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[1968.012.001] Aircraft - 'A-1H Aircraft, Breau Number 135300' |
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A-1H Aircraft, Breau Number 135300
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| Accession Number |
1968.012.001 |
| Accession Date |
12/04/1968 |
| Creator |
| Creator |
Creator Role |
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Manufacturer |
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| Date Created |
1954-1968 |
| Object Desciption |
On June 17, 1965, VF-21 pilots CDR Louis Page and LT Jack Batson, flying F-4B fighters from USS Midway, intercepted 4 MiG-17s, shooting 2 down, the first U.S. kills of MiGs in Vietnam War. On June 20 a propeller driven Douglas A-1 Skyraider killed a MiG-17 in an engagement jointly credited to LT C. B. Johnson and LTJG C. W. Hartman of VA-25. On October 9, 1966 another MiG-17 kill would be credited to an A-1 piloted by LTJG W. T. Patton of VA-176. |
| Object Notes |
Accepted by the Navy on 29 June 1954, the museum's AD-6 (redesignated A-1H in 1962) Skyraider first entered service with Fleet Aircraft Service Squadron (FASRON) 12. It subsequently logged flights in Attack Squadrons (VA) 115, 145, 52, and 25, its time in the final two squadrons including combat service in Vietnam. Its first cruise came with VA-25 in Midway (CVA 41) in 1965, during which time the aircraft was on a 10 June 1965, mission that an engaged North Vietnamese MiG-17s. Though the aircraft on display was not credited, one of the enemy jets was shot down, one of two MiGs splashed by propeller-driven Spads during the Vietnam War. With VA-52, the aircraft deployed in the carrier Ticonderoga (CVA 14) during 1966-1967. Once again assigned to VA-25, it deployed in Coral Sea (CVA 43), which spent 132 days on the line during a 1967-1968 cruise. During these three deployments, the museum's Skyraider logged over 200 combat missions, its final one a milestone in the history of the venerable Skyraider.
On 20 February 1968, Lieutenant (junior grade) Theodore D. Hill Jr., a veteran of seventy-eight combat missions over Vietnam and a member of the last class to complete the A-1 Skyraider syllabus in VA-122, the fleet replacement squadron, launched from Coral Sea (CVA 43) in the museum's aircraft. During the 4.5 hour mission, he flew rescue combat air patrol covering a helicopter at the site of a downed F-4 Phantom II and supported troops at Khe Sahn. At 0736 Hill caught a wire back aboard the Coral Sea, the final combat landing of the cruise for Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 15 and, more importantly, the final attack mission for a Skyraider in the attack role for the U.S. Navy. It proved fitting that VA-25 received the honor of retiring the venerable Spad from combat for when the squadron was known as VA-65 in 1947, it had been the first to receive the AD. Ironically, that squadron had used its new birds to make the first launch and recovery aboard a recently commissioned carrier- Coral Sea.
Upon VA-25's return to the States, the aircraft, with Lieutenant (junior grade) Hill at the controls, made its final flight from Naval Air Station (NAS) Lemoore, California, to NAS Pensacola, Florida, for delivery to the National Museum of Naval Aviation. All told, the aircraft spent more than 4,400 hours in the aircraft during its fourteen years of service. |
| Place of Origin |
El Segundo, California |
| Notes |
The airplane that became the AD (later A-1) Skyraider evolved from a Navy decision in 1943 to combine the dive-bombing and torpedo missions in one aircraft. Built around a barrel-like fuselage, it possessed rigid lines that made it anything but graceful in appearance, but emanated power and could carry 8,000 lb. of ordnance, more than a World War II B-17 bomber. First flown on 18 March 1945, Skyraiders entered fleet service the following year and no aviator that flew one then and later would forget the experience of taking to the air for the first time. "My first impression was that I was in for the ride of my life. I was surrounded by noise and vibration...," recalled one. "That first flight behind a 3350 radial all alone was something to behold."
The "Able Dog" or "Spad," as the Skyraider was called, earned its stellar reputation as one of the finest attack aircraft ever built in the skies over Korea, where Navy and Marine Corps ADs logged 57,244 flights totaling 150,804.8 flight hours. Their missions were varied, from attacking heavily defended industrial targets like power plants and bridges to knocking out the Hwachon Dam with aerial torpedoes to earning the affection of many a grunt with its close air support capabilities. Operations in Korea also reflected the versatility of the Skyraider, the platform being modified to conduct a host of missions including electronic countermeasures and night attack. In combat, the AD demonstrated that it could return to base despite severe damage time and again during the war as evidenced on one flight on which Ensign John Higgins of Attack Squadron (VA) 729 took a round in his canopy and returned to land on the carrier Antietam (CV 36), the landing signal officer giving him guidance over the radio due to the fact that the shattered canopy allowed for no forward visibility. Upon landing, the lucky aviator found a five-inch long piece of shrapnel lodged in the headrest of his seat.
In the years following the Korean War, Skyraiders continued to serve the fleet in multiple roles, the roar of their engines increasingly surrounded by the thunder of jets on carrier decks. Some AD pilots trained for the possibility of nuclear war, flying so-called Sandblower missions, long-range flights to deliver nuclear bombs at low altitude that involved such an extended amount of time in the cockpit that aviators nicknamed them "Butt Busters." By the time of the Vietnam War, the A-4 Skyhawk was increasingly the mainstay of the Navy's carrier-based attack arsenal, though Navy Skyraiders dropped bombs in Southeast Asia until 1968, when the increasingly sophisticated antiaircraft defenses proved to hazardous for the slow Spads. . The Navy continued operating electronic countermeasures versions of the Skyraider until 1972 and the Air Force employed them on search and rescue and air commando missions until that year as well, turning over its remaining aircraft to the South Vietnamese Air Force. All told 3,180 Skyraiders rolled off the Douglas assembly line.
Specifications for A-1H
Manufacturer: Douglas Aircraft Company
Dimensions: Length: 38 ft., 10 in.; Height 15 ft., 8 ¼ in.; Wingspan: 50 ft.
Weights: Empty: 12,094 lb.; Gross: 25,000 lb.
Power Plant: One 2,700 horsepower Wright R-3350-26W engine
Performance: Maximum Speed: 343 M.P.H. at 20,000 ft.; Service Ceiling: 25,400 ft.; Range: 1,300 miles
Armament: Four 20mm fixed forward-firing cannon and 8,000 lb. of ordnance
Crew: Pilot
Aircraft in the Museum Collection
A-1H (BuNo 135300)- On indoor static display
A-1E (BuNo 132789)- On loan to Experimental Aircraft Association, Oshkosh, Wisconsin |
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