My Other Hobby Before Carpet Cleaning

[rwcarpet]

This is what I used to work on, loading muntions and guns as a crew chief, while in the AF Res. from 71 till 77. I also got to fly in one a few times.

What a thrill that was!!!!!

Oh, it's an A-37B Cessna Attack Fighter....widely used by the South Vietnamese Air Force. It was said that there never was one shot down in VN. It specialized in low level/high speed passes on enemy positions.

8 munitions points on the wings and a GAU-2 six barrel gattling gun in the nose. Could fire 4000/6000 Rounds Per Minute! About 450 MPH.

Good training for eventual TM maintenance.

 

[Desk Jockey]

I didn't even know Cessna made a fighter plane. :shock:

 

[rwcarpet]

I didn't even know Cessna made a fighter plane. :shock:

Yep......it's beginings were a training plane intended for training AF pilots, it envolved into a weapons platform, and was widely used by the AFReserves. I took a few flights in the right seat of this plane for weekend deployments to Grissom AB, where the planes would stage for loading, and head up into Michigan to a bombing and armarment range. Then we would fly back to our base on Sunday. You had to take some jump training because these aircraft were outfitted with ejection seats, and I remember the pilot telling me that if we had to bail out, he would only tell me once....after that, he'd be gone.

After we were at altitude, in formation of 4 planes, the pilot would hand the stick over to me and say "Give it a try". Of course, he would keep his hand near the stick, just in case. At 450 MPH, you flew the plane with just the trim button. You had to keep the plane next to you and in front of you in sight at all times while in formation. What a thrill! Then he would take it back, and do a few barrel rolls, trying to get you sick. I took pics from the cockpit, but I can't find them right now.

In fact, Richard, they were probably built right in your State. I think Kansas had a Cessna assembly plant.

Scot Noble would know more about this plane....he worked for Cessna at one time.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Yep Wichita has a big Cessna plant, I just never knew they built planes for the military.

 

[Ron Werner]

weren't those called a T3 or something like that?
Canadian AF used them for trainers as well. Would see them flying over the naval base when they were training radar techs.

 

[rwcarpet]

weren't those called a T3 or something like that?
Canadian AF used them for trainers as well. Would see them flying over the naval base when they were training radar techs.

Yep.....I believe Canada used a different version of them.

Cheap overall purchase price and easy to maintain. Less than a million a piece back then. You could buy every A-37 ever made for the cost of one fighter jet today!

 

[roro]

Yep Wichita has a big Cessna plant, I just never knew they built planes for the military.

http://www.nzwarbirds.org.nz/doga.html -
http://www.nzwarbirds.org.nz/a37b.html

interesting history - like you I wasn't aware of them as military aircraft
roro

 

[rwcarpet]

This is what I used to work on, loading muntions and guns as a crew chief, while in the AF Res. from 71 till 77. I also got to fly in one a few times.

What a thrill that was!!!!!

Oh, it's an A-37B Cessna Attack Fighter....widely used by the South Vietnamese Air Force. It was said that there never was one shot down in VN. It specialized in low level/high speed passes on enemy positions.

8 munitions points on the wings and a GAU-2 six barrel gattling gun in the nose. Could fire 4000/6000 Rounds Per Minute! About 450 MPH.

Good training for eventual TM maintenance.

By the way....that gun was a 7.62 mm. Arnold "The Terminator" carried one around in a few of his movies.

We had one crash while on a practice mission in the mountains of Western Pennsylvania. The pilots would swoop down into the valleys there because it was simular to mountainous Viet Nam. One didn't pull up in time and hit the side of a hill. They brought that plane back to Youngstown on a flatbed trailer, and the biggest pieces left were the engines. They had everything laid out in a guarded hanger....even the pilots helmets. Of course, they bought the farm instantly.