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A-4 Skyhawk

Designed by Douglas in the late 1950’s to replace the propeller driven A-1 Skyraider, the A-4 Skyhawk became the U.S. Navy’s next-generation ground attack aircraft. The prototype made it’s maiden flight on June 22nd, 1954, featuring a superlight airframe and simple design layout emphasizing efficient manufacture. Originally designed for the nuclear strike mission, the A-4B and A-4C had three hard points under the wings and fuselage to carry extra fuel or bombs. Douglas and the Navy began early on to upgrade the Skyhawk line with the new model A-4E in 1960 with an additional two hard points, for a total of five along with upgraded avionics and a more powerful and fuel efficient engine. Replacing the J65 that powered the first two variants, the J52-P-6A developed 8500 lbs of thrust, 800 more than the J65. The J52 had a 27% lower fuel consumption rate than the J65-W-16A engine and therefore gave the A-4E a substantial increase in range over the A-4C.

Now with five hard points under the wings, the A-4E had a maximum weapons load of 8,200 lbs. The airframe structure was strengthened to increase the catapult gross weight of 24,500 lbs. Besides new avionics and electronics installed in the new lengthened nose, other new equipment included an Escapac zero altitude ejection seat, TACAN, Doppler navigation, Mk 9 toss-bombing system, radio altimeter, and the AJB-3A low-altitude bombing system. Some A-4Es were later fitted the the A-4F style electronics hump and canted A-4M style refueling probes. The first flight of the A-4E took place on July 12th, 1961, and there were eventually 500 A-4Es built.

in 1965, the A-4F was ordered to follow the A-4Es already in production. The A-4F made its first flight on August 31st, 1966.

Improvements incorporated into the A-4F were an uprated Pratt & Whitney J52-P8A which was first introduced in the two seat TA-4F, steerable nosewheel, wing lift spoilers and the Escapac 1C-3 zero-zero ejection seat. These improvements were followed by the addition of an upper fuselage avionics pod to accommodate combat enhancements dictated by the Viet Nam war. Kits were supplied to aircraft already in the fleet and for retrofitting A-4Es going through depot. Aircraft not already delivered had the avionics hump installed at the factory. A total of 146 A-4Fs were constructed with the last BuNos 155042 and 155049 being converted to A-4M prototypes.

Early on in the Viet Nam war, the U.S. Marine Corps were seeking a close in air support aircraft that would replace the Skyhawk series. There was consideration for the new A-7 Corsair, but due to constraints of the war and the A-7 having capabilities far in excess of those required by the Marines. The solution was the A-4M introduced with the Pratt & Whitney J52-P-408A engine. This new version of the J52 would provide a 20% increase in thrust over previous models with no appreciable increase in fuel consumption.

A-4F BuNos 155042 and 155049 were converted to A-4M configuration with 155042 making its first flight on April 10th, 1970. Initial production A-4Ms offered the following improvements: Internal and external fuel load of 1800 gallons, maximum weapons load of 9,155 lbs, ammunition increased from 100 to 200 rounds per gun, Canted refueling boom to accomodate a wider angle target aquisition system, IFF tail antenae, square tipped fin and rudder to increase area, a braking parachute, Escapac 1G-3 ejection seat, self contained engine starter and redesigned and enlarged canopy with bullet resistent windscreen. Production and continued development of the M model lasted for the next ten years, ending with BuNo 160264 in 1979. The A-4M soldiered on through the ’80s with several Marine units gradually being replaced by the AV-8B Harrier and F/A-18 Hornet. The last operational A-4M BuNo 158428 with VMA-211 left Yuma on February 21st, 1990 for it’s new home with VMA-131, a reserve unit at NAS Alameda, CA.

Top Gun and the A-4
In the early 1970’s the U.S. Navy began utilizing the A-4E, F and TA-4J in dissimilar air combat training at Top Gun. These aircraft underwent many different and experimental camoflage schemes in their careers. They ranged from blue and greys to desert sand and yellows to some very unusual one-off schemes that lasted only a short while. By the early 1990’s the Top Gun Skyhawk fleet became increasingly more difficult to maintain and were starting to show signs of structural fatigue. VF-126 aquired a few lower airframe time A-4Ms that had been recently retired from active Marine service, to replace some of the aging E and F models around 1990. By 1994 all of the Top Gun A-4s had been replaced by F/A-18 Hornets. Although the single seat A-4s were being retired, the two seat TA-4J continued to train new Navy pilots until 1998. After pilot training was handed over the the T-45 Goshawk, the TA-4J and F models continued in the aggressor/adversary role until finally being retired from the inventory in April 2003.

Photographer’s Note:

Although I was able to get a few shots of the Blue Angel’s A-4Fs and only one shot of their TA-4J in 1983, I wasn’t fortunate enough to get to shoot more A-4s until I started visiting NAS Miramar in 1988. That first year I had captured a few TA-4s and a couple of A-4Es in the landing pattern. Due to my limited funds at that time I did not have the proper telephoto lenses necessary to capture the jets a little closer. However I did have the foresight to use high quality Kodachrome 64 or Ektachrome 100 slide film. (Kodachrome 64 has just been discontinued by Kodak this June) In 1991 I finally made it to the NAS Miramar Airshow and was able to get some very up close shots of A-4Es and Fs, sadly no TA-4Js were set up on static display. 1992 let me capture “Red 32″ A-4M from the front starboard side. as well as some A-4s in the landing pattern (now with a higher quality Canon 100 - 300mm zoom lens). The Miramar Airshow in 1993 did not have any A-4s for me to photograph and by 1994 they had been replaced by the F-18 Hornet in the adversary role. I had remembered that my main goal in those days was getting F-14 and F-18 shots. I thought the A-4s in camo were cool, but just didn’t put that much emphasis in shooting them compared to the modern fighters at that time. As a modeler I wanted references for the models I was working on, and there just wasn’t much out there for the Skyhawk except for the old Monogram kit. There was definitely no aftermarket decal sets to choose from and “walk-arounds” of planes hadn’t come into it’s own yet. Man, how I wish I could go back in time with my digital SLR and get some great reference material and portraits of these truly great jets!

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