Highlighted sponsors of CarrierBuilders:




Thank you for your support!

What's new

• Ted Taylor's next contribution is the Academy 1/48 CH-46E Bullfrog. Nicely done Ted!
• Michael Stanley is here again, now with this beautiful Accurate Miniatures 1/48 SBD-5 Dauntless. Beautiful model as usual...
• Randy L Smith, our short run resin model specialist returns to us with his Collect-Aire 1/48 F2H-4 Banshee.
• Duane Curtis returns with the next part of his wonderful reference material, the USS Harry S. Truman CVN-75 walkaround, Part II. Remember, this time it's really about the ship, not about the airwing! You can find details never seen before, this walkaround features really extensive photos concerning areas usually not photographed! (about further 100 images!)

Editorial:

• Remember that I extended the deadline to 1st of March, 2006 for the Final Countdown Group Build, so you have less then 2 more weeks to complete your builds, or to start a new one! We can give you prizes for finished entries only, so if you want to go for them, it's time to push it more!
  
   
   

News by Alert 5:

•  India details wide-ranging wishlist
  India is in the market shopping for anti-submarine warfare (ASW) helicopters and long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft.
  The Indian Navy will seek proposals for eight maritime reconnaissance aircraft and 16 ASW helicopters.
• The Hunters on the altar?
  J.R. Labbe from Star-Telegram contends that closing down VFA-201 was a political move by the Bush administration to satisfy Louisiana.
• Abandon ship! Anxious Panhandle residents ready for sunken aircraft carrier

  USS Oriskany will finally sink to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico this summer to become the world's largest intentionally created man-made reef.
•  Reagan landing before Bush
  USS Ronald Reagan will hold a passage exercise with INS Viraat off the coast of Sri Lanka on Feb. 14.
  The exercise took less than a week of planning as both carrier battlegroups were scheduled to be in the vicinity of Sri Lanka around the same time.
• Texas city seeks training squadron from Oceana
  Officials in Kingsville, Texas, are making a public bid to snare VFA-106 from Oceana.
  Kingsville, a city of 25,000 in south Texas near the Gulf Coast, is home to a naval air station that trains Navy and Marine pilots.
• Sea Harriers fly with F-15s one last time
  Another story on the Royal Navy's 801st Air Squadron last detachment with F-15C Eagles from the USAF 48th Fighter Wing.
• Navy jet breaks sound barrier and residents' peace
  A U.S. Navy F/A-18 caused panic and fear of a terrorist attack when it went supersonic doing a maintenance check about 40 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico.
  Emergency dispatchers were flooded with calls as some thought is was an earthquake while others fear it was an explosion.
• Officials say little about jet unit cut
  Officials from the U.S. Navy do not want to comment much on the disestablishment of VFA-201.
• Marines to replace aging helicopters in Okinawa with Ospreys
  Expect to see the MV-22 Osprey over the skies of Asia in 2012 when the U.S. Marine Corps deploys it to Okinawa.
  The marines had originally planned the deployment for 2007 or 2008, but faced strong opposition in Japan due to safety concerns about the Osprey

   

• I continue showcasing Michael Stanley's works, today I show you his Monogram 1/48 A-4 Skyhawk in Blue Angels markings.
• Hal Marshman Sr returned, this time with an Accurate Miniatures 1/48 TBF Avenger. This model depicts the plane of  Ens. George H. W. Bush.
• I updated Keith Hufnagel's Trumpeter 1/350 USS Yorktown CV-10 submission with further 50 photos. If you're a fan of this ship, it's a good article for you!
• Duane Curtis joins us with a really valuable material. This is a USS Harry S. Truman CVN-75 walkaround, but this time it's really about the ship, not about the airwing. You can find details never seen before, this walkaround features really extensive photos concerning areas usually not photographed! This is Part I (100 images!), Part II follows in the next update....

