Five a day - Part 84

[haveblue]

The USN equivalent of our Buccaneer, or vice-versa. Not as sleek but it had a certain appeal, and could certainly be a bit of a bomb truck. Coincidentally, photos 4 and 5 are the same airframe, just a few years apart.

A6E X2 USN Code 500AA & 504AA - RAF Lossiemouth 1981 by Alan M, on Flickr

A6E USN VA35 Ser 158796 Code 511AJ - RAF Lossiemouth 1970s by Alan M, on Flickr

A6E USN VA85 Ser 158537 Code 504AA - RAF Lossiemouth 1980s by Alan M, on Flickr

A6E USN VA34 SER151802 Code 506AB - RAF Upper Heyford 1976 by Alan M, on Flickr

A6E USN VA34 SER151802 Code 513AJ - RAF Lossiemouth mid 1970s by Alan M, on Flickr

[Thunder]

You’ve excelled yourself today . I only ever saw a single active A-6 and that was in 1996, about 2 weeks before they retired the type.

[Jabba]

Lossie got a decent amount of Intruder visits back in the day. Some really good shots of another aircraft type that is missed from our skies.

[Sparts99]

One of the best displays I've seen was an Intruder at Greenham Common in the 70s. The display was flat, not much in the vertical but very aggressive, very good energy management.

[Mustang531]

Thanks for sharing these, the Intruder seemed to be fairly regular visitors at one time to various USAF bases in the UK. A classic type that was around for many years.

[paddyboy]

Hi Alan

Like Sparts99, I only ever saw the one display, at GC, by an Intruder

Superb set

Thanks for posting

Paddyboy

[ewddie]

Hey that’s another brilliant set of shots of a type not often seen ashore in the UK on operations. Thanks again for all your work sharing this series.
The Nimitz visited the Forth Estuary in September 1975 if I remember right and your shot No5 of AJ513 had the same RAF roundal zap in the panthers eye tail motif when seen aboard…from a Lossie diversion we were told.

[Thunder]

I think you’ve posted up every type of USN carrier borne aircraft from the 70’s with the exception of the A-7. Do you have any photos of them to share?

[haveblue]

Hi Thunder. Not to be a spoiler but A7s coming this Friday if all goes to plan.

[haveblue]

Hi Ewddie. If I remember correctly that airframe, Ser 151802, had been U/S for many days at Lossie. Not sure if pic was taken on regular flight, air test, or departing sortie.

[BFM]

Great series and do you know if there has ever been any RA or A5s at Lossie.

[luxto]

Another great post - but #4 is at the Mildenhall show in May'77. The A-6 at the Upper Heyford show in '76 was AE 159576/501 of VA-176 off the USS America.

[Jabba]

Great series and do you know if there has ever been any RA or A5s at Lossie.

There was at least one Vigilante visited Lossie in the early seventies. The only picture I ever saw of it was a B/W photo taken by a young lad who was on base visit. The unfortunate thing was he also took a photo of a C.1A that was visiting at the same time and forgot to wind on the film so the 2 images were superimposed!!

[haveblue]

Hi Luxto. Thanks for your correction - should really have known with the hangars in the near background.

[haveblue]

Hi BFM. Jabba has probably answered your question but I have personally never seen an A5 or RA5 on the ground at Lossie. I do believe that I may have seen one overshooting fairly early one morning in the mid 70s when there was a carrier in the vicinity. It was a bit tail-on by the time I saw it so cannot be 100% sure.

[BFM]

Thanks for the reply