Douglas Aircraft's famed designer Ed Heinemann designed the Navy A4D Skyhawk to replace the propeller driven AD-5 Skyraider. It was built small so that more could be accommodated on a carrier, where it excelled as the lightweight, high-speed bomber for the US Navy and Marines. It is a maneuverable, powerful, attack bomber with great altitude and range capabilities plus an unusual flexibility in armament capacity. The small plane bucked the trend to "bigger is better"; it offered a powerful punch, serving as the Navy's primary light bomber in the Vietnam era. One of its advantages in carrier service is its delta wing was so compact it didn't require a folding mechanism.
Fleet delivery began in September 1957. The A4Ds were redesignated as A-4s in 1962. The Skyhawk's combat career began when it became the first American carried-launched aircraft to raid North Vietnam on 4 August 1964. The aircraft would see heavy combat throughout the war. John McCain would be shot down while piloting an A-4 over Hanoi and spend five years as a POW. The later A-4F Skyhawk II served as the aircraft for the famous US Navy Blue Angels flight demonstration team from 1974 to 1986.
A total of 638 night/all weather capable A4D-2N (A-4C) Skyhawks were manufactured. This aircraft, BuNo 148503, was built in El Segundo, CA, as the 348th of this variant. A total of 2,960 A-4s of all variants were produced.
It flew with the Navy in Southeast Asia, remaining active through the 1970s. In the late 1980s the plane was transferred to Naval Air Maintenance Training Detachment School in Memphis, TN. There it served as a training aid for Naval Aviation maintenance specialists.
The aircraft was acquired by the Aerospace Museum in 2006. The aircraft is painted to represent the 'Blue Angels' number '2' airplane which flies the 'right wing' position. A Marine pilot, who earned Navy 'Wings of Gold' by successfully graduating from the Navy's flight training program, always flies the #2 aircraft. Volunteers from the Aerospace Museum of California restored this aircraft in 2006.
Specifications:
Crew: 1
Power Plant: 1× 11,200 lbf Pratt & Whitney J52-P-408 turbojet
Dimensions:
- Span: 27' 6"
- Length: 40' 4"
- Height: 15' 0"
Weight:
- Empty: 10,800 lb
- Maximum: 24,500 lb
Performance:
- Speed:
- - Max: 646 mph
- - Cruise: mph
- Range: miles
- Ceiling: 42,250 ft
- Climb: 8,440 fpm
Armament:
- Guns: 2× 20mm Colt Mk 12 cannons
- Internal:
- External:
- - Rockets:
- - - 4× LAU-10 rocket pods (each with 4× 127mm Mk 32 Zuni rockets)
- - Missiles:
- - - 4× AIM-9 Sidewinder
- - - 2× AGM-12 Bullpup
- - - 2× AGM-45 Shrike anti-radiation missile
- - - 2× AGM-62 Walleye TV-guided glide bomb
- - - 2× AGM-65 Maverick
- - Bombs:
- - - 6× Rockeye-II Mk 20 Cluster Bomb Unit (CBU)
- - - 6× Rockeye Mark 7/APAM-59 CBU
- - - Mk 80 series of unguided bombs (including 3 kg and 14 kg practice bombs)
- - - B57 nuclear bomb
- - - B61 nuclear bomb
- - Others: up to 3× 370 US gallons Sargent Fletcher drop tanks (pylon stations 2, 3, 4 are wet plumbed) for ferry flight/extended range/loitering time
Source: aircraft placard
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