[Llarry]

After Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the end of World War II, there were many in the military who thought that any future wars would be fought using nuclear bombs. The Army Air Force's (and soon the U.S. Air Force's) Boeing B-29 Superfortress was the proven delivery platform. Many in the Air Force, and in the other services as well, thought that the Air Force would play an overwhelming role in any future conflict.

There was some thought in the Navy, however, that recognized the role that naval aviation could play in a future war. But existing carrier aircraft were simply too small to carry the massive early nuclear bombs. The first series-produced bomb, the Mark 4, was 60 inches in diameter and 128 inches long and weighed almost 11,000 pounds. The Mark 4 was soon succeeded by the Mark 6 which was about the same size but lighter.

The first effort in the Navy came in the adaptation of the Lockheed P2V Neptune patrol plane as a nuclear bomber. 11 P2V-3s were modified as P2V-3Cs. Takeoff would be using JATO rockets and a tailhook was provided for landings. Preliminary tests showed that landing aboard would be impracticable, and the tail hooks were removed. The concept then became a carrier takeoff, dropping the bomb and a flight to a friendly country. If that was impossible, the P2V-3C would ditch near a U.S. Navy ship with the hope of recovering the crew.

A more usable solution would come with a very large carrier aircraft and the North American AJ Savage was chosen. The AJ was a three-engine plane with 2 R-2800 prop engines and a jet in the tail behind the large bomb bay. Unfortunately, the AJ proved to be marginal as a carrier aircraft; it was just so large that deck handling proved a major problem. While it had folding wings and vertical tail, it did not help that ground crews using special equipment had to do the folding and unfolding. Despite the fact that the mission was considered critical, the AJ was unpopular on carrier decks. The AJs were frequently sent ashore in Morocco or Japan on alert to return to the carrier to load the bombs if needed.

In the meantime, the Korean War had demonstrated that not all wars would not become inevitably nuclear, which took some of the pressure off the situation.

The ultimate solution would come with the AJ's replacement, the Douglas A3D (new A-3) Skywarrior and with new larger aircraft carriers that could better handle such large aircraft. At the same time, smaller nuclear bombs were developed that eliminated the need for a very large bomb bay.