Douglas A-4 Skyhawk | Flying Through Time | Episode 18

[Music] [Music] this week in flying through time we'll look at the aircraft that became one of the most enduring American light attack aeroplanes of all time this plane has been in use for over 50 years for the simple fact there's nothing else that can match all of its virtues and achieve all of its applications [Music] the use of aircraft carriers during the Second World War saw the need for the development of the attack series of aircraft not only in defense of the fleet but also in the role of close air support of ground troops and precision attack of the Opposition ground-based facilities and services however at the end of the Pacific War the startling statistics of Japanese ships lost in action were telling of the 39 battleships and cruisers lost four were sunk by opposition ships aged by submarines and an incredible 27 by air attack the Allied attack aircraft had become a very important weapon in the u.s. inventory recognizing early into World War two that the SBD Dauntless dauntless was rapidly becoming obsolete the Douglas company started work on its replacement the excess b2d destroyer during the development of the destroyer the Navy changed its requirements and it was cancelled Douglas went back to the drawing board and literally overnight created the drawings for the xbt 2d which went into production as the ad one sky Raider the new aircraft made its maiden flight on March 18 1945 two weeks ahead of schedule it was the most powerful carrier-based aircraft ever built it's single engine with its three fuselage stations and six racks on each wing could carry varied assortments of ordnance including rockets mines torpedoes bombs and napalm in fact it could carry more ordnance weight than that of the famous Boeing b-17 Flying Fortress Skyraiders went on to see combat in the Korean War with the outbreak of the Vietnam War the a1 was again pressed into service Skyraider flew with all branches of the service throughout the conflict and with the vietnamese air force a ones were particularly effective in the close air support role especially as support for rescue of downed Airmen known as sandy the a1 was a welcome sight to a downed pilot the sky Raiders carried out bombing strikes and close air support operations it was used in operations against the Viet Cong strongholds in South Vietnam Cambodia and Laos it picked up its famous callsign sandy as an essential component in the recovery of down aircrew it joined a team of helicopters in the rescue effort the a ones provided suppressive fire on the enemy while US Air Force sikorsky hh-60 members to safety despite being a propeller powered aircraft a1h Skyraiders of the 77 task force hold the incredible feat of shooting down two MIG 17 the Navy used the sky Raider up until April 1968 completing over 100,000 missions in Vietnam their surplus sky Raiders were turned over to the formative South Vietnamese Air Force the US Air Force continued to use their sky Raiders in rescue operations for a number of years when it eventually became time to retire the a once they had been so successful that they were actually replaced by three different aircraft the a 3d sky warrior in the bombing role by far the largest and heaviest machine designed for a carrier up to that time the grumman tracker in the role of anti-submarine warfare and Douglass's a4 Skyhawk in the attack role [Music] the chief engineer of Douglas aircrafts Navy Plant Edward H Hyneman was in 1951 one of the world's most experienced designers of combat aircraft many of his aircraft had been attack machines among them the AZ no Boston havoc family the a26 invader and the unmatched a-1 skyraider with the establishment of the new jet age the Navy saw that their new attack bomber would have to retain most of the abilities of their well-loved sky Raiders and also the faster speeds now being associated with the new jet engines the designs of the time had seen concepts becoming increasingly larger and ever more complex consequently even more expensive both for the customer and the manufacturer in December 1951 Hyneman had rationalized a new approach to design which took nothing for granted and tended to use new and simplified structures and systems and make every part do the work of two the US Navy asked him to apply the philosophy to a requirement for a new attack aircraft to fly certain specified missions at a maximum speed of 495 miles per hour and weigh not more than 30,000 pound Heinemann worked for 14 days and nights his basic idea as he said to take the best jet engine I could get stick a wing underneath and put a saddle for the jockey on top and leave out the rest in a parallel development Lockheed and the famed Kelly Johnson were to use a similar theory or minimalist concept for their outstanding f-104 starfighter for the interceptor role Heinemann never considered turboprops from the start made the new attack bombers smaller than contemporary fighters but the results were so startling they were hard to believe Heinemann had added up the weights and found the total to be not thirty thousand pound but just 12,000 pound still wholly unconvinced the Bureau of Aeronautics orb you err told Hyneman to double the bomb load and add a hundred and fifteen miles to the combat radius perhaps hoping the whole proposal would collapse Hyneman told them the new gross weight was fourteen thousand three hundred pound though many of the experienced viewer staff publicly proclaimed the aircraft couldn't be built Douglas was given an order on the 21st of June 1952 for an X a forty one prototype soon followed by nine production a four D ones each to have an empty weight of eight thousand one hundred and thirty six pound and a gross weight of fifteen thousand pound most of the plans concept had rested on the engine the choice was the right 565 the American version of the light but powerful and efficient british armstrong siddeley sapphire using his minimalist concept Glenavon had found that reducing the overall gross weight had allowed the aircraft to be smaller and burn less fuel weight savings were made in all areas not allowing for weapons bay he saved 500 pound making the wing with very advanced high-lift devices including ground breaking leading edge slats enabled it to be made so small that it didn't need to fold this saved another 250 pound the wing skins were made in one piece from tip to tip and the hold wing formed an integral fuel team as the Navy hadn't made high speed one of their requirements Hyneman cut out the afterburner using alternating current electrics allowing for the use of thinner cables designed a new lightweight ejection seat and packaged all the various electronics into a single box pressurized with dry nitrogen and with a single multi-pin connector the achievements in weight saving had