Update: Added some photos of the landing gear bays on the A32 Lansen that resides at the Air Force Museum at Malmen, Linköping. Its placement on large pylons enables easy access to the underside. the photos can be found last in the gallery.
Here is a walk around on the A32A Lansen currently undergoing restoration at the Swedish Airforce Historical Flight at F7 Såtenäs. The modeller should note a few things. A few access panels are missing in the nose gear bay and the main gear bays, the seats are not complete – lacking the safety harness and survival pack/seat cushion. The gun sight was missing from the cockpit, it was in storage until the restoration is done.
The flaps are deployed for service only, they were usually retracted on the ground. But this gives us a splendid opportunity to document them thoroughly.
Some additional pictures of use for the A32 modeller can be found in my J32 walk around.
A few pictures will need some further comment:
The oxygen regulator, the black rectangle on the top right corner of the dashboard, is not a standard item, but a more recent modification.
This is the battery compartment just forward of the nose gear bay (notice the two landing spotlights on the gear bay doors on the lower part of the image. The bay should be covered by an aluminium plate, but it was removed (and I “found” it in the cockpit, but undortunately forgot to photograph it!)
This is the lower boundary layer bleed duct, on the underside of the aircraft. The upper one is the rectangular opening just behind the intake. Forward is towards the bottom of the image. Note that this is presented on the Tarangus Lansen as a rectangular panel.
Note the discreet panel line between the wing assembly and the fuselage. I guess that´s one thing that doesn’t need puttying on the Tarangus kit.
This is the trailing edge of the aileron. It´s thin, nothing special about that, but the trailing edge of the J32 is considerably thicker.
Finally, when I was a teenager and had work practice at the company that maintained the remaining Lansens then in service by the end of the 1980s I was told to climb in to the tight inlets of the Lansen – which I did. I even got as far as crouching in front of the compressor inlet, then returned out again. It was claustrofobic, but I could do it. I did try to do the same this time, but I didn’t get very far, fortunately, else they would have to drag me out. But I did get this picture:
Note the two bulges in front of the compressor, they are present in the man gear bays, and are there to make room for the wheels.
O, and I nearly forgot the dimensions for the gun ports:
Port dimensions: 32.5cm x 6cm
Vertical distance between ports: 20.6cm
Lower port distance from nose cone: 12.4cm
Without further ado, some 300+ pics. I probably missed an angle or two.
Pingback: Lansen walkaround | IPMS Stockholm