Calling all USS Enterprise CVN-65 fans

[gtbred]

try this. http://www.modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?? look at the forum section ships U.S.S Enterprise and you will find that the guy building a early version like you. Good Luck on your build.

[baltimoreredskin]

Okay gtbred, I have been looking over it for a little while and it is helping me to understand how things go together on the superstructure. Thank you for linking me there.

Here is my next question. During 1969, she had the billboard radars (SPS-32/33). Those are the obvious ones. She also had two mast mounted ones (not mainmast, but smaller to the rear of the island). Please correct me if I am wrong, but I think they were an SPN-6 on the port side of the beehive and an SPS-12 on the starboard side, right? There is one profile drawing of an SPS-12 in Freidman's radar book. So if anyone knows how tall it is I can scale it out. They were also mounted on a large number of US and British ships, so I have been able to find a few good pictures of them as well. Any more nice closeups would certainly be appreciated though.

But as for the SPN-6 I have nothing, not even any good pictures. Can anyone help? I know they were mounted on most US carriers starting with Forrestal (CVA-59) through Enterprise (CVAN-65) so I am doing a lot of googling right now in the hopes of finding something, but have been unsuccessful so far. Does anyone have anything at all that they think might help me to build one?

[gtbred]

yes, that SPN-6 photo is hard to find. i build a 1/350 64' version from scratch and it's hard to find that photo of that radar. someone should have a answer for you. Oh yeah Ray Bean! He put out a dvd on BigE early til late. good luck.

[sierra hotel]

yes, that SPN-6 photo is hard to find. i build a 1/350 64' version from scratch and it's hard to find that photo of that radar. someone should have a answer for you. Oh yeah Ray Bean! He put out a dvd on BigE early til late. good luck.

YES, THE ENTERPRISE DVD HAS BEEN UPGRADED substantially with new images including pics of that radar and others..... available Sept. 2010
stillmo@shaw.ca

[A.M.Jorge]

Hi guys.

I'm a USS Enterprise fan. I want to build Tamiya's 1/350 kit with some extras, this time.

Here are some pics from 1982:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maleny_ste ... 187014862/

And the Cruisebook 1982/1983:
http://navysite.de/cruisebooks/cvn65-82/index.html

Greetings.

[baltimoreredskin]

Thank you sir:http://navysite.de/cruisebooks/cvn65-63/038.htm!

[baltimoreredskin]

Gentlemen, I have just found the best reference available for the late 60's fit of Enterprise and it is due in large part to A.M. Jorge. I didn't know about cruise books until I went to his link and then decided to try to find one on eBay. I found the 66-67 cruise book for about $60 and I tell you it has some of the most amazing pictures of the period you have ever seen. Along with the pictures are some really nice artwork, as well. I'll post some scans tonight.

[baltimoreredskin]

[baltimoreredskin]

One of the JES.

[baltimoreredskin]

I scanned the entire book and uploaded it here: http://picasaweb.google.com/baltimorere ... directlink. Have a look when you get the chance.

[Cliffy B]

Thanks for the scans man!!! If http://www.navysite.de doesn't have that book yet you should send them the scans as well. They have a huge collection of scanned cruise books.

[baltimoreredskin]

Hi Cliffy,

I have already asked Thoralf if he wants a copy for his site and he has indicated that he does. As soon as I have finished scanning the last 60 pages I will send them to him.

The picasa album only has the first 250 or so images. I subscribed to get more storage on the site and am waiting for the limit to increase so I can upload the rest. That should be today or tomorrow. I will let you guys know when the album is finished and the last pages are available.

[baltimoreredskin]

The album is complete and uploaded to http://picasaweb.google.com/baltimorere ... directlink.

[RandyM]

Not really specific to Enterprise, but I've been wondering... I assume there is a protocol for moving aircraft from hangar to flight decks. Do the squadrons have their own "territories" in the hangar, do all a/c go "in" through one (or more) specific elevators and out others; is there a general "motion" of groups of aircraft fore-to-aft (or vice versa), or do they just get moved around as needed in a sort of haphazard monster parking garage?

And while we're sort of on the subject... I have found good references on CVW-1 in terms of squadrons and aircraft types, but I haven't found much in terms of numbers of each aircraft for a typical deployment. *Is* there such a thing as "standard composition" for the airwing, or does it vary significantly from trip to trip? Could someone please provide me with "average" numbers of each type of a/c (and if you're really feeling generous, break the numbers down by squadron)?

Many thanks,
Randy

[pocketpencil]

It would make sense to group aircraft by squadron as they all probably have their own maintenance personnel. So in the interest of the least gear movement they should put them together.

They are probably moved below decks in the order they land/take off in...so it is probably somewhat chaotic. Different evolutions take different amounts of time so it probably gets all mixed up on deck. I.E loading weapons takes different amounts of time than loading say countermeasures or fuel.

There may be some master schedule but im sure its pretty fluid.

[baltimoreredskin]

A nice picture of the removal of the beehive from the history section of the 1989 cruise book.