been made without impairing the original designs concept and had in fact tremendously enhanced many aspects of the little plane's abilities and performance the XA 41 was rolled out in February 1954 Douglas test pilot Bob Ron made a most successful first flight on the 22nd of June the new aircraft was a remarkable performer with better precision and control power than any US Navy fighter and a much better view the only major problem was aerodynamic bars at the tail as a quick temporary fix Heinemann redesigned the rudder with a single skin down the middle with half ribs on each side this was meant to be replaced by a properly engineered fix later but nobody had time and to this day every a 4d as a single surface rudder the a 4d one went into combat service aboard carriers in October 1956 and was followed by the a 4 D 2 with single point pressure fueling and an in-flight refueling probe as well as other changes Hyneman had also designed a streamlined series of external bombs and tanks used on many US Navy aircraft as well as a completely new idea the body pick.this comprised a streamlined nacelle housing fuel a hose reel and drogue and the necessary hydraulic drive and control system driven by a nose turbine Skyhawks were the first buddy equipped aircraft able to refuel each other the next variant in 1959 comprised the first with limited all-weather capability resulting in designation a for D to n n for night and on the 12th of July 1961 the first a for d5 start at the second generation of Skyhawks with the more efficient pratt & whitney 552 to spool turbojet engine and enhanced capability the lower fuel consumption stretched range by some 27% and the re-engineered airframe had five stores stations instead of three and a maximum weapon load raised to eight thousand two hundred pound and from 1962 the weapon load was upgraded still further to nine thousand one hundred and fifty five pound about the same as the empty weight with subsequent further development until 1966 the Skyhawks and service were able to achieve outstanding results and were much loved by the pilots who flew them by this time though Douglas thought the a4 was getting to the end of the line Hyneman left Douglas to join General Dynamics and the US Navy wrote the VL specification for a Skyhawk replacement which led to the LTV a-7 corsair 2 even the Douglas Navy plant El Segundo was closed and concentrated its facilities at Long Beach which had previously built only US Air Force machines hardly anyone realized the Skyhawk family had not even reached the midway point the new VL requirements issued in late 1963 were for nearly double those of the Skyhawks to speed delivery and reduce costs all applications would have to be based on existing aircraft minimizing the Navy's risks and prototyping time by using current technologies [Applause] on February 11 1964 Ford won against other strong competition the contract to develop the subsonic a7 Corsair to develop from the supersonic f8 interestingly it was the first supersonic design adopted into a subsonic design the a7 first flew on September 27 1965 four weeks ahead of schedule and was adopted by the Air Force and Navy and went on to write its own extensive chapters in the annals of military aeronautics [Music] however in 1965 the two-seat ta 4e with the 552 8a engine started a new subfamily of tandem Skyhawks nearly all with dual flight controls the production ta 4e was designated ta 4f and it was produced alongside the a4f the first of the so-called camel Skyhawks with additional avionics in a large dorsal fairing by 1969 production had begun on the most numerous of all late-model Skyhawks and a variant that will be around for many years in the USA the Tau was a purpose-designed advanced trainer which in Vietnam proved to be an excellent FAC or forward air control aircraft [Applause] in 1974 the Navy display team the Blue Angels took delivery of their a4 Skyhawks in replacement of their McDonnell f4 phantoms the decision was originally taken on economic grounds but they went on to fly them for 13 years 20 years after the Navy's final order what the a4 lacked in speed in comparison to the f4 it more than made up for in aerobatic precision the Skyhawks were finally replaced in 1987 by f-18 Hornets [Music] in 1979 manufacture of new Skyhawks finally came to an end at Long Beach 22 years later than originally planned with total deliveries amounting to two thousand four hundred and five attack aircraft and five hundred and fifty-five two-seaters [Music] but work on the very large number still in active service has never ceased in 1980 the US Marine Corps introduced yet another version the oa4 M a dedicated two-seat FAC aircraft based on the TA 4f they could well be further versions for electronic warfare and other missions and for possible additional export customers the original a41 had a weapon load of 4,000 pound then thought an excellent figure especially since it had been doubled to meet the Navy's original requested specification the modern versions can carry 3,500 pound on the centerline 2250 pound on each inboard wing pylon and a thousand pound on each outboard pilum a total load of 10,000 pound this with a wingspan of less than that of a world war 1 Sopwith Camel when the tiny Douglas attack aircraft was only on paper many experts said it couldn't be built it wasn't quite the Skyraider long haul long endurance bomb truck the US Navy had in mind an outwardly seemed to be too small to be useful however Hyneman succeeded in creating an aircraft that was small on the outside yet gigantic in capability to such purpose that the US Navy and US Marines bought over 2,000 in five distinct major versions and the average price was less than one-tenth of the cheapest 1981 aircraft to do the same job as a mark of their true worth the Skyhawk still flies with some of the air forces of the world nearly 50 years after first entering service after the 1991 Desert Storm warfare Kuwaiti sky Hawks were eventually sold to Brazil the aircraft were delivered to Brazil in 1998 and after extensive upgrading became operational with the Brazilian Navy in early 2001 [Music] [Music] in its long lifespan as a low-level fighter attack aircraft the a4 could boast capabilities needed to match almost any conceivable circumstance [Music] after proving itself for almost half a century the a4 Skyhawk has more than just proven it's worth it has become one of the finest military planes ever made [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Ultimate History

Views: 6,385

Keywords: A-4 sky hawk, single seat subsonic carrier, attack aircraft, United States Navy, United States Marine Corps, A-4 Skyhawk, Western Museum of Flight, Discovery Wings Great Planes - A-4 Skyhawk

Id: a78WLtIsMOw

Length: 24min 4sec (1444 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 08 2018