A 4b Skyhawk - A US Navy VA-164 A-4E Skyhawk from the USS Oriskany, en route to attack a target in North Vietnam, November 21, 1967.
The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk is a single-seat subsonic light attack aircraft developed in the early 1950s for the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps. The delta-wing single-jet Skyhawk was designed and manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company and later by McDonnell Douglas. It was originally designated A4D under the pre-1962 US Navy designation system.
A 4b Skyhawk
The Skyhawk is a relatively light aircraft with a maximum takeoff weight of 24,500 lb (11,100 kg) and a maximum speed of 670 mph (1,080 km/h). The aircraft's five fixed points support a variety of missiles, bombs and other munitions. It is capable of carrying a bomb load equivalent to that of a World War II-era Boeing B-17 bomber and can deliver nuclear weapons using a low-altitude bombing system and "loft" techniques. The A-4 was originally powered by Wright J65 jet engines; From the A-4E onwards, the Pratt & Whitney J52 gene was used.
A 4 Skyhawk On The Flight Deck Of Uss Midway In San Diego Harbour Stock Photo
Skyhawks played key roles in the Vietnam War, the Yom Kippur War and the Falklands War. By 2022, some seven decades after the aircraft first flew in 1954, about 2,960 had been produced (February 1979).
The Skyhawk was designed by Ed Heineman of Douglas Aircraft in response to the US Navy's call for a jet-powered attack aircraft to replace the aging Douglas AD Skyraider (later renamed the A-1 Skyraider).
Heinemann chose a design that minimized its size, weight and complexity. The result is an aircraft that weighs only half the Navy's weight specification.
It had such a compact wing that it did not need to be folded to store the carrier. The first 500 production examples averaged $860,000, well below the Navy's $1 million maximum.
A 4 Skyhawk: A Small But Tough Fighter
The little Skyhawk soon earned the nicknames "Scooter", "Kiddicker", "Bantam Bomber", "Tinker Toy Bomber" and "Heinemann's Hot-Rod" due to its speed and nimble performance.
The aircraft is a post-World War II conventional design, with a low-slung delta wing, tricycle landing gear and a single jet engine in the rear of the fuselage with two air inlets on the sides of the fuselage. The tail is a cross design with a horizontal stabilizer mounted above the fuselage. Armament has two Colt Mk 12 20 mm (.79 caliber) cannons, one in each wing root, with 100 rounds per gun (200 rounds per gun based on A-4M Skyhawk II and A-4M), also bombs, rockets and a wide variety of missiles are carried in hardpoints under the fuselage outline and in hardpoints under each wing (originally one per wing, later two).
A short-span delta wing does not require the complexity of folding wings, saving about 200 pounds (91 kg). Its spars were made from a single forging that ran across both ends of the wings.
The leading edge slats were designed to automatically descend at appropriate speeds by gravity and air pressure, saving weight and space by eliminating control motors and switches. Likewise, the main landing gear did not extend into the main spar of the wing, as it was designed so that the wheel retraction was only inside the wing and the landing gear struts were housed in the underwing fairing. The construction of the wing was thus lighter with the same overall strength. The rudder was constructed from a single panel reinforced with external ribs.
A 4 Skyhawk By Modelakias1
A4D Skyhawk with rear fuselage removed and saddle slotted into place, Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, 1959
The thrust generator was made accessible for service or replaced by removing the rear fuselage and moving the generator. This further reduces the weight and complexity of the need for access doors with their hinges and latches. This is the opposite of what often happens in aircraft design, where a small increase in weight in one area leads to increased weight loss in other areas, creating the need for stronger, heavier saddles, larger wings and tail surfaces, etc. a vicious cycle.
The A-4 "Buddy" pioneered the air-to-air refueling concept. This allows aircraft to deliver additional machines of the same type, reducing the need for dedicated refueling aircraft – a particular advantage for smaller air arms or operations in remote locations. This made it possible to significantly improve operational flexibility and ensure against damage or malfunction of tankers, although this approach reduced the effective combat power of the carrier.
A designated stock A-4 would include a "body store", a large external fuel tank with a hose reel in the rear, and a retractable refueling container. This aircraft was fueled without fittings and was the first to be launched. Attack aircraft were heavily armed and fueled as much as the maximum take-off weight limit allowed, which was much less than a full tank.
