From: gregs@meaddata.com (Greg Smith)
Subject: Re: Carrier Fighters
Organization: Mead Data Central, Dayton OH
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 13:11:19 GMT


From gregs@meaddata.com (Greg Smith)

In article <BuF3C7.8Ls@lawday.DaytonOH.NCR.COM>, daveh@vax.oxford.ac.uk writes:
|> 
|> From daveh@vax.oxford.ac.uk
|> 
|> In article <BuDFBs.G6y@lawday.DaytonOH.NCR.COM>, jd@latcs1.lat.oz.au (John Dimogotsis) writes:
|> > 
|> > 	I heard a few years ago from a reliable source that at some time in the
|> > 	early '90s the USnavy would start production of the " F14-D " and the
|> > 	" A6-F ", have both of these projects 'sunk'? 	
|> > 	<more deleted>
|> > 	Also heard of a proposal called E7 to replace the E2, but maybe it was
|> > 	just wishfull thinking.
|> > 
|> 
|> Both the F-14D and A-6F programs have been cancelled. The E-7 is a replacement
|> for the EC-130 Tacamo Hercules used to communicate with submerged submarines.
|> 

>From Flight International July 29, 1992

A-6 Intruder Following the demise of the F404-powered  A-6F  and the less-
ambitious A-6G, the Navy has approved a limited upgrade of its A-6E
carrier-borne bombers (Block 1A aircraft). Changes include a wingfillet
modification to give increased lift, missile-approach warning system, towed
active-missile decoys, satellite navigation, head-up and head- down displays and
new computer and inertial navigator. A-6Es will be retrofitted with composite
wings concurrent with the system upgrade. Grumman delivered the last
metal-winged A-6E in September 1988. The last new A-6E on order was delivered in
February 1992. Boeing-built composite wings are being retrofitted to 172 A-6s by
Grumman and US Navy depots. Customer: USA 660+ (all versions).

>From Aviation Week, October 12, 1987

Rewing Requirements

   The current composite rewinging program started in 1985, when Boeing won the
Navy's competition to design, fabricate, qualify and produce a replacement wing
for the service's A-6E fleet.  The fixed-price contract, which includes five
options valued at a total of $ 1.1 billion through Fiscal 1990, specifies the
following production requirements: fabricate 11 wing sets for new-production
A-6Es; fabricate 247 retrofit wing sets for fleet A-6Es; fabricate 78 wing sets
for A-6Fs.

   The contract also requires fabrication of 30 sets of A-6F inboard pylons.

   The 247-figure exactly matches the Navy/Marine Corps inventory of 342, less
the 95 A-6Es with new metal wings.  The program has built-in flexibility because
the composite wing design is such that a wing originally scheduled for retrofit
on a A-6E can be rescheduled for installation on a new A-6F with only
three-weeks notice, Miller said.

   The Navy wants to buy 150 A-6Fs for delivery between 1990 and 1995 (AW&ST
Aug. 10, p. 31).

[stuff deleted]

[from caption in a picture in the same article]
..Picture 3, U.S. Navy is rewinging its Grumman A-6Es to extend their service
life.  The A-6E's mission profiles have far exceeded the requirements specified
in the late 1950s.  One aircraft, assigned to VA-42 at NAS Oceana, Va., already
has accumulated more 7,100 flight hours.  Delivered in 1966 as an A-6A, it was
converted to an A-6E in 1974 and further modified to the TRAM configuration in
1984.




Earlier I had mistakenly associated the rewing of A-6E's with the A-6F.


|> Dave
|> -- 
|> 
|> David Hastings                      | "Imposition of order=escalation of chaos"
|> VAX Systems Programmer              |                     
|> Oxford University Computing Services| "Just when you think you've won the 
|> daveh@vax.oxford.ac.uk              |        rat race, along come faster rats"
|>                

Earlier I had mistakenly associated the rewing of A-6E's with the A-6F.
That was incorrect.  

Sorry,

-- 
Greg Smith

DISCLAIMER:  My ideas are entirely my own unless MDC decides to patent them.
I am not empowered to speak for Mead Data Central or Mead Corporation.

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