Early A-4sThe first fleet squadron to get the A4D-1 was VA-72 (CAG 7). I flew my first A4 flight on 19 December 56. We had transitioned from the F9F-5 Panther. The Squadron insignia was a hawk, with the word "Skyhawk" along the lower margin. We had had that insignia long before we got the A4. But sometime after we got the plane, Douglas Aircraft Co. said we couldn't use the name "SKYHAWK" because they had it as a trademark? copyright?, or whatever they called it. Letters went back and forth from squadron to Douglas, but they remained chicken-shit to the end. Ended up keeping the hawk insignia, but with the "SKYHAWK" deleted. It was a good bird, but couldn't be trimmed for "hands -off" flying. And it was cheap, even for those days, something like $250,000 a copy. With the added mission of "special weapons delivery", we got to do a lot of legal flathatting on low level flights. After passing over a herd of cattle or horses at 50 feet, you'd look back and see them scattering like chickens. There were also a few incidents of turkey flock kills, and those flights were hell on mink farms. Had to make some route changes after awhile. Had to chuckle several years later when I started flying the F8 with VF-74, and those hot fighter jocks thought a "low level" flight meant that they had to get all the way down to a 1000 feet and still not get lost! I always did think that Mach .98 at 50 feet was a lot more fun than 1.75 at 40,000 feet. Would have liked to make it to P-Cola for that A4 retirement, but not possible. Maybe some other VA-72 ers will make it. Bill Buc billb@torchlake.com I read the comments by Bill Buc with interest and enjoyed them. It is always good to hear from people that were there. Bill’s statement regarding Douglas objection to VA-72 using the name Skyhawk is interesting. I was very junior with the company at that time so do not have any insight on that. However, I later wrote a memo to the company lawyer protesting Cessna using Skyhawk and Skymaster names on their aircraft, both Douglas trademarks. I do not believe any action was taken on this by Douglas so Cessna continued to use these names. The comment about the original cost of $250,000 per aircraft is a little low. The fly-away costs for the 165 A4D-1 aircraft averaged about $700,000 (excluding the GSE) which was still a bargain at the time compared to other military aircraft prices. The total cost of the XA4D-1 ran to about 8.4 mil on a CPFF development contract. As I remember off the top of my head, the last Skyhawks built ran somewhere in the vicinity of 5 mil apiece. Figuring the "costs" of military aircraft is not an exact science. It all depends on the basic inputs. I was in the business for 42 years and still cannot fully explain the costing in a few distinct terms. Maybe someone else could throw some learned opinions. Harry Gann |