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From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Persian Gulf Combat Aircraft--The A-4 Skyhawk
Message-ID: <1990Oct16.010857.11040@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 16 Oct 90 01:08:57 GMT
References: <1990Oct8.030359.11680@cbnews.att.com> <1990Oct8.220810.7180@cbnews.att.com> <1990Oct10.000352.29743@cbnews.att.com> <1990Oct11.050750.29021@cbnews.att.com> <1990Oct15.033730.12655@cbnews.att.com>
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From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
>From: pmorriso@gara.une.oz.au (Perry Morrison MATH)
>This could be legend only, but I dimly recall the A-4 as one of the
>few (perhaps last?) aircraft design projects to equal or surpass the
>design/mission specs without going over budget. It was bang on the money
>and I believe the designers were accused of lying when they claimed they
>could deliver such performance at the stated price.

Ed Heinemann, Douglas's chief designer, was accused not only of lying but
of insanity.  The original specs -- which at least one other major
company rejected as impractical -- were for a 30,000lb aircraft, while
Heinemann proposed to meet them at 15,000lb.  He did it, on time and on
budget.  As far as I know, this has never been equalled before or since.

The closest similar performance was Heinemann's previous effort, the
A-3 Skywarrier strategic bomber, which others rejected at 100,000lbs and
he brought in successfully at 68,000lbs (he had incentive -- the bigger
number assumed operation from a supercarrier, and Heinemann correctly
believed that the then-current supercarrier project would be cancelled,
so he had to make his bomber operate off existing carriers).
-- 
"...the i860 is a wonderful source     | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
of thesis topics."    --Preston Briggs |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu   utzoo!henry