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NORTH AMERICAN AJ-1 AND AJ-2 SAVAGE The second nuclear capable carrier based Heavy Attack aircraft in VC squadrons was the North American AJ Savage, designed especially for that role. AJ-2 BuNo 130418 is at the National Museum of Naval Aviation, Pensacola Fl., and was still flyable in 1984 with Avco-Lycoming. Two excellent websites are http://aeroweb.brooklyn.cuny.edu/specs/northam/aj-1.htm and http://home.att.net/~jbaugher4/newa2.html Initially the VC squadrons received the AJ-1 Savage. Rear Admiral Howard S. (Shack) Moore USN(Ret.), VC-6, VC-7, notes some differences: "Major differences I remember: The 1's had 3 throttles on left hand, stick vice yoke. Don't know about 2's hydraulics, but in the 1's, two controls had five alternatives, and one had six (rudder?). Straight deck approach speed (props only) about 85 kts in the groove. Understand the 2's were about 20kts faster. My log shows 40 traps in three days (twenty in B/N seat). We sure maxed that CQ opportunity. If we could get thru compressor stall on the 2800's (?) at about 35k, we could get up to 40k easily, and from there we could wax the daylites out of the F84's from Langley. Too bad we had no guns or cameras!! Hersh Pahl got one up to 53k." Shack Moore - shackmo@juno.com +++++++++++ http://aerofiles.com/_noram.html provides more information and photos of the various modifications of the AJ Savage. Excerpts from this website: XAJ-1 - first flight 7/3/48 - 3 prototypes [121460, 121461, and 121462]. AJ-1 - first flight 5/10/49 - 43 built [122590/122601, 124157/124186, 124850/124864]; redesignated A-2A in 1962. AJ-2 - first flight 2/18/53 - Larger fin and fuel tanks, two Pratt & Whitney R-2800-48 and one Allison J33-A-10 - 55 built [130405/130421, 134035/134072], with most used as aerial tankers. Redesignated A-2B in 1962. North American AJ-2 converted to civil borate bomber [N101Z] (1971 Aerospace Historian). (click http://aerofiles.com/_noram.html to view photos). It is wearing markings applied by Avco Lycoming while used as an engine test-bed, registered [N68667]. Following its naval use it was used as a fire bomber in Oregon, registered [N101Z], before going to new owners. In 1984 it was flown to the Naval Air Museum at Pensacola and is now on display in USN markings (— Peter Munro 7/5/00). A British publication from 1965 says AJ Air Tankers of Van Nuys CA converted two as fire fighters after removing the J-33 in the tail, showing one in action with no big prop spinners and a firefighting scheme with a big #88 (— Doug Bastin7/10/00). AJ-2P 1952 - first flight 3/30/52 - Photo-recon with large camera nose, taller fin, zero-dihedral stabilizer - 25 built - [128043/128051, 129185/129195, 130422/130425, 134073/134075]. Credit to website http://aerofiles.com/_noram.html +++++++++++++ BITS AND PIECES - AJ Savage A surplus AJ Savage bomber was used to create a zero gravity condition early on in the NASA space program. John Songyin worked on the solar power system for about five years, into the early 1970s. "At that time we were" also "looking at the Mercury Rankine System," for use in long-duration space missions, "the Rankine being similar to a steam power plant, but instead of water you're using mercury as the working fluid. It goes through the same cycle of boiling and condensing and activating a turbine which generates electricity.... The whole cycle would be closed," and "the same mercury would be circulated." Songyin's own work was devoted to mastering the heat transfer aspects of the Rankine system. "We were looking into the problem of mercury condensation; we were worried about the effect of zero gravity on ... the condensation of the mercury. My responsibility was to ... come up with experiments that would simulate zero gravity, to give us an idea if whether there really was a problem with zero gravity. This involved experimentation in the lab, here, and also installing a condensation rig in the bottom bay of an AJ-2 bomber, which went through a zero-G maneuver, and, in those ten to fifteen seconds of zero gravity, to get high-speed photographs and to analyze the droplets to see if we could get better insight into the phenomena of mercury condensation and see if there would be a problem in long-term zero gravity ... conditions. "We were doing the basic spadework for a mission we thought would be coming.... Our aim there was not tied to any particular schedule leading to launch and takeoff." ---------------- AJ-2 SAVAGE STAMP The Marshall Islands issued an AJ-2 Savage 33 cent stamp in 1999. ---------------- THE F8U-1 CRUSADER SPEED RECORD On 6 June 1957, two Crusaders took off from the USS BON HOMME RICHARD in the Pacific, with Captain Robert G. Dose and Lieutenant Commander Paul Miller at the controls. Three hours and 28 minutes later, after a mid-air refueling by an AJ-2 Savage tanker near Dallas, Texas, the two aircraft set down on the deck of the USS SARATOGA off the coast of Florida. The two aircraft set an unofficial speed record and performed the first carrier-to-carrier transcontinental flight in history. |
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