McDonnell Douglas A-4 Skyhawk

It is my opinion it was the best built aircraft ever. I worked for Douglas Aircraft 1953 /1957 and was a tool design for them. I designed tooling that built the A-4. Reading all this brought back a lot of memories

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A call to all my buddies who flew with VC-7 back in 1963-1969. I am new to the internet thanks to my grandkids. Would love to say HELLO to any one left out there in cyber space. Here's hoping.

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I was fortunate to "bag" slightly over 4000 hrs. in A-4B /C /E /F & TA-4J /F. 5 (straight) tours in VAs-94 /55 /125 /146 /44. 2 combat tours in VA-146 in '66 & '67. Like Marv, one less landing than takeff (lucky gunner)! Navy sure got their $$$ worth from the 'Ol' Scooter!

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I flew a variety of A-4s, A-4C, A-4E, A-4F, A-4M, TA-4J, TA-4F. One A4-E survived a mid-air collision with two F-8 Crusaders. I managed to land it aboard the USS Hancock with the left side horizontal stabilizer hanging loose and extensive fuselage damage. It never flew again.

The Skyhawk was my favorite of all the aircraft I flew.

Max allowed speed, clean at sea level was about 625 KIAS, about 0.92 mach (this from TA-4F /TA-4J NATOPS manual). Mach slightly above 1.0 was allowed at higher altitudes but difficult to achieve in level flight. I managed 1.02 once in a clean A-4E in a very steep dive starting from above 30,000 ft. With the higher thrust of later models it might have been a little easier, but rarely flew clean aircraft.

I agree that it should be listed under Douglas. The merger of McDonnell and Douglas didn't occur until 1967, well into the lifespan of the Skyhawk. Besides it was Edward H. Heinemann's genius that created it and he never worked for McDonnell-Douglas.

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Flew the A-4B,C,E,TF, and S for over 3,500 hours in Skyhawks including a tour with the Marines at Chu Lai. Was the test pilot and close air support consultant for the Republic of Singapore 1982-84. We were converting A-4C's to S's by the addition of two weapons stations, a drag chute, rewiring and modern avionics and ecm. The most unusual A-4 that I ever flew was the A-4S-2. This beast was made by taking the cockpit out of a second A-4C and welding it behind another cockpit in the first A-4C. You could not even see the pilot in the other cockpit from either the front or the rear. All comm had to be done over an intercom. Don't want to even go into the ejection system which fortunately I never had to use.

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I was a DAC Flight Test (Testing Division) Electtrician on A4D Buno 813 No. 2 aircraft at the El Segundo plant and at at Edwards. Took it through the tail flutter program. Tried many fixes but finaly solved the problem by adding the tail cone "pickle" and the powered "tad pole rudder" My last assignment was on Buno 086. "A4's Forever"

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I flew the T /A4G in the RAN. Great fun and they even paid me to do it - what a bonus! We had a number of USN /USMC exchange IPs with us over the years and they mostly ended up on the training squadron. But one who got a few traps on our dear old HMAS Melbourne was heard to utter one of my favourite Naval aviation quotes. He said on his departure ".. that he was privileged to land on the only carrier that gets smaller as you get closer to it." Thanks Tom. We loved the old girl despite being in danger of being hoisted as a sea boat by one of the big US carriers.

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I flew the A4 from 1962 (A4B)to my last flight in 1982 (A4M), for over 3,300 hours all together. The A4M was the best one by far, whether in the air to ground role or ACM.

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I flew the A4B, C, E, F, L and TA-4 and loved every minute of it. What a wonderful, reliable airplane and my number of landings is the same as my number of takeoffs.

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White in VRF-31 got to ferry several A4H's from Palmdale factory to Norfolk for shipment to Israel. Had split spool turbine (J-51?), drogue chute. Only nav aid was UHF DF and two UHF tranceivers. FAA allowed us in APC with fligt following under special permissions. Tried to non-stop but never had enough tail wind. Consistently made Maxwell AFB. Used the drogue chute once to see how it worked...but stuffing it back disuaded me from ever doing so again.
A4 was great instrument aircraft.

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Over 1500 hours in the Scooter - loved every moment but the windshield wiper left alot to be desired - coming aboard in heavy rain wasn't easy.

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The only airspeed restriction I remember was .9 mach when carrying drop tanks. Without tanks the max was whatever you could get out of it...in a steep dive, maybe 1.1.

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Can some former pilot give the never exceed speed of the A4's?

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A great classic aircraft no doubt. A diminutive bomber 'The Scooter'.

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This was one solid flying machine on carrier approach. I remember in the Carribean in VA-172 on the FDR (CVA-42) when we lost Jim McKinney on a cat shot. His left slat stayed in after the bridal release and he rolled and went in. Turns out we weren't getting enough end speed to handle this. The comment about slat lubrication made me think about this. Never did understand why they designed it with a three track. Hello to all the "tinker toy" drivers out there.

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My dad was attached to VC-10 in Gitmo Bay Cuba. I am looking to build him a model of the TA4J model he worked on while stationed there. Any pics would be helpful. Thanks for your help.

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I have over 2000 hours in this bird. One time I was flying along and I smelled smoke in the cockpit. As I was returning back to the Tico I noticed I could not get my flaps down. We were blue water operations so I had to bring this bird back on the deck. With no flaps down it felt like I was going two times the speed of stink. I did catch the number three wire tho. When I went to the ready room after I landed all of my squadron mates kept saying I was the best stick on the boat, think I woud have to agree.

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As a newly winged Ensign I was assigned to the first fleet squadron of A4s, VA-72, Quonset Point, RI, later Oceana, VA (Virginia Beach). In those days of the cold war our primary mission was nuclear delivery (we could loft the 1.2 megaton Mark-12 weapon). I spent four years in VA-72 and made 2 Mediterrain cruises, USS Randolph (CVA-19)(Centurian) and the maiden shake-down and Med cruise on USS Independence (CVA-61). I was the first to obtain 1,000 hours in the Skyhawk ... McDonnell Douglas gave me a nice walnut plaque acknowledging that fact. I sent the plaque to The Navy's Museum of Flight (Pensacola) but when I visited there later, I was told they "lost" it! They also had an A4 hanging in the lobby with VA-83 colors and the erronous claim that VA-83 was the Navy's first operational A4 squadron! So much for the credibility of the Navy Museum of Flight!

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The best description of the A-4 I ever read was that it was the last military airplane you could fly without voting with a computer. I flew the TA-4F, A-4E, A-4C, TA-4J, A-4F, A-4B (before they went to Argentina), A-4M, OA-4M, and the A-4Y (never called that, but it was an M with the bigger landing gear.) The most fun a boy can have in 3300+ hours.

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Flew the A4A,B,C,E,L,KU,TA4F,TA4J. All great a /c. Had an Adversary sqdn. at Miramar NAS in the 70's. Not even the F-14s got close to beating us. A worthy adversary when flown with no external stores. Having flown the early F-86's, I insisted on proper slat lubrication to prevent rolling high "G" departures to an inverted spin. Never had one.
Don't believe the 1988 mile range. Max range as the F8, 1,000 NM.

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