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For years I've been building aircraft that were part of the US Navy's Aircraft Carrier Wing 8, from different years. I have had aircraft from 1965 for a while, but never took a picture of all of them together and I have updated/ rebuilt some of them recently.
In contrast to modern-day Air Wings, that consist of Hornets, Hawkeyes and various types of Seahawk helicopters, back in 1965 CVW-8 included seven different types of aircraft and helicopters. The wing's fighter squadrons operated F-8E Crusaders and F-4B Phantom IIs and the wing's three light-attack squadrons flew A-4E Skyhawks. My model represents a jet assigned to the USMC squadron that was part of the wing. The wing also included a single squadron flying one of the largest aircraft ever to serve aboard aircraft carriers, the A-3B Skywarrior. Originally this was mainly intended to carry nuclear weapons, but it could also carry conventional bombs and was used as a bomber at the start of the war in Vietnam. By 1965, however, the A-3Bs in Carrier Wing 8 had all been fitted with air-to-air refuelling packs in their bomb bays and mainly served as airborne tankers. Support aircraft included the E-1B Tracer airborne early warning aircraft and EA-1F Skyraider electronic attack aircraft, which were among the last US Navy carrier-based aircraft that still used piston engines. UH-2 Seasprite helicopters were used for transport and search-and-rescue.
