@ New York, NY
August 2018
A Cold War-era A-4 Skyhawk attack jet stands guard on the hangar deck of the USS Intrepid (CV11). The A-4B was delivered in 1957, serving until decommissioning in 1980. Added to the Museum collection in 1990, this aircraft (142833) was assigned to the VA-95 “Green Lizards”, who operated the A-4B Skyhawk from 1965-68 onboard the USS Intrepid. A-4 Skyhawks flew approximately one third of the USN sorties into North Vietnam. Even seventy years after the aircraft’s first flight in 1954, some of the nearly 3,000 Skyhawks produced are still in service with South American air arms. The A-4B variant was the first to have the “inside-out” rudder construction with supporting ribs on the outside, rather than inside. This change was introduced as a temporary fix for “rudder flutter” discovered during testing of the A-4A, but remained as a fixture of all future Skyhawks.
