The North American A-5 Vigilante used a linear bomb bay between its two J79-GE-8 turbojets and ejected a stores train out of it- two disposable fuel tanks and a nuclear bomb

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ceejayoz@reddit

One hopes there's a pretty clear distinction between "drop the empty tanks" and "drop the nuke" in the controls.

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propsie@reddit

nope, but at least no-one tried to put passengers in the detachable fuel tank in this one

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speedyundeadhittite@reddit

That 58-9 looks just beautiful, but I bet inside the cabin it would be nearly as noisy as the Tu-144.

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SwitchbackHiker@reddit

And hope nothing gets caught up on the exit

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I wonder if that was part of the reason to drop the spent tanks, too. Not only would they provide a bit of buffer between the charge to eject the payload, they also help to make sure it clears the bomb bay.

Or at least that was probably part of thesis, had they gotten it to actually work.

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speedyundeadhittite@reddit

Exploding a charge next to a fuel-air mixture laden near-empty tank shouldn't be a great idea either.

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cat_prophecy@reddit

Well dropping the nuke on its own wouldn't do anything. There's a complex arming sequence that needs to happen first.

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ceejayoz@reddit

Well… that’s the idea, at least.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Goldsboro_B-52_crash

Both of the weapons began their firing sequences upon separation from the aircraft, despite safeguards meant to prevent that from occurring. One of its nuclear bombs was judged by nuclear weapons engineers at the time to have been only one safety switch away from detonation, and that it was "credible" to imagine conditions under which it could have detonated.

In 2013, Lt. Jack ReVelle, an EOD officer on the scene, recalled the moment: "Until my death I will never forget hearing my sergeant say, 'Lieutenant, we found the arm/safe switch.' And I said, 'Great.' He said, 'Not great. It's on arm.'"

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jdb326@reddit

The real nuke is the third tank we accidentally loaded along the way

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Key_Assumption_2776@reddit

As others have stated, the bomb and drop tanks are one in the same. What's particularly disconcerting is that the tanks and associated bomb would often get disconnected from the aircraft on hard landings. Considering the Vigilante had a notoriously high landing speed and difficult handling at low speeds, every landing was a hard landing. Even by carrier aviation standards.

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Apexnanoman@reddit

Well, I mean the goal is to have an explosion right? You're going to get one of those either way.

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vonHindenburg@reddit

Looks like the nuke goes first.

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fullouterjoin@reddit

I nominate that it be renamed to Supersonic Spooky Dookie.

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zalurker@reddit

There were a few instances where the fuel tanks accidentally jettisoned during catapult launches, making for a interesting time on the flight deck.

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PurpD420@reddit

Lmao that's next level trolling, A3 shits out a nuke and hauls ass away

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speedyundeadhittite@reddit

A3 was subsonic, A-5 did Mach 2+.

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GamingGems@reddit

To all the people who cry about the demise of TSR-2, this is basically it. It would have had the same limitations as well and just as likely been relegated to reconnaissance.

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ctesibius@reddit

That’s what the R in TSR stands for.

Other than size and the reconnaissance role (part of TSR2 from the start, as opposed to the repurposing of the A-5), I’m not sure they had much in common. TSR2 was intended for very low level penetration with terrain-following radar, while the A-5 went for height. The A-5 was a carrier aircraft, while the TSR2 was land-based with rough field capability.

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speedyundeadhittite@reddit

A-5 also had very complicated avionics which went wrong frequently, and was one of the reasons for its costs and delays.

On the other hand, what a beautiful airframe.

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Dont_Care_Meh@reddit

That was one of those planes which really fell between the cracks on my awareness. There was one which was being restored at my base, maybe to be a gate guard or something, and I'd see it at the hangar and had NO IDEA what it was. Someone had to tell me, and I still couldn't find much about it (90s before Internet went big).

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speedyundeadhittite@reddit

I had an Airfix model in late 80s. It's one of the most beautiful models I've ever done.

Oh look, someone is selling one on ebay!

Maybe this is the time I go back to model building as a hobby, much cheaper than bikes, amateur radio & astronomy.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/157203381308

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kyflyboy@reddit

Turned out, when they drop tested the inert nuke weapons, once released, they tended to be sucked along behind or beneath the aircraft. Totally did not work.

Two flights in the back of a Viggie off a carrier. You cannot see squat from the back seat. Tinnny windows.

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SporesM0ldsandFungus@reddit

I can totally see that happening with the empty fuel tanks but impressive that the low pressure of the slipstream was enough to pull the heavy nuke along. I wonder if they considered adding a drogue chute to the bomb?

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AlbinoAkon@reddit

That's crazy . Would love to see a video of it dropping one

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themp731@reddit

There are references in archive documents to videos and tests of the deployment system but there don’t seem to be any publicly available.