Us Navy And Marine Corps A 4 Skyhawk Units Of The Vietnam War 1963–1973: Mersky, Peter, Laurier, Jim: 9781846031816: Books
Once airborne, they refilled their fuel tanks from a tanker using the fixed A-4 refueling probe on the starboard nose of the aircraft. They can jump with both full arm and fuel. After the KA-3 Skywarrior tanker became available on larger aircraft carriers, the A-4 was rarely used for refueling in US service.
The A-4 was designed so that in the event of a hydraulic failure, it would be possible to make an emergency landing on the two additional tanks almost always carried by this aircraft. Such a landing caused minor damage to the aircraft's nose, which could be repaired in less than an hour.
The last production A-4, the A-4M of Marine Squadron VMA-331, had the flags of all countries that operated the A-4 painted on the sides of the fuselage.
The Skyhawk proved to be a relatively common export aircraft for the US Navy in the post-war era. Due to its small size, it can be operated from the older, smaller WWII-era aircraft carriers used by many smaller navies in the 1960s. These older ships were often replaced by newer Navy fighters such as the F-4 Phantom II and F-8 Crusader, which were faster and more capable than the A-4, but significantly larger and heavier than the older Navy fighters.
A Douglas A 4 Skyhawk Attack Aircraft, Uss Midway Museum, San Diego, California, United States Stock Photo
The Navy operates the A-4 in both Navy and Naval Reserve (VA) light attack squadrons. Although use of the A-4 as a trainer and counter-attack aircraft continued into the 1990s, the Navy began retiring the aircraft from its front-line attack squadrons in 1967, the last of which (Super Fox VA-55/212/164) was retired in 1976.
The Marine Corps will not take delivery of the US Navy's replacement fighter, the LTV A-7 Corsair II, instead keeping the Skyhawks in service with both the regular Marine Corps and the Marine Corps Attack Squadron (VMA) Reserve and ordering the new A-4M model. The last USMC Skyhawk was delivered in 1979 and was used until the mid-1980s before being replaced by the equally smaller but more versatile STOVL AV-8 Harrier II.
VMA-131, Marine Aircraft Group 49 (Diamondbacks) retired its last four OA-4Ms on 22 June 1994. Training versions of the Skyhawk remained in Navy service, finding new life with the advertisement of "anti-terrorist training". , where the secret A-4 was used as a stand-in for the MiG-17 Mikoyan-Gurevich for various air combat training (DACT). He served in this role until 1999 in TOPGUN.
The A-4's smooth performance made it a suitable replacement for the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II until the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet became available in the 1980s, when the Navy downsized its aircraft for the Blue Angels demonstration team. The last U.S. Navy Skyhawks, TA-4J models belonging to Composite Squadron VC-8, remain in military use as tow and combat training aircraft at Naval Station Roosevelt Roads. These aircraft were officially retired on 3 May 2003.
File:mcdonnell Douglas A 4 Skyhawk.svg
Skyhawks were very popular with their crews because they were tough and agile. These characteristics, along with their low acquisition and operating costs, as well as ease of maintenance, have contributed to the A-4's popularity with US and international armed forces. Besides the United States, at least three other countries have used the A-4 Skyhawk in combat (Argentina, Israel, and Kuwait).
Skyhawks were the US Navy's primary light attack aircraft used over North Vietnam early in the Vietnam War; They were later replaced by the US Navy's A-7 Corsair II in the light attack role. Skyhawks carried out some of the first American air strikes during the conflict, and a Marine Skyhawk is believed to have dropped the last American bomb on the ground.
Notable Marine pilots who flew the Skyhawk included Lt. Everett Alvarez, Jr. and John McCain and Commander James Stockdale. On 1 May 1967, VA-76 Lt. Theodore R. A-4C Skyhawk, piloted by Swartz, shot down the aircraft carrier USS Bon Homme Richard, a North Vietnamese Air Force MiG-17, with a Zuni unguided missile as the Skyhawk's only air. Victory in the Air in the Vietnam War.
Beginning in 1956, Navy Skyhawks were the first aircraft deployed outside the United States armed with the AIM-9 Sidewinder.
Douglas A 4b Skyhawk
By the early 1960s, it was the standard squadron A-4B Skyhawk of the US Navy
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