Douglas AD-4B "Skyraider"
Korea, Winter 1952
In this often forgotten conflict, the armed forces suffered under rough conditions sometimes, which also had a negative impact to aircraft operations. The diorama shows a Douglas AD-4B "Skyraider" which attempted an emergency landing which ended in disaster. Such accidents where aircrafts were destroyed as a result of some minor damage which they received during a mission when attempting to land were nothing unusual. It was common use in the US. Navy to divert aircrafts which were damaged to some extent to a land base to minimize the danger for the ship, the aircraft and their crew. The Skyraider was well known by its pilots for its robustness and its ability to take punishment. Thanks to this aircraft stayed in service for more than 20 years.
The Douglas A-1 (formerly AD) Skyraider was a U.S. single-seat attack bomber of the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s. A propeller-driven anachronism in the jet age, the Skyraider had a remarkably long and successful career well into the space age, and inspired a straight-winged, slow-flying, jet-powered successor which is still in front line service today, the A-10 Warthog.
It carried various nicknames including: "Spad", "Able Dog" (phonetic AD), the "Destroyer," "Hobo" (radio call sign of the USAF 1st Air Commando/Special operations Squadron), "Firefly" (602nd ACS/SOS), "Zorro" (22nd SOS), "The Big Gun," "Old Faithful," "Old Miscellaneous," "Fat Face" (AD-5/A-1E version, side-by-side seating), "Guppy" (AD-5W version), "Q-Bird" (AD-1Q/AD-5Q versions), "Flying Dumptruck" (A-1E), "Sandy" (Combat Search And Rescue helicopter escort) and "Crazy Water Buffalo" (South Vietnamese nickname).
The A-1 was originally designed to meet World War II requirements for a carrier-based, single-place, long-range, high performance dive-torpedo bomber. Designed by Ed Heinemann of the Douglas Aircraft Company, the Skyraider was ordered in 6 July 1944 as the XBT2D-1. In April 1945, one month after its first flight on 18 March 1945, it was evaluated at the Naval Air Test Center (NATC). In December 1946, after a designation change to AD-1, delivery of the first production aircraft to a fleet squadron was made to VA-19A. The AD-1 was built at Douglas' El Segundo plant in Southern California. In his memoir The Lonely Sky, test pilot Bill Bridgeman describes the routine yet sometimes hazardous work of certifying AD-1s fresh off the assembly line (quoting a production rate of two aircraft per day) for delivery to the U.S. Navy in 1949 and 1950.
The low-wing monoplane design started with a Wright R-3350 radial engine, later upgraded several times. Its distinctive feature was large straight wings with seven hardpoints apiece. These gave the plane excellent low-speed maneuverability, and enabled it to carry a tremendous amount of ordnance over a considerable combat radius and loiter time for its size, comparable to much heavier subsonic or supersonic jets. The aircraft is optimized for the ground-attack mission, and is armored against ground fire in key locations, unlike faster fighters adapted to carry bombs such as the F4U Corsair or P-51 Mustang, which would be retired by U.S. forces long before the 1960s.
The piston-engined, prop-driven Skyraider was a postwar follow-on to World War II dive bombers and torpedo bombers such as the Helldiver and Avenger. It was replaced in the 1960s by the A-4 Skyhawk as the Navy's primary light attack plane. Used over Korea and briefly over North Vietnam, it was adopted as the primary ground support attack for the U.S. Air Force and South Vietnamese Air Force (VNAF) during the Vietnam War, before being supplanted by the jet-powered A-37 Dragonfly in USAF and VNAF and the A-7 Corsair II in US Navy service.
General characteristics Crew: One Length: 38 ft 10 in (11.84 m) Wingspan: 50 ft 0 in (15.25 m) Height: 15 ft 8 in (4.78 m) Wing area: 400.31 ft² (37.19 m²) Empty weight: 11,970 lb (5,430 kg) Loaded weight: 13,925 lb as scout; 18,030 lb as bomber (6,315 kg as scout; 8,180 kg as bomber) Max takeoff weight: 25,000 lb (11,340 kg) Powerplant: 1× Wright R-3350-26WA radial engine, 2,700 hp (2,000 kW) Performance Maximum speed: 320 mph (280 knots, 520 km/h) Cruise speed: 295 mph (256 knots, 475 km/h) Range: 1,315 mi (1,142 NM, 2,115 km) Service ceiling 28,500 ft (8,660 m) Rate of climb: ft/min (m/s) Wing loading: 45 lb/ft² (220 kg/m²) Power/mass: 0.15 hp/lb (250 W/kg) Armament Guns: 4 × 20 mm (0.787 in) cannon Other: Up to 8,000 lb (3,600 kg) of ordnance on 15 external hardpoints including bombs, torpedoes, mine dispensers, unguided rockets, or gun pods
USN 90 René Hieronymus Scale 1:72 Building time: appox. 120 hrs.