-
The Douglas A-1 Skyraider was designed for the United States Navy in the closing years of World War II.
-
The A-1, a propeller-driven piston-engine aircraft, endured even as the US embraced jet aircraft.
-
When the A-1 left US service in the 1970s, about 30 variants had been used for various missions.
On August 5, 1964, United States Navy aircraft began U.S. air operations in the Vietnam War, launching from the aircraft carriers USS Ticonderoga and USS Constellation to attack North Vietnamese targets.
The Navy’s strike formations consisted of two aircraft: the jet-powered Douglas A-4 Skyhawk, which had entered service eight years earlier, and the Douglas A-1 Skyraider, a piston-engine propeller-driven aircraft. Originally intended for service in World War II, the A-1 first flew as the Allies approached Nazi Germany, but did not enter service until 1946.
Even as the world’s greatest armies embraced jets, the Skyraider endured. It continued to fight well into the 1970s and has gone down as one of the best attack aircraft of all time.
Development
Work on what would become the A-1 Skyraider began in 1942, when the Douglas Aircraft Company competed to build a replacement for the Navy’s venerable Grumman TBF Avenger and Curtiss SB2C Helldiver torpedo and dive bombers.
The Navy wanted a single-seat aircraft carrier that could travel farther and carry more ammunition for use against the Japanese. Douglas’s first entry, the BTD Destroyer, suffered from the changed design requirements during development and was a clear loser compared to its competitors such as the Martin AM-1 Mauler.
In a meeting with naval officials in 1944, Douglas’s chief engineer, Ed Heinemann, was allowed to cancel the original design and present a new design. That night, he and two other Douglas engineers created the blueprints for the new plane in a hotel room. Their design was approved the next day on condition that the first test flight would take place no later than nine months.
On March 18, 1945 – just one day after the deadline – the aircraft, then called XBT2D, made its first flight. Despite the fast development time, it was an instant success and outperformed all of its competitors.
Powered by a single Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclone engine, the same model used on the B-29 Superfortress, the XBT2D could fly 300 mph and had a ceiling of over 24,000 feet. It was armed with four 20mm cannons and had 15 hardpoints capable of carrying 8,000 pounds of bombs – more than a B-17 bomber.
On May 5, the Navy announced its plan to acquire 548 aircraft, but by then the war was coming to an end. Germany surrendered on May 7 and only three aircraft were delivered before Japan surrendered on August 15.
The Skyraider
With the Navy starting to invest in jet aircraft, the massive wartime order for the XBT2D was cancelled. The aircraft continued to impress Navy pilots, however, and in 1947 the Navy ordered 239 aircraft—now designated “AD Skyraider”—in three variants.
The decision was a wise one, as the Skyraider proved to be an excellent ground attack aircraft a few years later in the Korean War. Navy and Marine Skyraiders were tasked with attacking train stations, bridges, dams and power stations as part of the Navy’s efforts to blockade North Korea.
Flying from carriers off the Korean coast, Skyraiders could stay on station for hours, deliver 8,000 lbs of bombs with precision, and absorb a massive amount of fire thanks to their armor. They also provided invaluable support for ground operations.
Skyraiders performed so well that the Navy purchased more, including new variants for a wider range of missions. In 1962, the Skyraider was renamed “A-1”. The United States Air Force and its South Vietnamese counterpart also began operating the aircraft that year.
In addition to conventional bombing missions, the Skyraider played a role in counterinsurgency operations, where it excelled due to its long loiter time, massive payload, and ability to operate in nearly all weather conditions and withstand heavy anti-aircraft fire.
Navy Skyraider pilots even managed to shoot down MiG-17 fighter jets twice. The first, on June 20, 1965, came during a rescue combat air patrol over North Vietnam and was the first air-to-air gun victory of the war. The second came on October 9, 1966 on a similar mission.
US Air Force pilots quickly fell in love with the Skyraider. Their variant, the two-seat A-1E, provided essential air cover for search and rescue missions for downed pilots. By the end of the war, Air Force Skyraiders were flying more than 90,000 combat sorties, including more than 1,000 per month during the height of the fighting.
legacy
By the time production ended in 1957, 3,180 Skyraiders had been built and delivered. During the Korean War, 128 Skyraiders were lost to enemy action and other causes. In Vietnam, 266 Skyraiders, 65 Navy and 201 Air Force were lost.
The Navy continued to fly the Skyraider until 1968, when the aircraft was retired and replaced with the A-6 Intruder. The last Air Force Skyraider mission was on November 7, 1972, and all of the service’s remaining Skyraiders were transferred to the South Vietnamese Air Force in 1973.
Other air forces continued to use the Skyraider into the 1980s.
When the aircraft left US service, approximately 30 Skyraider variants had been used for various missions, including anti-submarine warfare, night combat, rescue escort, electronic warfare, and medical transport.
Skyraiders were even designated for a time as delivery systems for the Navy’s supply of air-dropped nuclear bombs. Other munitions were less deadly but still notable: In 1965, a Skyraider took off from the USS Midway with a broken toilet that was dropped over South Vietnam, reportedly the 6 millionth pound of munitions dropped.
Skyraiders, a flying anachronism, earned one of the best reputations a fighter jet could have. Jet pilots weren’t averse to teasing their propeller-bound colleagues, but if a “Sandy” pilot, as Air Force Skyraider fliers were known, walked into a bar, “he’d have a hard time paying for a drink,” according to the pilot of an F-105 Thunderchief.
Read the original article on Business Insider
