The A-4 Skyhawk is an attack aircraft originally designed to operate from United States Navy aircraft carriers. Fifty years after the type's first flight, some of the nearly 3,000 Skyhawks produced remain in service with smaller air arms around the world. The aircraft was formerly the A4D Skyhawk, and was designed by the Douglas Aircraft Corporation, later McDonnell Douglas, now Boeing.

The Skyhawk was designed by Douglas' Ed Heinemann in response to a U.S. Navy call for a jet-powered attack aircraft to replace the A-1 Skyraider. Heinemann opted for a design that would minimize size, weight, and complexity. The result was an aircraft that weighed only half of the Navy's specification and had a wing so compact that it did not need to be folded for carrier stowage. The diminutive Skyhawk soon received the nicknames "Scooter", "Bantam Bomber", "Tinker Toy Bomber", and, on account of its nimble performance, "Heinemann's Hot-Rod."

The Navy issued a contract for the type on June 12th 1952, and the first prototype first flew on June 22nd, 1954. Deliveries to Navy and U.S. Marine Corps squadrons commenced in late 1956.

The Skyhawk remained in production until 1975, with a total of 2,960 aircraft built, including 555 two-seat trainers. The US Navy began removing the aircraft from its front-line squadrons in 1967, with the last retiring in 1975. The Marines would pass on the A-7 Corsair II. The last USMC Skyhawk was delivered in 1979, and were used until the mid-1990s until they were replaced by the similarly small, but V/STOL vertical landing AV-8 Harrier. Sold Out!

Pictured here is a 1:72 scale replica of a USN McDonnell Douglas A-4F Skyhawk attack aircraft that was nicknamed "Lady Jessie" and attached to VA-104 "Hell's Archers", that was embarked upon the USS Hancock (CV-19).

Dimensions:
Wingspan: 4-3/4-inches
Length: 6-3/4-inches

Release Date: June 2008

Historical Account: "Long Hull" - The fourth USS Hancock (CV-19) of the United States Navy was a "long-hull" Essex-class aircraft carrier. She was named after the first governor of Massachusetts, John Hancock.

Hancock was laid down as Ticonderoga on January 26th, 1943, by the Bethlehem Steel Company, Quincy, Massachusetts; renamed Hancock on May 1st, 1943, launched January 24th, 1944, sponsored by the wife of Rear Admiral DeWitt Clinton Ramsey, Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics, and commissioned April 15th, 1944, Captain Fred C. Dickey in command.

Hancock reached Japan on November 19th, 1964, and soon was on patrol at Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin. She remained active in Vietnamese waters until heading for home early in the spring of 1965.

The carrier steamed back to the war zone in November of that year. She was on patrol off Vietnam on December 16th; and, but for brief respites at Hong Kong, the Philippines, or Japan, Hancock remained on station, launching her planes for strikes at enemy positions ashore until returning to Alameda, on August 1st, 1966. Her outstanding record during this combat tour won her the Navy Unit Commendation.

Following operations off the West Coast, Hancock returned to Vietnam early in 1967 and resumed her strikes against Communist positions. After fighting during most of the first half of 1967, she returned to Alameda on July 22nd and promptly began preparations for returning to battle.

Aircraft from Hancock, along with those from USS Ranger (CV-61) and USS Oriskany (CV-34), joined with other planes for air strikes against North Vietnamese missile and antiaircraft sites south of the 19th parallel in response to attacks on unarmed U.S. reconnaissance aircraft on November 21st 1970. Hancock alternated with Ranger and with USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) on Yankee station until May 10th, 1971 when she was relieved by USS Midway (CV-41).

Hancock, along with USS Coral Sea (CV-43), was back on Yankee station by March 30th, 1972, when North Vietnam invaded South Vietnam. In response to the invasion, Naval aircraft from Hancock and other carriers flew tactical sorties during Operation Freedom Train against military and logistics targets in the southern part of North Vietnam. By the end of April, the strikes covered more areas in North Vietnam throughout the area below 20° 25'N. Between April 25th to the 30th, aircraft from Hancock's VA-55, VA-164, and VA-212 struck enemy-held territory around Kontum and Pleiku.