Originally Posted by
Hydro Junkie
I heard that from a Tomcat pilot during work ups for my first cruise. He landed and, when he got out of his plane, was complaining about how he had to go to stage 1 to catch one of the Prowlers. His RIO followed that up with a statement about how he was tracking the Prowler and it was slowly pulling away when they were at full throttle. The Tomcat they were in was the -A, so who knows
I dont dispute the statement but if that isnt knowledge in the Prowler community.
Here is the Math from a friend who has quite a bit of Prowler history at his touch.Wow,
I haven't heard that one. Seems goofy. TF30-P-100 thrust (dry) = 14560 LBfJ52-P-408 thrust = 11200 LBfSo the only way a Prowler goes faster is if it has less drag. Assuming roughly equivalent weights for shipboard ops, and normal stores configurations, I'm having a hard time believing it. And of course, if we exceeded the .86 IMN limit on the pod rats, the Prowler would explode in a huge ball of fire. More importantly, if it were true wouldn't we have heard all the early Prowler guys brag about it?
We did a reconnoiter of the Sacotra anchorage off the North Coast of Africa. A traditional anchorage spot for the Soviet Fleet when in the Med.
We were standard Prowler load 3podsx2drops the A+ Tomcats had 2x2x2 FAMO as well as a Tomcat with TARPS pod which is the recce pod for taking pictures in several spectrum's.
We did two flybys and not any targeting radars came up so we left. I was flight lead until the return to the Saratoga. I transferred lead to the Tomcats and they started climbing and accelerating and I had to ask for a few % power to keep up, these were the big motors though.
Sparky