aferguson

i was told on another board that during the Vietnam war and after, A-4's with buddy tanks were always circling the carrier when planes came back from a mission, in order to top anyone up who didn't have enough fuel to make at least 3 landing attempts. This seems logical to me and even after better tanker options came along like the KA-3 or KA-6D, this would still seem like a good idea as you could have several A-4's topping up several planes at once, rather than one or two tankers with line ups behind them. Anyone know about this that can comment?

This is a very interesting discussion. Rex, are you saying that once the KA-3 appeared, which i think was 1967, the A-4 was still used to buddy tank? Was this common or was it just rarely done? And are you saying with the 'mama and her chicks' method, the KA-3 would fuel the A-4 tankers, which would in turn fuel the outbound strike aircraft, which i gather could be any type of aircraft (a-4's, f-4's, a-6's etc), while the KA-3 itself returned to the carrier?

interesting photos, cafe. I gather the ones refueling the phantom and tomcat are from some kind of training sorte. Perhaps to train fighter pilots in air to air refueling, or simply a refueling procedure to extend another aerial exercise. I like the Tomcat one in particular....would make for an interesting diorama. The A-4 from Redtails was stationed at Miramar, so perhaps it's during a 'Top Gun' type exercise.

thanks for the quick reply. Coincidentally, i was just able to find a couple of pics of F-4's being refueled by KA-6's in 1972/73 serving in Vietnam, so that confirms my hunch that they were deployed towards the end of the conflict. Apparently, they were much preferred to the KA-3's, even though their fuel carrying capacity was about half, due to their better performance. :)

Another tanker question. Was the KA-6 used during the Vietnam war? It came out in time but i can't find any evidence it saw service there, although i would assume so. Anyone know for sure? Much appreciated.

Hi all. It is my understanding that, during the early stages of the Vietnam war, the US Navy used A-4 Skyhawks in the tanker role to fuel other Skyhawks outbound on airstrikes, via a centreline mounted 'buddy' tank. This was prior to the KA-3's becoming available in 1967. My question is: were A-4's also used to refuel other navy aircraft, such as the F-4 Phantom or were they just used to fuel other Skyhawks? If anyone has any information on this, i'd appreciate hearing it.

i have read that the upper wing roundels, on italian aircraft in north africa during wwii, which intitially had a white backround, often had the white painted out, in the field, to better camouflage the aicraft from above. The white was painted over, attempting to match the camouflage paint pattern on the rest of the upper wing. It would seem to me that this would often look fairly crude as neither the paint colour nor pattern would exactly match the rest of the wing. I was thinking of representing this, on a model i am making, by painting over the white on the decals for the upper wing rou

That's great, thanks very much. I was pretty sure the undersides weren't repainted in black, as there wasn't time plus at that point in the war there wasn't really great necessity either as N. Vietnamese night fighter activity was essentially zero. I was reading and it's rather ironic that the 'more advanced' B-52G's were less well suited to duty over Vietnam than the D's. The G's couldn't carry as much of a bomb load (no external rack capability and no big belly mod), were more lightly built to give greater range but this made them less able to withstand hits from SAM's, their ECM equipmen

Can anyone point me to camouflage and markings for B-52G's used in Vietnam, towards the end of the war. I believe they wore standard SEA paint jobs with light grey undersides (rather than black undersurfaces like the B-52D's had) but would like visual confirmation. Thanks for any help!

I want to build a Kamikaze version of a Mitsubishi Zero and am wondering what modifications i should make. I believe the Zeros used in the Kamikaze role carried a 250kg bomb under the belly, instead of a drop tank but am not 100% sure of this. I would imagine that the cowl guns at least would be removed, to lighten the plane but i have never read this being done, it's purely speculation on my part. If someone in the know could give me advice, i'd appreciate it. :P