I tried this over on the ship model web and got a real non-informative answer. Does anyone know when the Enterprise got rid of the A-7 Corsair. Replaced the A-6's. IF you happen to have the same info about the Nimitz that would be cool. Anyone know of a great reference book for both or either of these carriers whch would incude tail markings and that sort of stuff. I did find out that neither participated in 1991 Desert Storm, were either of them involved in the recent unpleasantness?

I dunno but I would try to google it.

CVN 65 = Enterprise
CVN 68 = Nimitz

Do a search on the CVN #.

I finally got a good answer. For those interested. Both ships ditched their A-7s in 1991 neither one participated in Desert Storm, though Nimitz showed up right after it finished and hung around a while to enforce no fly zones. Both discarded their A-6's in 1996. I'm planning on modeling both these in monsterous 350 scale (when they release the Nimitz) and like all good modelers, I am doing my research. The next step is to find out how many of each plane they are fielding (or were). From what I've picked up so far, they don't seem to carry very many Tomcats. How many are in a squadron? Are Hornet squadrons the same size?

Carrier Airwings

The above link will take you to a website that lists carrier airwing deployments for the Big E. The site also contains other carriers too.

For the NH CVW-11 aircraft that deployed from 82-90, the GMM Lo-vis decals cover those aircraft. For that timeframe F-14's and A-7's had 12 aircraft per squadron. A-6/KA-6D were around 16. S-3A Vikings had 10. E-2C, SH-3H, and EA-6B had around 6.

For the AA CVW-17 aircraft that deployed in 1996, the GMM Lo-Vis (East Coast) decals cover that airwing. The aircraft totals were the same but substitute F-18's and SH-60's for A-7's and SH-3H's. This is the time frame I am modeling mine in. I do have some issues with the GMM decals because they are too light (this has caused me a lot of grief). Also the tomcat decals are inaccurate. The decals include both VF-103 sluggers and VF-84 jolly roger when it was just VF-103 jolly rogers.

If you have anymore questions, just ask.

Thanks Nimitzfan. I found an old book that gave a breakdown of the types of planes on the Nimitz during 1993 and It seems probably the Enterprise as well. there were 24 Tomcats, 24 Hornets,10 Intruders 4 tanker/intruders, 4 prowlers, 4 hawkeyes, 10 Vikings, and 6 helicopters. Read my new post about demise of Tomcat about current. Oh, that breaks down to roughly 12 planes in a squadron.