The A-4 Skyhawk's Leading Edge Slats 

I love how he smoothly demonstrates the gap between the slat and the wing by sticking his hand through it

For those wondering, Doc was a flight surgeon and was flying in the two place trainer variant of the A-4. He was told about the leading edge slats during the pre-flight but wasn't told about the BANG!

I had 8 years working on the little Skyhawk. Great little plane. I dont know how many times I cleaned and lubed the aerodynamic slats on them. They did have a tendency to get sticky occasionally. Be safe.

Loved seeing these flying in NZ back in the day.

I worked on these as an 18-year-old kid fresh in the Navy and those slats are a major pain in the ass for mechanics They were constantly sticking and we would push on them from different directions over and over until we could make them work again and changing the bearings was a nightmare but overall this airplane was excellent and flew long past there originally designed service life. went on to act as adversaries against brand new F/18s A/4s ran circles around the F/18 A-D

"Heinemann's Hotrod" one of the coolest aircraft the Navy ever operated. Growing up as a kid in the 60s and 70s I must have built a dozen models of the A4.

So simple, so ingenious... and what a lovely man to explain it to us. 🙂

This pleasant little old man was a cold blooded killing machine in his prime. That's awesome

Tremendously underrated aircraft.

Remember as a kid in the 70's seeing the Blue Angels in the A4

I used to work on those in the service a great work horse of a plane😁👍👍👍

Always loved the "Scooter", one of my favorites growing up in the 60s & 70s.

That really is interesting !!! I'm 61 and I grew up during the 60$ but I never knew that about the A-4 Skyhawk !!!

I loved this aircraft but sometimes it was not always the easiest thing to work on but sometimes it was the simple things that made it great too. She was absolutely beautiful to me though.

Wow definitely would be startled, that legit looks like the wings is about to fall off

I love hearing it straight from a Vet's voice.👍💯🇺🇲

I was a plane captain on A-4M 1978-1982. The slats dragging at the end of the clip. Dragging is a concern. Have Metal shop Come out and adjust them.

I love the sky hawk, it’s one of my favorite planes. There’s not many other military jets that can punch above it’s weight like the A4. It could carry its own weight in ordinance.

A fellow Central michigan man. Fire up Chips!

He just looks like he loves everything about aviation. I bet he is so fun to hang it with and talk to. Prolly has some amazing stories.

Thats some smart engineering, and a good explenation :)

I sure miss Kalamazoo, MI I used to fly from 1C8 in Rockford, IL to KAZO and visit my relatives on Konkle which is inline with Runway 17

I had the chance to see an A-4 at the aerospace museum in Eugene, Oregon this winter. You never truly know the scale of an aircraft until you get up close to it. Absolutely love the A-4

Me too the first time I flew one scared the shit out of me

Let's talk about those spicy vortex generators on the edge

Leading edge slats. Many planes have them. Cool demo.

I play a flight sim called DCS and the A-4E is a free mod that has an exceptional team working on it, and one of the things they’ve modeled is the leading edge flaps. They even make a banging sound when retracting and extending. Truly awesome!

My father was a USN aircraft mechanic. He always said these were his favorite planes to work on.

Woah! You can see there are fins on the slat which jut up into the airflow and divert it to the side. That angle is probably specifically calibrated to produce the exact amount of force necessary to lift the slat at the exact optimal speed. The engineering on display here is simply incredible.

I grew up on the Flight Line from one NAS to another. My father was a member of VA-106 The Gladiators. One of the first Skyhawk squadrons.

Aeronautical engineering is such a Badass occupation. I can’t get enough of this stuff. I wish I was smart enough for this kind of thing. Thank you for you’re service sir

The scooter as the Skyhawk was known was one heck of a close air support aircraft and saved a bunch of us grunts in Vietnam they would fly in the weeds where the Phantom and the A6 and A4 couldn't get that dirty

Love These Old planes on the Mechanical side

The brilliance of aeronautical engineering is amazing.

The Skyhawks is one if my most Attackers, they just look so pretty and can carry a ton of ordnance for its size.

We received the last A-4 made at Cherry Point MCAS. Nicely painted with Navy/Marines on the hump and flags of every country that used the A-4 along the side. After the Ceremony of Delivery the CO had Navy painted over

So cool that you flew in one of these beastss

How can you not love this guy!

Why are so many people obsessed with the fact that the Me-109e has leading edge slats. No one is claiming that this is the first craft to have them? He’s just sharing a cool fact and experience

That's so interesting! I find aircraft very cool as the can come in so many different ways and have functions that seem weird at first, but when it's explained, it seems very smart.

A-4 Skyhawk is one of my favorite airplanes

Thanks for this.. I miss our RNZAF Skyhawks 👍✈️🇳🇿

One of my all time favorite aircraft! When it comes to single seater fighter or attack the A4-F5-F16 are my top three picks as the absolute sporty single seaters our armed forces have had in my lifetime!

