304

UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION 1910-1995

1973-Contin ued

25 May The first production RH-53D Sea Stallion,

specially configured for the airborne mine counter-

measures mission, arrived at the Naval Air Test Center,

Patuxent River, Md., for weapons systems trials. Navy

preliminary evaluation and the initial phase of the

Board of Inspection and Survey trials had begun at

Sikorsky Aircraft Division on 15 May.

25 May Skylab II, carrying a three-man, all-Navy crew

of Captain Charles Conrad, Jr., Commander Joseph P.

Kerwin, MC, and Commander Paul 1. Weitz, ren-

dezvoused with the earth-orbiting Sky lab I workshop.

Among the crew's first tasks was repairing the Skylab I

meteoroid shield and solar array system which had

been damaged during launch. The crew boarded the

workshop, made repairs, conducted medical experi-

ments and studied solar astronomy and earth resources

for 28 days before returning to earth on 22 June.

7 June The Deputy Secretary of Defense directed the

Navy to produce preliminary plans for a $250-million

prototype development plan for a jet fighter aircraft

costing less than the F-14 Tomcat missile-armed fighter.

13 June The National Aeronautics Association pre-

sented the Robert 1. Collier Trophy for 1972 jointly to

the Navy's Task Force 77 and to the Seventh and

Eighth Air Forces for their "demonstrated expert and

precisely integrated use of advance aerospace technol-

ogy" in Operation Linebacker II, the II-day air cam-

paign in December 1972 against North Vietnam that

"led to the return of the U.S. prisoners of war."

22 June The all-Navy crew of Skylab II astronauts

was recovered after their 28-day mission in space by

HC-1 and flown aboard Ticonderoga.

30 June FAW-1 and -2 were redesignated Patrol Wings

1 and 2. This was the end of the use of the FAW (Fleet

Air Wing) designation and beginning of the Patrol Wing

designation which had been used prior to World War II.

27 July Operation Endsweep was closed officially

and Task Force 78 was disbanded. During the six

months of its existence, the airborne element had

made 3,554 sweeping runs totaling 1,134.7 sweeping

hours in 623 sorties. The surface elements had made

208 sweeping runs of 308.8 hours. The aviation mate-

rial casualties were three helicopters lost in opera-

tional accidents. Mine logistics carrier station opera-

tions in the Gulf of Tonkin were conducted by

Enterprise, Oriskany, Ranger, and Coral Sea at various

periods and their respective aircraft flew support sor-

ties for Operation Endsweep.

28 July Skylab III commanded by Captain Alan 1.

Bean, USN, in company with civilian doctor Owen K.

Garriott and Major John R. Lousma, USMC, was

launched into space.

31 July HSL-33, the Navy's first squadron dedicated

solely to providing LAMPS detachments for LAMPS-

configured ships of the Pacific Fleet, was established

at NAS Imperial Beach, California.

15 August After intensive bombing for more than six

months, the U.S. ended its combat involvement in

Cambodia, as voted by Congress on 30 June. Aircraft

from carriers Ranger and Oriskany had conducted com-

bat sorties in Cambodia during February. After March

1973, carriers on Yankee Station conducted carrier air

patrols; electronic intelligence patrols; surface, subsur-

face, and surveillance coordinator patrols; and training,

tanker, communications relay and reconnaissance sorties.

16 August The F-14's quick-reaction dogfight capa-

bility was demonstrated at the Pacific Missile Range,

Point Mugu, Calif. when, from a distance of less than a

mile, the aircraft shot down a maneuvering QT-33 tar-

get drone with a Sparrow III missile.

29 August HM-12 received the first RH-53D Sea

Stallion helicopters. The RH-53Ds were configured

especially for minesweeping operations.

6 September A BQM-34E Firebee II target drone,

equipped with a graphite-epoxy composite wing, was

test flown successfully at the Point Mugu Sea Test

Range, Calif., reaching a speed of Mach 1.6 at 40,000

feet and a maximum acceleration of six Gs. The

graphite-epoxy composite would save 40 percent of the

weight of metal counterparts in various aeronautical

applications. The test wing was designed and fabricated

by the Naval Air Development Center, Warminster, Pa.

7 September The Navy announced that the Blue

Angels flight demonstration team planned to switch to

the slower, smaller and less expensive A-4F Skyhawks

rather than continue to use the F-4J Phantoms they

had been flying since 1969.

25 September The three astronauts of Skylab III

made a successful splashdown in the Pacific, ending a

record 59-day, 24-million-mile flight. They were recov-

ered by HC-1 and flown aboard New Orleans. During

Skylab III, Captain Alan 1. Bean, USN, Commander of

Skylab III, set a new record for the most time in space,

eclipsing Navy Captain Charles Conrad's record of 49

days, three hours, and 37 minutes.