[connectthedots]

It's true. They also had to do it this way to take the beatings from launches and recoveries on aircraft carriers, especially the landings. The A6 is a very heavy plane for carrier operations and combined with the large payloads it carried, a conventional airframe would have failed in short order.

[Taxman]

Far be it from me to contradict a fellow FReeper, but the A-6 "Intruder," was not "machined out of a solid block of a high-strength aluminum alloy." It had many parts that were, but it was of conventional aircraft construction with the usual welds, fasteners and rivets.

It was a "durable aircraft and could withstand tremendous damage and still fly" because it was designed and built by the world famous "Grumman Iron Works," a company noted for building hell-for-strong aircraft for the U.S. Navy since before WWII.

The A-6, as are all aircraft destined for service in a U.S. Navy Carrier Air Wing, was specifically designed for that extremely harsh environment, plus the combat environement, of course. All carrier-based aircraft are substantially heavier than aircraft designed only for land operations.

Grumman built fine airplanes for the U.S. Navy, and I am proud to have flown them from 1965 until 1981. We made fun of them, but, damn, they could "take a licking and keep on flying!"

Frank L. Davis, Jr.
Captain, USNR (Ret)
Naval Aviator # V23271