A-4 Skyhawk

[sksvlad]

I was standing under this static display and realized that the machine guns are of different lengths. Why?

 

[kahu1]

They are offset to accommodate the magazines.there isn't a lot of room in a Skyhawk ,so everything in there is shoe horned in.
The cannons have a loose mounting(you can rattle the barrels) that and the offset supposedly helped scatter the rounds for area effect.

 

[Tony Williams]

For those interested, the Skyhawk's guns were 20mm MK12 cannon (standard for the USN at that time), which were developed from the Hispano HS 404 but fired different 20 x 110 ammo, the wider and more powerful MK100 series only ever used by the USN (and anyone who bought their aircraft). The case was a stretched version of the USAF's 20 x 102 M39/M61 round.

 

[sksvlad]

Here is an interesting historical note about Vice Admiral Stockdale after whom this base entrance is named.

 

[sksvlad]

This Skyhawk is hanging at the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola and it has its machine guns of equal length. How come it is different from the one in the original post in the begining of this thread?

 

[Nabob]

The feel for esthetics of the renovator?
The ejection ports are still offset.
Here is another example.
A-4 infront of the USS Lexington in 2003 (white) and 2004 (blue).
The new Blue angels color scheme seems to have lost the ports and mantched the exposed barrel lengths.
Please note that the Blue Angels A-4 from Pensacola do not have guns (and have bent fuel probes).

 

[sksvlad]

Great answer, right on. I talked to the Navy volunteers at the museum during my 2nd day. They said that the displays are prepared by people who probably guessed at it and made them equal for esthetics. I also met an old Navy gentleman who knew Stockdale personally. The original photos in this post are of the plane in front of the main gate of NAS Coronado North Island.