Jul 212009
 

HERE. `Currently $173… too rich for my blood.

This estate find from a former Grumman Aircraft Co. engineer is an original 1964 Topping style Manufacturer Factory Desk Model of the Grumman G-12A USAF two-seat jet attack aircraft.  

Model is made of some type of dense plastic or resin material. Finish is silver with blue stenciled and sprayed canopy areas. Wingspan is 13 inches. Length is 14 inches. There is age cracking visible around the cockpit/nose sub-assembly. There is also an area on the bottom of the fuselage where the silver paint has chipped off.

The underwing ordnance needs restoration. Each wing hard point has a rail with 6 bombs attached. All the rails and their bomb loads need to be reattached to the wing. Also, two of the rails have snapped in half and need to be reglued. Also, the centerline rail is also broken and a section with 3 bombs is missing.

Clear acrylic stand base reads “G-12A Two Seat Version” and has the Grumman logo. Stand base measures 8 1/4 inches long. The stand upright has separated from the base and needs to be buffed out and reattached. The model attaches to the upright by 2 brass locating grommets.

The Grumman G-12 was designed in response to a 1964 U.S. Navy Competition for a replacement for the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk attack aircraft. Grumman, Vought, North American and Douglas submitted designs. All the designs had to based around existing airframes to maximize commonality of parts and reduce costs and development time. The Grumman G-12 was based on the A-6A Intruder, and featured a single seat on centerline cockpit, simplified radar, and folding horizontal stabilizers to increase the number of aircraft that could be spotted on a carrier deck. The LTV proposal (based on the F-8) won the competition, and resulted in the A-7A attack aircraft.

The Grumman G-12A model offered here is a 2-seat variant of the G-12 which was submitted to the USAF.

Unlike some desk models made in quantity for production aircraft, only a very few of this type of proposal model was made in-house at the Grumman factory, and distributed only to select individuals. This is one you probably won’t see offered again.

Model is straight out of an old house sale, and is guaranteed to be original.

Still, some interesting photos, including:

grum2.jpg  grum3.jpg  grum6.jpg  grum7.jpg  grum8.jpg  grum9.jpg  grum10.jpg  grum12.jpg  grum13.jpg  grum15.jpg  grum16.jpg  grum17.jpg  grum18.jpg  grum19.jpg  grum21.jpg  grum22.jpg  grum23.jpg  grum24.jpg  grum25.jpg  grum26.jpg

 Posted by at 1:29 am

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