Jump to content

A-4C and TER loadout question


Recommended Posts

I am building the Hasegawa 1/48 A-4C in honor of a late friend. I have two questions.

1) At one time, he had described to me one of his missions in particular (1967, Vietnam), where he stated a loadout of 6xMk82s (three on each of the two wing TERs) + one centerline fuel tank. Subsequently however, I've read where 3 x bombs on each wing TER wasn't done because of clearance issues with the gear doors, so instead 2 x bombs per TER were loaded instead. Is it possible my friend was mis-remembering? Or was there a workaround to enable the loadout he stated?

2) I am using the Hasegawa Aircraft Weapons A kit to model the TER. I'm having a hard time understanding how the TER attaches to the A-4C wing pylon. I've done searches on Google and to my surprise have had a hard time finding a good picture to help me. Can someone point out a good reference?

Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks very much Dave! I see the Cybermodeler reference page confirms my friends recollection so I will go ahead with the 3 x Mk82s on each TER.

Thanks Pete for the video, very helpful!

In the reference section on Cybermodeler, the typical loadout chart for the A-4c shows the use of 3 mk.82s on MERs on the wing pylons.

HTH, Dave

Edited by aeronut66
Link to post
Share on other sites

In the video above those are Mk-81 Snakeyes on the inboard stations of the TERs, they are smaller and the tails do not have on notch on them like the MK-82 Snakeys. Here is another video:

you can see the size differences between the bombs. Also at the 2:25 mark you see a load of 5 Mk-81 Snakeyes on a MER. You could use a MER and have 3 Mk-82s loaded.

Jari

Link to post
Share on other sites

Or was there a workaround to enable the loadout he stated?

Yes - according to some of my books, a person would physically push the landing gear door out of the way while the inside bomb was loaded and then let go, the gear door resting against the bomb until it was retracted in flight.

Another configuration not mentioned yet is 3 bombs on a MER (outside and centerline on the front, inside on the rear). This also avoided the gear door. I only have pictures of this with the A-4E/F - I'm not sure if it was used on the C.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I wonder if when power was applied, would the main gear door go into the fully open position and thus making contact with the inside bomb and causing damage to the door? On some a/c if certain gear doors had been manually closed and not fully open prior to hydraulic power applied, everyone would hear it snap to the open position. Here is another video showing a Bullpup being loaded:

at the 1:11 mark you see a TER load with slicks, note the inside bomb is smaller, and sits lower, no doubt the the upper sway braces/crutch pads are all the way down.

Jari

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...