BLUE FALCON FIGAT FIASCO
or
BIRTH OF THE LAWN DART
by
Ed Jennings
Photo from James W. Perrine
In mid 1974, we tested the FIGAT (Fiberglass Aerial Target) at VC-2. This contraption was about 15 feet long, by about 6 feet tall and looked sort of like a dart with 3 stabilizers for a tail. These were spaced at 120 degrees, and sort of resembled an F-4 Phantom when viewed from the rear. The whole thing rested on metal skids, two in the rear on the lower "wings" and one on the nose. The nose had a metal cap, and was adjustable for weight and balance. The FIGAT was actually supposed to fly vs. just being dragged through the air.
On the day of the test the weather was severe clear and we moved the FIGAT to the duty runway which as I recall was the southwest runway (22?). The TA-4J was one of two I believe the Squadron had that was fitted with a J-52-P408 engine, specifically for the purpose of towing the FIGAT.
The Pilot was our OPS officer and Brian Calhoun was the back seat observer. Chuck Berry, the other maintenance officer, and I watched the take-off from the runway behind the aircraft and the FIGAT. There were three showers of sparks from the skids on the take-off roll and we were concerned that the skids were going to wear through before the FIGAT got airborne. The P-408 got the FIGAT airborne fairly easily despite the fact it weighed several hundred pounds. At about 2000' AGL they began a left turn with the FIGAT trailing behind and below the A-4. At a relative bearing of about 170, the FIGAT appeared to start rolling around the aircraft. It didn't get a chance to do it twice, as the crew promptly cut the wire. They had apparently reached the airspeed necessary for the FIGAT to fly, but it was totally out of control.
Chuck and I proceeded by car toward the area we believed the FIGAT had impacted, and it didn't take long to find it. It had struck the ground nose down and buried itself about six feet deep in a gentleman's vegetable garden that was adjacent to his house. Needless to say, the government probably bought some very expensive turnips.
Ed:
I enjoyed your FIGAT recollections. Our ops officer was good ol' Sam Clinton, whose usual response to an outlandish cross-country request by Calhoun, Steve Carro and myself was "I don't see why not". I don't believe we had any P-408's, but we did have a couple of P-8's with about 9500 pounds of thrust to the best of my recollection, while the P-408 was over 11,000 pounds. Our other TA-4's had P-6's with 8,500 pounds (?), while the C's and L's had Wright J-65's with 8300 pounds (?). During the summer months we used to go with half full drop tanks in those to avoid low transitions over Virginia Beach Boulevard. The first time I ever started a A-4C at night I damn near jumped out of the thing when I saw the flames from the tailpipe reflecting off the next aircraft on the line!
I believe Chuck Berry went on to invent the lawn dart.
Al
Ed:
I am too old and senile to settle the argument among these young whipper-snappers over which engines we had, though I thought the planes with the hot engines had P-8's.
Ernie
"FIGAT FIASCO or BIRTH OF THE LAWN DART" is copyright 1997 by Ed Jennings
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