China starts building second aircraft carrier: media

That article gives a much more reasonable timeline than many had given (“3 new carriers to be built and in service in 4 years” and similar crap):

Beijing (AFP) – China has started constructing the second of four planned aircraft carriers, a top government official said according to media reports on Saturday.

The ship is under construction in the northeastern port of Dalian and will take six years to build, the reports said quoting Wang Min, Communist Party chief for Dalian’s Liaoning province.

75-MM GUN M4 AND AIRPLANE MOUNT M6 TM9_1311_1943.pdf

M4
The 75-mm aircraft gun M4 is a modification of the M3 gun which is found in medium tanks. It differs from the M3 gun, only in having a seat for the spline machined in the tube. It was mounted on the M6 mount.

T13E1 / M5
A lightweight version of the M3 with a lighter thin-walled barrel and a different recoil mechanism that was used in the B-25H Mitchell bomber. Uses the same ammunition and has the same ballistics as the M3. Mounted on T13E2 aircraft mount.

The M4 gun assembly weighed 893 lb according to the PDF above, and the gun tube weighed 628 lb… I can’t find the weight of the T13E1.

Can anyone find this: TM9-312 75mm Gun T13E1 and Aircraft Mount T13E2?

In critical condition, however.
http://www.10news.com/news/u-s-world/navy-says-fa-18-jet-crashes-in-atlantic-ocean-off-virginia-011514

Posted: 01/15/2014
Last Updated: 1 day ago

NORFOLK, Va. – A Navy fighter jet crashed Wednesday in Atlantic waters off Virginia and the lone pilot was in critical condition after he ejected and was rescued, the Navy said.

…..

Cmdr. Mike Kafka, a spokesman for Naval Air Forces Atlantic, said the single-seat F/A-18E Super Hornet crashed at 2:35 p.m. about 45 miles off Virginia Beach.

The pilot ejected and a life raft deployed, according to a Navy statement. The pilot was initially recovered by a fishing vessel and then picked up by a Navy MH-60 Sea Hawk helicopter and flown to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. The hospital is the area’s only Level I Trauma Center.

Kafka said the pilot was conscious while being flown to the hospital, but he gave no other details about the crash or why he was in critical condition. The pilot’s name hasn’t been released.

The jet was among two on the training mission, and the pilot of the other plane helped pinpoint the downed pilot’s location. It wasn’t immediately clear how the fishing vessel found the pilot, but Kafka said it arrived within ten minutes of the crash.

The jet was based at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach and belonged to Strike Fighter Squadron 143. The squadron is part of Carrier Air Wing Seven, which returned to Virginia last summer following a deployment aboard USS Dwight D. Eisenhower to Europe and the Middle East.

With the crash at 2:35 in the afternoon, and the fishing boat arriving 10 minutes later, I’d saw the boat’s crew saw the crash.

This site positively identifies the aircraft, noting that the name “City of New York” was painted on the side, and providing photos of this:
http://www.dmairfield.com/airplanes/NX5501/index.html
The text notes

The annotation on the original photograph states, ” Fairchild FC-2W, P&W R-1340 “Wasp” 410HP, NX5501 c/n 86, ‘The City of New York’, John Mears and Charles Collyer’s, ‘Round-the-World’ in 23 days, 15 hours at Bettis Field 7/21/28.”

The article also notes that it was actually a FC-2W2, not a -2W (the -2W2 had a 2-foot fuselage extension which is noted as being discernible in the photo).

The guy in the light-colored suit looks a lot like Moggy C!

With some 5,600 built between 1946 and 1974, that would be a large part of a book by itself!

I think that has has been pointed out above it only became practical with the advent of all-metal airframes.

Moggy

Then a Junkers CL.1 (J.8)? Or many other Junkers designs of 1914-1918*?

* J.1 of 1915, J.2 of 1916, J.4 of 1917, D.1 (J.9) of 1917, etc.

Um… in 1989 the only A-3s in US use were one Naval Reserve KA-3B tanker squadron (VAK-308) which retired the type in 1989, and two Navy ERA-3B electronic aggressor squadrons (VAQ-33 & VAQ-34) which retired their aircraft in February & September 1991. These two were used for training of other squadrons, not in an offensive combat role.