Jet-Propelled Dragonfly

Historical Background

In Spring 1952, the USAF issued a Request For Proposal for the Trainer, Experimental (T-X) program, specifying a lightweight, two-seat basic trainer to introduce USAF cadets to jet aircraft. Cessna Aircraft Company responded by designing a twin-turbojet design with side-by-side seating with company designation Model 318. The USAF liked the design, especially the side-by-side seating since it let the student and instructor interact more closely than tandem seating. In the Spring of 1954, Cessna was awarded a contract for three prototypes with USAF designation XT-37. Production T-37A was first flown late in 1955 and delivery began in June 1956 with the improved T-37B delivered in 1959. The T-37 had a low, straight wing with the engines buried in the wing roots. The canopy is of the clamshell type, hinged to open vertically to the rear. The landing gear is widely spaced, allowing easy maneuvering on the ground. The gears were also short, avoiding the need for access ladders and maintenance stands. Since the gears are short, the engines sit closer to the ground, and to prevent FOD, mesh screens pivoted over the intakes whenever the landing gears are down. The aircraft was also designed to be easily maintained, with more than 100 access panels and doors. Power ws provided by two French Turbomeca Marboré engines, licence-built by Continental-Teledyne as the J69-T-9. The intake for the engines produced a high-pitched shriek, which gave the T-37 its nickname:  'Tweety Bird' or simply 'Tweet'.

In 1961, Cessna began developing the T-37 as a weapons trainer. With eyes to foreign sales, the new variant, T-37C, can also be used for light attack duties.The primary changes include stronger wings, provision of hardpoints and stores pylons on the wings and wingtip tanks. Also included are computing gunsight and gun camera. In late 1962, with the United States' growing commitment in South-East Asia, the USAF's Special Air Warfare Centre based at Eglin AFB's Hurlburt Field in Florida began evaluating the T-37C as a Counter-Insurgency (COIN) aircraft. The USAF found the T-37C promising but required an improved version which have a longer endurance, carrying a greater payload and better short-field performance. In 1963, Cessna was awarded a contract for two prototype YAT-37D. The new variant of the T-37 include stronger wings, three stores pylons underneath each wing, 360-litre capacity wingtip tanks, GAU-2B/A 7.62mm Gatling-type machine gun in the nose, better avionics and tougher landing gear. The changes meant drastic weight increase coupled with the need to carry stores. The engines were thus replaced with a pair of more powerful General Electric J85-J2/5 turbojets. The first YAT-37D flew in October 1964 with the second prototype flying a year later. The second prototype was fitted with a fourth pylon under each wing and the first prototype was also retrofitted. However the USAF interest in the COIN aircraft soon faded and the second prototype was sent to the USAF's Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio. 

The war in South-East Asia however continued to escalate and losses of the USAF and VNAF A-1 Skyraider CAS aircraft were greater than projected and the USAF interest in the COIN aircraft was revived. The YAT-37D seemed suitable but the USAF wanted it to be tested in combat first. The USAF issued a contract for 39 YAT-37D to be built from existing T-37 airframes. Originally designated AT-37, it was quickly changed to A-37A. In August 1967, 25 A-37As were sent to Vietnam under the 'Combat Dragon' evaluation programme. They flew from Bien Hoa airbase on air commando missions, including close air support, helicopter escort, forward air control (FAC) and night interdiction. Combat loads include free-fall bombs, cluster bombs, unguided rockets and SUU-11/A minigun pods. The A-37A was officially nicknamed 'Dragonfly' but many pilots called them Super Tweets. They flew thousands of sorties, losing none to enemy fire although two were wrecked in landing accidents. 

The Combat Dragon programme revealed some shortcomings with the A-37A, notably the lack of range and endurance, heavy control response and vulnerability of the non-redundant flight control systems. As a result, the USAF signed a contract in 1967 for an improved version, the A-37B. The initial order for 57 airframes were increased to 127 and were primarily intended for the VNAF. The A-37B prototype was rolled out in September 1967 and deliveries to the VNAF began in 1968. Unlike the 'A' version, the A-37B were all new-build airframes. These were stronger than the A-37A, being able to pull 6 instead of 5 g, and have a longer airframe life at 4,000 hours. The A-37B weighed twice as much as the A-37A, with 5,800 lb of the loaded weight being the external stores. The A-37B was powered by two General Electric J85-GE-17 turbojets and to improve endurance, pilots usually flew with with just one engine in the cruising mode. The B model was also fitted with a refueling probe for the probe-and-drogue method, unusual for the USAF as they preferred the flying boom method. 

Eventually, a total of 577 A-37Bs were built, with 254 delivered to the VNAF. During the Vietnam War, they flew 160,000 combat sorties, suffering 22 USAF losses. At the end of the War in 1975, 187 were still in service with VNAF. The A-37s were also used by the VPAF in their only airstrike against South Vietnam and their US allies when on 28 April 1975, three A-37s flown by VPAF and turncoat VNAF pilots, bombed the Tan Son Nhut airbase with six Mk 81 250-lb bombs. Of the 187 aircraft, ninety-two were recovered by the United States while the rest were used by the VPAF over Cambodia and against China in 1979. They were phased out in the 1980s due to lack of spares. The A-37 was also used by the Salvadoran Air Force during the Salvadoran Civil War. Other users of the A-37 were concentrated in the Americas, with the air forces of Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru and Uruguay. It was well-suited to their needs because of its low cost, simplicity and effectiveness in COIN missions. The USAF passed its A-37s to Air National Guard and Reserve units following the end of the Vietnam War. In the 1980s, they were assigned FAC duties and designated OA-37B. They were then phased out and replaced with the OA-10A Thunderbolt II. USAF OA-37Bs last saw action during Operation Just Cause in 1989.

