear fins that make them lower for entering hangars. The new Boeing 777X set a record for the launch of an airplane with 224 orders and commitments alone from Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways, Dubai-based Emirates Airlines. Both Boeing 777X models will feature a shorter and simpler folding wingtip than was planned for the earlier Boeing 777 and this will provide an extra 7 metres of wingspan in flight, yet the plane will still fit inside the same airport gates as the 777-300
7.
Grumman F4F Wildcat
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The Grumman F4F Wildcat is an American carrier-based fighter aircraft that began service with both the United States Navy and the British Royal Navy in 1940. With a top speed of 318 mph, the Wildcat was outperformed by the faster 331 mph, more maneuverable, and longer-ranged Mitsubishi A6M Zero. However, the F4Fs ruggedness, coupled with such as the Thach Weave. Lessons learned from the Wildcat were later applied to the faster F6F Hellcat, while the Wildcat had better range and maneuverability at low speed, the Hellcat could rely on superior power and high speed performance to outperform the Zero. The Wildcat continued to be throughout the remainder of the war to serve on escort carriers. I would still assess the Wildcat as the naval fighter of the early years of World War II. I can vouch as a matter of experience, this Grumman fighter was one of the finest shipboard aeroplanes ever created. Grumman fighter development began with the two-seat Grumman FF biplane, the FF was the first U. S. naval fighter with a retractable landing gear. The wheels retracted into the fuselage, leaving the tires visibly exposed, two single-seat biplane designs followed, the F2F and F3F, which established the general fuselage outlines of what would become the F4F Wildcat. In 1935, while the F3F was still undergoing testing, Grumman started work on its next biplane fighter. At the time, the U. S. Navy favored a monoplane design, however, an order was also placed for Grummans G-16 as a backup in case the Brewster monoplane proved to be unsatisfactory. It was clear to Grumman that the XF4F-1 would be inferior to the Brewster monoplane, so Grumman abandoned the XF4F-1, designing instead a new monoplane fighter, the XF4F-2 would retain the same, fuselage-mounted, hand-cranked main landing gear as the F3F, with its relatively narrow track. Landing accidents caused by failure of the gear to fully lock into place were distressingly common. The overall performance of Grummans new monoplane was felt to be inferior to that of the Brewster Buffalo, the XF4F-2 was marginally faster, but the Buffalo was more maneuverable. It was judged superior and was chosen for production, after losing out to Brewster, Grumman completely rebuilt the prototype as the XF4F-3 with new wings and tail and a supercharged version of the Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp radial engine. Testing of the new XF4F-3 led to an order for F4F-3 production models, the U. S. Navy officially adopted the aircraft type on 1 October 1941 as the Wildcat. The Royal Navys and U. S. Navys F4F-3s, armed with four.50 in Browning machine guns and this was the first fatality in the type. Even before the Wildcat had been purchased by U. S. Navy, the French Navy, the F4F Wildcat was taken on by the FAA as an interim replacement for the Fairey Fulmar
8.
Radar
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Radar is an object-detection system that uses radio waves to determine the range, angle, or velocity of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, Radio waves from the transmitter reflect off the object and return to the receiver, giving information about the objects location and speed. Radar was developed secretly for military use by several nations in the period before, the term RADAR was coined in 1940 by the United States Navy as an acronym for RAdio Detection And Ranging or RAdio Direction And Ranging. The term radar has since entered English and other languages as a common noun, high tech radar systems are associated with digital signal processing, machine learning and are capable of extracting useful information from very high noise levels. Other systems similar to make use of other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. One example is lidar, which uses ultraviolet, visible, or near infrared light from lasers rather than radio waves, as early as 1886, German physicist Heinrich Hertz showed that radio waves could be reflected from solid objects. In 1895, Alexander Popov, an instructor at the Imperial Russian Navy school in Kronstadt. The next year, he added a spark-gap transmitter, in 1897, while testing this equipment for communicating between two ships in the Baltic Sea, he took note of an interference beat caused by the passage of a third vessel. In his report, Popov wrote that this phenomenon might be used for detecting objects, the German inventor Christian Hülsmeyer was the first to use radio waves to detect the presence of distant metallic objects. In 1904, he demonstrated the feasibility of detecting a ship in dense fog and he obtained a patent for his detection device in April 1904 and later a patent for a related amendment for estimating the distance to the ship. He also got a British patent on September 23,1904 for a radar system. It operated on a 50 cm wavelength and the radar signal was created via a spark-gap. In 1915, Robert Watson-Watt used radio technology to advance warning to airmen. Watson-Watt became an expert on the use of direction finding as part of his lightning experiments. As part of ongoing experiments, he asked the new boy, Arnold Frederic Wilkins, Wilkins made an extensive study of available units before selecting a receiver model from the General Post Office. Its instruction manual noted that there was fading when aircraft flew by, in 1922, A. Hoyt Taylor and Leo C. Taylor submitted a report, suggesting that this might be used to detect the presence of ships in low visibility, eight years later, Lawrence A. Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa followed prewar Great Britain, and Hungary had similar developments during the war. Hugon, began developing a radio apparatus, a part of which was installed on the liner Normandie in 1935
9.
USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CV-42)
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USS Franklin D. Roosevelt was the second of three Midway-class aircraft carriers. To her crew, she was known as Swanky Franky, Foo-De-Roo, or Rosie, Roosevelt spent most of her active deployed career operating in the Mediterranean Sea as part of the United States Sixth Fleet. The ship was decommissioned in 1977 and was scrapped shortly afterward, Franklin D. Roosevelt was laid down at New York Naval Shipyard on 1 December 1943. Sponsor Mrs. John H. Towers, wife of the Deputy Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Fleet, christened the ship Coral Sea at the 29 April 1945 launching. On 8 May 1945, President Harry S. Truman approved the Secretary of the Navys recommendation to rename the ship Franklin D. Roosevelt in honor of the late president, Roosevelt was commissioned on Navy Day,27 October 1945, at the New York Naval Shipyard. Capt. Apollo Soucek was the ships first commanding officer, during April and May, Roosevelt participated in Eighth Fleet maneuvers off the East Coast, the Navys first major postwar training exercise. On 21 July 1946, Roosevelt became the first American carrier to operate an aircraft under controlled conditions. Lieutenant Commander James Davidson, flying the McDonnell XFD-1 Phantom, made a series of successful take-offs and landings as Roosevelt lay off Cape Henry, Virginia. Jet trials continued in November, when Lt. Col. Marion E. Carl, USMC, Fleet maneuvers and other training operations in the Caribbean preceded Roosevelts first deployment to the Mediterranean, which lasted from August to October 1946. Roosevelt, flying the flag of Rear Admiral John H. Cassady, Commander, Carrier Division 1 and this visit showed U. S. support for the pro-Western government of Greece, which was locked in a civil war with Communist insurgents. The ship received thousands of visitors during her calls to many Mediterranean ports, Roosevelt returned to American waters and operated off the East Coast until July 1947, when she entered Norfolk Naval Shipyard for an extensive overhaul. At that time, her quad 40 mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns were replaced by 40 3-inch Mark 22 guns in Mark 33 twin mountings, from September 1948 to January 1949, Roosevelt undertook a second tour of duty with U. S. Naval Forces, Mediterranean. In 1950, Roosevelt became the first carrier to take nuclear weapons to sea, in September and October 1952, she participated in Operation Mainbrace, the first major NATO exercise in the North Atlantic. Roosevelt operated with major fleet units, including the aircraft carriers USS Midway, USS Wasp. Roosevelt was reclassified CVA-42 on 1 October 1952, on 7 January 1954, she sailed for Puget Sound Naval Shipyard to undergo extensive reconstruction. Too large to pass through the Panama Canal, Roosevelt rounded Cape Horn and she was temporarily decommissioned there for her refit on 23 April 1954. Roosevelt was the first of her class to undergo the SCB-110 reconstruction and she received an enclosed hurricane bow, one C-11-2 and two C-11-1 steam catapults, strengthened arresting gear, an enlarged bridge, a mirror landing system, and a 482-foot angled flight deck. SPS-8 height finding radar and SPS-12 air search radar were mounted on a new tubular mast, the aft elevator was relocated to the starboard deck edge, the forward elevator was enlarged, and all elevators were uprated to 75,000 lb capacity
