A-6 Intruder
The Grumman A-6 Intruder — the U.S. Navy's all-weather carrier-based attack workhorse from Vietnam to Desert Storm — captured as an RC EDF scale model.
About
The Grumman A-6 Intruder was designed in response to a 1957 U.S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics requirement for an all-weather attack aircraft capable of long-range interdiction missions, with the short-takeoff-and-landing capability needed for Marine close air support. It was conceived to replace the piston-engined Douglas A-1 Skyraider, and it succeeded — the first prototype YA2F-1 made its first flight on April 19, 1960, and the type entered service with VA-42, the medium attack training squadron, in February 1963.
The A-6 served as the U.S. Navy's and U.S. Marine Corps's principal medium and all-weather/night attack aircraft from the mid-1960s through the 1990s, and continued in service as a dedicated KA-6D aerial tanker. The crew of two sat side-by-side — a deliberate choice that put the bombardier/navigator within physical reach of the pilot and split the workload of the pre-GPS, pre-glass-cockpit era's complex attack computers and radar. The unmistakable bulbous nose, flying the radar antenna, became one of the most recognizable carrier-jet silhouettes of the Cold War.
In Vietnam, the A-6 carried out interdiction strikes in weather conditions that grounded everything else on the carrier. Of the eighty-four Intruders lost during the war, the great majority went down to ground fire and surface-to-air missiles. The type stayed in front-line service through Operation Desert Storm before retirement in the late 1990s — and the silhouette continues to be one of the most-modeled carrier-jet subjects in modern RC aviation, with foam and composite EDF scale models in widespread use.
In the simulator
A heavyweight twin-engine carrier jet — substantial inertia, deliberate handling, and the kind of approach speeds that demand respect. Use the Intruder to practice jet pattern flying with side-by-side cockpit visibility cues. Pairs with airport-class landscapes that have proper runways. Heavier-feeling than the smaller A-7 Corsair II in this same pack, and a different character from the high-wing A-10_GWS — Grumman naval-attack handling, distinct from the close-support specialist.