The Kit

This kit is another of Hasegawa's reboxings (I believe sometime in the 1990s) of the original kit released in 1970. To put it into perspective, I was not born until two years after the kit was first produced! Unlike Academy's A-37, this kit still has raised panel lines. The interior is very simple; the seats for example consists of just the seat backs. There is no sidewall detail and the dashboard is just plain plastic with just decals for detail. There wasn't even a piece of plastic rod pretending to be the control stick. There are two pilot figures, and if used, they would be cemented directly to the cockpit floor! (The floor has raised 'platform' so when the seat backs are cemented, it completes an illusion of proper seats) The wheel wells and landing gear were simplified as well, but reasonable enough for a 1970s-vintage kit (plus they are low enough and can hardly be seen unless you pick the model up). There is also grid patterns underneath the intakes to represent the FOD screen (those, and for many parts of the kit were best replaced with PE and/or resin). The clear parts is not as clear as many modern offerings but still OK. Holes were already pre-drilled for the underwing load which consist of four fuel tanks and four rocket pods. All the underwing stores were moulded together with their pylons. Despite the age of the moulds, there are no flash on my example. There are a lot of ejector pin marks however but they can be easily dealt with. Markings were provided for two aircraft: a OA-37B in overall Gunship Grey from 19th TASS/51st TFW, probably from the 1980s and a 505th SOS/3rd TFW A-37A in SEA camo during the Vietnam War. The decals are of the usual Hasegawa vintage - off-white white and rather thick. As a footnote, the same kit which I bought in 1984 also have two marking options - a A-37A and a A-37B, both during the Vietnam War.

Construction

Maybe I have lost my sanity when I chose the prehistoric Hasegawa Dragonfly over the more 'modern' Academy offering. But since it was the only one available at the local hobby shop, plus the moulding still looks good and I had a nostalgia attack while browsing the contents, I took it home (another reason was that it was on 50% discount!). As usual, the cockpit received the first attention but I guess this was one of the fastest, if not THE fastest job I had ever done on a 1/72 scale fuselage. After painting the interior H317 (FS 36231), H61 Khaki and XF-1 Flat Black, I cemented the two seat backs (rather than 'seats'). I then put the instrument panel decal on the dashboard. The two parts were then cemented to the right fuselage half. A ball bearing was superglued in the nose and the fuselage halves were mated. Yep, it's that simple (and of course bad at the same time!). The one-piece lower wing half and the upper wing halves were mated and together with the horizontal stabilizers, were mated to the fuselage. As I have chosen the A-37A, the refueling probe was not fitted. I assembled and cemented the wingtip fuel tanks. Apparently the tanks are undersized but having no substitute, I left it as it is. I decided to rearm my Dragonfly and I cut the rocket pods off their pylons with the latter and many other parts were left off until after painting. 

Painting and Decaling

Having already selected the A-37A from the Vietnam war, I proceeded to paint my model in SEA camouflage. The bottom colour (FS36622) was painted using Tamiya XF-19 Sky Grey. The upper camouflage colours were FS30219, for which I used a mixture of Tamiya XF-59 Desert Yellow and XF-64 Red Brown; FS34102 was Tamiya XF-67 NATO Green and XF-13 JA Green was used for FS34079 while the domed aerial covers were painted XF-1 Flat Black. Then it was time for decals. Having used a number of 1990s-era Hasegawa kit decals, I am pretty confident that this kit's decals would behave the same, and indeed they were, although the decals for the national insignia were  off-register. They slide off the backing paper easily, but being a 90s' creature, they are thick and require a number of baths of Mr Mark Softer.  Since the kit has raised panel lines, I used a pencil to highlight the panel lines.

Finishing

So it's time to finish the build. I started by cementing the tiny and featureless GAU-2B/A minigun 'pimple' on the nose. While cementing the heat shield near the exhaust outlets, I realized that the model has no actual exhausts, just openings in the wing roots (What? You only realize that at this stage?!). I fashioned a rudimentary exhausts using plastic sheet and painted them Burnt Iron. The landing gears were next. Like many 1970s kits, details were also skipped here. While in general they are quite OK, the oleo scissors were moulded as a triangle, rather than its actual shape. The gear doors were also simple without structural shapes on the inside. For the underwing load, I decided that the kit external fuel tanks would be used for stations 3 and 6. For stations 2,4,5 and 7, I dug my Hasegawa Weapons Set I and fixed Mk.82 500-lb bombs with fuse extenders - probably unlikely in CAS missions the caircraft might not be able to clear the target area in time, unless the mission is flown at a safer altitude. Finally for stations 1 and 8, I placed Mk.81 250-lb bombs, also from the Hasegawa set. All the bombs were painted Tamiya XF-62 Olive Drab with XF-3 Flat Yellow stripes. The chunky gunsight was cemented onto its place and the canopy was placed on the model, finishing the build.

Conclusion

Make no mistake, despite the various reboxings, the kit inside is still the same one from the 1970s. The cockpit has no detail, while some details were simplified or missing on the outside. In fact, very few modelers built the Hasegawa kit (at least in the well-known internet modeling sites). It goes without saying that most modelers prefer the Academy kit with more details, weapons choice and recessed panel lines and avoided the Hasegawa offering like a plague. I was however motivated by nostalgia and merely wanted a A-37 in my collection.