VA-52 Knight Riders — the Intruder squadron that works the Big E all night
Every night on the Big E, a grey A-6E called KNIGHT 501 taxis to the starboard cat, launches, flies the pattern and traps back aboard. Here is the squadron behind the tail code, and how it lives in the sim.
KNIGHT 501 wears the colours of VA-52, the Knight Riders. The squadron began life as Navy Reserve Fighter Squadron VF-884 on 1 November 1949, was called to active duty in July 1950, and became VA-52 on 23 February 1959. It flew Corsairs, Panthers, Cougars and Skyraiders before taking delivery of its first A-6A Intruders in November 1967.
The record
VA-52’s combat tours include Yankee Team reconnaissance in 1964, Rolling Thunder in 1966, and Linebacker in 1972. On its last WestPac cruise, in 1994, its carrier was pulled off a Persian Gulf station and sent to the Korean Peninsula during the North Korean nuclear crisis. The squadron was disestablished on 31 March 1995.
Hornet Bay is an alternate-history tribute, not a record of who sailed where: in the sim the Knight Riders live aboard the Big E, because that is the deck we built. Nobody at the squadron, the Navy or the manufacturer has anything to do with it.
In the sim
- Tail code NL, modex 501, callsign KNIGHT 501 — see the A-6E card for the specs.
- She parks on the port row, waits a few seconds, then taxis to Cat 2, the starboard bow catapult. Cat 1 stays yours.
- Two laps of the pattern, then a trap on the angle deck between the wires, then back to the spot. Her shipmates, the S-3B and the C-2, run the same cycle on longer timers.
- Friendly blue on the scope, and not lockable.
- You can print her: A-6E model page.
For the round-the-clock rhythm, see a day on the Big E; for another squadron that gets a nod in paint, the Jolly Rogers.
Try this: press J to spectate, cycle until KNIGHT 501 comes up, and ride her off Cat 2. Then take off yourself, and remember: a mission only counts once you are back at the point of origin.
— HB