"John Randolph" wrote in message
news:BdPRd.84036$bu.35718@fed1read06...
Sadly, Cdr. Walter "Smokey" Stovall, Jim Flatley's co-pilot, passed away
from leukemia in Bethesda Naval Hospital in 1972.

An even stranger event was the landing aboard and immediate deck launch
from
USS Ranger of a U-2 in the mid 1960's. Anyone have the details on that?
It
was a secret operation and the majority of the crew were not allowed above
flight deck level during the op.

"W. D. Allen Sr." wrote in message
...
Does anyone know anything about the C-130 that made arrested landings
and
launches from a Navy aircraft carrier back in the 1960s?

WDA

The first test of a U-2 on a carrier were conducted in Aug (maybe it was
Oct) of 1963 on the Kitty Hawk off SoCal. The Ranger participated in test
for a couple of months in early '64 and the first operational mission of a
U-2 was flown from the Ranger in May '64 to look at the French Nuke test in
the pacific. In '69 a U-2R which had a greater range and payload underwent
sea trials on the America off the Va. Capes. This (these) U-2's had special
modified folding wings for carrier use. ( I know that there were five pilots
involved in these test but I don't know how many aircraft were used. I
believed there were 4, U-2R's modified for folding wings).

As far as keeping the crew below deck for these test, that just wasn't so.
You can't hide sh*t on a carrier. As usual during flight ops, all
non-essential personnel and lolly-gaggers were encouraged to stay below out
of the way. The crews on the Kitty Hawk and the Ranger knew what was going
on, and I'll be the crew of the America did too.

Red Rider