Yep. I recognized the layout. When I visited the Arizona Memorial I was impressed at the short run that the Japanese torpedo plane pilots had to release their torpedoes. At the time, I estimated 500 yards or less coming in over the fuel farm and military installations. Incredibly good flying to release their torpedoes with such devastating effect.
Yes, in the third shot you can see Ford Island in the center and just to the right of it is the white Arizona Memorial. Best regards, Robert
Decided to drop into this historic spot on the way back from Moab... Guesses anyone? Image Unavailable, Please Login
Catalina Island from the flight levels. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Question: does HNL have access to all the runways for commercial airline use, or is at least one restricted to USAF activity only?
Again, look at the short run that the Japanese pilots had to release their torpedos, it's less than 400 yards. Their run started in the foreground over the buildings and fuel tanks. I have been there and it is impressive that they were so accurate.
Some of their success lay with the wooden fins they added to their torpedoes to keep them running shallow; if not they would have gotten stuck in the bottom of the harbor. Supposedly they learned that trick from the British at Taranto!
That's true but they had an incredibly short time to get down to release altitude (that was a few feet), aim for the target, and pull up before they hit it. They obviously had it all worked out by virtue of careful planning and rehearsal.
They are all joint use and it can be a big pain to get out of there if there is a lot of commercial traffic as it’s hard to get any faster handling even with a DoD priority code. Presumably fighters would get scrambled fast but apart from that it’s better to just fly out of Barbers point if you are on a timeline.
