God, I hate the Media....

[muckmaw]

In today's New York Post, under the Classroom Extra section, there is a piece on visiting the Intrepid Air and Space Museum.

Now, I'm nitpicking here....but, this is a piece teachers may use to teach some military history to their students.

Some glaring errors?

What the hell is an F-GF Hellcat?
The A-12 Blackbird is the fastest plane in the world? I assume the A-12 is a variant of the SR-71. Isn't the "A" designation used for attack planes?

"The Intrepid is a real....Essex-class carrier. (It) is the U.S. Navy's Fourth Intrepid".

I know....nit picking, but this stuff annoys me.
We had 4 of them?

[Mini D]

Use the net bud.  FGF pulls up several hits.  Gotta think its real.

The A-12 was the original designation of the Sr-71... since it was intended to be an interceptor.  It never really worked out since launching missiles at those speeds proved to be quite the challenge.  I suppose they have one of the original versions.  Once again... do a search on Sr-71 or A-12.

Not too up on carriers... but I'd tend to think the enterprise that is afloat today is not the same as the one from WW2... wouldn't you?  Once again... do a search.

MiniD

[JimBear]

We had 4 of them?



1803: The ketch  Mastico captured  by the Frigates Enterprise and Constitution, taken into service and commissioned USS Intrepid. She was lost in 1804 in Tripoli


1874: An iron hull Brig was commisioned as the USS Intrepid. Removed from the navy list and sold in 1892


1904: USS Intrepid was launched as a training ship later used as a recieving ship. Decommissioned in 1921


1943: USS Intrepid (CV-11 Essex class) launched, decommisioned in 1974. Currently a museum

[funkedup]

A-12 (OXCART) was the first Blackbird.  It was designed for and operated by the CIA.  It was a single seat photo recon bird and had slightly better performance than the SR-71.  The A-12 is not as famous as the SR-71 because its existence was kept secret until about 1990.

The fighter variant of the A-12 was the YF-12 which was evaluated by the USAF but not selected for production and service.  YF-12s are pretty easy to spot because they have a big round nose with a radome and they are two seaters.

The SR-71 came after the A-12 and YF-12.  The USAF wanted in on the Mach 3 recon business and so the SR-71 was created.  They were two seaters with more varied equipment than the A-12 (photo plus ELINT) and had less range and slightly less performance.

[AWMac]

Did a Google search on AWMac...interesting.  AWMac is an Aerial War Machine accident....blah, blah, blah...strengths lie in it's abilities to disrupt turf in combat zones....blah, blah, blah....

AWMac

[muckmaw]

I used the net, Mini, thanks.

The only hit I found on Yahoo referring to an F-GF Hellcat is an ad for the intrepid where the text is the same as the article.

I called the Intrepid and the Aircraft they have is a reproduction of an F-6F-5 Hellcat. Simple typo, though the gentlemen, who seemed a bit confused explained that other aircraft companies were contracted to build the hellcat during WWII to meet demand, thereby possibly creating the F-GF designation. However, I volunteer at a museum dedicated to Grumman and Fairchaild-Republic. I was taught that the TBF, and F4F were subcontracted out to GM, primarily, so Grumman could concentrate on building the F-6F alone. I was not aware of any other contractors building the Hellcat.

The same ad advertises a local attraction for one's pleasure as the Observation Deck of the WTC. Time to update the page, I think.

The other 2 were questions, not statements. I know the A-12 existed, and it had some relation to the SR-71.

AS for the Carrier, perhaps the Intrepid we speak of was the last ship the Navy had by that name, having reused the name from much older ships.

A navy man should be able to answer this in a heartbeat.

[Stringer]

I hate inaccurate posts that complain about inaccurate articles.

[hawk220]

if you want to be REEEEAALLLLLY nit-picky.. you could argue that the SR-71 was originally designated the RS-71.. but it was mis-stated by LBJ as the SR-71 and they stayed with it.

[muckmaw]

I hate posts that add nothing to the discussion.

Meanwhile, I did a little further research. Unfortunaltely, the curator of the Cradle of Aviation is out to lunch.

But I did a quick search, and according to this site, Grumman was the sole manufacturer of the Hellcat, thereby negating the possibility of the aircraft having a second designation.

http://www.state.sc.us/patpt/f6f.htm

It's gotta be a typo, but would love to learn something new, so I could pass it along to the museum visitors. If someone comes up with somthing to the contrary, please post it.

Thanks,

[Ripsnort]

If you want to see a A-12 in person, come up to Seattle and I'll get you in the MOF for free...comes equipped with the Recon drone attached to the top of it too.

[muckmaw]

Originally posted by hawk220
if you want to be REEEEAALLLLLY nit-picky.. you could argue that the SR-71 was originally designated the RS-71.. but it was mis-stated by LBJ as the SR-71 and they stayed with it.

That is REEEEEALY Nitpicky...but I love stories like that.

[hawk220]

hehe

I read the book ' Wizards of Langley'. lots of little tidbits on CIA ops and stuff over the years..  

there is one account of the CIA fitting a cat with all sorts of implants for surveillence ops.. radio and mic inside the guts and an anntena in the tail in order to spy on the Ruskies in a DC park.. they let this poor monstrosity loose and it ambled across the street and before it could get any recording it was mercifully run over by a car.  They scrapped the project.

[Golfer]

Goodyear built F4U corsair variants and designated them FG-1D's and so on and so forth

[Dune]

Could it just be that they meant F6F but it came out FGF.  After all, they look somewhat similar.  More of a typo than a true mess-up.

[muckmaw]

Originally posted by Dune
Could it just be that they meant F6F but it came out FGF.  After all, they look somewhat similar.  More of a typo than a true mess-up.

Thats most likely the answer...but I'm so friggin bored, I need to do something!