DOUGLAS AIRCRAFT CO. A4D SKYHAWK JET ATTACK BOMBER AIRCRAFT U.S. NAVY PROMOTIONAL FILM 80344

Video from the channel PeriscopeFilm about Douglas Aircraft Company, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 17:58. Language: English. Video type: Archive footage.

Douglas Aircraft film about the A4D Skyhawk, an attack aircraft whose export version was called the DA-101. It opens by comparing the aircraft to the hawk it is named after. It then shows its manufacture (fuselage, cockpit, wing and landing gear attachment), the ejection seat, the range of weapons displayed next to the aircraft, its use as a tanker within its own squadron, maintenance and engine changes. It closes with takeoffs from a runway and from a carrier, and with rocket and bomb launches.

This is footage from the manufacturer itself. It was filmed while the aircraft still carried the A4D designation and was already in series production. The film gives neither the filming date nor the locations.

The central theme is weight saving. The wing is a modified delta, small enough that it doesn't need to fold for carrier operations, and it holds integral fuel tanks. The ejection seat weighs about 50% less than seats in common use. The aircraft splits into four bolted sections (forward fuselage, wing, engine and rear fuselage) that separate for maintenance. According to the film, it is 39 feet long, 27.5 feet in wingspan and 15 feet tall, weighs about 15,000 pounds and carries a Wright J65 turbojet with 7,700 pounds of thrust. Its combat radius is 400 nautical miles on internal fuel and more than doubles with wing tanks. An engine change takes about 16 man-hours, and the claimed budget saving is over 50%.