| I am curious to know what the basic historical composition of aircraft carrier air wings has been starting from pre-WWII. For example: I know that the early WWII air wing consisted of the Wildcat, Devastator, and Dauntless. The late WWII air wing was the Hellcat, Avenger, and Helldiver (albeit the Wildcat, Corsair, and Dauntless were also used). I'm only interested in the basic air wing compositions. Specifically, going back in time in order, we have the Super Hornet, Tomcat, Phantom, and Crusader but what preceded (in order) the Crusader through to the Hellcat? This is what I am most interested in but an additional historical air wing composition list would be much appreciated too. |
A-1 Skyraiders were pretty much a standard aircraft on carrier decks of the 1950's-1960's.
As far as fighters go, you may need to research the individual aircraft carrier's history itself in order to find out which jet types it deployed with at any given time. During Korea F2H Banshees and F9F Panthers carried the burden, with F9F Cougars starting to come on line. After that (until about approx. 1962), due to the pace of jet development back then, I don't know if the Navy had a standard fighter. Fighters bought and deployed this period include the FJ-2/3/4 Fury, F9F Cougar, F4D Skyray, F7U Cutlass, F3H Demon, F11F Tiger and F8U Crusader.
An example of this- during 1958 alone:
USS Saratoga (CVA-60) deployed with F3Hs and F-8s in it's air wing, while USS Randolph (CVA-15) deployed with Cougars, Banshees and -3 Furies.