Able Dog: Was the AD Skyraider the Best Attack Bomber Ever Built?

By E. R. Johnson | Aviation History  | 5 comments  |  Print This Post  |  Email This Post

The refinements of the AD-4B—plus LABS (low-altitude bombing system), new bomb racks, a jettisonable canopy and a hydraulic tailhook—were standardized in the single-seat AD-6, which flew in 1953 and began replacing AD-4s. After delivery of 713 AD-6s, the final Able Dog model was the single-seat AD-7, which had a more powerful R-3350-26WB engine, stronger landing gear and stronger outer wing panels. Skyraider production finally ended on February 18, 1957, when the last of 72 AD-7s rolled off the El Segundo assembly line, by which time a total of 3,180 of all versions had been built.

ADs had actually reached their peak as the fleet’s premier attack aircraft in the mid-1950s, when they equipped 29 Navy and 13 Marine squadrons. Although some carrier-based attack squadrons began exchanging their ADs for jets such as the Douglas A4D-1 Skyhawk—another Heinemann product—as early as 1956 BuAer planned to retain its prop-driven workhorse in Navy squadrons until the early to mid-1960s. The Marine Corps, however, began a gradual phase-out of its Skyraiders in 1956 and retired the last examples by the end of 1960.

When the tri-service designation system was adopted in September 1962, Skyraiders remaining in Navy service became A-1s in the following variants: the AD-5 became the A-1E, AD-5W the EA-1E, AD-5Q the EA-1F, AD-5N the A-1G, AD-6 the A-1H and AD-7 the A-1J.

In the early 1960s, increasing numbers of Skyraiders were phased out of active service and placed in storage as more A-4 Skyhawks and even newer Grumman A-6 Intruders took their place in the fleet. But another war, this time over the triple-canopy jungles of Southeast Asia, intervened to give the Navy’s trusty old prop-job yet another lease on life.

In August 1964, from carriers stationed near Vietnam, A-1Hs attached to VA-52 and VA-145 participated in the first naval airstrikes against North Vietnamese patrol boats in the Tonkin Gulf. In the new conflict, at a time when many regarded prop-driven aircraft as throwbacks to a bygone era, the A-1s became affectionately known as “Spads” and their pilots “Spad-drivers.” Over the next four years, Navy A-1s flew hundreds of combat sorties over Vietnam in close air support of American troops, rescue combat air patrol (RESCAP), bombing of Viet Cong and North Viet­namese army targets, and ECM as part of the ongoing naval task force stationed off the coast. Owing to their slower speed and excellent loiter time, A-1s were judged the best planes in Southeast Asia for escorting troop-laden helicopters or for groundfire suppression in RESCAP operations.

Though never intended for air-to-air confrontations, two A-1Hs flown by Navy Lieutenants Charles Hartman and Clinton Johnson of VA-25 off USS Midway did in fact share in the shoot-down of a North Vietnamese MiG-17 on June 20, 1965. Then on October 9, 1966, Lt. j.g. W. Thomas Patton of VA-176, flying an A-1H from USS Intrepid, sent another MiG-17 down in flames near Hanoi. The last Navy single-seat Sky­raider combat sortie was flown by VA-25 in February 20, 1968, from USS Coral Sea. Multiseat ECM missions were continued until late December 1968 by EA-1Fs attached to VAQ-33. The last Navy Skyraiders flying were reportedly stricken from the inventory sometime in 1972.

For further reading, U.S. Navy veteran and frequent contributor E.R. Johnson suggests: Skyraider: The Douglas A-1 “Flying Dump Truck,” by Rosario Rausa; and The A-1 Skyraider in Vietnam: The Spad’s Last War, by Wayne Mutza.

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Tags: Aerial Combat, Aircraft, Flight Technology, Korean War, Military Technology, Vietnam War

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