@ San Diego, CA
July 2025
From my visit to the San Diego Air & Space Museum Gillespie Field Annex facility, housing additional and larger aircraft in the Museum collection. First flown in 1950, the Douglas A2D Skyshark was a powerful turboprop attack aircraft developed for the U.S. Navy. Intended to succeed the successful Douglas AD Skyraider, it was intended to offer the efficiency of a propeller aircraft with the performance of a jet. The 5,100 hp Allison XT40-A2 engine had more than double the horsepower of the Skyraider, utilizing contra-rotating propellers to harness the available power. Unfortunately the program never recovered from engine development issues. Only twelve Skysharks would be built, two prototypes and ten pre-production aircraft. Most were scrapped or destroyed in accidents, and this example is the lone survivor.
