Skyrays over Miramar

[Arlo]

Three Fords (F4D Skyrays) from VF-74 fly over NAS Miramar on May 14, 1956. This was filmed for the NBC Show, Wide Wide World, and was seen on the episode dedicated to the armed forces. Note the two Whales and four Scooters flying ahead of the formation. - Photographer unknown. Naval Aviation Museum archives.

[Nefarious]

(Image removed from quote.)

Three Fords (F4D Skyrays) from VF-74 fly over NAS Miramar on May 14, 1956. This was filmed for the NBC Show, Wide Wide World, and was seen on the episode dedicated to the armed forces. Note the two Whales and four Scooters flying ahead of the formation. - Photographer unknown. Naval Aviation Museum archives.

You can see their shadows on the tarmac, along with F7U Cutlass fighters parked as well.

[Oldman731]

Thanks for that photo, Arlo!

I knew a guy who flew Navy carrier aircraft in the 1950s.  I asked him about the Skyray, because I’d built a Lindbergh model of it in my ute and it had stuck with me. 

“It was the first plane that the brakes wouldn’t hold you at full power.  That moose would drag you all the way down the deck, blow your tires, keep going.”

One of the Heinz 57 Variety planes the Navy had during the 1950s.  Good memory.

- oldman