One of the “Whales” of the air, as the crew members tenderly named it, the Douglas A-3 Skywarrior was the most adaptable of aircraft that ever graced the decks of US aircraft carriers. Built initially to be a nuclear bomber, however, it evolved into a reconnaissance platform, then an electronic warfare aircraft, and last but not least, a tanker that gave fighters the possibility to fly long missions over the sea and not run out of fuel, eventually making landings safer for pilots.
Most of the decision to go for a nuclear strike from a naval vessel falls on the Skywarrior. A jet that has been put inside a carrier is very big, and this is what Heinemann’s team achieved: the tricycle landing gear for stability, folding wings for saving space, and two turbojet engines giving it both range and thrust.
Additionally, the crew worked in a very tight space beside the pilots, who were seated side by side, while another crewman operated aft-facing defensive systems. One of the consequences, albeit a tragic one, related to the designers’ omitting ejection seats to save weight, thus the aircraft also got the horrible name “All Three Dead” when incidents occurred.
Once commissioned in 1956, it was the Skywarrior that took over from the AJ Savage in the Navy’s nuclear strike bombers’ fleet. In no time, though, its significance as such a weapon fundamentally diminished, as ballistic missiles launched from submarines quickly made nuclear bombers ineffective, and the Skywarrior might have had an early retirement were it not for its flexibility. Its large bomb bay, sturdy construction, and long flight time made it an easy candidate for the new jobs from surveillance to electronic warfare to refueling missions.
The A-3 became known for its role in the Vietnam War; the aircraft was still used for bombing missions, but it was the tanker versions that got more and more attached to the war effort over time. Regularly, they fueled strike aircraft that were to undertake dangerous missions; they could often be found circling near combat zones, ready to help those running low on fuel, and quite frequently intercepting fighters that were severely damaged and trying to get back to the carrier.
There are many instances when the Skywarrior crews could be found risking it all to save the lives of others. Commander Tom Maxwell is one of those personalities who, in the year 1967 and in complete defiance of orders, flew his tanker right into enemy territory in order to refuel an F-8 Crusader that was about to crash. The pilot’s life was saved as a result of that courageous maneuver, and historians later estimated that Skywarrior tankers were the reason behind the saving of hundreds of Navy and Marine aircraft throughout the whole conflict.
There was a large variety of A-3s over the years, each one different from the other in design. Some 280 plus were made, the first few ones being limited to bombers, then modified for reconnaissance, and finally for electronic warfare. The most prominent among them were the KA-3B and EKA-3B tankers as well as the EA-3B, which was probably the most important source of intelligence of the Cold War period and continued to operate during the 1990s. The United States Air Force also went for the B-66 Destroyer version, which was a reworked form of the A-3, thus confirming the credibility of the basic design.
Moreover, launching and recovering such a huge airplane from the slim deck of a carrier has always been a delicate and dangerous endeavor. The A-3 has done almost all catapult takeoffs of the heaviest nature to the greatest extent and with minimum clearance for mistakes; it even set records of that kind. The sad thing is, out of all the Skywarriors built, almost half of them, actually, were killed in either accidents or wars; this fact is a constant reminder of the risk of naval aviation.
Without ejection seats installed, there was no guarantee of safe escape in the event of an emergency, and yet the crews earned a reputation for being a brave, professional, and disciplined bunch who never forgot that in their hardest moments, their training was being put to the test.
By the beginning of the 1990s, the lifespan of the Whale had literally gone its way. More and more specialized planes replaced the different things the A-3 was doing, and the last ones went off duty after almost 40 years of flying in 1991. Some are still around and can be seen in a museum; they are the silent witnesses of the time when the biggest aircraft on the carrier deck was not a fighter jet but a versatile giant that enabled the fighters to do their jobs.
The Skywarrior’s story is remembered not only as that of a nuclear bomber turned tanker but more. It is an emblem of adaptability, silent sacrifice, and an aircraft that was way beyond its original design intention. For a long time, it was the backbone of carrier operations, being in the support role, always there to back up and ensure that the missions would be accomplished and that pilots would have a better chance to make it back home. To the Navy, “The Whale” was not any aircraft but the workhorse that pulled them through some of their toughest times.