Bye Bye S-3

yep ... they do a distinctive "whoooooop" as they spool up ... or, sadly ... "did"
 
What a trip down memory lane. I was a controller in the Navy at North Island(NZY) from 1975-77. VS41, the west coast training squadron was there and a a couple of other operational squadrons. One weekend an S3 from one of the east coast squadrons was on the ramp right next to the tower. They were loading cases of Coors beer into a hatch in the nose. This was in the days before Coors was sold back east and "Smokey and the Bandit" had just been released. Those boys was Eastbound and Down, loaded up and Flyin
 
Pilawt said:
Does the nickname "Hoover" come from the sound of its engines? I remember seeing them going in and out of KBUR in the 1970s, and it was a strange sound indeed.
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Yep. Imagine a vacuum cleaner on steroids. That's what they sounded like.
 
gkainz said:
yep ... they do a distinctive "whoooooop" as they spool up ... or, sadly ... "did"
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Yes. They literally sounded like vacuum cleaners flying over your head when behind the carrier doing plane guard.
 
It's said to see them go. I was an AE and then Special Mission Aircrew, VS-35.

Great birds.
 
s-3-diagram-001.jpg
 
Some folks would raise an eyebrow when I would mention it but I always thought the S3 was a great looking bird. When I was in the Marines saw one playing around over the ocean up near Camp Pendleton once.
 
Shopshirt said:
Some folks would raise an eyebrow when I would mention it but I always thought the S3 was a great looking bird. When I was in the Marines saw one playing around over the ocean up near Camp Pendleton once.
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As a Surface Warfare Officer, I used to love the S-3. It was by far the best asset we had to identify the surface picture. The S-3 guys were MUCH easier to work with than P-3s or helos.
 
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