The A-4 Skyhawk is an attack aircraft originally designed to operate from United States Navy aircraft carriers. Fifty years after the type's first flight, some of the nearly 3,000 Skyhawks produced remain in service with smaller air arms around the world. The aircraft was formerly the A4D Skyhawk, and was designed by the Douglas Aircraft Corporation, later McDonnell Douglas, now Boeing.

The Skyhawk was designed by Douglas' Ed Heinemann in response to a U.S. Navy call for a jet-powered attack aircraft to replace the A-1 Skyraider. Heinemann opted for a design that would minimize size, weight, and complexity. The result was an aircraft that weighed only half of the Navy's specification and had a wing so compact that it did not need to be folded for carrier stowage. The diminutive Skyhawk soon received the nicknames "Scooter", "Bantam Bomber", "Tinker Toy Bomber", and, on account of its nimble performance, "Heinemann's Hot-Rod."

The Navy issued a contract for the type on June 12th, 1952, and the first prototype first flew on June 22nd, 1954. Deliveries to Navy and U.S. Marine Corps squadrons commenced in late 1956.

The Skyhawk remained in production until 1975, with a total of 2,960 aircraft built, including 555 two-seat trainers. The US Navy began removing the aircraft from its front-line squadrons in 1967, with the last retiring in 1975. The Marines would pass on the A-7 Corsair II. The last USMC Skyhawk was delivered in 1979, and were used until the mid-1990s until they were replaced by the similarly small, but V/STOL vertical landing AV-8 Harrier.

Pictured here is a 1:72 scale USMC McDonnell Douglas A-4M Skyhawk attack aircraft that was attached to VMA-214 "Black Sheep", then deployed to Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona, during 1989. Now in stock!

Dimensions:
Wingspan: 4-3/4-inches
Length: 6-3/4-inches

Release Date: January 2024

Historical Account: "Black Sheep" - During the late 1970s, and into the 1980s, the squadron participated in the Unit Deployment Program, rotating between Marine Aircraft Group 12, Marine Corps Air Station, Iwakuni, Japan, and Marine Aircraft Group 13 at MCAS El Toro, California. In October 1982, the Black Sheep were awarded the Lawson H. M. Sanderson Award for Attack Squadron of the Year. In September 1987, the Black Sheep squadron moved to Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona. On October 17th, 1987, the Black Sheep became the first squadron to win the Sanderson award for a second time.

In 1989, the Black Sheep completed 30,000 accident free hours and six years of accident-free flying. Also, in June 1989, the Black Sheep introduced single-seat fixed-wing "night attack" aircraft to the Marine Corps with the first operational squadron of AV-8B Night Attack Harrier IIs.