Heinemann’s Rocket

There is a saying that goes, ‘Good things come in small packages,’ and this statement could not be anything but true when it comes to describing the McDonnell Douglas A-4 Skyhawk.

Indeed, few if any aircraft have been designed and built to such a degree that they surpassed the requirements of the intended customer in the most important areas of weight and range. The Skyhawk was one such aircraft that did achieve such design success.

From the outset, the Skyhawk was conceived from a US Navy requirement for an aircraft to replace the Douglas Skyraider. In Korea, the Skyraider had proved its reliability and ruggedness but, with the production of this aircraft terminated in 1957, the Navy was entering a new era where the piston-engined carrier-based attack aircraft were considered obsolete, a belief which was partially discounted with the Vietnam conflict a decade later.

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