Douglas EKA-3B Skywarrior
The biggest threat to the US Navy's aircraft carriers in the early 1950s came not from the Soviet Union, but the US Air Force. With jet-powered strategic bombers, many questioned why the Navy needed expensive carrier battlegroups at all. With the US armed forces adopting an "all-nuclear" force, the Navy needed a bomber capable of delivering a nuclear payload. The Lockheed P2V Neptune could be launched from carriers, but was too big to land. The North American AJ-1 Savage could launch and land, but was propeller-driven and too slow to survive over the USSR. Finally, in October 1952, famous Douglas aircraft designer, Ed Heinemann, delivered his latest masterpiece: the A3D Skywarrior.
The Skywarrior was, in a word, huge; sailors quickly nicknamed it "Whale." The largest aircraft to operate from carrier decks, it had to be big to carry the large nuclear bombs of the 1950s. Despite its size, the A3D was surprisingly docile, though engine problems kept it out of the fleet until 1956. It could not operate from the World War II-era Essex-class carriers, only from the later "supercarriers" like the Forrestal and Nimitz-classes. A lack of ejection seats led the three-man crews to joke that "A3D" stood for "All Three Dead." Nevertheless, the A3D did the job it was assigned to do, and rather well.
Technology rapidly outstripped the A3D, and only four years after it began operations, it was already obsolete in the nuclear bombing role--like its predecessor, it was too slow to survive over the USSR. It could be still used as a conventional bomber, and the Navy saw plenty of growth potential. Redesignated A-3 in 1962, a number of variants came into service, the most widely used of which was the KA-3B tanker.
Skywarriors would serve throughout the Vietnam War and well into the 1980s, although it was replaced or supplemented in all of its roles, primarily by A-6 Intruder variants. The Whale continued on because it could carry more than the A-6, when it came to fuel or electronics. By 1990, the A-3 was clearly at the end of its service life, and after a last hurrah with the First Gulf War, the A-3s were retired in 1991.
Dad photographed this EKA-3B Skywarrior at the 1977 Malmstrom AFB airshow. The EKA-3B could be used either as a tanker or as a standoff electronic countermeasures (ECM) jammer, using the sensors in the tail. By 1977, however, most were used solely as tankers, as the EA-6B Prowler was much more effective.
147657 was built originally as an A-3B bomber, then converted to a KA-3B for Vietnam service, then to an EKA-3B in 1968. At the time Dad got this picture, 147657 was assigned to VAQ-208, which maintained Pacific fleet refueling aircraft from NAS Alameda, California. It carries standard USN camouflage of the time, as well as three "E" engineering awards given to VAQ-208, and a Vietnam service ribbon beneath the cockpit. 147657 was retired in 1989 and scrapped in 2004, but the cockpit was preserved and is on display at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Douglas EKA-3B Skywarrior
The biggest threat to the US Navy's aircraft carriers in the early 1950s came not from the Soviet Union, but the US Air Force. With jet-powered strategic bombers, many questioned why the Navy needed expensive carrier battlegroups at all. With the US armed forces adopting an "all-nuclear" force, the Navy needed a bomber capable of delivering a nuclear payload. The Lockheed P2V Neptune could be launched from carriers, but was too big to land. The North American AJ-1 Savage could launch and land, but was propeller-driven and too slow to survive over the USSR. Finally, in October 1952, famous Douglas aircraft designer, Ed Heinemann, delivered his latest masterpiece: the A3D Skywarrior.
The Skywarrior was, in a word, huge; sailors quickly nicknamed it "Whale." The largest aircraft to operate from carrier decks, it had to be big to carry the large nuclear bombs of the 1950s. Despite its size, the A3D was surprisingly docile, though engine problems kept it out of the fleet until 1956. It could not operate from the World War II-era Essex-class carriers, only from the later "supercarriers" like the Forrestal and Nimitz-classes. A lack of ejection seats led the three-man crews to joke that "A3D" stood for "All Three Dead." Nevertheless, the A3D did the job it was assigned to do, and rather well.
Technology rapidly outstripped the A3D, and only four years after it began operations, it was already obsolete in the nuclear bombing role--like its predecessor, it was too slow to survive over the USSR. It could be still used as a conventional bomber, and the Navy saw plenty of growth potential. Redesignated A-3 in 1962, a number of variants came into service, the most widely used of which was the KA-3B tanker.
Skywarriors would serve throughout the Vietnam War and well into the 1980s, although it was replaced or supplemented in all of its roles, primarily by A-6 Intruder variants. The Whale continued on because it could carry more than the A-6, when it came to fuel or electronics. By 1990, the A-3 was clearly at the end of its service life, and after a last hurrah with the First Gulf War, the A-3s were retired in 1991.
Dad photographed this EKA-3B Skywarrior at the 1977 Malmstrom AFB airshow. The EKA-3B could be used either as a tanker or as a standoff electronic countermeasures (ECM) jammer, using the sensors in the tail. By 1977, however, most were used solely as tankers, as the EA-6B Prowler was much more effective.
147657 was built originally as an A-3B bomber, then converted to a KA-3B for Vietnam service, then to an EKA-3B in 1968. At the time Dad got this picture, 147657 was assigned to VAQ-208, which maintained Pacific fleet refueling aircraft from NAS Alameda, California. It carries standard USN camouflage of the time, as well as three "E" engineering awards given to VAQ-208, and a Vietnam service ribbon beneath the cockpit. 147657 was retired in 1989 and scrapped in 2004, but the cockpit was preserved and is on display at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo in Kalamazoo, Michigan.