Customer Reviews

RA-5C Vigilante Units in Combat (Combat Aircraft)

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Robert Powell, an experienced RA-5C pilot, has written an excellent account of the development and history of the Vigilante from the early strategic A3J-1/A-5A to the "156 Series" RA-5C. Needless to say the employment of the aircraft in Vietnam is the primary focus of the book, and it does not disappoint. Powell skillfully gives the account of all the RVAH squadrons from both the historical standpoint of operational employment as well as a personal stories of noteworthy or colorful individual crewmembers and sorties.

Sadly, there are few references about this magnificent aircraft available, and this is by far the best I have seen. The book is organized roughly chronologically, and is generally very well illustrated with one exception: there are only two cockpit photographs in the entire book, and none illustrating the pilot's forward panel (although one shows a small piece of it); there is a good shot of the RAN's forward instrument panel which shows the radar display, optical viewfinder, and RHAW display in good detail. There are thirty beautiful color plates in the book showing aircraft from different squadrons at different times. They are brilliantly done, but to read about each of them (and the color photos as well), you will have to look in the appendices. The appendices also contain a host of very useful information on Vigilante losses, surviving Vigilantes, each RVAH squadron, bases, and designation details.

I would have liked to have seen better cockpit illustrations, but with that minor exception, I have nothing to critique about this book: it is a superlative account of a superlative aircraft.

As always this book from the Osprey series does not disappoint. The Vigilante does not get the credit it deserves. For its time, it was a very modern aircraft design. It started out as a bomber but its role quickly became exclusively photo recon. The book does describe this early role as a bomber but then concentrates on the Vigilante's role as a blazingly fast photo recon aircraft. For all you F-4 Phantom fans, the Vigilante had the same twin J79 jet engines as the Phantom so the Vigilante was a Mach two camera. The book describes how the Vigilante was uses, and what the priority targets were, and the types of defenses it had to go up against (remember, speed saves !) and the book also desribes the different types of photo recon equipment and sensors the Vigilante carried. The book had lots of photos I had not seen before and the 5 pages of color photos were great. So eventhough the Vigilante did not carry any armament other than cameras, the book describes some of the missions that were still important and exciting.

Aviation history usually is produced by dedicated enthusiasts who have never flown the airplanes they describe. In fact, many competent authors have never flown anything. But Bob Powell's history of the Vigilante is unusual in that he not only knows the subject, he's flown the RA-5 and "waved" it as an LSO. The result is an unusual depth of knowledge for this topic and for the Osprey series on combat aircraft. Tracing the development of heavy attack in the US Navy, the text describes the design and development of the beautifully crafted "Vige", its combat employment...and something more. Within the "VHA" squadrons there emerged an esprit and sense of community that remains unsurpassed not only in the navy but in military aviation. The pride and satisfaction of mastering a demanding aircraft are part and parcel of the RA-5 story, and are well described here.

Excellent documentary on the combat operations of the supersonic RA-5C Vigilante aircraft! The book covers all combat operations or cold war situations in which these aircraft were at risk. There are many interesting accounts of events that occcurred during the various missions that a reader would find amusing and yet very informative. Great stories on the Cuban Missile Crisis missions as well as the Vietnam War experience. This title will definitely give the reader an appreciation of the dangerous exploits of unarmed photo jets in combats. It is very consistent with the excellent quality that this series of books have produced.