A-4 Skyhawk French Navale

[PaulTRose]

in the early 60s the French Navy had two brand new carriers.....the Foch and the Clemenceau.......to serve as fighters they bought 42 brand new Vought F-8 Crusaders......these proved to be unpopular, having the same incident rate that the US Navy had.....within 5 years they had lost 11 aircraft to landing accidents, on land as well as on carriers, including one that required the Foch to be docked for 6 months for repairs. They decided to replace the Crusaders with another aircraft but it was finding something suitable and within the budget ....Phantoms were too big and expensive but Sea Vixens were considered until the US Navy stepped in with an offer..........they would buy back the French Crusaders to help replace the ones they had lost and then sell new A-4 Skyhawks to the French.....this turned out to be a pretty good deal as the A-4 was cheaper to buy and operate, being smaller took up less room on deck than the F-8, and also had a secondary bomber role.......downside was it was less capable as a fighter

the Skyhawk proved popular, taking part in many operations in the coming years until both carriers were retired, indeed when the Foch was sold to Brasil they also bought all the Skyhawks the French had, which were then modernised and upgraded and would go on to serve for another 10+ years










kit is a Airfix A-4 that i started a long time ago but then lost interest cos i couldnt face doing a US Navy grey aircraft
found it again recently and decided to finish it as a what if
colour scheme is based on an overall blue-grey one that F-8's got late in their lives

 

[Mickc1440]

Like that Paul, it looks good in that colour

 

[PaulTRose]

thanks Mick.....ive got another A4 in the stash and im thinking RAF or RN scheme might suit it

 

[Jim R]

That looks good Paul. Most definitely worth finishing.

 

[Mickc1440]

Wow Paul you need another kit as they both look really good