Editorial:

• Remember that I extended the deadline to 1st of March, 2006 for the Final Countdown Group Build, so you have 1 more month to complete your builds, or to start a new one! We can give you prizes for finished entries only, so if you want to go for them, it's time to push it more!
  
   
   

News by Alert 5:

• Britain threatens to stop spares supply for navy aircraft
  British High Commissioner to India Sir Michael Arthur said spares for Indian Navy's ageing Islander maritime aircraft will be cut if India sells the aircraft to Myanmar. He said the supply cut will not affect the Sea Harriers and Sea King helicopters.
• Britain to conduct naval, air exercises with India
  The Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy will be conducting exercises with India this year.
  An aircraft carrier group will conduct an exercise with the Indian Navy in May while the RAF will send fighters in October.
• 'Hammer From Above' brings Marine aviation to the fore
  Retired F/A-18 pilot, Jay A. Stout, details the U.S. Marine Corps aviation’s role in Operation Iraqi Freedom in his new book, Hammer From Above: Marine Air Combat Over Iraq.
• Second Roosevelt flier marks aviation milestone
  The commanding officer of VF-31 made his 1,000th cable-assisted landing at 12:39 p.m. Jan. 16 in the Persian Gulf.
  Capt. William Sizemore, commander of Carrier Air Wing Eight, reached his 1,000th milestone in mid-December.
• Ike Polishes New Pilots
  USS Dwight D. Eisenhower hosted four training squadrons to help 32 both Navy and Marine student aviators get carrier qualified.
• VS-24 Scouts Take S-3B Viking to New Horizons

  VS-24 now currently on board USS Theodore Roosevelt has a new mission besides conducting in-flight refuelling for CVW-8 and surveillance operations for Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group. They are now flying intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions in support of British-led coalition ground forces in southern Iraq as well.
• 'Dazzling' F/A-18E/F radar marred by software faults
  While the new APG-79 AESA radar for the Boeing F/A-18E/F Block II Super Hornet impressed the U.S. Navy crew, it sometimes frustrate them with multiple shutdowns and restarts during ongoing evaluations. The report however states that Raytheon is expected to resolve the software stability issues before the radar enters operational service in late 2007.
• Ditched jet to stay on seabed
  Five F/A-18s from USS Ronald Reagan were diverted to Brisbane International Airport on Saturday night after a Hornet ditched into the sea while landing on the carrier.The pilots stayed overnight in Brisbane and returned to the carrier about noon.
• Boeing to showcase F-18 at Delhi
  Boeing will bring a F/A-18 flight simulator to the Defexpo 2006 armaments fair at New Delhi, India.
• USS Ronald Reagan FA/18-C Aircraft Mishap
  The USS Ronald Reagan has lost its first jet. A single seat F/A-18C Hornet from VFA-25 ditched into the sea while attempting to land at night.
  The incident occurred approximately 120 miles south-east of Brisbane, Australia, Jan. 28 at approximately 4:17 a.m. PST. The pilot was safely recovered.
• Navy Establishes Trial Warrant-Officer-to-Pilot Program
  The U.S. Navy is selecting 30 Chief Warrant Officers to be pilots and naval flight officers.
• Navy T-34 Crash Kills Two
  A U.S. Navy T-34C crashed while conducting routine flight training near NAS Corpus Christi.
  Both instructor and student were killed.
• Tomassetti focused on VX-23 mission
  U.S. Marine Lt. Col. Art "Turbo" Tomassetti is the new boss at VX-23. He was the lead government pilot for the X-35 program.
  Tomassetti was the VX-23 chief test pilot before assuming command.
• Computer problems shut down Boeing assembly lines
  Production of Boeing's F/A-18 Super Hornets were disrupted Wednesday due to a computer problem.
  The first and second shift was affected but the third shift work as scheduled.
• 'Banshees' prepare to prowl home
  The USMC's VMAQ-2 is preparing to return home after six months of duty in support of Operation Iraq Freedom at Al Asad, Iraq.
• Beijing denies aircraft-carrier rumor
  China's Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council denied a rumor from Taiwan that China is rebuilding an aircraft carrier.
• Navy renews plan to cut carrier fleet, documents show
  The Quadrennial Defense Review is expected to renew plans to cut the U.S. Navy's fleet of aircraft carriers to 11.
• Hello sailor: US aircraft carrier gets mixed reception
  Australian environmentalists are not keen of USS Ronald Reagan's visit to Brisbane.
  Brisbane is a nuclear-free zone but the port is outside the city's boundaries.

