Meet the A-6E Intruder: Knight Rider, by the numbers 86ef63b

The first of three shipmates reporting aboard this push is the fleet’s all-weather truck: an A-6E Intruder of VA-52, the Knight Riders — tail code NL, modex 501, straight off the 1994 Pacific cruise. Ours answers to KNIGHT 501. Her card:

1. Crew: two, side by side — pilot left, bombardier/navigator right and a half-step back. The wide framed greenhouse is the Intruder’s face.
2. Powerplant: two Pratt & Whitney J52 turbojets, about 9,300 lbf each, buried in the fuselage with cheek intakes. No afterburners — the A-6 was all about hauling bombs through weather, not speed.
3. The kit: DIANE attack radar in that dark nose, and on the E-model the chin TRAM turret under the radome — the little ball our model carries. The fixed refuelling probe spears up off the nose: you can’t mistake the silhouette.
4. 1994 squadron: VA-52 Knight Riders, NAS Whidbey Island, Carrier Air Wing 15 — the Pacific fleet’s Intruders in their final seasons. VA-52 stood down in April 1995; only the Sunday Punchers flew the type longer.
5. Dimensions: 54 ft 9 in long, 53-foot span, rated for 18,000 lb of ordnance — the medium-attack muscle of its day.
6. In the bay: KNIGHT 501 parks on the Big E’s starboard row, taxis to Cat 2, launches off the bow, flies the pattern and traps back aboard — around the clock. Friendly blue on radar and the map (N), spectate-able with J, and a printable STL on the store.