A-3 Skywarrior or Varient Crew Seat

[timntex]

I bought this one along with the F-80 seat at the sme estate sale. Any info regarding this one would be helpful... I know its not an ejection since the A-3 did not have them.

[northcoastaero]

According to the dataplate on the seat, it looks to be from a 1988 contract seat from some variant of the Douglas A-3 Skywarrior aircraft.

The manufacturers company code appears to be 30941. I have looked at a few books on the A-3 including Squadron/Signal Publications

A-3 Skywarrior in Action, Naval Fighters Series Part 1 and Part 2 on the Skywarrior, and Aerofax Aerograph 5 Douglas A-3 Skywarrior by

Rene Francillon. The Aerofax book contains the most photos and drawings of the seats. However, this exact seat does not seem to be

in any of the books. The unique part of your seat seems to be the upper part in which the sides are angular instead of curving. The seat

may be a later produced seat intended as a replacement for earlier seats or a later produced seat for a later modified variant of the A-3.

My guess is that the seat may be for a TA-3B, VA-3B, ERA-3B, or modified test variant of the A-3 ? Also, I do not have too much information

on the NRA-3B, NA-3B, and EKA-3B variants-could be from one of these also? Purchasing flight manuals on these variants may help. The seat most

likely used the SKU-1/A Douglas Seat Pan or the SP-1A seat pan for the bottom of the seat. The parachute assy. was most likely the NB-7D ?

Also try a3skywarrior.org . Hope this helps. I will keep researching.

[timntex]

Thanks for the help! I agree this seat is more than likely used on a varient A-3,,, probably a trainer or something. I'll keep on researching this one... still a neat find.

[northcoastaero]

My latest research for this seat follows:

 

Does not appear to be from:

-A-3A

-EA-3A

-A-3B

-RA-3B

-EA-3B

-KA-3B

-EKA-3B

-ERA-3B

-TA-3B

-NRA-3B

 

Need more information on the following:

-VA-3B

-NA-3B

-TNRA-3B

 

The seat may be a newly manufactured replacement seat for earlier variants or for later modified special test aircraft. Also, the possibility that it may not even be

an A-3 Skywarrior seat? Hope this helps.

[hink441]

Does that seat swivel and lock on a base?

 

Chris