Heinemann's Hot-Rod

At its El Segundo plant in Los Angeles this week, Douglas Aircraft Co. rolled out its latest attack bomber for the Navy, a jet called the A4D and a member of an unusual new family of U.S. warplanes. The A4D, with stubby, delta wings, is light and uncomplicated,* weighs only 8,300 Ibs. unloaded compared to 11,800 for its predecessor, the AD Skyraider.

Douglas claims that the plane is the smallest and lightest jet combat plane ever built in the U.S. It has a 39-ft.-long fuselage and short, 25-ft., batlike wings, only half the spread of the Skyraider. But the plane has the range and bombload (including the Abomb) to match most World War II medium bombers. The engine is a Wright J-65 turbojet (7,200 Ibs. of thrust), and though its speed is a tightly guarded secret, experts say it can outrace Russia's latest-model MIG interceptors, make its way home without escort.

Forethought & Combat. Officially, Douglas calls its new A4D the Skyhawk, but within the company, the plane is called the "Heinemann Hot-Rod," after Designer Edward H. Heinemann, 46, boss engineer at Douglas' El Segundo plant and builder of such combat work horses as World War II's twin-engine A26 (now B26) and Korea's single-engine Navy AD Skyraider. For years Heinemann has been arguing that U.S. planes are too heavy, too expensive and too complicated. They are victims of what he calls "tack-hammer engineering--tacking extra things onto airplanes that, with a little forethought, could have been avoided."

Says Heinemann: "We analyzed psychologically and physiologically just how a man reacts under combat stress, just how much he can really attend to . . . If he's going to skip some things, there's simply no use putting them in the cockpit to confuse him further." The cockpit of the A4D is as simple and uncluttered as a fledgling pilot's first trainer, though Heinemann shies away from the words "stripped down." The necessary equipment, he says, is all there, but more compact. The Hot-Rod's air-conditioning unit weighs only a third of those on conventional fighters, the ejection seat goes down through the floor instead of using the more complicated explosive mechanism needed to blast it up over the tail. By making the plane smaller all around, Heinemann has been able to eliminate the heavy, wing-folding mechanisms of most Navy planes. Thus, the Hot-Rod can fit into any carrier elevator with wings outstretched, fly off any escort carrier's short deck.

Three to One. In production Douglas estimates that the Hot-Rods can be built three times as fast for half the cost of their gadget-heavy sisters. Says Heinemann: "That increases this nation's potential by just that much--there are simply a lot fewer man-hours and a lot less material going into each A4D." The Navy is so impressed that it has already ordered Douglas' new bomber into production though its first flight is still weeks away.

*Lockheed has built a lightweight fighter called the F-104 tor the Air Force, but because of security restrictions can say only that the new plane, reportedly supersonic, is now being flight-tested at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

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