Douglas’s A-3 Skywarrior, the “Whale” to pilots and maintenance personnel, was one of the finest and most adaptable aircraft to ever leave the decks of U.S. Navy carriers. Begun in the desperation and fear of the early Cold War, the A-3 was originally built to accomplish something everyone thought was impossible: to carry nuclear bombs off the tail of an aircraft carrier. Along the way, it became the largest catapult-launched jet ever to be shot off a carrier and one of history’s longest-serving carrier planes.
The A-3 existed during the early post-World War II years. The planners in the Navy knew that the wars of the future would be a contest of pushing deep into the enemy’s home country with no bases overseas. The certainty of such a necessity placed the necessity of a jet-powered, carrier-borne bomber larger in payload and distance than ever before contemplated.
Douglas Aircraft and design genius Ed Heinemann were the perfect combination to take on the challenge of creating an airplane that would have equal proportion, power, and carrier compatibility. Tricycle landing gear, newfangled in its day, provided it with that much more stability on fat carrier decks to lift off from.
Its two Pratt & Whitney J57 turbojets, engines most famous for rugged reliability, powered this behemoth. Armed with it, the Whale could carry nearly 13,000 pounds of bombs a distance of more than 2,000 miles. Its top-folding wings and streamlined flight equipment gave it some flexibility and survival ability that no other plane possessed. 76 feet long and 72 feet wide, and 82,000 pounds full-weight capable, the A-3 lived up to its giant nameplate.
And while in the 1956 Heavy Attack Squadron One invento,ry the Skywarrior’s nuclear deterrent mission, after that mission shifted to the ballistic missile subs, the Navy had huge experience with the airframe. In Vietnam, A-3 employment went far, far beyond bombing. It was priceless on support missions, many of which were more valuable than expected.
Alforsiner’s biggest conversion was as the KA-3B tanker. Refueling the fighters and attack planes midair extended their range and time on station. The Navy attributes its A-3 tanker variants with the lives of hundreds of aircrews and aircraft saved, and, along with that, with completing dangerous missions.
Additionally, of equal significance was its conversion into electronic warfare and reconnaissance. The EKA-3B, for example, could refuel aircraft and intercept enemy radar to defend attacking units both within and beyond targets. Other versions, like the RA-3B, had specialty sensors and cameras to be used on photoreconnaissance assignments, and the EA-3B operated on electronic intelligence missions with seven-man crews.
These technological advances enabled the Skywarrior to cruise economically from shore bases and carriers, carrying higher numbers of intelligence aircraft and providing commanders unprecedented maneuverability.
Its substantial bomb bay and hard-skin fuselage adapted well to being used on almost any mission. It was used as a bomber, tanker, jamming aircraft for electronic warfare, reconnaissance, aggressor training, VIP transport, and even testbed flying for avionics and armament test firing in flight.
Even the US Air Force built one of its own, the B-66 Destroyer, which had about the same general outline but superior engines, wings, and cockpit design. The B-66 was a successful tactical bomber, photographic reconnaissance, and electronic warfare aircraft in Vietnam.
The A-3 Skywarrior survived almost forty years, from initial flight in 1952 to retirement in 1991. The Skywarrior was used in its last combat deployment during the Gulf War, flying electronic intelligence missions—the start of the end of heavy carrier-based aircraft. Its legacy, however, had been left behind. Much of what it developed, including aerial refueling and electronic warfare, is today a routine operation for naval aviation and is conducted by such aircraft as the EA-18G Growler.
Fewer than a dozen Skywarriors are left in museums and memorial parks, silently attesting to the carrier flight golden age. More than an atomic bomber mission, the Whale showed that an airframe can change with times and mission changing, yet be worthy decades after it was originally conceived. Its legacy is innovation, responsiveness, and selfless men who kept this beast flying for forty years of service.