re: #114 avanti

OT, our “second son”, a midshipman we sponsored is now a Ensign in flight school. He’s going to train to fly E2’s and my wife has but one question, is that a safer billet then say jets ? I did look up the plane, early warning radar, often off carriers.

While unarmed, the Hawkeye is protected by the fleet-defense fighters it controls. Simply put, to get to the E-2, an enemy first has to get past the shooters that the E-2 is busy vectoring in on his a$$.

The Hawkeye also takes off and lands at a lower airspeed than any jet. While it normally takes a cat shot just like any other carrier plane, it’s avble to get off a Nimitz or Eisenhower- class CVN on its own power, due to originally being designed for the Forrestals back in the late Fifties.

The only problem I can see with your “son” being in E-2s is the actual age of the airframe. Since he’s a pilot, he won’t have the problems an operator does, namely being busier than the proverbial centipede at a toe-counting contest when things get busy.

/Tell him I said break a leg :-)

cheers

eon