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A4 Skyhawks, wing stations, how many.....


DaveH

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I'm  a bit confused about the number of wing stations on A4-C, P & Q. I allways thought the 4P was based on the 4B (1 station each side), the 4Q, based on the 4C, still only 1 station per wing. I recently bought freighdogs 4C conversion for the Airfix kit, instructions tell you to open extra hole in wing for extra stations, so 2 per side. All my reference states extra stations only came in with A4-E, but I've got pics showing Argentinean ground crew loading bombs on th outer stations of the Skyhawks, which at this time were 4P's or 4Q. So hence my confusion.... 

Can anyone out there help ..??

Cheers 

DaveH

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Hi Dave,

That's the Argie Air Force & Armada designations that Argentina bought from US inventory.

A-4P/Q derive from the A-4B; but our purchases were endowed with spoilers (just one [wet] hardpoint under the wings).

A-4C were endowed with the A-4E wings (two hardpoints under each wing).

Anything else you need, just whistle.

Cheers,

 

Unc2

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On 24/05/2019 at 11:05, Uncle Uncool said:

 

If you need decals, remember I'm Britmodeller's official Argie Air Force/Armada decal provider;

¿Fabián so vo?

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7 hours ago, Sturmovik said:

¿Fabián so vo?

:blink2: Say WHUUUT...???!!! Not quite, Fran. I'm the "Nacho boy"

Incidentally; is this Fabián to challenge my title of Britmodeller's official Argie Air Force/Armada decal provider here? :wonder:

I shall have him in a duel - fist fight, first blown up tooth!

Yeh, me shall...

Cheers,

 

Unc2

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  • 4 weeks later...

Uncle.. A-4C wings were modified in Argentina to A-4E standard wings (as they were purchased as is from the Arizona desert..). One thing you may consider is the reinforcement over the wings, deleting one of the vortex generators.

 

6ec6dee6-4c5c-4526-b5ee-f01e8ad77564-ori

 

4ab24fe8-1aa9-44bb-a707-5ea5dc62b43c-ori

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18 hours ago, javis said:

Uncle.. A-4C wings were modified in Argentina to A-4E standard wings (as they were purchased as is from the Arizona desert..). One thing you may consider is the reinforcement over the wings, deleting one of the vortex generators.

Hola, Javier

Granted on the reinforcement over the wings, but how did that explain the existence of wing-top spoilers on some of the A-4P and all of the A-4C then?

Don't forget that wing-top spoilers were an upgrade to the -4F wings, retrofitted to the -4E.

They were endowed with completely different wing anyways.

Cheers,

 

Unc2

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Hola, Tío

 

As long as I know, argentines A-4C has come as 25 decocooned cellules from the Arizona desert. Only argentine A-4C´s has those reinforcements over the wings (not even the A-4L were modified that way..). I think that they were modified here to have spoilers also. If they would bought the A-4F wings.. why they would bought A-4C´s instead of complete A-4F airplanes?

Edited by javis
wrong spelled..
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15 hours ago, javis said:

If they would bought the A-4F wings.. why they would bought A-4C´s instead of complete A-4F airplanes?

Could think of too many reasons as the time period, war in Vietnam, the actual unavailability of those airframes, etc. But I think that the key reason why Argentina didn't get the -4F instead back in '74 was that the Yanks wouldn't allow us to have the more powerful Pratt & Whitney J52-engined Scooters. In fact, wasn't it until mid 1995 that they finally granted us access to those engines in the A-4AR?

Cheers,

 

Unc2

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10 hours ago, javis said:

Well, so many circumstances to go around nothing concrete. 

Yeh, Javier, what's concrete enough is the fact that you can't just install a pylon on any wing just like that, as every spar has got a loadout limit (not only gravity plays it role on a wing spar but also G-forces while aircraft's turning and manoeuvering).

Now, men in the Air Force I've spoken to regarding this subject are not certain whether it was Lockheed Air Services providing the -4F wings or Área Material Río Cuarto modifying them locally, but most of ordies agreed on the difference there is with the airframes in the Scooters in other services: there's no CANA A-4Q birds with either spoilers or stations 1 and 5, while, at the same time there are a handful of Air Force A-4P with spoilers but no stations 1 and 5. :hmmm: This resulted in them concluding that, while it might have been possible for the techs at AMRC to endow the A-4P with spoilers, it was no possible for them to endow those aircraft with stations 1 and 5 because of the need to reinforce the wing spars internally, which makes a lot of sense to me.

 

5 hours ago, Hook said:

Very interesting stuff. In what timeframe would the straps have been added to the A-4C's?

Hi Andre,

The reinforcements were done round October 1979, and it was only done on seven airframes. If you take a good look, you’ll notice that those straps were fixed right over stations 1 and 5 in order not so that stations 1 and 5 were allowed under the A-4C wings, but so that it made possible that some additional more pounds could be loaded safely on stations 1 and 5.

I’ve seen pictures of at least three airframes without those reinforcements over stations 1 and 5, such as C-305, C-311 or C-312.

Cheers,

 

Unc2

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