?what IS IT???

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
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Well, I seem to be suffering from an “information deficietcy.” While skimming the pages of one of my favorite books, Vietnam Warbirds in Action by Dana Bell, I observed several pictures of a type of weapon I have never seen. I do not know the name, and I have looked at several other books, and tried several internet search engines. The weapons were mounted on several different aircraft, including AD-4, AD-6 skyraiders, and T-28Ds, both VNAF and USAF. They are what looks to be bombs, of a very small weight, straped 6 to a hardpoint, 3 to a strap. Does anyone know what these ever so elusive bombs are? And if so, were they commonly used? Maybe I have just missed somthing. Any help greatly appreciated!!

xavier

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A picture would have been nice so I cant be too sure of this answer but it can be a number of things but most likely they are Mk.82 500lb bomb or they were MK.82 Snake Eyes which were the same weight but had retarding fins. These were one of the most common general-purpose bombs attached to US aircraft during Vietnam. Here’s a picture of a Corsair dropping some Snake Eyes. But like I said I can’t be sure of the type since you didn’t provide a picture to narrow it down from but I think this is your best bet. Hope it helped

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I think I know the bombs you are talking about. I’ll have a look at my copy of “Vietnam Air War Debrief” and see what they are.

edit- took a look at the book. A couple photos show what look like WWII era 100 lb GP bombs. The captions do not explain the ordinance.

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Ah Yes! the wonderfull world of snakeyes! Rolling in at about 250 feet, and putting four of them about 300 yards in front of you. Then wondering who’s idea that was! Seriously; I’ve never seen them dropped from that altitude.

gary

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Mk81 LDGP (Low Drag General Purpose) & SE (SnakEye) 250lb class munitions were used early in the Vietnam war, the F4 carrying up to 22(?) of them.

God I love the F4.

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Here are a few pics of smaller ordinance used on the T-28/A-1

WW2 era bombs and gunpod on T-28 during the “Advisor” era.

CBU dispenser and LDGP bomb on T-28 later in the war

And what I think you are looking for on an A-1, check out the two pylons inboard of the CBU dispenser. It looks like six small bombs on each pylon.

And here is an A-1 with a maxed out load

they are identified as AN-M1A4 Frag clusters- 6 AN-M41A1 20 lb fragmentation bombs on a AN-M1A3 cluster adapter

Here is a link to the weapon description

http://skyraider.org/hook/orddraw/m1a4fc.pdf

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Image:A-7A VA-174 CVA-61 1968.jpg

OK, thats done, what about this;

Image:B-2 spirit bombing.jpg

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That’s somebody on the ground about to be in a world of hurt…!

PB

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YES!!

exactlyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

off to my scratchbuilding eh?

thanks a million guys!

xavier

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