Tag Archives: CVA-59
KC-130F Hercules landing and take-off from USS Forrestal
In 1963, a USMC KC-130F loaned to the US Navy for carrier on-board delivery (COD) trials, became the largest and heaviest aircraft to land and take off from an aircraft carrier. To date (2014) the record still stands.
USS Forrestal (CVA-59) and KC-130F Hercules, 1963.
During the trials aboard the USS Forrestal (CVA-59), the KC-130F completed:
- 29 touch-and-go landings
- 21 unarrested full-stop landings
- 21 unassisted take-offs
KC-130F Hercules take-off from aircraft carrier USS Forrestal (CVA-59), 1963.
The pilot of the Hercules was US Navy test pilot Lieutenant James H. Flatley III (later Rear Admiral) who received the Distinguished Flying Cross for his participation in the trails.
Trial by Fire: A Carrier Fights For Life (1973)
Veteran US Navy aircraft carrier USS Forrestal sold for scrap… for just 1-cent!
Talk about a bargain! The USS Forrestal has been sold for scrap… for just 1 cent!
The USS Forrestal (CV-59) was the lead vessel of her class and was commissioned into the United States Navy in 1955, serving until 1993. All four Forrestal-class aircraft carriers are slated for scrapping, despite strong campaigns to preserve at least one as a museum ship and to sink one as an artificial reef.
USS Forrestal, Navy’s first ‘supercarrier,’ sold for one cent
The aircraft carrier USS FORRESTAL (CV 59), escorted by a pair of tug boats, passes under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge as it approaches New York City for Fleet Week on April 29, 1989. (U.S. Navy)
WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 (UPI) — The aircraft carrier USS Forrestal, out of service for 20 years, is being sold to a Brownsville, Texas, scrap company for a penny, the Navy says.
All Star Metals bid $0.01 for the job, the Navy said in a news release Tuesday. The company’s offer was based on its estimate of how much it can net from the sale of metal from the Forrestal.
The Forrestal, the first of the Navy’s “supercarriers,” was launched in December 1954 in Newport News, Va., and commissioned on Sept. 29, 1955. It was named after James V. Forrestal, the last Navy secretary to sit in the cabinet and the first secretary of defense, who committed suicide in 1949.
The carrier was decommissioned in 1993. The Navy offered to donate it as a museum or memorial but no suitable organizations offered to take the vessel.
The Forrestal is currently docked in Philadelphia.
VIDEO: “An Answer” John F. Kennedy reviews the Atlantic Fleet (1962)
Trial by Fire: A Carrier Fights For Life (1973)
United States Navy AVA19833VNB1.
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