During a previous deep dive the best bets to actually find any footage are in the test footage archives at NATC Patuxent River which don’t seem to be available to the public or navigating the mess of archive and documentation assets that were sold, transferred and donated as NAA went to Rockwell then Boeing and a whole bunch of restructuring.

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AlbinoAkon@reddit

Thanks for everyone's reply. I'll have a dig after work

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speedyundeadhittite@reddit

Just check out A-5 launch videos - they had a tendency of having a poop at the catapult - I bet causing loads of brown underwear.

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Adragalus@reddit

OP made a very similar post last night that seems to have been removed, as the video included was AI nonsense and the title was borderline word salad.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to turn upany actual footage of it deploying.

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Kid_Vid@reddit

The A-5 is one of my top carrier aircraft, it just looks so cool! And futuristic for it's time. Too bad it really didn't do much, I didn't even know about it for a long time.

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PartyLikeAByzantine@reddit

RA-5 did a lot of reconnaissance, including under fire.

No, it didn't drop bombs, but that's probably for the best. The A-5 bomb train was so terrible it probably would have bombed itself out of the sky.

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Inevitable_Yak_3975@reddit

I've read that on another post in this sub, do you happen to have sources that detail why the bomb bay didn't work well?

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PartyLikeAByzantine@reddit

For starters, it once unintentionally ejected during a cat launch off the carrier.

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Inevitable_Yak_3975@reddit

Oh. That's not ideal.

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recumbent_mike@reddit

I would say in this case that it's categorically for the best that it didn't drop bombs.

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joshuatx@reddit

It's wild these and the Skywarrior were used on carriers, these things are massive.

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Muschina@reddit

The A-5 Vigilante was the first Revell plastic model I assembled in probably 1971.

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WarthogOsl@reddit

Fun fact: There's an RA-5 that's briefly visible at the start of "The Final Countdown." It's being towed in the background. I think this might be one of the A-5's only appearances in a movie.

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the_spinetingler@reddit

I just watched that again this weekend

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CrustySailor1964@reddit

Sounds like Tobias Menzies.

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Key_Assumption_2776@reddit

North American actually proposed turning the A5 into a "supersonic tanker" by adding a buddy system to the stores train.

It's also probably been posted here a million times, but NAA also shopped the Vigilante to USAF as a rocket powered, and then jet powered interceptor. I guess NAA really liked the design, and considering how much follow-on aircraft resemble it I can see why.

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Drag0ngam3@reddit

Poop plane!

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TacTurtle@reddit

Did they have to add a loud grunting straining sound effect when hitting the "stores eject" button?

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Sniperonzolo@reddit

~~ejected~~ pooped

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Viharabiliben@reddit

Pooped, or it didn’t. Then you’re stuck with an armed nuke stuck in the chute.

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NTolerance@reddit

banana peels in mario kart

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funked1@reddit

A-5 is definitely on my Cold War jet Mt. Rushmore. So elegant with performance to match. Big influence on the f-15 and MiG-25.

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Cruel2BEkind12@reddit

Would have been cooler as the intercept version with a 3rd engine in that bay. Thing would have been RAPID.

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jess-plays-games@reddit

So for a short range mission could u replace the nuke and the fuel tanks with say cluster bombs

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supermuncher60@reddit

It pooped nukes

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UW_Ebay@reddit

Wtf is a stores train

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orlock@reddit

The miracle of life. Here we see a vigilante giving birth. The mother leaves; vigilantes are always on the move. Predators are all around. But the young vigilante has evolved a unique defence, nuclear flash.

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AmericanFlyer530@reddit

Also stores had a tendency to fall out the back during launch

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hc37_126@reddit

cruising dookie

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Kid_Vid@reddit

The dookie nukie

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dharms@reddit

Correction: It did in theory. In practice it didn't really work that well and was pretty much abandoned.

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Important-Spring3977@reddit

Everyone's hoping an F-14D gets retuned to flight status, but I would die a happy man to see a Vigilante scream overhead.

(and yeah, obv I want the Tom, too)

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gooneau@reddit

I keep seeing clips of this that do fuck all for explain what this was all about, or how it was supposed to work. What's the point of the fuel tanks? What exactly didn't work about it? Are AI bots trying and failing to make posts about this that make any damn sense?

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Block5_Human@reddit

Always upvote my favorite plane with a poop chute!

Friend & I were on road trip, after an hour of silence I turned to my buddy and asked, “What was that navy plane with the butthole called again?!”

He went to pull out his phone out & realized he wouldn’t know how to begin looking up something like that.

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UtterTravesty@reddit

The Vigilante is such a pretty aircraft!

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Far_Performance_4013@reddit

Thanks for sharing!
(that's why I'm here)

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Xeelee1123@reddit (OP)

Source: https://youtu.be/MDdlkD7QfM8

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_A-5_Vigilante

Source: https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/a-5-vigilante-conventional-weapon-load.10925/

Source: https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2006/august/tale-vigi