Speaking of independant ops on the Cyclone thread...
I've been trying to run to ground what happened to move from carrier controlled ops to "independant" ops in the Sea King around 1970... it's not entirely clear. Three things converged:
- the loss of Bonnie, and her dedicated control capbilities
- the "availability" of RCAF navs
- the availability of the ASN-501
In any case, we ended up putting the 501 in the back with a nav, which opened the door to independant ops. This was unlike in the Tracker, where it was operated by the pilots up front. I would like to think that the community knew doing this while dipping wasn't such a great idea, but at least one crash around that time indicates otherwise. Or maybe that crash made them learn, quickly?
In any case, the 501 went in back, unlike the original requirement, which matched what the USN wanted, a robust tactical computer in front. The USN didn't really get that until the introduction of the ASN-123 in the '70s.
However, even though we had exchange people with the RN, they never seemed to consider the evolving RN Sea King HAS TANS (Tactical Air Navigation System), which was built to support an observer doing "battle management."
So we ended up using USN equipment that was meant for pilots to do what the RN was also doing with a more appropriate fit. Which meant far too much of the TACCO's capacity was eaten up by operating equipment which didn't properly support his supposed core role.
But, as always, hindsight is 20/20.