[gtbred]

Thank You for the photo.

[Mark McKinnis]

Not really specific to Enterprise, but I've been wondering... I assume there is a protocol for moving aircraft from hangar to flight decks. Do the squadrons have their own "territories" in the hangar, do all a/c go "in" through one (or more) specific elevators and out others; is there a general "motion" of groups of aircraft fore-to-aft (or vice versa), or do they just get moved around as needed in a sort of haphazard monster parking garage?

And while we're sort of on the subject... I have found good references on CVW-1 in terms of squadrons and aircraft types, but I haven't found much in terms of numbers of each aircraft for a typical deployment. *Is* there such a thing as "standard composition" for the airwing, or does it vary significantly from trip to trip? Could someone please provide me with "average" numbers of each type of a/c (and if you're really feeling generous, break the numbers down by squadron)?

Many thanks,
Randy

From the late 60's until the mid 90's, a typical airwing would have:
VF Sqdn F-4/F-14 12 Aircraft Side number 100-1xx
VF Sqdn F-4/F-14 12 Aircraft Side number 200-2xx
VA/VFA A-7/FA-18 12 Aircraft Side number 300-3xx
VA/VFA A-7/FA-18 12 Aircraft Side number 400-4xx
VA A-6/KA-6 12-15 Aircraft( 12 A-6E/3 KA-6D) Side number 500-5xx
VS S-3 70's & 80's 10 Aircraft; 90's 6 Aircraft Side number 700-7xx
VAQ EA-6B 4 Aircraft ( early 90's a few airwings had 5) Side number 620-62x
VAW E-2 4 Aircraft ( early 90's a few airwings had 5) Side number 600-60x
HS SH-3/SH-60 6-8 Helo's Side number 610-61x
VAQ EA-3/ES-3 1 or 2 aircraft side numbers varied.

The number of aircraft might vary a little depending on wether there was a mishap or a squadron just did not get a full set of planes. Towards the late 80's and early 90's, the navy did not have enough planes to deploy the airwing I described above. Towards the late 90's, VF & VFA squadrons starting deploying with 10 aircraft because of aircraft shortages.

A new airwing would have,
VFA FA-18 10 Aircraft Side number 100-1xx
VFA FA-18 10 Aircraft Side number 200-2xx
VFA FA-18 10 Aircraft Side number 300-3xx
VFA FA-18 10 Aircraft Side number 400-4xx
VAQ EFA-18G 6 Aircraft Side number 500-5xx
VAW E-2C 4 Aircraft(future airwings will have 5 E-2D) Side number 600-60x
HSC MH-60S 6-8 Aircraft Side number 610-61x
HSM MH-60R 6-8 Aircraft Side number ???

When I cruised on Constellation and Nimitz with CVW-9 in 1990-1991, the E-2's occupied the front of the hanger and were generally parked forward of elevator #1( L-1) just inside the door. Normally there is only one in the hanger but that would depend on whether there was maintenance to be done. Hornets, Prowlers and Intruders occupied the area between L-1 and L-3 and were parked in no particular order. The Tomcat's occupied the aft area between L-3 and L-4. The various maintanence shops for the squadrons were scattered all over the ship on, or a deck or two above the hanger deck, so it was just a matter of luck, if your jet was parked outside you shop on the hanger deck! The enlisted maintainers stayed in great shape running parts all over the ship!!

You normally would not be moving aircraft from the deck to the hanger during flight ops. You can physically do it, but there is a lot going on during a launch and recovery so why make it harder than it needs to be.

There are generally one of two types of operations going on for launching and recovering aircraft.

Cyclic Ops is when you launch all of the aircraft scheduled to take off, and then recover any aircraft that are airborne. You do this every 45 minute to an hour and 15 minutes, for a current airwing. In my day we did it every hour and a half. This is the normal way to run flight ops. The airplan is the document that is published every day and defines the times that each event will launch and recover. It is enforced by the Air Boss fairly rigidly. If the aircraft in an event, say a launch at 10am, are all ready to go at 9:55 am, the boss will not signal a green deck until 10am! It kind of needs to be done that way to keep the carrier, the ships in the battle group, and the airwing on the same sheet of paper.

Flex deck is when you launch and recover aircraft at the same time. This is pretty hard to sustain. You have to keep most of the airwing flying because there is not a lot of room to park aircraft when you run this kind of operation. The handler basically juggles airplanes unitl it is time to wrap up flight ops and then landed aircraft are pulled/taxied forward. You normally have aircraft parked on catapult # 2 ( the 2 row), so you can only launch using one catapult. You would normally run this kind of deck for CQ ( carrier quals) or a special tactical situations. We did it in my day for outer air battle ops.

I hope that helps. What I described was/is typical but there can be variations and the Midway/Forrestal Class Carriers did it a little different because of the different elevator layout.

I hope that helps,

Mark

[RandyM]

Mark:

Truly excellent information... thanks for taking the time to write it all down!

