Warbird Information Exchange

Whilst on a business trip to San Francisco earlier this month, I visited the USS Hornet (CV-18), now a museum at the former NAS Alameda near Oakland.

Interestingly enough, Alameda was where the Doolittle B-25s were winched aboard the earlier USS Hornet for the Tokyo raid in 1942.

This USS Hornet (the eighth to bear the name) entered service in 1943, and was in action in the Pacific for 16 continuous months.

After the war, she was stored for a number of years, then converted to an Attack Carrier (CVA-18) with an angled deck and twin catapults, and later was used as an anti-submarine carrier (CVS-18), and was used as the recovery ship for the Apollo 11 and 12 missions in 1969, before final retirement the following year.

The ship was opened as a museum in 1998, and is well worth a visit for anyone in the area.





The view from Flying Control



An early Apollo capsule, used for a sub-orbital flight and later for drop tests to determine the effect of an emergency capsule landing on dry land.



One of the quarantine units for the returning astronauts. Converted from an airstream caravan - how times have changed since the 1960s!

Some of the aircraft displayed on board :

An F-14 Tomcat



TA-4J Skyhawk (one of the last in service, retired in 2003)



An early F-8A Crusader



F-8 cockpit section and TBM Avenger



TBM



Piasecki HUP-1 Retriever





H-34 Seahorse. The footprints on the deck mark the site of Neil Armstrong's first steps back on earth after the Apollo 11 recovery.



SH-3 Sea King



S-2 Tracker



The Storage and restoration area.

One of the Lake Michigan SBD Dauntless recoveries





FJ Fury (naval derivative of the North American F-86 Sabre)





On the gate of the former NAS Almeda is this nicely presented A-7 Corsair

A few more to finish up with.

The view down the flight-deck along the port catapult (the steam catapult, like the angled flight-deck and mirror landing system, being a British invention, of course). Hornet's deck is made of teak planking, with steel plating to the rear of the catapults to frotect from the jet efflux.



Some detail shots of the Dauntless. Wouldn't it be nice to get one of these in the UK at either Yeovilton or Duxford!





The interior of the recently-restored UH-34



There are a number of these Essex-class carriers (4, I believe) preserved as museums. Sadly, many of them are struggling financially.

Apologies for the quality of some of the shots, they were all taken on my little snappy digicam.

Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to visit the Western Aerospace Museum at Oakland with its Shorts Solent.

Lucky guy. When my wife I went there a couple of months ago, we were there when the sign said it was opened, but the gates to the gangplank were locked. No reason or signs saying why, either.
Darn, as I'll almost certainly never have a reason to be there ever again,,,

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Life member, 91st BG Memorial Association
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former REMF (US Army, O3)

I have said before, & will say again-many thanks Mike, & all you other guys that post pics from places I have not visited. Its great to see these old ships being saved & used for these purposes. Too bad the Oriskney could not have been one of them.
Robbie

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Fly Fast Make Noise!

the aircraft carrier........what feat of engineering!!!! cut & dry!!!

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

Mike, slight correction there, she is CVS-12. Nice pictures, I toured her just a few weeks ago myself. For the lighting in there, your pictures came out good. The S-2 Tracker used to appear at a few of our air shows here in Ca.

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Roger Cain
www.sfahistory.org
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Stearman/


We must limit politicians to two terms:
one in office and one in jail.