Douglas A-4 Skyhawk
London: Osprey Publishing Limited, 1983. Presumed First Edition, First printing thus. Hardcover. Format is approximately 8 inches by 11 inches. 198, [2] pages. Illustrations (some in color). Citations. Technical & Performance Data. Index. This is one of the Osprey Air Combat series. Peter Kilduff is widely regarded as the leading expert on the life of Baron Manfred von Richthoven, the World War I German flying ace better known as the Red Baron. Also a general World War I aviation history expert, Kilduff has also been a magazine editor and, more recently, as director of university relations at Central Connecticut State University. All the while, his avocation has been aviation; he is a former president of the League of World War I Aviation Historians and has written several books on the Red Baron, as well as other military topics. Kilduff wrote books about the Navy, including US Carriers at War and Douglas A-4 Skyhawk. The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk is a single-seat subsonic carrier-capable light attack aircraft developed for the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps in the early 1950s. The delta-winged, single turbojet engined Skyhawk was designed and produced by Douglas Aircraft Company, and later by McDonnell Douglas. It was originally designated A4D under the U.S. Navy's pre-1962 designation system. The Skyhawk was designed by Douglas Aircraft's Ed Heinemann in response to a U.S. Navy call for a jet-powered attack aircraft to replace the older Douglas AD Skyraider (later redesignated A-1 Skyraider). Heinemann opted for a design that would minimize its size, weight, and complexity. The result was an aircraft that weighed only half of the Navy's weight specification. It had a wing so compact that it did not need to be folded for carrier stowage. The first 500 production examples cost an average of $860,000 each, less than the Navy's one million dollar maximum. The diminutive Skyhawk soon received the nickname "Heinemann's Hot-Rod", on account of its speed and nimble performance, . The XA4D-1 prototype set a world speed record of 695.163 mph on 15 October 1955. The Skyhawk is a relatively lightweight aircraft, with a maximum takeoff weight of 24,500 pounds (11,100 kg), and has a top speed of 670 miles per hour (1,080 km/h). The aircraft's five hardpoints support a variety of missiles, bombs, and other munitions. It is capable of carrying a bomb load equivalent to that of a World War II–era Boeing B-17 bomber, and can deliver nuclear weapons using a low-altitude bombing system and a "loft" delivery technique. The A-4 was originally powered by the Wright J65 turbojet engine; from the A-4E onwards, the Pratt & Whitney J52 engine was used. Skyhawks played key roles in the Vietnam War, the Yom Kippur War, and the Falklands War. Sixty years after the aircraft's first flight in 1954, some of the 2,960 produced (through February 1979) remained in service with the Argentine Air Force and the Brazilian Naval Aviation. Condition: Very good / Very good.
Keywords: Douglas A-4, Skyhawk, Military Aircraft, Fighter Aircraft, Attack Aircraft, XAD4-1, Military Sales, TA-4, Refueling, Cockpits, Blue Angels, Pratt & Whitney, Thermal Shield
ISBN: 0850455294
[Book #81646]
Price: $45.00