AVAILABLE DECEMBER 2024
The Vought A-7 Corsair was the ultimate ‘bomb-truck’, capable of packing a huge punch into a small airframe. Affectionately known as the ‘SLUF’ (Short Little Ugly Fella in polite parlance) the A-7 was developed as a successor to the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk carrier-based strike fighter and entered service with the United States Navy during the Vietnam War. The A-7 started life as an attack derivative of the Vought F-8 Crusader, with a shortened fuselage, two Colt Mark 12 20mm cannons, the same style tricycle undercarriage, and an under-cockpit intake. However, the resemblance between the F-8 and the A-7 was somewhat superficial. Whereas F-8 had a ‘variable incidence’ wing to help carrier landings and had an afterburning Pratt & Whitney J57 turbojet engine, the A-7 had a fixed wing that was thicker in order to provide greater fuel storage, and a non-afterburning Pratt & Whitney TF30-P-6 bypass turbojet. The A-7 had six underwing hardpoints, and two side-fuselage stations to carry AIM-9 ‘Sidewinder’ Air-to-Air Missiles. The first production A-7As were taken into USN service in 1966, reaching Initial Operating Capability in 1967, and quickly received a baptism at the onset of the Vietnam War. The A-7H was exported to Greece, along with its two-seat trainer variant the TA-7H, and the A-7K designation was given to were thirty airframes used as trainers by the Air National Guard (ANG). Portugal received the A-7P, which were ex-USN A-7A models fitted with TF30-P-408 series engines and A-7E avionics, and the TA-7P two-seat trainer, modified from A-7A airframes. Twenty surplus A-7Es and TA-7Cs, including two A-7E spares airframes were also sold to the Thai Navy in 1995. This book is designed for the modeller and enthusiast alike with historic details, walk arounds, colour profiles and how to model the A-7 in popular scales.