   

We have the next Editor's Choice - Excellence Award winner at Aircraft Carrier Builders! Congratulations to Bill Waldorf! Let's see what the award winner submission is:

• Bill Waldorf, and excellent model ship builder is joining us today! It's a pleasure to me to present his full scratchbuilt, 1/96 USS Kalinin Bay CVE-68 escort carrier. This huge model can be found at the Naval Air Museum in Pensacola, Fla. Really good job Bill!

• Jaromir Senft an 53 years old model builder joins us today, and presents his really nice Classic Airframes 1/48 Westland Wyvern with Goffy model update set! Excellent Job, welcome aboard!
• Michael Stanley returns to us with his tiny Hasegawa 1/72 Grumman F-11 Tiger. Nice build of this not that well known carrier based aircraft!
• Randy L. Smith is here again, and as usual he presents a full resin kit, this time a Collect-Aire 1/48 F7U-1 Cutlass. Good job, as usual.
• I review the Goffy Model 1/48 Westland Wyvern detail set, that contains cockpit, wheel bay, flaps, arrestor hook, and wingfold elements for the Classic Airframes kit.

Editorial:

• I'm glad to announce our new "Additional Sponsor", Goffy Model from the Czech Republic, an aftermarket company with wide range of excellent quality armor and aviation related resin detail sets. I recommend to visit www.goffymodel.czweb.org to see their products! Any future naval aviation related items of Goffy Model will be reviewed here at CarrierBuilders first! Please remember that you're always welcome to talk to our sponsors in the forum!
  
  

News by Alert 5:

• Gujarat keen to scrap 'toxic' Clemenceau
  The Gujarat Maritime Board is asking the French to provide it with technical experts to remove toxic materials from aircraft carrier Clemenceau.
• Lakehurst races to upgrade 'brakes' for carrier landings
  The arresting gear that brings an aircraft to a stop in seconds on an aircraft carrier has finally entered the digital age.
  Researchers at Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst are using computers to control the arresting machinery. The computer will replace the hand crank to compensate for the weight of the aircraft that's about to land. It will also reset the cable after the plane lands.
• VMFA-251, VFA-86 soar through first week at NAS Fallon, Nev.
  VMFA-251 and VFA-86 were at Naval Air Station Fallon from Jan. 9-14 as part of the workout before their deployment as Carrier Air Wing 1.
• F/A-18C Crashes Near Naval Air Station El Centro
  An F/A-18C from VFA-97 crashed approximately five miles north of Naval Air Station El Centro on Jan. 18.
  The pilot, who was on a routine training mission, was killed.
• Pilots say goodbye to favored trainer
  The T-2 Buckeye will leave the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School sometime this summer after more than 30 years of service.
  The T-2 was first introduced to the school in 1972 to replace the T-1.
• Night Vision Capability For Navy Seahawks
  Australian Navy’s Seahawk helicopter squadrons will have night vision capability in two years time.
  All 16 Seahawks will have their external lighting upgraded as well.
• Govt to examine Clemenceau on arrival
  The Indian Government will examine former French aircraft carrier Clemenceau for toxic materials before allowing it to enter Indian waters.
  The Central Pollution Control Board will inspect the ship.
• Friends Hold Vigil For Navy Pilot Missing For 15 Years
  Fifteen years after Lt. Cmdr. Scott Speicher's F/A-18 Hornet was shot down over Iraq, his friends and those wanting the U.S. government to keep searching for him held a "Not Home Yet" vigil for him Tuesday night.
  A joint Iraq-U.S. committee has just finished its work on determining his fate and the results will be announced by the Pentagon.
• Indian Navy's sureveillance capabilities get a boost
  The Indian Navy has received one of its Il-38 that was sent to Russia for modernisation.
  The updated aircraft carries the Sea Dragon patrol suite that can track over 30 targets at a time from a distance of up to 320 km.
  A total of three aircraft are modernised.
• Carrier’s fuel spill contained
  USS Kitty Hawk leaked an undetermined amount of diesel oil while in the port of Yokosuka.
  The U.S. Navy says the spill was minimal.

