December 2018
It has been three years since I last photographed this aircraft (see my earlier post) and it appears a lot of work went into restoring the nose to its original appearance, just some paint to finish it off. It’s impressive that the A-3 first flew in 1952 and remained in service long enough to fly during the Gulf War in 1991 before retirement that same year. Nicknamed the Whale, this was the largest and heaviest aircraft ever designed for use on an aircraft carrier. This particular Skywarrior served as a bomber and navigator trainer until it was converted by Hughes/Raytheon to test the radar system for the F-14D Tomcat. Fuji X-E2s w/18-135mm.