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Andromedian1 [2018-07-10 15:46:57 +0000 UTC]

This feels like just a blue filter and some red lines.

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kanyiko [2017-02-25 19:54:59 +0000 UTC]

It carries the number '4', so this is Convair R3Y-1 Tradewind 128448, the fourth R3Y-1 built.  She also differed from the other R3Y-1s in having a discoloured radome.  Picture was taken sometime between early 1955 and May 1956.

It appears 128448 was used for the US Navy's Phase Two tests for Navy acceptance of the type: as such, she made a trans-continental flight on February 24th 1955 (originally scheduled to have been done by 128449, the fifth R3Y-1).  After numerous trials, she was accepted by the Fleet Logistic Support Squadron Two (VR-2) in May of 1956, where she received the individual number 448 (after its bureau number) and the name Coral Sea Tradewind.  Her service with the squadron was short: on May 10th 1957, barely a year after her acceptance, she suffered a runaway engine forcing her to make an emergency landing in the San Francisco Bay - her fuselage was punctured on landing resulting in her sinking, with the US Navy declaring her a total write-off.  She was subsequently salvaged and stripped for parts.

The Allison T-40 turboprops proved troublesome and unreliable, and 128448 was only one of the type's victims - earlier, both R5Y prototypes had both been lost in separate accidents.  Only eight months after '448's loss, on January 24th 1958, 128446 Indian Ocean Tradewind suffered a runaway engine of her own, resulting in a crash-landing at Alameda which saw '446 written off.  Per Navy directive, all surviving R3Y-1s (3 out of 5) and R3Y-2s (6 out of 6, of which 2 had never reached operational status) were grounded, and officially struck of charge on April 16th 1958.  The aircraft were stored at Alameda, and rendered unflyable when their tails were ordered cut off in March of 1959, prior to their scrapping on site during the spring of 1960.

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