Quote:
Originally Posted by Lady Jane
You haven't... Adding an historical background is very enlightening.  |
Thank you. In that case, let me tell you about what the CIA did to the P-3s to make them special (that I know of):
-- Deleted the magnetic anomaly detector (MAD) boom on the tail
(as part of gutting the airplane of all the ASW equipment)
-- Added a "joe hole" in the floor of the airplane somewhere -- a hatch out of which the agents would drop to parachute into China
-- Made structural changes to the aircraft on the left side to make the entry door into a double-wide door. (This change remained when I flew in the aircraft but the double door wasn't used normally.)
-- Added a bunch of electronic countermeasures (ECM) equipment
-- Added a dorsal observation bubble just forward of the vertical stabilizer
-- According to some sources (this sounds "off" to me but what do I know?), shortened the prop blades so they'd make less noise. (Any aviation experts want to chime in here with skepticism?)
-- Mounted rails for AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles on the wings
(Some sources say the AIM-9s were mounted so they fired backwards; again, my aeronautical spidey sense tells me this is BS: launch a missile backwards in a 200-300 knot wind? I don't think so.)
-- (I think) added photo recon capability
-- (And of course) painted the aircraft overall glossy black. WW2 experience had demonstrated that glossy black is better than flat black when trying to avoid detection by searchlights.