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UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION 1910-1995

1976-Contin ued

1 December Naval Air Facility, China Lake, Calif.,

was disestablished after more than 30 years as a sepa-

rate command, and became part of the Naval

Weapons Center.

1 December NAAS Saufley Field, Fla., was dises-

tablished. The closing of the basic tactical and com-

bat flying base brought to an end one of the early

fields used in association with the training of Naval

Aviators at NAS Pensacola, Fla. The primary training

installation was opened for flight purposes in 1940

and named after Richard C. Saufley, Naval Aviator

#14, who was killed while on a record endurance

flight on 9 June 1916 after being in the air 8 hours

and 51 minutes. Saufley Field was used initially by

aviation students practicing landings and takeoffs

away from the normal flight pattern at NAS

Pensacola. Established as NAAS Saufley Field in 1943,

aviation students in basic training received instruc-

tional courses in ground training, formation flying,

and cross-country flying employing the SNJ Texan

and T-28 aircraft.

1977

6 January The first F404 development engine was

tested successfully at the General Electric plant in Lynn,

Mass., approximately a month ahead of schedule.

13 January NAS Jacksonville, Fla., announced that

two AV-8A Harrier aircraft had made a bow on

approach and landing aboard Franklin D. Roosevelt.

This may have been the first time in Naval Aviation

history that a fixed-wing aircraft made a bow-on,

downwind landing aboard a carrier at sea. This land-

ing, with jets facing aft, demonstrated that V/STOL air-

craft could be landed aboard a carrier without many of

the conditions necessary for fixed-wing, non-V/STOL

aircraft.

14 January For the first time, an all-nuclear-pow-

ered task group was operating in both deployed fleets.

The Seventh Fleet task group was composed of

Enterprise and her nuclear-powered escort ships, while

the Sixth Fleet task group had Nimitz with her nucle-

arpowered escort ships.

31 January The TA-7C, a two-seat Corsair II con-

verted from an earlier model and designated a combat

crew and instrument trainer, was delivered to the Navy

for use at NAS Cecil Field, Fla., and NAS Lemoore,

Calif. Replacement pilots for the light attack squadrons

flying A-7s would train in the TA-7Cs.

27 February Enterprise and her escort ships were

directed to operate off the east African coast in

response to public derogatory remarks against the U.S.

by the President of Uganda and his order that all

Americans in Uganda meet with him.

1 March The Naval Air Rework Facility and Naval

Air Station at Lakehurst, N.J., were disestablished and

the mission of the Naval Air Engineering Center was

modified to absorb their functions.

1 March The Navy's new F/A-18 fighter/attack air-

craft was assigned the name Hornet, a name often

used for Navy ships-of-the-line. The plane, scheduled

for fleet delivery in the early 1980s, would replace the

F-4 Phantom II and the A-7 Corsair II.

24 March Initial service acceptance trials for the CH-

53E Super Stallion were completed at NATC. The

growth version of the CH-53E had three turbine

engines instead of two. The Super Stallion carried mis-

sion loads of 16 tons compared to nine tons for the

CH-53D. It had 7 rotor blades instead of 6 and could

accommodate 56 troops.

25 March NAVAIR announced that its Advanced

Concepts Division and the Naval Air Development

Center, Warminster, Pa., were testing a lighter-than-air

craft known as Aerocrane. This project represented the

first government-sponsored study of lighter-than-air

flight in several years.

5 April The Navy took delivery of the new T-44A

trainer at NAS Corpus Christi, Tex. The Beech aircraft

signaled a significant modernization trend in the

Navy's flight program. The T-44A would eventually

replace the TS-2A Tracker, flown by training

squadrons since the early 1960s.

8 April The Navy's first E-2C ARPS aircraft joined the

fleet at NAS Norfolk, Va., assigned to VAW-I21. The

ARPS aircraft was designed to improve the radar capa-

bility in its mission of airborne early warning. VAW-l21

was scheduled to receive three additional ARPS aircraft

that year, making it the first ARPS squadron.

12 April An operational requirement was established

for night vision capability in U.S. Marine Corps trans-

port helicopters.

21 April Franklin D. Roosevelt, the first carrier to

launch a jet plane, 21 July 1946, returned to the U.S.

from her last overseas deployment prior to her decom-

missioning on 1 October 1977.