• Paolo Yuen returns to us with a nice composition of a Hasegawa 1/72 F-14D Tomcat and a F/A-18F Superhornet. Both are Bounty Hunters birds, they represents a nice overview of the transition from Tomcats to Superhornets.
• Dave Burrow presents his Revell 1/72 Seaking Mk6 in Royal Navy tiger meet markings.
• I review the Fujimi 1/72 E-2C Hawkeye "VAW-115 Libery Bells" limited edition kit. This kit is the reissue of the old Fujimi kit with nice Cartograf decals. Sample provided by Hobby Link Japan
• Pino Gengo and Amedeo Tommasi took a really nice and extensive phototour aboard Italian Navy's Giuseppe Garibaldi aircraft carrier. This walkaround consists of 114 photos about the ship, and the airwing! Really rare, and nice work - especially as the guys are not modelers! Thank you guys for sharing!

Editorial:

• To improve our site, I started a poll in the General Discussion forum about your habits when visiting this site. Please take 1 minute, and vote in the poll, as you can help me to make this site better, and more effective. This site is made for you, so you can have effect how it's running by voting, and letting me know your thoughts!
• In our new forum system, there's a voting option. Feel free to add your vote for models, links or anything else in the given topic! If you need help regarding this, drop me a mail and I'll do my best.
   

News by Alert 5:

• Clemenceau can’t enter till Feb 13: SC
  India's Supreme Court has banned former French carrier Clemenceau from entering Indian waters till Feb. 13.
• NAS Fallon outlines construction projects to runway, range
  NAS Fallon's commanding officer, Capt. Scott Ryder has a list of five construction projects to improve the base.
  He wants to make improvements to the B-20 range, lengthen and widen Runway 7-25, build a centralized air traffic control facility, combine the base's structure fire and crash fire equipment into one house and build a new central administration facility.
• AgustaWestland Awarded Major Contract Under Merlin Capability Sustainment Plus Programme
  AgustaWestland has been awarded a major contract for the upgrade of 30 EH101 Merlin HM Mk1 helicopters.
  AgustaWestland will replace existing hydraulic units with electrical actuators called Helicopter Electro Actuation Technology (HEAT).
• Ship sails murky waters
  Egypt refused to let the decommissioned French aircraft carrier Clemenceau to pass through the Suez Canal for scrap in India.
  The Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency wants Paris to provided documents that proved the ship was not violating standards set in the Basle Convention on the cross-border trade in toxic waste.
• Aircraft carrier Oriskany heading for the deep
  The decommissioned aircraft carrier the USS Oriskany will be sunk in the Gulf of Mexico by June 1.
  It will become a fishing reef.
• T-39 Crash Site Found
  The U.S. Navy has found the crash site of the T-39 Sabreliner that failed to return to Naval Air Station Pensacola Jan. 10.
• New Secretary of the Navy gets operator’s view of V-22
  The new U.S. Secretary of the Navy flew in the cockpit jump seat of a V-22 flown by VMX-22 recently.
  Col. Glenn Walters, VMX-22 commanding officer, piloted the Osprey with Navy Lt. Cmdr. Matt Rising.

