Douglas A1 Skyraider (1945)

The long-living piston-powered legend

Although some of the most prominent WW2 aircraft, such as the F4U Corsair or the P51 Mustang, constantly upgraded, still took part in various combats in the 1970-80s, the Douglas Skyraider is certainly one of these surprises. Known at first as the AD Skyraide this very robust and reliable single-seat attack aircraft was in service from 1946, virtually to the early 1980s, making a remarkably long and successful career for a piston-engined model in turboprop and jet age. For these longevity reasons it was also nicknamed lately the “Spad”, a reference to the French WWI fighter. In the 1960s indeed when it soldiered over Vietnam, there was as much time since its first flight from the Spads in US service.

In any case, its probably these old school recipes which allowed this venerable “bomb truck” to see so much active service for decades, until the early 1970s in the US Navy and marines alone. Cheap and simple to maintain, requiring a single pilot as crew, extraordinarily resilient, this dependable beast of burden flew the most perilous missions deep in enemy territory and almost always came back to tell the tale. Inspirational, it was never replaced by the small A4 Skyhawk, but it’s only worthy successor, the legendary A10 Warthog, which went to the USAAF while officially the Navy replaced it by the Vought A7 Corsair II. The “A” standing for attack, was also the reset of this peacetime designation, and it was the first to inaugurate this new line.

Birth of a legend (1943)

In 1943 an official requirement was published for a carrier-based attack aircraft, single-seat, long-range, and high performance model capable of acting as dive and torpedo bomber. It was supposed to replace the Douglas SBD Dauntless, the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver and the Grumman TBF Avenger as a “universal platform”. The single pilot was now possible by using more automated systems, radar, and better radios. The famous specification, also looked forward in UK, trigerred a whole generation of competitors, among which was the Martin AM Mauler and the Grumman AF Guardian. Both were far less successful and only built in small numbers despite more promising features.

Douglas, which already provided the Dauntless to the USN, was equal favorite in a competition in which many great manufacturers competed for a potentially still very lucrative market postwar. The Douglas XBT2D as first designated was Designed by Ed Heinemann of the Douglas Aircraft Company and submitted in early 1944. Accepted, it was followed by an order of a few prototypes on 6 July 1944 as the XBT2D-1. In seven month, the prototype was built and tested at Douglas, making its first flight on 18 March 1945, showing only heatlhy characteristics and practicaly no serious fixes were done. This was followed logically by official tests at the Naval Air Test Center (NATC) in April 1945.

With less emeregency due to the end of the war in Europe and a situation stabilized in the Pacific, tests and fixes dragged on until December 1946, and its designation was changed to the postwar “AD-1”, “A” standard for “attack” and “D” for the manufacturer, Douglas. On order was made for a first batch a delivery to the first fleet squadron was made to VA-19A in early 1947. Needless to say, this model, although designed duting WW2, never fought.
Production of the AD-1 was setup at Douglas’s El Segundo plant, Southern California, where the Dauntless was built in the past. Certifying AD-1s out of the assembly line wad made at a rate of two aircraft per day between 1949 and 1950.

The first XBT2D-1 tested at NATC in April 1945.

Design of the Douglas AD Skyraider

(To come)

AD-1 of VA-85, USS Forrestal, 1958

(Much, much more to come)

Photos

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