EA-6B

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Smitty37

Passed Away Mar 29, 2018
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I just read about a crash involving an Ea-6B Prowler airplane. It was in active service. Think of this - I worked on the electronics for the original EA-6Bs in 1968/69 and they went into service in 1971. The last went into service in 1991. It has been upgraded many times but we're still talking about up to 42 year old airframes.

I never thought when I was working on that stuff that the airplane would still be a mainstay over 40 years later.
 
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The B-52 has been in service longer. With a few more upgrades, few more delays in replacement that air frame will last another few more decades. First flew April 1952. 61 years service already. Might make a century mark. The Air Force budget is so bad they are not replacing enough planes to keep flying. Unless major upgrades in funds come soon all the air frames in service will be well beyond safe design specs. Stress cracks are not a joke if you are either flying them or counting on them providing close ground support.

The experts are trying to make the drone fly all missions. Never will replace all planes with remote controlled planes. Just need real eyeballs on the mission too often.
 
I still see H-3 helicopters in the sky, moving VIPs around the eastern states and I flew them in 1962 as a Nugget! Talk about old a/c! In my day we did our navigation with a MK-6 plotting board. Yikes, it still scares me that we never got lost. Philip
 
jfoh said:
The B-52 has been in service longer. With a few more upgrades, few more delays in replacement that air frame will last another few more decades. First flew April 1952. 61 years service already. Might make a century mark. The Air Force budget is so bad they are not replacing enough planes to keep flying. Unless major upgrades in funds come soon all the air frames in service will be well beyond safe design specs. Stress cracks are not a joke if you are either flying them or counting on them providing close ground support.

The experts are trying to make the drone fly all missions. Never will replace all planes with remote controlled planes. Just need real eyeballs on the mission too often.
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I worked on B-52 stuff also D & E and G & H version computer additions/upgrades in the late 70s early 80s. Great Airplane
 
Iteresting history

The history of the B-52 development is interesting - development began in 1945/46 with the idea of replacing the B-36 which was just entering service itself....
 
My first job out of college was on the design of the C5A at Lockheed Marietta. I can't believe how long ago that was. I also worked on the F8, A7 and the original Boeing 747.
I'm old.
 
dbledsoe said:
My first job out of college was on the design of the C5A at Lockheed Marietta. I can't believe how long ago that was. I also worked on the F8, A7 and the original Boeing 747.
I'm old.
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Not that old - I installed IBM System 360 Mod 40 and Mod 30 Computers at Martin Marietta in about 1964 or 1965....had quite a time too - seems the salesforce had sold Martin an item called a "2 Channel Switch" the would allow the 30 and 40 to both use tape units to communicate with each other and the factory had canceled the switch because it wasn't released yet. I had to do some fast talking and find an alternate method to fix the issue until the switch could be released.

At any rate, my Martin hosts took me to show me the front end of the C5 which was on their floor at the time. It was huge.....

I know have C-5's overfly my house at 1200 feet on a pretty regular basis as there are a number of them that fly out of Dover Air Force Base (about 15 miles north of me) and we are in the landing path. They are loud and at 1200 feet we can almost count the rivets.

I also did work on the A-7 D/E in the late 1960's. I recall the F8U Crusader coming to the fleet while I was in the Navy in the late 1950s.
 
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Don't forget the DC3. 1930's and still flying in commercial service today. I flew those (as a passenger) into more armpits than I care to remember. Having the seat next to the prop when they wound up prior to take off was a thrill.

Ed
 
Two interesting things about my time at Lockheed Marietta in 1965 - we had a full-size plywood mock-up of a C5A fuselage, the largest airplane in the world at the time. Talk about a model airplane!
And Howard Hughes had a hanger on the field where he kept, under guard, his Lockheed Jetstar, the first corporate jet. He took delivery, went for a test ride, and then parked it in the hanger and never flew it again. May still be there for all I know.
 
parklandturner said:
Don't forget the DC3. 1930's and still flying in commercial service today. I flew those (as a passenger) into more armpits than I care to remember. Having the seat next to the prop when they wound up prior to take off was a thrill.

Ed
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That is the most amazing aircraft ever. They were in service a year and a half before I was born and I am 75 years old. They were the C-47 in WW 2 and most of those still flying would have been built between 1942 and 1945. There were some engine upgrades that many of them got after the war. But to think that they are still the best solution to some cargo flying problems speaks very well to the design - which ironically took probably less than 5% of the design time put into an aircraft engine today. My first flight was December 28, 1955 on a DC-3 from Scranton PA to Chicago IL on Allegany Airlines.
 
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Smitty37 said:
raar25 said:
We still make parts for the engines in the Prowler, so its not going anywhere anytime soon.
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I think it is gradually being replaced by the EA-18G which is a much newer air frame.
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Yeah... It shocking that prowler is still around given they retired the jet that its based on.

The Growler (the f18 based version) is getting rolled out and so the Prowler will see its final days at some point. I wonder how many of the 170 of them made are still flying now though. Scary thing is that if any of the original ones made are out there flying - they are older than me!!
 
Interesting to note that the Prowler crash story (at least the one I read) only listed three crew. The Prowler has four crew. I wonder if this was a check flight only needing a pilot, nav and one EWO? If it was a check flight, then perhaps something did not get properly fixed on this old airframe.
 
walshjp17 said:
Interesting to note that the Prowler crash story (at least the one I read) only listed three crew. The Prowler has four crew. I wonder if this was a check flight only needing a pilot, nav and one EWO? If it was a check flight, then perhaps something did notget properly fixed on this old airframe.
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I read the same thing but I also read where it was not uncommon for the plane to fly with only three - there were only three on board.
 
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