   

• David Longhitano joined us. For a kick start he posted a really nice article about building his beautiful Revell 1/48 Rafale M. Really good job, thank you for the perfect submission!
• Andrew George returned to us with this Lee 1/72 E-2C Hawkeye. This bird is in the famous Screwtops markings.
• Ken Mackenzie is here today, with a conversion project. This is a 1/350 USS Constellation CVA-64 converted from the 1/350 USS Enterprise kit.
• John Bishop is back now with some really nice shots of 2 F4U-5 Corsairs. He took these shots at Valparaiso IN airshow in 2003

Editorial:

• FORUM IS BACK!
  After a long break, I bought a 1 year license of a non-opensource forum, (on my own private cost again), and spent my last week of the holiday to make it operational, and to import the old database (posts, topics, user details, permissions and so on). Now it's working, and you can continue using it! PLEASE LOG IN AND CHECK YOUR USER DETAILS! Also please feel free to let the fellow community members know about your birthday by setting it in your profile :)
  I removed suspicious registrations (with suspicious names with 0 posts), probably automatic bot registrations for spamming - please check if you're one is working! If you experience any problems with the forum, please contact me immediately!
  
  Please note that the newsletter system changed last year, and you have to subscribe to the newsletter independently from the forum!
   
• There's a new Calendar feature in the new community forum. This will be the new one, and the old one (that is accessible from the side menu) will be removed soon, and it will point to the new one as well! Feel free to post any modeling, naval aviation or carrier related events, historical anniversaries and so on to this calendar! Also you can post your private reminders aswell, if you set it to private, only you'll be able to see it.
  I'm looking for someone who would join the community staff, and would love to be the moderator and the key person for the calendar! If you feel you'd like to do it by heart, please contact me, and we'll discuss the details!
  Upcoming events will be displayed on this opening page in the near future.
   
• DONATIONS NEEDED!
  As I'm covering the domain registration and maintenance, the website hosting, and the forum on my own private cost, it's more and more necessary to make donations to support the site's operations, and growth. The ACB website is almost 1 year old, and  all the expenses was covered on my private cost. Every cent is a help to maintain the site, and to make it more and more advanced, and safer. We need to step further in the service this year, as ACB is growing, and the current service subscription would not allow us growing further too much. As for an example If every member would donate 1 dollar / month, that would give the site a big boost in all terms. I know it's not working like this, but If you feel that you'd like to make a donation, please contact me to discuss the details! I'm about to set up a PayPal option to make donations easier. I'll insert the donation form in one of the upcoming updates. If you prefer a different way that PayPal, please contact me!
  Remember, if you can donate even only 5-10 dollars, it's still a big help for the site, and it's still only a magazine's price...!
  When donation is made, I'll post it in the news, until the donor requests to remain anonymous. (we'll discuss it in case)
   
• Link section is active!
  Please feel free to post your non-commercial links to the appropriate place. No registration is needed to post, but the forum is moderated by Mr. Dan Linton and me, so your link submission will appear only after one of us approved it. Please read the read me section before post to see what's the correct format for posting a link! Also you can learn about searching in the links section.
   
• New welcome page is set up. This is for having more space for sponsors in a different category than the highlighted ones above. You can simply click on the Enter the site button, as you did just before or you can still click on the Homeport button on the top left in the side menu!

Donation made:

I'd like to say thank you for Mr. Dan Linton (who is building the 1/144 USS Nimitz here) for his incredible $100 donation! The new 1 year forum license is mostly from this donation! Thank you Dan, you did a great service for the community!