Randy

[sierra hotel]

Not really specific to Enterprise, but I've been wondering... I assume there is a protocol for moving aircraft from hangar to flight decks. Do the squadrons have their own "territories" in the hangar, do all a/c go "in" through one (or more) specific elevators and out others; is there a general "motion" of groups of aircraft fore-to-aft (or vice versa), or do they just get moved around as needed in a sort of haphazard monster parking garage?

And while we're sort of on the subject... I have found good references on CVW-1 in terms of squadrons and aircraft types, but I haven't found much in terms of numbers of each aircraft for a typical deployment. *Is* there such a thing as "standard composition" for the airwing, or does it vary significantly from trip to trip? Could someone please provide me with "average" numbers of each type of a/c (and if you're really feeling generous, break the numbers down by squadron)?

Many thanks,
Randy

From the late 60's until the mid 90's, a typical airwing would have:
VF Sqdn F-4/F-14 12 Aircraft Side number 100-1xx
VF Sqdn F-4/F-14 12 Aircraft Side number 200-2xx
VA/VFA A-7/FA-18 12 Aircraft Side number 300-3xx
VA/VFA A-7/FA-18 12 Aircraft Side number 400-4xx
VA A-6/KA-6 12-15 Aircraft( 12 A-6E/3 KA-6D) Side number 500-5xx
VS S-3 70's & 80's 10 Aircraft; 90's 6 Aircraft Side number 700-7xx
VAQ EA-6B 4 Aircraft ( early 90's a few airwings had 5) Side number 620-62x
VAW E-2 4 Aircraft ( early 90's a few airwings had 5) Side number 600-60x
HS SH-3/SH-60 6-8 Helo's Side number 610-61x
VAQ EA-3/ES-3 1 or 2 aircraft side numbers varied.

The number of aircraft might vary a little depending on wether there was a mishap or a squadron just did not get a full set of planes. Towards the late 80's and early 90's, the navy did not have enough planes to deploy the airwing I described above. Towards the late 90's, VF & VFA squadrons starting deploying with 10 aircraft because of aircraft shortages.

A new airwing would have,
VFA FA-18 10 Aircraft Side number 100-1xx
VFA FA-18 10 Aircraft Side number 200-2xx
VFA FA-18 10 Aircraft Side number 300-3xx
VFA FA-18 10 Aircraft Side number 400-4xx
VAQ EFA-18G 6 Aircraft Side number 500-5xx
VAW E-2C 4 Aircraft(future airwings will have 5 E-2D) Side number 600-60x
HSC MH-60S 6-8 Aircraft Side number 610-61x
HSM MH-60R 6-8 Aircraft Side number ???

When I cruised on Constellation and Nimitz with CVW-9 in 1990-1991, the E-2's occupied the front of the hanger and were generally parked forward of elevator #1( L-1) just inside the door. Normally there is only one in the hanger but that would depend on whether there was maintenance to be done. Hornets, Prowlers and Intruders occupied the area between L-1 and L-3 and were parked in no particular order. The Tomcat's occupied the aft area between L-3 and L-4. The various maintanence shops for the squadrons were scattered all over the ship on, or a deck or two above the hanger deck, so it was just a matter of luck, if your jet was parked outside you shop on the hanger deck! The enlisted maintainers stayed in great shape running parts all over the ship!!

You normally would not be moving aircraft from the deck to the hanger during flight ops. You can physically do it, but there is a lot going on during a launch and recovery so why make it harder than it needs to be.

There are generally one of two types of operations going on for launching and recovering aircraft.

Cyclic Ops is when you launch all of the aircraft scheduled to take off, and then recover any aircraft that are airborne. You do this every 45 minute to an hour and 15 minutes, for a current airwing. In my day we did it every hour and a half. This is the normal way to run flight ops. The airplan is the document that is published every day and defines the times that each event will launch and recover. It is enforced by the Air Boss fairly rigidly. If the aircraft in an event, say a launch at 10am, are all ready to go at 9:55 am, the boss will not signal a green deck until 10am! It kind of needs to be done that way to keep the carrier, the ships in the battle group, and the airwing on the same sheet of paper.

Flex deck is when you launch and recover aircraft at the same time. This is pretty hard to sustain. You have to keep most of the airwing flying because there is not a lot of room to park aircraft when you run this kind of operation. The handler basically juggles airplanes unitl it is time to wrap up flight ops and then landed aircraft are pulled/taxied forward. You normally have aircraft parked on catapult # 2 ( the 2 row), so you can only launch using one catapult. You would normally run this kind of deck for CQ ( carrier quals) or a special tactical situations. We did it in my day for outer air battle ops.

I hope that helps. What I described was/is typical but there can be variations and the Midway/Forrestal Class Carriers did it a little different because of the different elevator layout.

I hope that helps,

Mark

visit the site wwww.gonavy.com . This is the GO TO site for carrier and carrier air wing deployments....its absolute heaven for nav air enthusiasts for ALL carrier deployments and Air wing breakdowns RDB