Gravity fed slats! Very cool

Love the video. I built models of these as a kid. Respect for those who served to protect and ungrateful nation. Me_ jaded vet :-). Thanks for the CAS

And little triangles on top were to smooth air flow over the leading edge of wing , 'vortex generators'.

The skyhawk is toward the top of the list of favorite attack/interdiction planes. Up there with the sky raider, bronco and Thunderbolt 2(warthog)

Gotta love the Scooter. When they retired then in I believe ‘94 I saw them doing some crazy shit at the 29 stumps EAF. Flying upside down at like 300 knots probably about 20 feet above the runway. No bullshit.

A-4 one cool bird. The Blue Angels used em from the 70's up to the 80's. Got to have flaps, spoilers and slats to slow these fast muthas down. Good looking bird. Clean and less junk on it.

Fire up chips!!

automatic slats like this were quite popular among German and Soviet aircraft during World War II.

One of my favorite air crafts!

Beautiful bird!

Active aero! I'm glad that old plane tech is finally making its way into automobiles

That's a neat trick, saves a lot of mechanical weight of retraction and extension hardware

Flaps and Slats work the same, but on different parts of the wing. Flaps in the rear, slats in the front. Actually, there was a DC-8 that crashed on takeoff because the captain and his XO didn’t extend the flaps or slats. If memory serves, they pulled the P40 Circuit because of how annoying it was to hear the word call-all(Call said twice, out of tone) said redundantly. It’s important to have these flight surfaces to generate lift at low speeds.

Keep it up love these shorts and the longer vids too I cannot get enough jet media

I never realised the slat was moved back by drag, that's cool! I always thought it had a hydraulic system to retract it

Coolest demonstration ever.

You can see the vortex generators on the back of the slats on the outer 2/3rds to keep the air flow smoother across the top of the wing at higher angle of attack.

I have that plane at my university and the wings and joystick still works too

Marvelous!!!

More air on top of a wing = less lift. The slats are allowed to slide forward when the AoA is increased, which prevents air from going past to the top of the wing. So, they actually make less air on top of the wing.

The F 86 had this arrangement. And so does a little airplane called a heliocourier. 😊

The Bantam Bomber. Heinemann’s Hot Rod. All time great design to be sure.

Thank you for your service sir.

I worked on them in the Navy and those slats are awesome when they work right (low maintenance) but when they messed up it was a rigging nightmare to get them working right again.

Great video very informative and interesting 🤔💯👍

Have an old A4 PTM on the campus of my polytechnic. Greetings from Malaysia!

I love the Skyhawk!

There is also a later model variant dubbed "Agressor" with a hump on the top of the fuselage just behind the cockpit.

I love the A4 such an amazing jet its top 2 in my favorite

Looks like Wright Patterson AFB national AF museum near Dayton Ohio. Great museum.

I love to hear pro tips!

Clever design!

Current larger passenger planes and other aircraft, have slats, that are used for departure and other uses.

One of my favorite jets!!

F 86 Sabre has those wings slat too !

Thank You for Your Service honorable warrior

These videos you guys are putting out are great.

Fun fact that one of the first planes, if not the first, with th automatic leading edge was the bf-109

Love this guy and his knowledge! I am somewhat concerned that somebody put him in this aircraft without him knowing how the slats function.

..the A4 WAS New Zealands main strike fighter as well as a bomber...I used to watch them dog fighting in slow mo miles up in the sky...a work buddy was working way out in the countryside when an A4 flew overhead only to be suddenly overtaken easily by an Australian F16 or F18...he couldn't tell me which and I'm only aware that Aussie has F18s...

Doc = legend

It extend the surface area of the wings helping the aircraft for better langding and take off.

You got to love the Navy

yeah Sane happened to me when I flew one

Love history from those that lived it

The real Maverick flew one in Vietnam. Rear Admiral. R. Byron Fuller. The real deal.

Great bird.

Ed Heinemann's Hot Rod ... Designed to be as simple and rugged as possible .. single piece wing even ..

Very nice 👍

The French used this type of slat a lot on single piston aircraft. Particularly on the Rallye aircraft.

Slide rule guys were geniuses.

I'm guessing that is the only jet to have ever had that because I've never even seen that before but is really cool thank you

I love how he didn't understand the basic functions of the jet before he started flying it.

They would also come down asymmetrical at adverse angles of attack giving sudden and uncontrollable roll rate evident by damn near every pilot having hit marks on the helmet from smacking the canopy frame.

Amazing plane

As a former Navy PILOT I am surprised your NATOPS Manual did not cover such an important feature and was not part of your preflight walk around !!!

The Sky Hawk donated it's aerodynamics to the MIG 21.so very kind.