A-4 Skyhawk

[Tommymonkey192]

I had to go downtown to file some papers at the County Recorder/Assessor's office today and right in front of it is this A-4 Skyhawk.

 

 

[teufelhunde.ret]

They were a great a/c, in its day, I believe it was the most versatile a/c in the USN/USMC inventory.

[Hawk914]

Nice... I really dig the Scooter and was fortunate to see the Blue Angels fly A-4s a few times before they converted to the Bug. Having seen the Blues fly both, I can say that the A-4 shows were much more exciting.

 

Anyhoo, here's a few looks at this very A-4 during its time with VMA-311...

 

http://a4skyhawk.org/content/160031-vma-31...collection-6105

 

http://a4skyhawk.org/content/buno-160031-vma-311-wl-00

 

http://www.a4skyhawk.org/content/160031-vma-311-wl-00

 

http://www.cloud9photography.us/Military-A...1&k=wTBrzwX

 

 

And here's one view of 160031's tail, while she was serving with VMA-211... the second jet in line.

 

http://a4skyhawk.org/content/160031-vma-21...ketch-eddy-6106

 

 

Fade to Black...

[lewis505]

Isn't Argentina still flying them operationally?

[The Meatcan]

that's a pretty good looking presentation of the "plane on a stick" type monument. Looks like they added some nice placques with hopefully some good info for the public to read.

Looks cool!

thanks for sharing :thumbsup:

Terry

[MWalsh]

Isn't Argentina still flying them operationally?

 

Not sure, I thought the Malaysians were too, I believe New Zealand retired all of theirs.

 

MW

[Bob Hudson]

My dad was a mechanic with VA-83 when they became the first squadron to deploy what was then called the A4D in April 1957 when I was six years old. I knew my dad had gone to Cuba when he was in the Navy, but in looking at the A4D history just now I discovered it was when VA-83 took ten of them to GITMO for advanced weapons training.

 

There's a nice history of the early days of the A4D/A-4 at http://a4skyhawk.org/?q=3e/va83/navairnews-nov58.htm

[Gregory]

Isn't Argentina still flying them operationally?

Yes. They are now the Lockheed Martin A-4AR Fightinghawk / OA-4AR Fightinghawk.

 

Ironically, just before Falklands War the Argentine A-4Bs and A-4Cs were upgraded by the British company Ferranti to equipp them with the Omega VLF navigation system and other avionics to be more effective in combat against... Ferranti could not know then against whom...

[snake36bravo]

I really loved the A-4. My father transitioned from the Army to the Navy and was at Chase Field, Beeville, TX. Now my dad is known to tell tales but I have heard that A-4 pilots had to bungee their helmets to keep from busting the canopy or knocking themselves out when they would bank the aircraft hard.

 

Through the hangar doors is one sweet A-4.