UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION 1910-1995

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20 August Ainsworth (FF 1090) became the first

ship to have installed a production version of the

Harpoon Command and Launch Missile System.

21 August A Navy task force headed by Midway

made a show of force off the coast of Korea in

response to an unprovoked attack on two U.S. Army

officers who were killed by North Korean guards on

18 August. Midway's response was in support of a U.S.

demonstration of military concern vis-a-vis North

Korea.

29 August The Navy's last S-2 Tracker aircraft, oper-

ating with VS-37, was withdrawn from active service.

Many of the pilots who flew the Tracker credit it with

being the Navy's most versatile airplane of its era. The

S-2 entered service with VS-26 in February 1954 and

provided the Navy with 22 years of active service.

15 September Test flights began on the east coast

air combat maneuvering range (ACMR) under con-

struction off the coast of Cape Hatteras, N.C. This fol-

low-on system to the Navy ACMR at Yuma, Ariz.,

would provide air combat training for East Coast

squadrons.

17 September The new space shuttle program was

unveiled by NASA. Of the 28 astronauts in the space

program, 12 had either a Navy or Marine Corps avia-

tion background.

29 September The Navy's Ship-Deployable,

Tactical, Airborne Remotely-Piloted Vehicle (RPV)

(STAR) achieved the first automatically closed-loop

recovery of an RPV into a net-encapsulated arresting

assembly. The test occurred at the National Parachute

Test Range, El Centro, Calif.

30 September Oriskany, the last Essex-class attack

carrier, was decommissioned at San Francisco, Calif.,

and placed in the mothball fleet. Oriskany saw exten-

sive action in the Korean and Vietnam conflicts.

4 October The first overseas operational commit-

ment on a carrier for the AV-8A aircraft began when

VMA-231, equipped with the AV-8A Harrier, embarked

on Franklin D. Roosevelt and departed for the

Mediterranean Sea for a Sixth Fleet deployment.

5 November The latest model of the Sea Cobra heli-

copter, the AH -1 T, was turned over to the Marine

Corps from Bell Helicopter Textron for further testing.

The new version offered an improved payload of 4,392

pounds over the previous payload of 2,739 pounds.

13 November The first at-sea firing tests of the SM-2

(extended range) guided missile from Wainwright (CG

28) were completed, using a modified Terrier fire con-

trol system to control the missile flight. Wainwright's

test capped a highly successful five-year program with

observers reporting excellent accuracy.