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Aircraft Wallpapers > Antique > Northrop RA-5C Vigilante

Northrop RA-5C Vigilante

Wallpaper Description:

U.S. Navy RA-5C Vigilante is hooked up on the port bow catapult before launch on a photo recon mission.The Vigilante was in service 1960 to late 1970.Robert Lawson photo collection.

Wallpaper Comments (2)

Posted by Vintage_Flieger on 04/12/13 at 02:23 AM

er, I'm sure that ol' Jack Northrop would be the first to point out that this aircraft was manufactured by North American Aviation. FWIW, it was designed as a fast-attack nuclear bomber with a unique air-pressurized ejection system that propelled the bomb horizontally out the back at a speed that exactly matched that of the aircraft ... only in the opposite direction! NAA proved time-after-time that this launch sequence caused the bomb to literally pause mid-aire and, then, plunge vertically down to the target! This delivery method was infinitely preferable to the conventional bomb-toss technique that subjected air-frames to excessive G-forces! It also allowed the pilot and crew to more-rapidly 'egress the blast area!' Such was the thinking in the days before ICBM's and MIRV's ... but I digress!