This was a pretty typical SIOP mission:
http://skyraider.org/skyassn/warstor/reid.htm
I'll bet some folks would like to see this kind of endurance on today's
flight deck...
Bob wrote:
I know of 12 hour flights but 24 seems a stretch. In order to stay
airborne that long your gas load would just about take up any chance
of
carrying a weapon heavier than a hand gernade. I'd mostly worry
about
oil in a hop that long. As I recall we had no oil quantity gauge and
when the pressure started to drop you had to be pretty close to a
suitable landing spot. Only heard of one "stay awake" pill, think it
was a bennie. Handy for liberty but really whacked you out after.
Got
to wonder about the 3 hour FJ-4B hops. Must have been refueled?
FJ-4Bs I saw all leaked so much fluid just sitting on the line, I'd
think it'd be out of everything by 3 hours. My F-8 might make a 3.0
hop but I guarantee it'd end with an flame out approach. Happiness
was
1.5 hour cycles. I had a 1.501 hour ass.