Douglas A4D Skyhawk

The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk is a single-seat carrier-capable attack aircraft developed by Douglas Aircraft Company for the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps. A lightweight aircraft with a maximum takeoff weight of 24,500 pounds and a top speed of more than 600 miles per hour, it carried missiles, bombs, and other munitions on five hardpoints and could deliver nuclear weapons using a low altitude bombing system and a loft delivery technique. Skyhawks played key roles in the Vietnam War, the Yom Kippur War, and the Falklands War, and sixty years after the aircraft's first flight, some of the nearly 3,000 produced remained in service with several air arms around the world and as adversaries for Top Gun training. This A-4 Skyhawk bears the markings of Rear Admiral Wm. G. Sizemore and Senator John McCain, both American naval officers who flew carrier-based Skyhawks in the Vietnam War. Sizemore flew 150 combat missions in a Skyhawk and logged 1,036 carrier arrested landings as a pilot between 1948 and 1972, while McCain had flown 23 combat missions when enemy fire brought down his aircraft over North Vietnam on October 26, 1967.

Vincennes, Indiana · United States