Convair Photos from the 1950s
This photo of me pointing at the Convair XFY-1 vertical take off and landing machine was taken in late 1954. I was a 5th Grader at Muir Elementary. The "Pogo" is secured by its tethering rig test structure, which was used in some of the initial stages of flight test. The tethering rig design engineer was one of our neighbors. All three photos were taken with a 1953 style Brownie Hawkeye. Some sources say that test pilot Skeets Coleman actually learned to fly the Pogo up at Moffett Field inside one of those big hangers that they used for blimps, etc. I don't know the whole story. Most of the Pogo and Sea Dart folks were gone by 1968 when I got there --- Ron Jagodinski'62
Above is a B-36D around the San Diego Harbor Lindbergh Field area in 1952. This was taken with an old Kodak box camera with an unbelievably large negative. The photo shows tooling and fixtures used during the early fifties B-36 mods. According to the old mossbacks at Convair, both the jets as well as other equipment went on the '36s so they could carry the Mark 17 nuclear device. At the right are Convair R3Y-2 Tradewind aircraft at the outside assembly facility somewhere around Lindbergh Field. This was shot with a Brownie Hawkeye miniature camera right around 1955.

B-36 Video

A 5:32 minute clip from Strategic Air Command

R3Y-2 Video

Shows San Diego Harbor when
ships anchored down the middle


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