CONTRIBUTORS Roger Beseeker, Seoot Bloom, Peter Bowers, Tom Chenoweth, Fred Freeman, Harry Gann, John Herndon (VO-2), Gene "Mule" Holmberg, Craig Kaston, Vic Kretsinger, Clay Jansson, William T. No part of this publication may be repraduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means electranic, mechanical, or otherwise without the written, permission, of the publisher. ISBN 0-94 Steve Ginter, 1754 Warfield Cir., Simi Valley, California, 93063 All rights reserved. Naval Missile Center (NMC), Pacific Missile Test Center Hughes Aircraft and Thunderbird Aviation. (Harry Gann) VAQ-34 ERA-3B landing at NAS Point Mugu, CA, in July 1990. (Douglas) VAH-4 A-3B BuNo 138971 trapping in 1968 off the coast of Vietnam. (Harry Gann) Right side top to bottom: VAH-9 A3D-2 BuNo 138938 takes off from NAS Sanford, FL, in 1957. (Douglas) VAQ-33 ERA-3B BuNo 144827 in flight. (Douglas) VAP-61 RA-3B trapping aboard a bigdeck carrier off Vietnam. (via Norm Taylor) Left side top to bottom: VAH-3 A3D-1 BuNo 135423 takes off from NAS Sanford, FL, in 1957. Army NACA Ames Aeronautical Laboratory Moffett Field Westinghouse Project Press (Pacific Range Electronic Signature Studies) īACK COVER: At top, VAH-1 A3D-2 BuNo 138932 conducting a JATO takeoff from Saint Louis, MO. These were: the Naval Air Test Center (NATC) Naval Air Test Facility (NATF) Lakehurst Fleet Electronic Warfare Support Group (FEWSG) Naval Air Special Weapons Facility (NASWF/NWEF) Naval Aerospace Recovery Facility EI Centro (NARF) Naval Ordnance Test Station (NOTS) Inyokem Naval Weapons Center (NWC) Naval Air Development Center (NADC) Raytheon/U. It also covers the aircrafts usage by the Navy's many different testing facilities. It describes in detail with text, photos, and drawings the difference between the different versions.
Volume one (see Naval Fighters Number FortyFive Douglas A3D Skywarrior Part One Design/Structure/Testing) covered the design, structures and testing of the aircraft. Volume two covers the Navy's operational use of the Skywarrior squadron by squadron. As a test ai rc raft, size and speed as weil as ease of maintenance have kept the Skywarrior in demand. With Hughes Aircraft still flying the wh ale, it will certainly outlive the few OF-4 dranes still flying at NAS Point Mugu, CA. It was not the most glamorous, but became arguably the most utilitarian carrier based aircraft to come out of the '50s. He is currently the president of the American Aviation Historical Society (AAHS) wh ich is dedicated to educating and preserving America'sĪnother child of the "fabulous fifties" was the big-bad Douglas A3D Skywarrior, affectionately known as the "Whale" or "Killer Whale".
He became Chief Liaison Engineer in April 1977 and retired fram Douglas in December 1993. After two years with Flight Test, he was transferred back to Liaison Engineering as Branch Chief of Flight Liaison Engineering. He was then transferred to Long Beach and was loaned to the Flight Test Division, where he flew in BuNo 138938 for DECM development work. He subsequently flew as a crewman on the last Skywarriors prior to the shutdown of the EI Segundo plant. In 1958 he was then asked by Roger Conant, the Chief A3D pilot, to fly on the airplane "to see what really happens to the airplane in flight". He was transferred to the flight line in 1954, and was assigned to the A3D. Upon his return to CONUS he joined Douglas Aircraft Company in March of 1953 as a Liaison Engineer, where he supported design and manufacturing operations on the A2D and AD aircraft. In January 1951, he was drafted into the Army and served as an aircraft crew chief on the Cessna L-19 "Bird Dog" spotter aircraft, while assigned to the 37th Field Artillery in Korea.
Four years later he graduated from the Northrop Aeronautical Institute, Hawthorne, CA, after a short stint in the Marine Corps. (Douglas)īruce Cunningham was born in Virgina in 1928 and graduated high school in June 1946. FRONT COVER: CVG-9 VAH-2 A3D-2 BuNo 138909 aboard the USS Ticonderoga (CVA-14).
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