A-6 Intruder and EA-6 Prowler

[GTX]

Hi folks,

I guess I should look at some of the posted links more often.  Look what I found on the beuliland.com site:



Regards,

Greg

[gooberliberation]

Can't find any more camo'd intruders, but here's a profile of that green phantom and a SEA Vigilante

[GTX]

Not so much a whiff (its actually real world!), but still a different looking  Prowler:



Regards,

Greg

[Archangel]

Take the body of an EA-6 and blank out the rear seat and paint it Gunship Grey and add a pair of F-404s. You could have the start of an alternate to the F-15E .

[dy031101]

I recently heard that there is a Grumman Model 128U that is the ASW version of the A-6.

Hum...... folks, what is by your estimations the smallest carrier that could operate A-6?

(Midway class?  Essex class?  CATOBAR Ark Royal?  Clemenceau class?  Or...... even Colossus class?)

This question stems from the Wikipedia claim that the modernised Midway class is too small for S-3...... would those not wanting to be stuck with refurbished S-2 be able to appreciate the Grumman 128U?

(Of course, for AEW capability one still has to look at S-2 variations or Sea King with Searchwater......)

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Something you do not see very often in the news or as a model.  Wally Civitico  has shared some images of his 1/48th scale KA-6D Intruder tanker on ARC that he has loaded up with fuel tanks and a scratch built hose and drogue unit mounted in the fuselage.
 
(image source: Wally Civitico/ARC)

[Taiidantomcat]

Boy that is great looking 

[MAD]

For your Ferret / Wild Weasel Intruder - you should start with the two-seater EA-6B Intruder arrangement - the prelude to the EA-6B Prowler!
For this will already have the EW/ECM and RWR built into it!

M.A.D

[Weaver]

Hard one to whiff, the A-6: the airframe's an odd shape to change and not really suitable for roles other than those it really did.

How about export customers? Given the small carriers available in the rest of the world, they'd probably be out as platforms, so we've talking about land-based strike, probably with a maritime bias:

Marineflieger/Italian with 4 x Kormorans

Japanese "anti-landing-craft" with 4 x ASM-1s

Portuguese/Spanish/Greek/Australian with 4 x Harpoons

RAF with Martels/Sea Eagles instead of the Buccaneer (hate the idea, but it's valid)

Australian 'nam version loaded with Brit 1000 pounders as a Canberra replacement

[jcf]

Single-seater.

[Weaver]

Single-seater.

Yes I thought of that, and a tandem two-seater based on the Prowler, but they'd be awfully tricky to model, bearing it mind that cutting a tapered slice out of the A-6 fuselage would shorted the already stubby nose, angle the jet pipes outwards and change the wing sweep. One possibility might be to start with a Prowler, cut the slice, accept the shortened nose and them make that a single seater.... Another approach might be to substitute an entirely different centre and front fuselage, with the A-6 wings, engines and tail grafted onto it.

McGreig's got an interesting A-6 project underway, with VG wings and a pointy nose, although it preserves the side-by-side layout:

http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,19029.0.html

[jcf]

Yes I thought of that, and a tandem two-seater based on the Prowler, but they'd be awfully tricky to model, bearing it mind that cutting a tapered slice out of the A-6 fuselage would shorted the already stubby nose, angle the jet pipes outwards and change the wing sweep. One possibility might be to start with a Prowler, cut the slice, accept the shortened nose and them make that a single seater.... Another approach might be to substitute an entirely different centre and front fuselage, with the A-6 wings, engines and tail grafted onto it.

What tapered slice? The Design 128G-12 proposal in the drawing had the same fuselage width and wingspan as the A-6
and was slightly longer at 56' 6" compared to 54' 9" for the A-6. The proposal also incorporated a folding horizontal tail.
Attached is a quick and nasty overlay (of course the drawings don't line up exactly even though both are from the Putnam volume  )
From the drawings it appears to me that it would be more a matter of building up and extending rather than removing.

Jon

[Weaver]

Ah I see - I was assumed that any single-seater would be narrower. That overlay is very interesting: the single seat canopy is actually in front of the side-by-side one, which means you could fit a tandem cockpit if you wanted to.

What was the intended mission of the 128G-12 proposal?

[dy031101]

What was the intended mission of the 128G-12 proposal?

It competed against the A-7 Corsair, so I'd assume its mission to cover the same range......

[Daryl J.]

Hawker developed the Intruder with Grumman and I hear the Intruder IV was quite the machine for the British.



,
Daryl J.