On 13 September 2002, with no fanfare and little official recognition, the A-4 Skyhawk will achieve an unbelievable first in the history of U.S. naval aviation. On that date, the A-4, Ed Heinemann's Hot Rod, will mark its 50th year. Not an easy feat for any aircraft, let alone a carrier aircraft, considering the multitude of new aircraft types that were appearing when the contract for the A-4 was first let on 13 September 1952.
The A-4 was considered a success from its birth. Making its first flight less than two years later (something unheard of today) on 22 June 1954, this light, inexpensive aircraft set its first record before it entered the fleet. On 15 October 1955, an A-4 piloted by Lieutenant Gordon Grey set a new speed record for its class of aircraft over a 500-kilometer closed course at more than 695 miles per hour. Attack Squadron (VA)-72 was the first squadron lucky enough to operate the A-4, receiving its first Skyhawks on 27 September 1956. A version of the A-4 has been in continuous operational service with the Navy ever since. The Redtails of Fleet Composite Squadron (VC)-8 still fly seven Skyhawks at Naval Station Roosevelt Roads for fleet support and adversary missions.
The A-4 has outlasted every aircraft in service at the time of its introduction, and most of those that came after. Long since gone are the F9F-2 Panther, F2H Banshee, F9F-6 Cougar, and F7U Cutlass, as well as the FJ-2 Fury, F-3 Demon, and AD-1 Skyraider. It has outlasted the F-8 Crusader, F4 Phantom, and A-6 Intruder. It even has served ten years after the aircraft that was to replace it, the A-7 Corsair II. The Navy's current operational carrier aircraft have no chance of surpassing the A-4. The F-14 Tomcat, the Navy's longest serving operational fighter aircraft to date at 32 years, is at the end of its service life and is unlikely to see service as a drone like its predecessor, the F-4 Phantom, did after its 31 years of flying service. Also at the end of operational service is the S-3 Viking, which has seen 28 years of squadron service to date. The only naval aircraft with any chance is the P-3 Orion, but it will need to operate another seven years after the last A-4 finally is retired.
Simplicity of design and adaptability probably are the keys to the A-4's long service life. It has served as an operational attack aircraft that took naval aviators into combat in the skies above Vietnam and brought them back, to carriers whose service lives often were shorter than the A-4's. That list includes the Forrestal (CV-59), Saratoga (CV60), Ranger (CV-61), and Independence (CV-62). It has trained generations of pilots as an advanced strike trainer, and still serves as a near-perfect threat simulator for countless fighter crews from the Philippines to the Caribbean. It is an ideal fleet support aircraft, capable of carrying, towing, and launching anything required to train our surface fleet. And it has totally endeared itself to every pilot who was fortunate to squeeze into its cockpit, and every maintainer who got the chance to crawl into its hellholes.
But it is not the aviators and maintainers who will miss the aircraft most. It is the naval service. When the A-4 finally is retired from VC-8, it will, in all likelihood, not be replaced. The squadron may transition to a new aircraft, but it will mean an altered mission, because the Navy still cannot find a suitable replacement for the A-4. Ed Heinemann would be proud to see that his little aircraft that could, still can.
Commander Pyle is an adversary pilot assigned to Fighter Squadron Composite (VFC)-13 at Naval Air Station Fallon.