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A4

The A-4 involved in a barricade landing with the Skyhawk flown by John McCain

by Till Daisd March 22, 2023

VA-163 went through 3 A-4 Skyahwk CAG jets on the ’67 cruise… 150132 was lost on Aug. 20, and 149959 went down over Hanoi, on Oct. 26. 152003 took the barrier in November.

Lt Cdr John S. McCain, a VA-163 Saints pilot, was shot down while flying A-4E BuNo 149959 on October 26, 1967. He started diving toward a thermal power station close to Hanoi. He was promptly targeted by a SAM battery, and its missile tore off the majority of his Skyhawk’s right-wing, as described by Peter Mersky in his book US Navy and Marine Corps A-4 Skyhawk Units of the Vietnam War. He couldn’t do much to maintain control, so he ejected directly into the middle of the city. When evasion proved impossible, McCain began his five years of cruel imprisonment and suffering. From a dirty jail cell in the Hanoi Hilton to the halls of Congress, it would be a very long voyage.

In a previous post, we mentioned how six days before McCain’s flight, LT JG Denny Earl had to employ the arresting barricade to return to land on the Oriskany, which was flying BuNo 149959, despite having both of his legs shattered by North Vietnamese anti-aircraft fire.

Setting the record straight: The photo of the A-4 involved in this barricade landing does not show the Skyhawk then flown by John McCain when he was shot down over Hanoi

But, as aviation expert Scott Brown noted, ‘the jet McCain was downed in… wasn’t the one Denny Earl took the barrier in…. Earl’s barrier crash was NOV. 20, not OCT 20…

‘I found this shot…. you can see the BuNo…. 152003.

‘Oriskany has 3 CAG jets that cruise, McCain went down in the 2nd….the replacement was the one Earl was wounded in….

‘VA-163 went through 3 CAG jets on the ’67 cruise… 150132 was lost Aug. 20, 149959 went down over Hanoi, Oct. 26. Earl was wounded and took the barrier in 152003 in November… Later in the cruise, they put Earl’s name on it, although he had already been evacuated off the ship.

‘Every database on A-4s has this wrong… it’s weird…’

Brown went on;

‘Very interesting story about this… I’ve been a Firefighter / Paramedic for almost 30 years…very early in my career, we used to carry a piece of equipment called a PASG…Pneumatic Anti Shock Garment. It was basically a G-suit, had inflatable rubber bladders on the legs and abdomen that you’d inflate in the hope that it would force blood out of the legs…like a G-suit. The PASG was a terrible idea, didn’t work at all, but it was useful for either stopping major bleeding or splinting a whole leg. Dr. Adeeb, VA-163’s flight doc, was also a pilot. They didn’t let him go over the beach, but they did let him fly local and tanker hops. He was aloft when Denny came back, it was his idea to have him inflate his G-suit and keep it inflated to try and stop the bleeding. It worked and absolutely saved his life.’

According to Peter Fey, who backs up this assertion in his book Bloody 16, ‘When Adeeb landed following his tanker mission, he climbed down from the flight deck and proceeded to help operate on Earl. The ship’s general surgeon began preparing for surgery as Adeeb swapped his flight suit for surgical scrubs. With Adeeb’s assistance, they repaired Earl’s leg with several pins. With his leg repaired, Earl was evacuated arriving in Pensacola, Florida, less than thirty-six hours after being wounded.’

Brown concluded: ‘So that Adeeb landed and immediately went into surgery, was amazing!’

Photo by U.S. Navy

March 22, 2023 0 comment

History

Mike Estocin, the first US Navy jet pilot to ever get the Medal of Honor for a combat mission

by Till Daisd January 6, 2023

written by Till Daisd

Despite the fact that Estocin’s A-4E caught fire on its final approach, he managed to land safely into the barrier, and the fire crew extinguished the flames as he descended from the cockpit unharmed

The A-4 Skyhawk was created by Douglas Aircraft Company designer Ed Heinemann in response to his worries about the weight and cost of combat aircraft rising in the 1950s. The A-4 broke with this trend by omitting a large wing-folding mechanism in favor of a compact delta wing for better storage on aircraft carriers. To further cut weight, engineers changed the pilot ejection mechanism and minimized the number of cockpit components.

Other measures included replacing a heavy-duty battery with a wind-powered generator that was stored in the fuselage, using gravity-dropped landing gear instead of a backup hydraulic system, and installing an air conditioning system that was one-third lighter than those that were previously available. The A-4, or “Tinker Toy,” as pilots called it, exceeded the Navy’s maximum weight limit by more than half in its final configuration.

The National Naval Aviation Museum claims that Skyhawks flew more combat missions over Vietnam than any other naval aircraft, including notable missions for the Iron Hand, strikes against bridges and power plants in North Vietnam, and close air support of troops engaged in ground combat in South Vietnam.

Iron Hand was a strictly SA-2 “Guideline” kill-and-suppression operation, typically carried out in support of an Alpha strike against a significant target by a single A-4 equipped with two or more AGM-45 Shrikes.

As told by Peter E. Davies in his book A-4 Skyhawk Vs North Vietnamese AAA North Vietnam 1964-1972, an outstanding example of Iron Hand skill was displayed on Apr. 20, 1967, by VA-192’s Operations Officer, Lt Cdr Mike Estocin, flying from Ticonderoga as part of CVW-19. He conducted a three-aircraft Iron Hand flight against three 285th Missile Regiment SA-2 sites near Haiphong with the goal of taking out as many SAM batteries as he could. His strategy was flying as close as he could to a target before launching his missiles. Although Estocin’s A-4E sustained significant AAA damage to its wings, all three sites were destroyed.

He went back to the target to use the last remaining Shrike despite the fuel depletion accelerating quickly. After getting his “feet wet,” Estocin connected with an A-3 “Whale” tanker that towed him back to Ticonderoga while pumping fuel into his aircraft a little bit more quickly than it was leaking out. Knowing that he only had enough fuel for one attempt at a landing, he detached from the tanker two miles from CVA-14 and headed for the deck. Despite the fact that Estocin’s A-4E caught fire on his final approach, he managed to land the aircraft safely into the barrier, and the fire crew put out the flames as he descended from the cockpit unharmed.

When his squadronmate Lt(jg) J. W. Cain was shot down by AAA in an A-4E BuNo 152076 during VA-192’s Alpha strike attack on a fuel dump in Haiphong on April 26, 1967, Lt Cdr Estocin was once more SAM hunting. As he was returning to 12,000 feet, shortly after Estocin’s Iron Hand section had lofted a Shrike in front of the strike force, he noticed an SA-2 approaching him. Just as the missile burst close to his aircraft, he started an evasive diving turn after likely positioning himself to target the missile’s launch location. He rolled and dove toward the earth while his A-4 (BuNo 151073) was on fire before pulling out at 2,000 feet.

By this time, Estocin’s aircraft was burning intensely as the pilot raced for the coast. As the Skyhawk slowly lost speed, another SAM that was passing nearby came dangerously close to striking it. Lt Cdr John Nichols of VF-191 followed the downed A-4E in his F-8E, observing substantial damage to its forward fuselage and observing Estocin seemingly slumped forward in his cockpit, apparently oblivious to radio messages. Estocin was later identified as the future MiG killer. The plane lost all of its stores when their wiring burned out as it went inverted at 1,000 feet just short of the coast before crashing. Shortly after, Estocin received the Medal of Honor posthumously, becoming him the first and only US Navy jet pilot to receive it for a combat mission.

The story of Lt Cdr Mike Estocin the only US Navy jet pilot to ever receive the Medal of Honor for a combat mission — Lt Cdr Mike Estocin

A-4 Skyhawk Vs North Vietnamese AAA North Vietnam 1964-1972 is published by Osprey Publishing and is available to order here.

Photo by U.S. Navy; Artwork: Osprey

January 6, 2023 0 comment

History

The A-4 Skyhawk: from Douglas to the U.S. Navy

by Till Daisd November 1, 2022

written by Till Daisd

The Douglas Aircraft A-4 Skyhawk was a family of light attack bombers manufactured and used by the United States Navy. It was designed to replace the AD-1 Skyraider, which had become a propeller-driven veteran in the 1950s, but it never succeeded in pushing it out of service. In 1956, development began on what would eventually become the A-4A. This version was powered by a Wright J65 turbojet engine and could fly at speeds approaching 725 miles per hour. The wingspan of this version was 27 feet 5 inches with a width of 9 feet 5 inches, not including the air intake for its engine. Because it was considered “light,” it weighed only 10,500 pounds empty and could carry a payload of up to 16,000 pounds internally and externally without overloading its landing gear. The main gear retracted into sponsons that protruded outward from each side of the fuselage’s body just behind its cockpit.

The A-4 Skyhawks were a family of light attack bombers manufactured and used by the United States Navy. The aircraft was designed and produced by Douglas Aircraft, who also designed the famous DC-3 airliner. The Skyhawk was used by the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps as well as being sold abroad to many countries. Although never seeing combat in Vietnam, it was later used in several conflicts such as Operation Desert Storm, where it proved its worth again as an effective weapon against enemy forces on land or sea.

The Skyhawk was designed by Ed Heinemann, an engineer who played a major role in the development of other significant military aircraft at Douglas.

The new aircraft had to be faster and more maneuverable than its predecessor and able to carry a greater bomb load over longer distances. It also had to have better visibility for pilots.

The prototype first flew on December 20, 1954—just four years after the start of design work on it.

The Skyhawk also proved to be a popular export for South America and Israel, though both countries later developed their own aircraft models based on the Skyhawk design. The A-4B was used by the US Navy and Marine Corps between 1955 and 1975. It had four 20mm cannons in addition to its air-to-air rockets, making it an effective adversary against other aircraft during dogfights.

The Israeli Air Force (IAF) started using the Skyhawk in 1968 after purchasing three A4s from Argentina. Later that year, Israel purchased 27 more planes from Douglas Aircraft Company in California before establishing its own production line for modified versions of the aircraft that included better radar systems and more powerful engines than those installed on earlier versions of this plane model series.

Despite being designed to replace the AD-1 Skyraider, which was a propeller-driven aircraft that had become a veteran of the Korean War by the time the A-4 Skyhawk entered service with the U.S. Navy in 1961, it never succeeded in pushing it out of service.

In 1952, four separate proposals from Douglas were submitted for meeting the needs of this requirement. The A4D and A4E were swept-wing designs, while the A4F and A4G were straight-wing designs. The Navy selected the A4D as its next-generation carrier-based attack aircraft.

In 1956, development began on what would eventually become the A-4A. The first production version of the Skyhawk was equipped with a more powerful J65 engine and its first batch was also fitted with ejection seats.

The A-4 was designed to be a small, light attack bomber that could take off from aircraft carriers and operate as a land-based aircraft. The first prototype flew in 1958 and was powered by the Wright J65 turbojet engine, which was also used in the F3H Demon fighter jet. This engine gave the Skyhawk an impressive top speed of 725 miles per hour.

The Skyhawk’s fuselage is constructed from aluminum alloy with titanium used for high-stress areas such as the wings and tail fins. Other materials include magnesium alloy for various control surfaces, Duralinox (a type of plastic) for parts where fuel tanks or oil coolers are attached to metal structures, steel alloys for landing gear struts and ribs on wings, glass fiber reinforced plastic (GRP) for outer wing panels (the smooth white skin you see), cloth insulation covering bodywork components like fuel tanks and cockpit canopy windows; copper wire in electrical systems; Plexiglas windows; rubber seals around doors; fabric seat cushions; leather straps on ejection seats; carpeting on floors inside cockpits—you get the idea!

The wingspan of this version was 27 feet 5 inches with a width of 9 feet 5 inches, not including the air intake for its engine. This number is measured from wing tip to wing tip at the widest point of the wing.

Because it was considered “light,” it weighed only 10,500 pounds empty and could carry a payload of up to 16,000 pounds internally and externally without overloading its landing gear.

This meant that the aircraft could be flown off a carrier’s deck with ease—even when loaded down with bombs and rockets. In addition, this light weight allowed for short takeoffs in confined areas such as an aircraft carrier’s flight deck or even on land at bases close to enemy lines.

The A-4 Skyhawk was also designed from the beginning to be able to make precise low-altitude bombing runs at speeds of up to 500 miles per hour (805 km/h). This made it highly effective against ground targets while avoiding enemy air defenses such as antiaircraft artillery (AAA) batteries or surface-to-air missiles (SAMs).

The main gear retracted into sponsons that protruded outward from each side of the fuselage’s body just behind its cockpit. This was a design feature that allowed the plane to operate from aircraft carriers as well as land bases. The nose gear, however, retracted into two telescoping cylinders mounted under the fuselage just forward of its leading edge.

The A-4 Skyhawk has served the Navy well over its many years, and it continues to do so. It is a shining example not only of American ingenuity but also of the close and mutually beneficial relationship between this country and its military branches. In fact, Douglas Aircraft Company’s story illustrates how these organizations can work together for the betterment of both. Though some might see this tale as one about aircraft design, we think it’s also about a sort of partnership that helps each party grow stronger in its own right.

November 1, 2022 0 comment

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