These were built for
the A-4 Skyhawk group build.
In the early 1960's
Canada looked at buying some Skyhawks to use on HMCS Bonneventure in the
fighter attack role. Two USN airframes from VA-43 were tested and found to be
just ducky. But the Bonneventure was getting long in the tooth. After all she
started life as a WW2 British carrier.
Canada was to build 2
carriers HMCS Bluenose for the east coast fleet and HMCS Crossbow for the west
coast. 300 single seat airframes were to built under licence by Canadair in
Quebec. Many of these went to other NATO forces which were also buying built in
Canada carriers. Later 45 dual seat attack planes were built just for
Canada. (This will happen in the up-coming Monogram GB). Briefly Canada was back
up there with the big boys. Unfortunately successive left leaning governments in
the late 60's and 70's did more damage to the Canadian military then Black
Friday did with the Arrow back in 1959. As it turned out only 75 single seaters
made in to the Canadian Armed Forces.
When first delivered
the planes wore the Standard Royal Canadian Navy Markings. They were also built
top as top of the line F style Skyhawks including the avionics hump, just like
the US used.
Due to the massive
cuts faced in the late 60's all of the proud navy squadrons were disbanded and
had to pick up the unused air force numbers. In the case of VFA-801 they became
434 squadron. The cuts were so massive the new Canadian Forces could not even
afford to repaint the entire fleet in a timely manner. 4206 would remain in Navy
markings until early 1975.
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images below to see larger images
With the merging of
the Navy, Air Force and Army into one big happy family also came the renumbering
of all aircraft in all 3 services into the new scheme. Also as Canada had to
retire her one remaining carrier in 1968 there was not much point continuing
with the naval colours. The left leaning government went with the 70's standard
of big colourful markings and just like the former Sea King and Tracker fleet
the slightly naval colour scheme shown here.
The 1976 example had
once been known as VFA-800 on the west coast based at CFB Comox. With all the
cuts they moved to CFB Cold Lake as 419 squadron as a Fighter squadron with a
light attack back up role.
By the late 80's the Skyhawks
were getting hard to maintain. They lost the attack capability and the hump back
in 1986 after Canada bought the CF-188 Hornet. The cockpit windshield was also
enlarged in a modification known as the "Hobbycraftmod". By 1990 they
were used as lead in trainers for the Hornets and as Aggressors. 116274 shows
one of the schemes which was popular with people who build models.
The remaining airframes, after
a costly upgrade which took millions out of the defence budget, were not used by
Canada. Nor replaced, just sold....at a buck each ....to
Bottswana. They continue to work just ducky in their new home.
4206 and 116230 are both Revell
Pro modeller (Hasegawa) A-4E/Fs. Using a combination of Belcher Bits and Leading
edge CF-5 (CF-116) decals. 116274 is a HobbyCraft A-4E Aggressor. Just using
Belcher Bits CF-5 decals as opposed to the missing kit decals.
Shawn
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images below to see larger images
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