On my ‘waiting to be built’ stack, I have a 1/48 ESCI Lockheed S-3 Viking, in the form of the US-3 Viking COD. I’ve done fairly extensive research, but can only find very limited info on it. Is there anyone out there who can point me in the direction of a good reference source? Better, since there must be a fair few readers of these sites who served onUSN carriers in the late 1970s and 1980s, does anyone have personal memories of these aircraft?
Thanks for your help,
Chris.
There is one good picture of a US-3A in The Cutting Edge by Heatly and three in Seventh Fleet Super Carriers by Holmes.
As background, BuNo 157998 was a S-3A Full Scale Development aircraft converted to the US-3A prototype that first flew in July 1976. It had a crew of two and space for seats in the back, five passengers and a load master. The bomb bay was modified for cargo carriage and access, and other electronic bays were also emptied and used for cargo. The ejection seats were either inoperative or replaced with standard seats.
The CNU-264/A External Baggage Container was also used for cargo. The pod was 16 feet, eight inches long with a seven feet four inch constant section that was 42 inches in diameter.
The most obvious external differences besides the cargo pods (external fuel tanks being substituted when more range was required) were the rounded wing tips, the extra slit window ahead of the standard cabin window, a blank where the MAD boom had been, deletion of the sonobuoy chutes and ASW antennas, and a extra antenna on the top of the fuselage and on the vertical fin.
998 eventually went into service as a COD in 1977 assigned to Kitty Hawk and appeared in several different paint schemes with different squadrons. Four other FSD aircraft, 157994 - 997, and another test aircraft 158868 joined it as US-3As, beginning in 1981. They reportedly retained their cockpit ejection seats. I’ve only seen pictures of them assigned to VRC-50 : 994 as 717RG, 995 as 716RG and 997 as 714RG. 996 was lost in January 1989 when it reported stalled on approach to Cubi Point in the Philippines and crashed in the water.
The US-3A was faster than the C-2 and had more range, particularly with aerial refueling. It’s main shortcoming as a COD was there was either no space for large items or a big enough door to use the cabin space. The main reason for dedicated CODs (the C-1 and the C-2) was to resupply the carriers with engines and nuclear weapons.
Thanks for that, Tailspinturtle. Am I the only one who finds the idea of delivering nuclear weapons to carriers by a COD and an arrested landing a little scary?
Where do you guys get all that great info? I am impressed, Tail. But as far as the tailhook landing goes, I haven’t seen a COD get a waveoff in the 32 years that I have been involved in naval aviation. I’m not saying that they don’t get waved off, just that I’ve never seen one. Their approach speed and stability seem to make waveoffs more infrequent. They also hit the flight deck more softly than any other fixed wing aircraft with exception maybe to the Hawkeye. I think that if you had the need to make a safe onboard delivery of a nuke, that the COD would be a better candidate than a hard landing F-18.
If a nuclear weapon isn’t armed and/or set for explosion, you can beat on it with a sledgehammer forever, and it ain’t gonna hurtcha…
I*'d rather have a nuclear weapon make an arrested landing in the back of a COD than have ME manke an arrested landing in the back of a COD. That ain’t no fun at ALL.
True fact! (as opposed to a false fact)