The A/S32A-32A tractor is specially designed to tow, turn and position aircraft in confined spaces of aircraft carrier hangar decks and elevators. The type of tractor has served on all aircraft carriers and large deck amphibious ships of the U.S. Navy since the early 2000s.
This 1:72 scale model kit is from F4Models (cat. # 7004). The kit contains resin and photo etched parts, decals and instruction sheet. When building a diorama, note that these tractors do not tow aircraft on the flight deck and do not normally venture onto the flight deck at all; they move airplanes and helicopters through the hangar, bring them to elevator platforms and then push them onto the flight deck, where they are taken over by flight deck tractors (such as the A/S32A-31A tractor).
Here are some photographs of this type of tractor in action: link, link, link.
The A/S32A-32A hangar deck tractor is actually an upgraded version of the SD-2 design that first came to serve with the U.S. Navy in the early 1960s. There are many external differences between the original version and the modern one; some can be seen on this drawing:
This 1:72 scale model kit is from F4Models (cat. # 7004). The kit contains resin and photo etched parts, decals and instruction sheet. When building a diorama, note that these tractors do not tow aircraft on the flight deck and do not normally venture onto the flight deck at all; they move airplanes and helicopters through the hangar, bring them to elevator platforms and then push them onto the flight deck, where they are taken over by flight deck tractors (such as the A/S32A-31A tractor).
The A/S32A-32A hangar deck tractor is actually an upgraded version of the SD-2 design that first came to serve with the U.S. Navy in the early 1960s. There are many external differences between the original version and the modern one; some can be seen on this drawing:
