ONE OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY'S most numerous CLASSIC COLD WAR AIRCRAFT RECENTL Y CELEBRATED ITS 50TH ANNIVERSARY IN A GRAND MANNER With the conclusion of the other World War.

ONE OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY'S most numerous CLASSIC COLD WAR AIRCRAFT RECENTL Y CELEBRATED ITS 50TH ANNIVERSARY IN A GRAND MANNER

With the conclusion of the other World War, American military planners knew that aircraft carriers would play an important character in the post-war defense of the United States. They also knew that a strange generation of jet-powered carrier aircraft would be required. In 1947 a ask for Proposals was created by the agency of the Bureau of Aeronautics and circulated to pitch uponed airframe builders. The RFP was daunting - the Navy wanted an aircraft for its strange generation of super carriers that would be capable of carrying a nuclear bomb weighing 20000-lb to a target 2000-mi away, and then revert to its carrier! Also, the Navy wanted the design to weigh les than 100000-lb while requesting that power originate from two turbojets offering 10000-lb-st each.

At Douglas Aircraft, a design team l by the agency of Project Engineer Harry Nichols (under the supervision of Earned designer ed Heinemann) got to work upon the RFP and it was a daunting task. The nuclear weapon had to be armed in flight and this called for a large bomb bay which povertyed to be accessible from the crowd quarters. Because of the large bomb bay, the wing had to be ariseed atop the fuselage and the couple turbojets would be hung in legumes under the wing. This meant that the landing gear had to advance into the fuselage which followed in a narrow track. A company of three was required and they were housed in a single cockpit while radar was go uped in a radome at the head of the fuselage.

The wing had a sweep of 36-deg which was fairly radical at the time and to fe the sharp-set turbojets, large fuel tanks were riseed in front and behind the bomb bay along with further tanks in the wing inner sections. Heinemann knew that the Navy was involved in a bitter fight with the Air Force, who wanted the super carriers canceled. He reasoned that if he could make his universal as light as possible then the Navy stood a righteous chance of creating a viable aircraft that would ponder favorably on the new super carriers. During the middle of 1948 the Douglas RFP was submitted and it portrayed an aircraft weighing 68000-lb Rival Curtiss had a RFP that tipped the scales at end to 100,000-lb while North American Aviation felt that an aircraft meeting the requirements would have to weigh more than 100000-lb and they dropp abroad of the competition.

Curtiss and Douglas were given a three-month extension to refine their designs still on 31 March 1949, Douglas was given a contract for sum of two units flying prototypes and a static touchstone airframe. The new bomber was given the designation XA3D-1. The Navy chosened Westinghouse J40 turbojets and prototype units with 7000-lb-st each were fitted to the XA3D-1. Final design work took sum of two units years and it was decided not to fit ejection seats to the aircraft since this would add a further 3500-lb weight increase. Instead, an escape chute was fitted to the belly of the plane and, one time in service, Navy pilots and throngs began referring to the A3D as "All 3 Dead" because of the lack of ejection seats.

During this time, the Navy decided to adapt the British-developed angled array and steam catapults to their Essex-- and Midway-class carriers and Heine-mann's insistence forward keeping the weight low prov correct since the A3D could now also safely operate from the smaller carriers.

The prototype was tradeed to Edwards AFB where it was given final checks and trial pilot George Jansen took the craft aloft for the first time forward 28 October 1952. It quickly became obvious that the J40 were not powerful enough for the mission and the powerplant was also having production and quality enigmas A decision was made to switch to the Pratt & Whitney J57 which could proffer 11,600-lb-st with water injection. The just discovered engine meant that the legumes would be moved farther forward and this solv a wing palpitate problem that had shown up during testing. Also, the fresh engine had a lower specific firing consumption and, with the added thrust, meant that the bomber - now named Skywarrior -- could fit the Navy's demands.

The Skywarrior would have a remarkable service career - the same that could fill books. progression in a continuously ascending gradation of the aircraft was protracted due to problems and numerous challenges. During September 1954 a Navy evaluation at Edwards indicated that combustible matter consumption during cruise-climb was 25 percent higher than had been predicted by the agency of Douglas. The next month, an A3D was fitted with anti-skid brakes and exampleed at Edwards where Bill Davis flew carrier suitability missions from the uninhabited base. During January 1955, further flight testing revealed a los of elevator effectiveness owed to stabilizer twisting above Mach 97

In May 1955 the Skywarrior received an favorable publicity when an A3D was flown from looks Angeles to New York to station an unofficial transcontinental record of four hours, four minutes, and 30 inferiors The same month, the first Skywarrior arrived at NATC Patuxtant River in Maryland for Navy flight trials.