Tailspin Turtle

It’s a trap! The link is to an advertisement.

The shape of the lower aft fuselage of the AD-6 display model drawing is closer to your A-1E picture (the latter does have a little curvature).

Thanks for the observation on the lack of curve on the bottom of the aft fuselage. It is true that the stations drawings can not be relied upon for shape. However, the display model drawing might be more accurate (green lines) in that regard so I’ll take a look at how it overlays on the bottom of the aft fuselage one of these days. Speaking of the cowl, one error on some AD kits is that the cowling is depicted as being a straight line between the cowl ring and the cowl flaps. As can be seen in your picture, the cowl actually curves down slightly to match the diameter of the cowl ring.

For what it’s worth: http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-widebody-skyraider-redux.html

The A-1E Yankee seat rockets were angled to insure separation of the crew during extraction. Also see https://tailhooktopics.blogspot.com/2017/03/a-1e-yankee-escape-system.html

RF-4B BuNo 157346 also had the wing bulges (wider tires) and the angular, not rounded, forward-facing camera fairing. It could have been retrofitted with the -10 engine but Fiddler is right about it having -8 engines in this picture. For a comparison, see http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2012/12/j79-exhaust-nozzles.html

A work in progress: https://superheatmemorial.blogspot.com/

For what it's worth (not much), I was told when I was at McDonnell back when the E was in development that the cg change caused by the gun was unacceptable from a carrier-basing standpoint (takeoff and landing speed). My guess is that the smaller radar dish required for adding the cannon also didn't have the detection range desired for the Navy Phantom's raison d'etre, which was fleet air defense.

See the last picture in the announcement (if you start with the box art): https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2235848820007064&set=pcb.2235848980007048&type=3&theater&ifg=1 Of course, that model has Sidewinders which I'm pretty sure weren't backfitted to the slatted airplanes but I doubt that the person that built had neither the instructions for the kit nor in-depth knowledge of the FJ-2/3 configurations.

Tom and I corresponded from time to time and we met once at an IPMS Convention. At one point I offered to load his material onto a blog so he could just provide a link to it instead of typing a comment to each request and misstatement but he didn't respond, as he was wont to do sometimes. I've taken the liberty to create a blog for him so that can now be done. It will take a while to get all of the material posted but I've made a start: https://superheatmemorial.blogspot.com/

January 2019

At a glance, it looks like an excellent summary reference. I particularly appreciate the paint guide. It seems unlikely that you can do WW II justice in that few pages but if Dana Bell has vetted it then what’s there will be gospel. I’ll only be a little disappointed if you fail to mention the “Norfolk” scheme. In any event, I’m most familiar with post-WWII though post-Korean War from a subject-matter standpoint; again, it will be hard to cover in a few pages. I certainly wouldn’t want to volunteer for it.

I’m looking forward to the next in the series

A 9 October 1981 McAir General Arrangement drawing has them angled out from vertical by 20 degrees. The tips are 11.8 feet apart and the roots are 79.5 inches apart, toed out by one degree. Measurements are to the center of the airfoil.

From personal experience in the mid-1950s, it was a hard g and it was the name for a malt-shop/snack bar sort of establishment on base.