A-4 Skyhawk

[Eldorado82]

Hi there Shawn! what do you mean by saying lack of skin on the rudder? i can't understand that figure of speech

[shawn a]

Hmm... I can't send a photo, but all the US aircraft had a rudder with ribs showing, not smooth skin like on the rest of the plane.

[Eldorado82]

i thing i got what you mean.
is it because of the "honeycore" structure of rudder being made of composited materials?

we have it smooth because the rudder is being made like the rest of the plane, from solid metal and not the composited materials ( at least Skyhawk is made without any composited materials)

[shawn a]

Hmm... I think there was some kind of flutter problem when it was first tested, and Heinemann (the designer) removed the skin on the rudder to continue the tests, and it solved the problem, and the rudder on our planes never got reskinned.
You guys in Israel always seem to improve things when you see a deficiency. That's good.

[Eldorado82]

the same about the longes exhause pipes at IAI skyhawks, an imporvement that was made because all the heat missiles were guiding them self to the exhaust pipe of the Skyhawk so our engineers came with idea to enlarge it in order the gases that emerge from the engine will be coller. and it worked.

[shawn a]

How about the bulge on the spine?
Was that you guys too?

[Eldorado82]

tend to think that it's our improvement too. ( i might be mistaken)
the bulge, or hatchbacked version of the Skyahwk was with improved avionics so the bulge contains avionics boxes connected with lots of connectors, and besided that also a current convertor.

[shawn a]

It makes me wonder what you'd do with an F-22 if you got your hands on one.

[Eldorado82]

dont think that we would change anything. we would use it as-is. have nothing to improve. its just perfect.

[shawn a]

Have you seen one fly? In person, or on a video?

[Eldorado82]

I did not see one flies,not in person or in video