My Build and Review of
Anigrand Kit #AA-2028 1/72 Scale XC-142A Review & Build
The Aircraft:
The XC-142A was an experimental V/STOL cargo aircraft designed and built by Vought Aeronautics which first flew conventionally and vertically in 1964, and then first made a full transitional flight from vertical to horizontal in January 1965.
This aircraft was billed and built as a "Tri-Service," aircraft, meant to be used in various configurations by the US Navy, the US Marines and the US Air Force.. With either a vertical take-off and landing or short take off and landing capability, and with decent weight lift capability, there was significant initial interest. A total of five aircraft were built and tested.
Vought built the aircraft in response to a US Military request for bid and proposal. In January 1961, an agreement between the three military branches was reached to seek a project under the overall leadership of the Navy's Bureau of Naval Weapons and the Tri-Service Assault Transport Program. The ultimate requirement was for a 10,000 lb payload, an operational radius to 250 miles, a cruising airspeed to 250–300 knots and a maximum airspeed to 300–400 knots. The Marine Corps stated that the fuel load could be reduced so that the maximum gross weight would not exceed 35,000 pounds, as long as a 100-nautical-mile (190 km) radius was maintained.
Vought teamed with Heller and the XC-142A proposal won the bid and was awarded a contract to build five prototype aircraft in 1962, targeting the first flight for 1964. The design was initially known as the Vought-Ryan-Hiller XC-142, but when Vought became the LTV (Ling-Tempco-Vought) this naming was dropped in favor of the LTV XC-142A.
The five aircraft were built, the first flight deadline was met, and the resulting five aircraft were extensively tested. The first was delivered to the US Air Force in July 1965. During the testing, a total of 420 hours were flown in 488 flights. The five XC-142As were flown by 39 different military and civilian pilots. Tests included carrier operations, simulated rescues, paratroop drops, and low-level cargo extraction.
One aircraft was lost as a result of a failure of the drive shaft to the tail rotor, resulting in the death of three test pilots. Before being corrected, various incidents of this same problem resulted in several other hard landings, damaging two of the other aircarft.
As a result of this, and also due to the higher than expected down draft of the engines when canted for STOL landings or in full-VTOL mode, the US Navy dropped out of the program.
In early 1966, while US Air Force tests were still underway, and after the Navy dropped out, the Air Force asked LTV to make a proposal for a production version of the aircraft, which would be named the C-142B. With the Navy out of the program, the absence of the Navy carrier compatibility requirement dramatically reduced the empty weight of the aircraft. Other changes proposed for the production version included a streamlined cockpit, a larger fuselage, upgraded engines, and simplified engine maintenance.
The proposal was made, but with funding ramping up for the Vietnam conflict, and due to other priorities, the tri-services management team determined that the need for a V/STOL transport was not a high enough priority to warrant proceeding. The XC-142A program was cancelled in June 1966.
US Military testing of the remaining XC-142A prototypes ended. A single aircraft was turned over to NASA for further research and testing. This program continued until May 1970, with that aircraft performing may other flights and tests which were beneficial to later programs.
Specifications:
Crew: 3, two pilots plus a loadmaster
Capacity: 32 fully equipped troops or 24 litter patients and four attendants
Payload: 10,000 lb
Length: 58 ft 1 in
Wingspan: 67 ft 6 in
Height: 26 ft 1 in
Wing area: 534.5 sq ft
Empty weight: 22,595 lb
Max. takeoff weight: 44,500 lb (STOL)
Powerplant: 4 × General Electric T64-GE-1 turboprop, 2,850 hp (2,126 kW) each
Maximum speed: 431 mph at 20,000 ft
Cruise speed: 288 mph at sea level
Combat radius: 470 mi
Ferry range: 3,800 mi
Service ceiling: 25,000 ft
Rate of climb: 6,800 ft/min
The Kit:
This aircraft is unavailable...to my knowledge...in any scale in a injected molded plastic kit. The only kit I could find for it is this 1/72 scale kit by Anigrand, and it is a complete resin kit.
Anigrand makes a number of kits like this, that have historical significance, but are not mass produced by the large injected molding companies.
My own interest in this particular kit is high as my father was the lead dynamic engineer on the project. Dad worked at Vought and LTV for almost 50 years, starting in 1950. He worked on the F-7 Cutlass, the F-8 Crusader (where he was a lead engineer) the XC-142A, and the A-7 Corsair II, where he was a principle engineer. He later went on to work on numerous other aircraft and missile projects.
I already have a really nice display of the other three aircraft (F-7U, F-8E, and A-7E) that Dad worked on, but I wanted to add this aircraft to the mix, even though it was never put into production. My Dad was close to a couple of the pilots that died in the crash...I remember as a young child when that occurred and the impact it had on him.
Anyway, this model has two large fuselage halves, three parts to the wing (a center section for the pivot and two outer sections), the vertical stabilizer and two horizontal stabilizers, and numerous other parts for the landing gear, the props, the cockpit, etc.
As with all resin kits, there is some sanding and filing necessary to remove the left over from the tooling for the moldings.
The kit has a very simplistic instruction sheet, but decent paint scheme, and a decent set of decals to show the aircraft as a prototype paint scheme.
Here's how it looked out of the box:
