Hasegawa 1:72 A-4E/F Skyhawk Kit HAB09

The Skyhawk first flew on June 22, 1954.  Intended to fill the U.S. Navy’s need for a jet-powered light attack bomber that could replace the Douglas AD-1 Skyraider, the Skyhawk was a departure from the prevailing “bigger is better” design trend in naval aviation in the 1950’s, being smaller and more nimble than many of its contemporaries.  The brainchild of designer Ed Heinemann, the Skyhawk was designed to meet rigid Navy specifications: 2000 lb. bomb load, maximum speed of 500 mph, and a 460-mile operating radius, at a cost of no more than $1 million each.  Upon delivery, it was under budget at $860,000 each, and during October 1955 speed tests it clocked 695 mph; later versions of the Skyhawk could carry over 8,000 lbs. of ordnance. 

Under the initial designation A4D-1, it entered service with front-line Navy squadrons on October 26, 1956 starting with VA-62.  The first Marine squadron to take delivery was VMA-224 in January 1957.  Both squadrons had previously operated in Grumman F9F Panthers.  The A-4 had many nicknames over the course of its career, some reflecting its diminutive size: “Tinker Toy,” “Scooter,” “Heinemann’s Hot Rod (in a nod to its designer),” and for the later –E and –F versions featuring the avionics hump, “Camel.”

 Almost from the very beginning, the Skyhawk saw extensive action in the Vietnam War.  On August 5, 1965, several A-4’s took part in retaliatory air attacks against North Vietnamese torpedo boat bases at Loc Chao and Quang Khe in response to the Gulf of Tonkin incident.  One week later, A-4’s were dispatched on the first “Iron Hand” air attacks using Shrike anti-radiation missiles against North Vietnamese surface-to-air missile sites.  During subsequent escalation in 1967, A-4’s bombed targets such as powerplants in Hanoi.  Although adaptable to the fighter role in a pinch and equipped with two 20mm cannon as defensive armament, there is only one recorded incident of an air-to-air kill by a Skyhawk over Vietnam.  On May 1, 1967, during an attack on Kep airfield in North Vietnam, Lieutenant Commander Theodore R. Schwartz of VA-76 off the U.S.S. Bon Homme Richard, shot down a MiG-17 using Zuni air-to-ground rockets.  In 1970, an Israeli Skyhawk shot down a Syrian MiG-19 over Lebanon with the same type of weapon, and at least one A-4 in Israeli service brought town a MiG-17 using a 30mm DEFA cannon, which replaced the two 20mm.  The A-4H version of the Skyhawk was quite useful to the Israelis, having double the bomb load (8,200 lbs) of the type previously flown by IAF, the French Dassault Mirage IIIC. 

Having sufficient speed and manoeuvrability to be employed as a MiG adversary at the U.S. Navy’s Fighter Weapons School, the nimble A-4 has given pilots seeking to hone their air combat manoeuvrer skills a run for their money.  A cheap, easy to maintain and reliable attack aircraft, the Skyhawk had a fairly long service life, operating with U.S. Navy units for a total of 47 years.  The last Marine Corps units reportedly decommissioned the type in 1994, but the last Navy unit to fly the Skyhawk, VC-8 based at NAS Roosevelt Roads in Puerto Rico, laid the A-4 to rest after a final flight on May 3, 2003.  In addition to serving the U.S. military, Skyhawks also flew for the air forces of Argentina (seeing action in the 1982 Falklands War), Australia, Indonesia, Israel, Kuwait, New Zealand, and Singapore.