Forum: Military Aircraft of the Cold War

Last edited by ptplauthor on Jan 30, 2009 - 08:28 PM; edited 1 time in total

I've wondered this for years: What is the function of the markings on the nose of the E-2: I've seen some with black noses with a white + others with "II" does this denote the version as I suspect?

I've also seen some S-3s and EA-6s with the nuclear trefoil on the nose--is that a warning that the radar is there or does that denote that they fly from the CVNs?

Here's a link of a "II" marked Hummer:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DN-SD-07-00010.jpg

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I didn't see a Deuce there, Hoss. Looked more like a plus sign on the snout to me.

The int'l radiation symbol, IIRC, comes from some certain "equipment" those planes carry. I'll leave it at that, unless someone knows that they have the "all clear" to elaborate.

That's what I get for looking at one pic and uploading the other!!

Here's the other one, this IS a Deuce:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ ... s/E2_3.jpg

I wonder if the "II" may have something to do with the "Hawkeye 2000" upgrade? Dunno. The French bird in that wikipedia article had a + marking on the nose.

The EA-6B Prowlers always carried the marking on the nose (the actual mark differed from unit to unit) to visually differentiate it from an approaching A-6 Intruder which would have dramatically different cat and trap weights.

Mike

But the markings on the Hawkeye wouldn't be to differentiate it from the COD would they? You can see the dish on the E-2 from a fairly long distance, but then again, I'm really not sure. My Naval Aviation lore is not quite up to par.

I saw an EA-6B(USMC one?) that had no nuke marking on the nose, but a diagonal lightning bolt and the words above and below reading "JAM IT".

Looked pretty cool that way too. Cool

Sounds cool, and there'd be no mistaking that kind of message for an A-6. That thing about the markings being to differentiate it from the A-6s is believeable.

I think the E-2s might just be to differentiate the different sub-variants, idk why, but that could be. Some sources say that now that the Tomcat is retired, a fully-loaded COD is the biggest bird in the airwing. I'd hazard a guess that the radome is a big enough warning to the LSOs that its a different bird.

Still seems pretty thin, though. The LSOs are on the radios, and are talking to the aircraft, so they know what planes are coming next, even before they are seen. Nose markings wouldn't make much difference. Plus, since the COD is a twin turbo, there isn't a helluva lot that they could confuse it with.

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Still seems pretty thin, though. The LSOs are on the radios, and are talking to the aircraft, so they know what planes are coming next, even before they are seen. Nose markings wouldn't make much difference. Plus, since the COD is a twin turbo, there isn't a helluva lot that they could confuse it with.

True, it's either a COD or a Hawkeye if it's got two props, but the only thing I can think of is that radio links can fail--but it seems like the arrestor cable guys would have to work really fast to get the cables dialed in, else it'll be a bolter if the radio went out and they had to ID off of the nose markings.

If you're NORDO, then you likely aren't coming aboard. I could see a lot of feathers being ruffled over the safety issues associated with such a scenario. Then again, in this day and age, to lose every single radio that you have is a rareity in itself, so you'd execute a wave off, sort your issues, i.e., change radios and/or alternate freq's, etc. and then attempt to come aboard.

Forum: Military Aircraft of the Cold War

Nose Markings on E-2s, EA-6s, and S-3s