A-4 SKYHAWK 0,56m with EDF 60/15Mk2

Product information

The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk was created in 1952 as a lightweight shipboard attack airplane. It has been produced from 1954 for 25 years. During that period some 2960 units have been built, serving with the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps and in the air forces of Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Malaysia Argentina, Singapore, Brazil, Indonesia and Kuwait.
The Chief Designer of the A4D (the original US Navy designation) was Ed Heinemann. He decided to reverse the existing trend of growing size, complexity, weight and cost of shipboard aircraft and came with the simplest, lightest and thus the cheapest attack airplane conceivable – a complete opposite to the general development of the period. He chose a delta wing, structurally compact, yet of high internal volume by its very nature, offering the necessary area for a limited span, avoiding thus also the heavy wing folding mechanism. The main undercarriage legs were hidden in the streamwise canoe fairings beneath the wing lower surface, leaving the wing spars lighter because uninterrupted for only a small drag penalty. All undercarriage legs retracted forward, therefore their emergency opening was assisted by the ram effect of the airstream, avoiding weight and complexity of any back-up power system for emergency lowering. To provide electricity in case of failure or damage a generator with a propeller driven by the ram air was automatically flipped from the fuselage well into the airstream, this method being akin to the way the electric power was generated in the period of the W.W.I.
Ed Heinemann was pretty thorough in is effort to cut down weight, and this zeal was not limited to his subordinates. Among other things they’ve succeeded in reducing the weight of the air conditioning unit by one third, the standard ejection seat, weighing normally some 45 kg, “shed” some 18 kg after the redesign, the weight of avionics dropped by 22 kg. There was no loss of reliability or capability and the production costs were also lowered substantially. All these weight savings told on the increase in payload, and on the growth potential of the machine. Altogether 17 different versions were produced of the Skyhawk, the lightweight pugilist was also known as the Heineman’s Hot Rod, Scooter, Ford and Bantam Bomber. The Skyhawks took part in many conflicts – beginning with the Vietnam war and ending with war in the Gulf in 1991.

The set of decals enables you to build one of three A-4E/F Skyhawks.

The model is not intended for complete beginners. Thanks to the ratio of the model’s weight and the ducted fan’s thrust any catapult is unnecessary – the model is hand-launched. The model equipped with an undercarriage could be flown from hard-surfaced strips. Provided a sufficiently powerful propulsion unit is fitted (e.g. the EDF 60/25), , the model could be flown off a short turf.