The A-4 skyhawk was the adversary strike fighter of the US navy during the mid cold war era the. A-4 was a small, nimble, and the pilots who flew it nicknamed the A-4 'scooter' for its small size and quick acceleration. within the low altitude flight envelope the A-4 could out preform almost any other aircraft in a turn, but while the A-4 was an agile plane , its short coming was its poor climb rate in comparison to even older soviet aircraft like the MIG-17. this caused the A-4 to sustain significant losses to north vietnamese anti aircraft artillery and SA-2's (the north vietnamese surface to air missile systems). Although the A-4 skyhawk was a small plane, it could still carry a heavy array of weaponry and carried many external hardpoints for bombs, rockets, missiles, and fuel tanks, the most common loadout throughout the vietnam war were 2 fuel tanks mounted on the 2 left and right pylons , and its load of bombs, rockets, or napalm in the center pylon , the loadout shown in the picture is carrying 1 center mounted fuel tank and had dropped its payload of napam drop tanks. the A-4 was finally retired by the US navy in the early 90's and has had lasting effects on light attack tactics and design, the predecessor to the A-4 is the F-35B lightning.
song - surfin bird by the trashmen (1963)
