Whale A-3 Skywarrior Illustrated

It was the largest airplane to be launched from a carrier on a regular basis until the Vigilante came along. That size caused the operators to name it “The Whale” and no one in the fleet ever called it “Skywarrior”. Though fewer than 300 were built, and the mission for which it was designed disappeared, its adaptable airframe created several new missions and it served the fleet for 30 years. It was an easy airplane to fly, but not so easy to bring aboard, as evidenced by a pair of stories that appear herein. I was made aware of that during a visit to USS Kitty Hawk in December, 1968. I was observing the air group work up for their forthcoming combat cruise, and was given access to the deck to observe the launch cycles, but when I asked to visit the LSO platform for recoveries, the LSO denied the request, saying: “I’ll be waving the Whales and Vigis, and I’ll likely be in the basket as much as I’m on the platform!” (The deck edge net or basket was his escape from those big airplanes making less than stellar approaches). "Whale..A-3 Skywarrior Illustrated" contains 94 pages of color photos, illustrations, and history of this iconic Naval Aviation bomber. Read more