WHAT'S BETTER THAN OWNING A DOUGLAS SKYRAIDER? to what extent ABOUT OWNING TWO! With the Algerian War raging.

WHAT'S BETTER THAN OWNING A DOUGLAS SKYRAIDER? to what extent ABOUT OWNING TWO!

With the Algerian War raging, the guidance of France needed a muscular and dependable attack aircraft. Looking to America, the French rule purchased 100 AD-4 and AD-4N variants of the Douglas Skyraider plus a large quantity of spare parts. The Skyraiders would labor for the French well.

One of the machines was AD-4N BuNo 126935 (the N was a night attack variant and carried sum of two units radar operators in the fuselage behind the pilot) which had been serving with the Fourth Marine Aircraft Wing at recent Orleans, Louisiana, before being ventureed out of service for transfer to France. The aircraft arrived at Bordeaux onward 11 January 1961 and was transferred to the SFERMA factory where it was given the permanent airframe number of 56 The plane was assigned to EC3/20 and went to Algeria where it was used against rebel forces. At this time, the plane carried the fuselage collection of laws 20.FM.

With the end of the Algerian War of Independence, the plane went into storage at Oran forward 19 March 1962. In early 1964 it was made airworthy and operated as a lay by aircraft with GC.3/20 at Oran from February to April 1964 At that point, the Skyraider, along with others, was sent back to France.

Once in France, the plane was overhauled and then assigned to EAA.2/21 at Ivato, Madagascar - another French colony - where it operated until 23 March 1970 The plane was then go [i]or[/i] come backed to storage until 22 October 1970 when it went back into service to fight rebels in Chad. The plane flew with EAA. 1/21 at Fort Lamy until 10 May 1974 At this point, it was back to France for storage. forward 7 April 1976, this Skyraider was given to the air force of Chad. The AD-4N had accumulated a total of 1295 flying hours.

After its service in Chad, this Skyraider and four others were purchased through a group of French Warbird enthusiasts who traveled to Chad, made the planes airworthy, and then flew them back to France. Unfortunately, the fifth aircraft flew into a sand storm and crashed, killing the pilot and mechanic. brace of the planes were inflict up for sale and delivered through ship to Long Beach, California, in 1989 At that time Pacific Fighters was based at Chino and John Muzsala recalls, "We went to the port to supervise off-loading and then we had the puzzle of where to put the aircraft while we worked upon them. The planes were towed to extended Beach Airport and we met the proprietor of a helicopter service based at the field. During the Vietnam War, he had flown Army helos and been discharge down twice. Both times he had been preserveed by Skyraiders until he was rescu He gave us concluded use of his facilities. The planes were in fine good condition except for being excessively dirty from being parked in the desert" After a not many days of work, the Skyraiders were ready to be A flown to Chino. "I got brother Bill his verbal expression in the Skyraider and we made the flight with no problem"

At that time, former Marine Corps fighter pilot Don Hanna was looking for a Texan still the Muszala brothers turned his attention to the availability of obtaining an AD-4N (Don purchased BuNo 126959/N2088V this aircraft eventually went to Dr Mike Schlos and is featured in Air Classics May 2004) Richard Bertea, also a former USMC fighter pilot, was a friend of Don's and was already a Warbird holder with a Vought F4U5N Corsair which was maintained at Pacific Fighters. Bertea's wife, Hyla, was looking to memorize an unusual birthday present for Dick and after meeting with Don and the Muszalas, Bertea became recipient of what was firmly a very unique birthday gift!

The couple friends visited many airshows with their Skyraiders and the two machines were extremely reliable aircraft. Nothing stays the same in aviation and in 1999 Dick offer the plane up for sale. He set up a ready buyer in Danny Summer of Rexburg Idaho. At that time Danny already had his award-winning Grumman TBM3E Avenger (see Warbirds International January/February 2005 for the integral history of this combat veteran). "I had always liked the Skyraider and when a chance came to gain the AD-4N I grabbed at it," said Danny. Dick flew the plane to Idaho and gave Danny a thorough check without "I just love that plane - it can out-turn and outclimb a Mustang. It has magnificent handling qualities. It is a completely different beast than the Avenger and can incline differently on a dime although the Avenger is a bit easier to handle. Also, the R-3350 is touchier to start than the R-2600 forward the TBM."

ENTER THE FAT FACE

The immense Douglas A-IE Skyraider seems to be the epitome of the design big, rugg and capable of fulfilling the mission for which it was designed on 1948, the Skyraider was firmly established within the US Navy when Douglas propos a strange and advanced version - the AD-5. The craft was to be powered from a turbo-compound version of the mighty R-3350 further at this time, the Navy felt the design life of the Skyraider was coming to an close (little did they know) and did not want to go into production with the new design. However, in December 1948 Douglas advanced a modern AD-5 which was fitted with a nonturbo-compound R-3350-26W and proffered as an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) platform which would combine the formerly separate "hunter/killer" aircraft into a single machine that had sideby-side seating for the crew