News by Alert 5:

• Miramar MCAS part of consolidation plan
  The U.S. Marine Corps Air Bases Western Area has been deactivated as part of a consolidation begun by the Marine Corps last year.
  The Western Area command overseen the operations of Marine air stations at Miramar, Camp Pendleton and the base in Yuma, Arizona.
• French ship: SC panel says you can’t dock until you come clean

  The Indian Supreme Court monitoring committee on hazardous waste management said that decommissioned French aircraft carrier Clemenceau should not be allowed within 200 km of India’s exclusive economic zone until there was full disclosure on the amount of asbestos on board.
  The committee members also decided that in case the ship is, in future, allowed into India, it will have to pay a bank guarantee of Rs 80 crore.
• Marines, Sikorsky To Start Intensive CH-53K Competitions

  The U.S. Navy-Marine Corps and Sikorsky Aircraft will begin a series of competitions over the next several months for the Marine Heavy Lift Replacement helicopter program.
  They will source for the engines, avionics and even the airframe. First flight of the CH-53K is expected in November 2011.
• U.S. says bomb hit wrong house in Iraq
  The U.S. military has confirmed that a bomb from a U.S. Navy F-14 missed its target by 65 feet and hit the wrong home. Six civilians were killed.
  Only the father and daughter of the family survived. U.S. military officials said they are investigating why the wrong building was hit.
• New adversary detachment stands up in Key West
  The USN's adversary squadron, VFC-13, has established a detachment of 12 F-5Ns permanently at Naval Air Station Key West.
  They will fly adversary training missions against carrier battle groups during their pre-deployment exercises.
• NAVAIR provides troops with eye in the sky
  The story on how NAVAIR beat a tight schedule to install ROVER capability on the F-14D in one month.
• Bulldogs clamp down on insurgency
  The Bulldogs of VMFA 223 with their AV-8Bs has been busy since arriving in western Iraq last August.
• Museum simulators let everyone fly
  Anyone who wants to fly an F-14 Tomcat can now do so at the Patuxent River Naval Air Museum.
  The museum has acquired two F-14 Tomcat cockpit simulators and for $40, customers get a 20-minute brief, a quick cockpit brief and approximately a 30-minute flight.
• Navy, Air Force Maneuver To Save JSF Alternate Engine
  Industry veterans say that the move by the U.S. Navy to stop funding the development of the F136 is a calculated move to draw lawmakers into adding money to keep the program in existence.
  This is not the first time the alternate engine program has been killed only to be revived by the Congress.
• USS Ronald Reagan Departs on Maiden Deployment
  USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) departed San Diego Jan. 4 for its maiden deployment. It will deploy to the Western Pacific and the Persian Gulf.
• Tensions rise as U.S. strike reportedly kills seven Iraqi civilians
  Most American media choose not to report this yesterday but word is that an F-14 strike has killed seven civilians and four were wounded in Beiji, Iraq on Monday.
  The U.S. military would only say that an UAV spotted three people planting a roadside bomb and that Navy F-14s were called in.
  The three were traced to a building and a F-14 strafed and hit it with a precision bomb.
• Days before death, pilot wrote about ‘blanking out’
  Investigators believe that an Indian Navy Sea Harrier pilot may have become disoriented and crashed his plane while on the take-off roll. They could not isolate a cause as there is little material evidence left from the crash.
• Greenpeace members held after protest
  A dozen of Greenpeace activists were detained on Tuesday by Indian police during a protest over plans to scrap French carrier Clemenceau in Gujarat next month.
• Naval Chief to commission UAV squadron on Jan 6
  The Indian Navy's first UAV squadron will be commission into service on Jan. 6 by the Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Arun Prakash.
• India rejects proposal for ship-based Hawkeye
  India's aircraft carriers will not be operating any E-2Cs from their decks as the country prefer to operate AEW&Cs from land.
• Navy faces VXX helicopter crunch
  The U.S. Navy is confident in delivering the Lockheed Martin/AgustaWestland VH-71A in 2009.
  The most difficult part is a shift to an all-aluminium airframe to meet USN’s crash worthiness standards.
• Former Navy pilot publishes his 4th novel
  Former U.S. Navy fighter pilot and Vietnam War veteran, Mike Basford, has published his fourth novel, A Desperate Land.