Type: twin-engined ASW aircraft
Bureau Number: 151627
Powerplant: two 1137-kW (1525-hp) Wright R-1820-82 or -82A radial piston engines
Maximum speed: 451 km/h (280 mph) at 1220 m (4000 ft)
Cruising speed: 269 km/h (167 mph)
Climb rate: 594 m/min (1950 fpm)
Range: 1785 km (1105 miles)
Ceiling: 7560 m (24,800 ft)
Weights: empty 7544 kg (16,600 lb); maximum take-off 11,158 kg (24,548 lb)
Payload: nine passengers on rearward-facing seats or up to 1588 kg (3495 lb) of freight
Armament: 2181 kg (4800 lbs) of depth charges, torpedoes, or rockets
Dimensions:
Span 21.23 m (69 ft 8 in)
Length 12.80 m (42 ft)
Height 4.97 m (156 ft 4 in)
Wing Area 45.06 m2 (485 sq ft)
Introduced in 1954, the S-2 Tracker was designed to find, follow and if necessary kill enemy submarines. Spanning three decades, the primary purpose of the S-2 was to be a thorn in the side of Soviet submarines. Originally designated the S-2F-1, it didn't take long for e Tracker crews to come up with the nickname STOOF (as in S-2-F).
A fixture on Essex class carriers like USS Yorktown, the S-2 expanded sub hunting to the open ocean in ways land based brethren like the P-3 Orion could not. The S-2 could turn into an offensive weapon, armed with a combination of torpedoes, rockets, mines and depth charges.
In the spring of 1954 aboard the USS Hancock an S-2 became the first aircraft to take off from a United States aircraft carrier by means of a steam catapult.
Tracker's service record was extraordinary, credited with six million hours in flight and nearly 750,000 carrier landings. The S-2 Tracker was retired from Navy service in 1976 but to this day modified Tracker's serve as water carrying, firefighting aircraft.
The Original Astronaut Shuttle
The United States Navy has always played a crucial role in the development of America's space program. And on May 5, 1961 the S-2 Anti-Submarine Squadron VS-22 entered the history books. That's the day Navy Commander Alan B. Shepard squeezed into his Freedom 7 Mercury capsule and became the first American astronaut in space. Shepard's successful fifteen minute flight culminated with splash down in the Atlantic Ocean where he and the capsule were retrieved by the Essex class carrier Lake Champlain.
The S-2 and the men of VS-22 safely delivered America's newest hero from the carrier flight deck back to Cape Canaveral, Florida. In the years that followed, VS-22 would provide the same service for several more Gemini and Apollo astronauts.
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CV-10 was to be known as the Bon Homme Richard but was renamed in honor of the only American carrier lost in the pivotal Battle of Midway, USS Yorktown (CV-5).
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