A real Naval Aviation Question about A-4s

[[email protected]]

I have been trying to find out how many hump=backed A-4Es there were?
So far with no results. Any one have an idea. If you check the books
about the A-4 there is a complete absence of info about how many A-4Es
were fitted with the Avionics hump. Being and old AK, at one time, I
would have thought that such information would have been in the A-4E
IPB. Does anyone know? Walt

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[Don McIntyre]

On Jun 21, 8:57 am, wrote:
> I have been trying to find out how many hump=backed A-4Es there were?
> So far with no results. Any one have an idea. If you check the books
> about the A-4 there is a complete absence of info about how many A-4Es
> were fitted with the Avionics hump. Being and old AK, at one time, I
> would have thought that such information would have been in the A-4E
> IPB. Does anyone know? Walt
>
> --
> Posted via a free Usenet account fromhttp://www.teranews.com


That would be an interesting bit of info, but I wonder if it would be
cataloged anywhere. Maybe it would be covered under an AFC change
covering certain BuNos since, IIRC, the hump was a mod for the A-4E, F
and L.

[Dave[_18_]]

Try wrote:
> I have been trying to find out how many hump=backed A-4Es there were?
> So far with no results. Any one have an idea. If you check the books
> about the A-4 there is a complete absence of info about how many A-4Es
> were fitted with the Avionics hump. Being and old AK, at one time, I
> would have thought that such information would have been in the A-4E
> IPB. Does anyone know? Walt
>
Try researching at http://www.history.navy.mil/avh-1910/APP09.PDF.
Looks like some work but you may find your answer.

[Shanghai McCoy[_2_]]

wrote:
> I have been trying to find out how many hump=backed A-4Es there were?
> So far with no results. Any one have an idea. If you check the books
> about the A-4 there is a complete absence of info about how many A-4Es
> were fitted with the Avionics hump. Being and old AK, at one time, I
> would have thought that such information would have been in the A-4E
> IPB. Does anyone know? Walt
>

I never worked on A-4s, but IIRC, the Avionics hump (plus other mods, of
course) was the A-4M. Cheers!

Shanghai

[W. D. Allen]

Can't answer your question but I do know that A-4 hump was for the ALQ-51
deception repeater designed to counter the NVN SA-2 Fansong track-while-scan
radar for tracking and guiding the Guideline surface-to-air missile.

Fortunately the Navy had built a thousand ALQ-51s for the A-3D Cold War SIOP
mission. USAF had nothing available for their F-105s and F-4s except the
ALQ -76 broadcast jammer which was effective only if the carrying planes
were flown in rigid formation over the threat areas. If just one plane
drifted out of formation it could be identified and shot at with the above
SA-2 system. For the USAF photo-recce RF-101s flying solo over NVN they came
to us looking for single aircraft protection - we gave them the ALQ-51.

During the Navy's Vietnam war we installed 13,000 sets of ECM equipment in
over 3,000 Navy and Marine aircraft, spending money like it was going out of
style! Nothing being too good for the fleet!

WDA
CDR USN Ret.

end



> wrote in message
...
>I have been trying to find out how many hump=backed A-4Es there were?
> So far with no results. Any one have an idea. If you check the books
> about the A-4 there is a complete absence of info about how many A-4Es
> were fitted with the Avionics hump. Being and old AK, at one time, I
> would have thought that such information would have been in the A-4E
> IPB. Does anyone know? Walt
>
> --
> Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com
>

[John Carrier]

"Shanghai McCoy" > wrote in message
...
> wrote:
>> I have been trying to find out how many hump=backed A-4Es there were?
>> So far with no results. Any one have an idea. If you check the books
>> about the A-4 there is a complete absence of info about how many A-4Es
>> were fitted with the Avionics hump. Being and old AK, at one time, I
>> would have thought that such information would have been in the A-4E
>> IPB. Does anyone know? Walt
>>
>
> I never worked on A-4s, but IIRC, the Avionics hump (plus other mods, of
> course) was the A-4M. Cheers!

Incorrect. Some/most A-4E's (and all might have eventually been
retrofitted), All A-4F and subsequent. It was easily removed and that was
frequently done to reduce weight and drag for adversary work, Blue Angels,
etc.

R / John

[John[_8_]]

On Thu, 21 Jun 2007 16:28:13 -0500, "John Carrier" >
wrote:

>Incorrect. Some/most A-4E's (and all might have eventually been
>retrofitted), All A-4F and subsequent.

The avionic mod made it to quite a few A-4's. Even the "Air Barrons"
(VA-204?) had humps. Pretty sure they were flying A-4L's (C's upgraded
to E standards for the reserve squadrons). I have a picture of one
around somewhere that I took when they did a show at Daytona Beach
while I was attending ERAU. That was 72 or 73.

For those that don't recall, the "Air Barrons" were the reserve
equivalent of the Blue Angels back in the 60's and early 70's. Beleive
they were disbanded around 74 or 75. Did a pretty good show.

John Alger USN(ret)
1972-1997 // 1310,1320
TA-4J, A-7E, EC-130Q, P-3B

[[email protected]]

Don, Dave and everyone who responded. Thanks for your replies.

Don, yes there was an ASC that covered the A-4E Humps. And you're
right, it should contain the BuNos of the aircraft that recieved it.
But, then so should the IPB. Now to find the part that lists the
BuNos.

Dave, I have your reference, but it doesn't distinguish between those
with and those without the hump.

I've been trying off and one for about a year to find the numbers, and
BuNos, that recieved the humps. So far no luck. I have recorded the
BuNos for about 200 aircraft, mainly from photos, that did recieve the
humps, but it is far from complete.

Thanks to all,

Walt



On Thu, 21 Jun 2007 07:10:31 -0700, Don McIntyre >
wrote:

>On Jun 21, 8:57 am, wrote:
>> I have been trying to find out how many hump=backed A-4Es there were?
>> So far with no results. Any one have an idea. If you check the books
>> about the A-4 there is a complete absence of info about how many A-4Es
>> were fitted with the Avionics hump. Being and old AK, at one time, I
>> would have thought that such information would have been in the A-4E
>> IPB. Does anyone know? Walt
>>
>> --
>> Posted via a free Usenet account fromhttp://www.teranews.com
>
>
>That would be an interesting bit of info, but I wonder if it would be
>cataloged anywhere. Maybe it would be covered under an AFC change
>covering certain BuNos since, IIRC, the hump was a mod for the A-4E, F
>and L.
>


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