US Naval A-10

[Gary]

In 1976 during the initial production run of the A-10 the folks in that odd 5 sided building began thinkin about a dedicated replacement attack aircraft to replace the A-4 and supplant the F/A 18 program, which was in it's infancy. A notion was to use the new attack jet, the Thunderbolt Two. A Tenner was diverted mid production and a special group from Fairchild was tasked with creating a one off for testing. This included removing the majority of weapons guidance systems, sealing the airframe from salt corrosion, the addition of cat gear and arrestor hook. She was stripped of much of the redundant gear and against Fairchilds wishes, ballast was placed in her instead of the Avenger cannon. Her role was to be used as a testbed for landing and low speed carrier trials.
Oddly, she was posted to an electronics warfare squadron while she was tested. Attack pilots rotated in and flew her. However, no weapons testing was done and as a result the tests were really invalid.
620 was flown off the USS Enterprize for 3 months and was well received by all who flew her. Landing was a breeze, she was rugged, easy to maintain, and an all round pleasure to fly. However, with the Hornet comming onstream and MacAir pushing hard for their bird they lobbied hard to halt the new Avenger II, as she had now been nicknamed, after the WW2 carrier plane, not the cannon.
The Naval A-10 was canned in favour of MacAir's multirole fighter/bomber. In a last ditch plea to the Navy Fairchild arranged for live fire demonstration in a the antiship role. They had obtained rights to use 3 WW2 vintage destroyers allocated for live fire and dropped Harpoon missles, Mavericks, laser and conventional guidedbombs and made quite an impression. For the last part of the demonstration the A-10's Avenger cannon was unleashed and in three quick passes cut the last destroyer into four roughly equal pieces. The destroyers now form what has become know as the Avenger Coral Reef.
In the stunned silence that followed the demonstration, and in light of the number of favourable reports that indicated the suitability of the Avenger II the Naval brass who had decided to nix the program spent a copous amount of time examining their own navels. Mind you, they did most of this examination on the balconies of their mansions in the South Pacific.

[Gary]

The model is the Matchbox A-10. I chose it because of the convenient break in the wings just outboard the wheel sponsons. However, had I known the battle I was in for I don't think I'd pick her again. The fit wasn't the bestest. Accuracy... Bwahhhahahaha. Ok, they got the name on the box right.
It sorta looks like an A-10 but by no means is it a jem to build. Not your typical Matchbox.

Oh yeah, the decals came from a Prowler kit, hense some of the markings may not be proper. But hey, I got something finished finally.

[Eddie M.]

Sweet aircraft!  B) I always thought the A-10 would have been a good naval aircraft with the proper modifications.
    Eddie

[proditor]

And now I get to suffer from a nice bout of "Oh, I wish I had thought of that..."

Nicely done, and a nice tale to boot!

[cthulhu77]

 one that has been on my "to-do" list for quite a while...I could not have done such a good job though !!!  Hats off, that is terrific!!

             greg

[Leigh]

Thats a sweet model Gary, nice job love the wing folds.
One minor criticism though, don't Naval aircraft have to be able to fly faster than the carrier?

[lancer]

Love it.......
The M atchbox A10 was the pre production version, I remember getting it and was disappointed wih tthe schemes that you were given. It never did get finished, my brother stomped on it for me while I was building it.

[Ollie]

Oh, very nice Gary!

   

[Sisko]

Cool man very cool

[Big_Daddy]

Nice work!  

[BlackOps]

That's one that I hadn't thought of, now that I see it the A-10 is a great choice for the carrier treatment...nice job



Jeff G.

[AeroplaneDriver]

Nice job with a crap kit Gary!  The naval A-10 is a great idea...The low TO/Ldg speeds wojld make it work on smaller carriers too, though it's a big plane so hangar space may be a problem.

[Gary]

Thank you all. I was gonna attempt to do the Hellcat style of side wingfold to save vertical space but it turned out too difficult in the drawings I did. Me not so good as most of youse with that kind of fabrication.

Anyhow, thanx again guys. Praise from you guys is great praise indeed.

[markm70]

Very Cool B)  Nice idea and story.  Well done.  

[Captain Canada]

Meow ! I like it ! Very well done, and beauty paint. I liked the story as well.

The front whell looks funny, tho...almost backwards ? Sure changes the shape of the old bird minus the cannon, or is that just how crappy that kit is ?

Cheers !