Thanks again Tommy for another interesting post. I can't find any details about when this took place and whether early aircraft received the upgrade. One more observation.at some point during A-6A production raised plates (belly armor?) started to appear on the engine access panels. I can't tell the difference from looking at photos, however. The same source also mentions the adoption of the "heavier nose wheel" (of the EA-6B) beginning with 154170. Heatblur is an award winning developer of high fidelity Flight Simulation aircraft. Earlier aircraft were re-fitted at overhaul. 252, by Kurt Miska, indicates the change from black to white began with BuNo 155628 - the 359th A-6A. Regarding the nose radomes, Aircraft Profile no. And almost certainly, by the late 1970's, any of these airframes (save the tankers and the electronic warfare conversions) still in fleet service had been upgraded to Echo status. Grumman's paint shop practices didn't help either, as the aircraft type block was stenciled in tiny one inch yellow font on the rear fuselage, difficult or impossible to discern from period photographs!īut one thing is for sure: if the tail number is 158xxx or higher, it's a new build A-6E.ġ57xxx and earlier began life as Alpha models. These upgraded airframes retained their original tail numbers however, making positive identification tricky, at least during the mid seventies, as you allude to. 240 A-6As were rebuilt to Echo standards (and re-designated as A-6Es) from 1972 to 1977. The last Alpha model produced was 157029. Thanks for taking this on Tommy - a rather daunting task given the subtle complexities, overlaps, and exceptions to the rules!Īs you point out, BuNo 158041 was the first new build A-6E.
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