They didn't always look like the pictures that you saw here. These magnificent aircraft used to fly, and they inspired terror in the hearts of Russian submariners and other enemies of Freedom and Democracy hidden beneath the seas.

They used to look like this:
Credit: David Bacon


And this:
Credit: Mahalon K. Miller, USN

And once upon a time, each was new and shiny, like this:


Or this one, preserved and displayed in the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum in Florida.

These remarkable aircraft served the US Navy for 23 years. During that time, they flew over 6,100,000 hours (about a billion miles)and made over 744,400 carrier landings on 40 different carriers of the US and other navies while serving in the armed forces of 14 nations. They're gone from US Navy inventory now, but they won't be forgotten.

And here's a great website dedicated to them, including a database that allowed me to find all of the information related to the specific airframes: World's First Grumman S2 Tracker Website