A Tribute to the Skyhawk

The 2960 Skyhawks included 2405 attack bombers and 555 trainers, delivered for carrier operations, pilot training, tactical use by the Navy and Marines and for service with other nations.

Currently, Skyhawks are assigned to the training command, combat readiness squadrons and utility squadrons of the US Navy and to Marine attack squadrons and reserve groups. The agile Skyhawk also was selected by the US Navy for the Blue Angels’ spectacular flight demonstration program.

In addition, Skyhawks are in service with the Royal Australian Navy, Royal New Zealand Air Force, Israeli Air Force, Argentine Navy and Air Force, Singapore Air Defence Command and the Kuwait Air Force.

The Skyhawk went into production at the McDonnell Douglas El Segundo facility in 1953. The first 342 were manufactured there, and the remaining 2618 were assembled at the Company facility in Palmdale. Fabrication and subassembly work was done at McDonnell Douglas plants at Long Beach and in Torrance.

On June 22, 1954, the first Skyhawk, designated the XA4D-1, made a maiden flight lasting 45 minutes, taking off from Edwards Air Force Base, California. The first delivery of the Skyhawk to a Navy operational unit was in 1956.

The Skyhawk design was a product of a McDonnell Douglas study of ways to reduce the complexity, weight and cost of an attack aircraft without sacrificing performance.

The answer was the A-4, a single-seat, single-engine bantamweight jet, designed initially as a carrier-based aircraft. Its wingspan of only 8. 3 metres permits it to be stored below deck in a carrier without folding its wings.

But the impressive performance of the Skyhawk, its survivability and its ability to carry all types of tactical armament made it ideal for missions from forward airfields, so it was enlisted by the Marines to provide close air support of ground forces.

For its tactical and air patrol missions, the Skyhawk carries more than 4127kg of armament, including air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles, bombs, rockets and guns. The maximum takeoff weight of the A-4M is 11,566 kilograms.

A veteran of duty in Vietnam and the Middle East, the Skyhawk also set a speed record when, on October 15, 1955, it raced around a 100-km circular closed course five times, averaging 1118. 5KPH. In establishing the 500-km record, Navy Pilot Lieutenant Gordon Grey flew the A-4A at an altitude of only 100 metres.

On several occasions during the long history of the Skyhawk, it seemed that production of the durable jet would end. But each time the defence requirement for ruggedness, versatility, performance and low cost dictated additional orders. Key to the long life of the Skyhawk was the McDonnell Douglas-Navy program of continuing improvement with more powerful engines, advanced navigation and weapons delivery systems and more armament capability.

And while the squadrons of Skyhawks in operation in the US and overseas will not last “forever”, many of them still will be soaring through blue skies into the beginning of the 21st century.